"The Ex-Girlfriend" is the first episode of the second season of the American television sitcom Seinfeld. It first aired on NBC in the United States on January 23, 1991, after being postponed for a week due to the start of the First Gulf War. In the episode, George Costanza breaks up with his girlfriend Marlene and leaves some books in her apartment. He persuades his friend Jerry to retrieve them. Jerry starts dating Marlene, who annoys him as much as she did George, but he finds himself unable to break up with her because she has a "psycho-sexual" hold on him.