George quits his job after being told to not use his boss's bathroom. He immediately regrets the decision and tries to go back to his work, pretending he never quit. His boss Rick Levitan, however, refuses to let him stay and insults him. George then decides to take his revenge on Rick by slipping a Mickey into his drink at a office party when he's distracted by Elaine (whom George enlisted by telling her that Rick doesn't recycle).
Jerry drops his and (after some reluctance) Kramer's clothes off at a laundromat, later when he picks it up he discovers that the $1500 he had hidden in the laundry bag has disappeared. Vic (the owner of the laundromat) denies seeing the money and says that he's not responsible for valuables. Kramer, assuming that Vic stole the money, decides to pour cement mix in one of the washing machines as revenge.
This episode features examples of the following:
- Ambiguous Situation: It's never specified if Glenda really wore a wig or if she knows George would really resort to ripping her hair out.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: How George got Elaine to help.Jerry: How did you rope her into this?George: I told her what a sexist he is; how he cheats on his wife.Jerry: She knew that.George: But she didn't know he doesn't recycle.
- Bait the Dog: During the office party Rick Levitan gets into such a good mood from his interactions with Elaine that he happily gives George his job back, which suddenly makes George ready to call his revenge plot off. However, Levitan then goes on to propose a toast that openly condescends George, prompting the latter to move forward with it.
- Characterisation Click Moment: Up until now, Jason Alexander thought George Costanza was based on Woody Allen and played him as such. Then walked up to Larry David claiming to be unable to make heads or tails of George's antics seeing as "not only could this never happen but no human being would react like this". David explained it happened to him and this was how he reacted. It was then he realized George was David's Author Avatar all along.
- Continuity Nod: The jacket Kramer wears while visiting the laundromat is the suede jacket from "The Jacket."
- Counting to Three: How George gets Glenda to move from her seat at the office party.George: I'm gonna count to three. If you don't give up the chair, the wig is coming off.
Glenda: I don't wear a wig!
George: ...One... (Glenda hustles out of the seat) - Crossing the Burnt Bridge: George quits his job in the most public manner possible, calls his boss an idiot, and goes home, only to realize that he's really not cut out for anything else. He tries coming back to work the next day as if nothing had happened, or that he was "just kidding". It works about as well as you'd expect.
- Distracted by the Sexy: How Elaine distracts Rick long enough for George to slip a mickey into his drink.
- Entitled Bastard: George flew off the handle and angrily quit his job purely because he wanted to use the restroom reserved for executives in the company.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Levitan may be a slimy philanderer and his firing speech to George was cruel and unprofessional, but he wasn't wrong to call him a loser. George quit ultimately because he wasn't allowed to use the executives' restroom, delivered an equally petty insult-laden speech to his boss, tried to come back and act like it never happened, and was implied to be poor at his job regardless.
- Pyrrhic Victory:
- George's revenge scheme goes off without a hitch, but in doing so, he sabotaged his chance to get rehired. He ends the episode regretting having gone through with it and with no idea what he's going to do now.
- Kramer helps Jerry get revenge on Vic for stealing the latter's money by putting cement into one of the washing machines. Then they find the money and it turns out Vic never stole it, and it turns out the sum of the cash just about covers the damage to his machine.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: George's story is inspired by something Larry David did while writing for Saturday Night Live, down to trying to pull a Refuge in Audacity by just showing up to work again after quitting. This caused Jason Alexander to finally get how much the character was inspired by David and make his performance an imitation of him, when before he'd been doing much more of a Woody Allen-style performance.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: George's resignation speech to Rick Levitan is laced with personal insults of how he's an incompetent laughingstock. Levitan in turn delivers one to George when he tries coming back to work the next week acting like nothing ever happened, saying he will always be a winner while George will always be a loser. The speech is what drives George to seek revenge on his former boss.
- Revenge: The theme of the episode, as stated by the title. George plots vengeance on his former boss for calling him a loser, while Kramer helps Jerry get revenge on a shady laundromat proprietor for stealing a large sum of cash from him. The episode goes on to show how both plots ultimately backfire.
- Revenge Myopia: George's whole plot is to get revenge on his boss because the latter insulted him in a scathing speech when he fired George. Of course, the reason why Levitan insulted him was because George insulted him first when he quit his job for a petty reason a few days prior.
- Shameless Fanservice Girl: Elaine pretends that she spends as much time as she can in the nude, from being a Home Nudist to driving and working at the office naked, all to distract Levitan long enough for George to drug his drink. It works brilliantly as he becomes completely enraptured by her.
- Slipping a Mickey: George's revenge is to spike Levitan's drink with a drug that will knock him out and humiliate him at the company's anniversary party.
- Take This Job and Shove It: How George quits.George: That's it. This is it. I'm done. Through. It's over. I'm gone. Finished. Over. I will never work for you again. Look at you. You think you're an important man? Is that what you think? You are a laughingstock. You are a joke. These people are laughing at you. You're nothing! You have no brains, no ability, nothing! (knocks over an object on his desk) I quit!
- A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: The whole episode happens because George just couldn't control his emotions. Out of frustration from not getting to use the restroom he wanted, he quit his job and insulted his boss without thinking about how he was going to earn any income afterward.
