Elaine gets a raise at Pendant Publishing, which is merging with a Japanese conglomerate to avoid bankruptcy, and is publishing Kramer’s coffee table book. She has also reunited with her boyfriend Jake Jarmel. (It is never revealed how they got over their exclamation point issue.) George returns from the beach and decides that every decision that he has ever made has been wrong, and that his life is the exact opposite of what it should be. George tells this to Jerry in Monk’s Cafe, who convinces him that “if every instinct you have is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right”. George then resolves to start doing the complete opposite of what he would do normally. He orders the opposite of his normal lunch, and introduces himself to a beautiful woman (played by Dedee Pfeiffer, who happens to order exactly the same lunch) by saying “My name is George. I’m unemployed and I live with my parents.” To his surprise, she is impressed and agrees to date him.
Jerry loses a stand-up gig and is asked to perform another one on the same night, prompting Kramer to call him “Even Steven”. George continues to do the Opposite on his date with Victoria. He stops shaving, yells at noisy cinema patrons, and refuses to come up to her apartment. Meanwhile, Elaine, upon hearing that her boyfriend Jake Jarmel has been in an accident, buys some Jujyfruits before heading to the hospital. Jake, extremely offended by this, breaks up with her.
The next day, Kramer appears on Regis and Kathie Lee to promote his book and accidentally spits coffee on Kathie Lee’s face. This leads to a cancellation of all future appearances. Thanks to his date, George gets an interview at the New York Yankees, where he also does the opposite of his instincts and is blatantly honest to George Steinbrenner (voiced by Larry David) about his management practices, thus landing him the job as Assistant to the Traveling Secretary. He moves out of his parents’ house, making sure to tell them how much he loves them.
Elaine finds out that she is being kicked out of her apartment building. The list of grievances include “putting Canadian quarters into the machine” and buzzing a jewel thief and Jehovah’s Witnesses past security, after which “[we] couldn’t get them out of the building.” Later, when her boss, Mr. Lippman, sneezes without his handkerchief, he will not shake hands with his Japanese counterpart (and spread germs), and the Japanese executive becomes angry and refuses to close the deal, thus putting an end to Pendant Publishing. By the end of the episode, Elaine claims that she has “become George,” but Jerry can only marvel at how things always even out for him: first, Elaine was up and George was down; now, George is up and Elaine is down.