Season 3, episode 1: The Note

“I think it moved.” - George

Season 3 begins with Jerry at his physical therapist receiving a massage. He makes small talk, first about being blind, then about a kidnapped boy in Pennsylvania. His poor choice in topics results in increasing paranoia in his therapist over the course o the scene, to the degree that he later can’t get an appointment booked at her clinic, and she becomes convinced that he is a potential predator. “I think this is really helping,” Jerry says, rather chipper. “I don’t live around here, you know!” his therapist snaps.

Jerry relays his conversation with Elaine and George and drops in some information that interests George: if you get a doctor’s note the massage can be covered by insurance. So Elaine and George go to get massages. George is assigned a male masseuse, and it turns out he’s a little uncomfortable with that. This isn’t the first time George has displayed slightly homophobic tendencies.

He asks Elaine to switch with him. “I can’t have a man touching me.”

“I don’t want the man either.”

“What’s the difference? You’re a woman. They’re supposed to be touching you.”

George’s masseuse, Raymond, comes to collect him. The entire session is uncomfortable and Jason plays this scene tremendously. The sense of panic in his movements and voice; every response he gives to Raymond is short and spoken with an element of fear. Some of his answers to Raymond’s questions don’t even make sense. After the massage, George slowly zombies his way out the door, passing Elaine without even acknowledging her.

Jerry is still calling to get an appointment. George comes in and tells him a man gave him a massage, although it takes him about 3 minutes to get out one sentence. George is afraid he may have enjoyed the massage a little too much. Kramer interrupts to tell Jerry he saw Joe DiMaggio in Dinky Donuts.

Jerry and George travel to Jerry’s dentist friend Roy’s office to get medical notes for the massages. They also get one for Elaine, which gets the dentist investigated for insurance fraud (since Elaine had already gotten her own note). In the office, there’s a poster of Evander Holyfield. “He’s got a hell of a body, doesn’t he?” Roy rhetorically asks. “How would I know?” George responds defensively.

Kramer sees DiMaggio again. Jerry doesn’t think it’s DiMaggio based on what Kramer says. DiMaggio is such a focused individual, according to Kramer, because his concentration on the donuts wasn’t broken by Kramer banging on the table and yelling.

Roy tells Jerry that everything should be okay if they get the masseuse to agree to say the massage was related to a dental problem, leading Jerry to go see his now former physical therapist in person. She’s in the office with her young son, when she sees Jerry she tells her son to run into the office and lock the door. The whole scene is absurdly overdramatic. During the course of the scene, George has an uncomfortable reunion with Raymond.

At Monk’s, the gang is having lunch. George’s sexual fantasies involve men. Kramer enters, having come from the dentist (he threw up in gas mask). Joe DiMaggio is having coffee across the way. Kramer starts banging on the table and yelling. DiMiaggio isn’t distracted. “I told ya.”