Jerry returns from a two week tour to find that his old friend Babu, from "The Café", is working at the coffee shop. He's also living down the hall from Jerry, who is shocked to find that Babu is arrested for overstaying his visa. Turns out his visa application got mixed in with Jerry's mail. George meanwhile asks an attractive lawyer, Cheryl, to go out with him. She laughs at everything he says and he tells Jerry to butt out and not be funny. When they hear that Cheryl does immigration law, they ask her to take care of Babu's case. It doesn't go well. Kramer meanwhile returns early from fantasy baseball camp. Kramer it seems tried to brush back Joe Pepitone leading to a bench clearing brawl where Kramer knocked Mickey Mantle unconscious.
Tropes:
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: To George's horror, Cheryl finds the dark, disturbed, and morose attitude Jerry displays around her more attractive than anything.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Ping, a Chinese food delivery boy Elaine had injured, informs Elaine that Cheryl is this:Elaine: Thank you so much for dropping the lawsuit against me.
Ping: Not anymore.
Elaine: What?
Ping: Cheryl called me last night; lawsuit back on.
Elaine: Why?
Ping: She called you and your friends "big liars". You think she nice girl? Wait 'till you see her in court. She's a shark! They call her "The Terminator". She never lose a case. Now you make her mad. She double the damages. Hasta la vista, baby. - Downer Ending: This episode stands out for just how badly everything goes for everyone. Cheryl regards the whole cast as a bunch of liars, prompting her to break up with George, continue her cousin's lawsuit against Elaine, and not bother picking up Babu's case. Babu is deported back to Pakistan, and he swears vengeance against Jerry, who he blames for everything.
- Friendly Enemy: When Cheryl finds out Elaine is the woman her cousin is suing for injuring him, and consequently Elaine realizes she's the one prosecuting her, their initial reaction is to share a good laugh about it. It's only shortly after that when Cheryl convinces Ping to drop the case.
- Hope Spot: The entire episode is one. By befriending Cheryl, Jerry has someone who can help him save Babu from getting deported, and Ping, who is Cheryl's cousin, is convinced to drop his lawsuit against Elaine. Then when Cheryl admits her attraction to Jerry's depressed and disturbed demeanor, which he had put on to not overshadow George's humor and steal her away from him, George admits the whole thing was a sham. She breaks up with George on the spot, renews her cousin's lawsuit against Elaine with double damages in effect, and Babu is sent back to Pakistan swearing eternal revenge on Jerry.
- The Millstone: Everything comes crashing down for everyone in this episode because of George. First he forces Jerry to not act so funny around Cheryl out of fear that he'll lose her, and then he admits the whole farce to her when she expresses interest in him anyway. That causes her to betray all of them, and leave Jerry, Elaine, and Babu worse off than they were at the beginning of the episode.
- Misplaced Retribution: Babu blames Jerry entirely for not getting his visa renewal form. However, he never thinks of blaming the mailman who put it in Jerry's mailbox by mistake, nor how it happened while Jerry was away for a couple of weeks and thus in no position to address the mix-up until it was almost too late.
- Straw Nihilist: In an effort to not accidentally steal Cheryl from George, Jerry masks his usually quippy demeanor under a more pessimistic one.Jerry: (morosely) Well, birthdays are merely symbolic of how another year has gone by and how little we've grown. No matter how desperate we are that someday a better self will emerge, with each flicker of the candles on the cake, we know it's not to be, that for the rest of our sad, wretched pathetic lives, this is who we are to the bitter end. Inevitably, irrevocably. Happy birthday? No such thing.
