Synopsis:
Earl is in a good mood as the
episode starts. Since discovering karma, he has felt better about himself.
Since he started crossing people off of his list, more good things have been
happening to him. As he explains to Randy how good he’s been feeling lately,
Randy notices that someone wrote, “u r an ass” on Earl’s car. Earl knows who
did this, and immediately goes to confront her at the trailer park.
Joys taunts Earl about the ordeal, and tells him
that if he calls the police, she’ll inform them of the time he and Randy stole
a refrigerator. Earl just wants Joy to leave his stuff alone, but Joy demands
half of his lottery money. Earl needs the money to cross stuff off of his list
while Joy needs it to provide for Dodge and Earl Jr. Since she divorced Earl
and married Darnell, Joy hasn’t been stealing as much because Darnell isn’t cut
out for crime. Joy has taken to pawning old items for the extra
income—including the cuckoo clock that once belonged to Earl’s grandfather.
Earl and
Randy drive down to the pawnshop because Earl doesn’t want to see his family’s
only heirloom being auctioned off in a seedy neighborhood. While he’s there, he
decides to cross off another list item—fixed a high school football game.
In a
flashback, we see Randy playing football for his high school team and Earl
betting a $100 on him to lose. Randy had the ball and was on his way to scoring
a touchdown when he sees Earl’s hand signals and purposefully fumbles the ball.
Back in the
present, Earl pays back Rosie, the pawnshop owner he made the bet with. She is
disgusted, and threatens to stomp on his “sweaty little tea bag.” She’s also
upset with Randy, accusing him of throwing away could have been a great
accomplishment in his life just because Earl asked him to. Earl realizes that
he didn’t just cheat Rose out of $100…he cheated Randy out the experience of
scoring the winning touchdown for his team.
Earl puts
Randy on his list and decides to get Randy back into high school so he can
score his touchdown. He gets fake birth certificate from Kenny James and hires
the electrolarynx guy to pretend to be Randy’s father and sign the paperwork.
To make sure Randy had a chance to play, Earl picked the school with the worst
team in the league. Randy is not the oldest person on the team.
After his
first day of school, Randy is excited to tell Earl what he learned in science
class. Before we were humans, we were monkeys. That’s not quite how it works,
but okay. As Earl and Randy wonder what we were before we were monkeys, they notice that their car has been stolen.
Earl knows who was behind the theft.
Back at the
trailer park, Earl confronts Joy about the car. Joy informs him that she had
the car towed and that it is now at the impound. She tells him that she’ll give
it back to him when he gives her the lottery money. Earl is relieved to know
that Joy didn’t realize Earl’s money was in the car. Unfortunately, Randy
immediately let’s the cat out of the bag.
Earl and
Randy rush over to the impound. They beat Joy, but discover that they can’t
retrieve the car because Earl owes $3,000 in unpaid parking tickets. When Joy
comes in, she tries to claim the car as her own. The guy in charge doesn’t car
whose car it is, he’ll give it to whoever gives him $3,000.
Earl and
Randy try to climb over the electric fence to get to the car. It’s only active
at night. Unfortunately, the impound workers spot them, and turn on the fence,
sending them flying. Joy tries to get a $3,000 loan from the government. She
tells Darnell to wait in the car because she’s afraid she won’t get a loan if
she’s seen with a black man. She reconsiders this when the insurance agent she
talks to turns out to be black. She even tries to have Darnell “say something
black” in order gain the advantage, but it doesn’t work. She can’t borrow money
against a rented trailer with a carbon monoxide leak.
At the
motel, Randy asks Earl for $20 so he can enter the science fair. This is
impossible because all of Earl’s money is in the car. Earl also tells Randy
that he’s supposed to be scoring a touchdown. Catalina points out that Randy’s
already growing his potato battery. Randy gets an idea from one of his
textbooks—a Trojan horse.
Earl calls
Kenny and tells him the plan. He’s going to use Kenny’s car as his Trojan
horse; he’ll hide in the back while Kenny gets the car towed. Once he’s at the
impound, he’ll hop out of the back, get his car and money, and go back to the
high school to watch Randy score a touchdown. There’s only one problem with
this plan; Earl is too big to fit in the back of Kenny’s car. Kenny offers to
do the plan himself.
As Randy
gets psyched for the big game, Joy and Darnell sell their belongings to the
pawnshop in order to get $3,000. After selling almost everything they own,
they’re still short by $1,500. Joy notices a cart full of cans and bottles and
immediately steals it.
Kenny’s car
is towed, setting the plan in motion. Earl is happy he can witness the full
game, and invites Catalina and the electrolarynx guy to come along with him.
Darnell picks up cans and bottles in a ditch while Joy is selling her loot to
the local recycling plant. She returns quickly and tells Darnell to stop
because an entire cart full of cans was worth only $8. But that’s $8 in 2005
dollars, so that’s worth, like, $9.74 today! Since they pay buy the pound,
Joy’s figures they need heavier cans. She sits on the guardrail, which gives
her an idea. A minute later, the guardrail is loaded into the back Joy’s car.
At the
football game, Randy is struggling. All those years of sleeping and drinking
had taken their toll. Earl wonders where Kenny is. He’s still at the impound,
hiding in the trunk from the Dobermans his aftershave had attracted. With less
than a minute left on the clock, Randy gets the ball and charges for the goal.
Earl and Catalina cheer as it looks like Randy will finally get to score that
touchdown. At the last moment, however, Randy drops the ball, and the game is
lost.
Things are
looking bad for Earl after the game. He and Catalina can’t find Randy, and Joy
drives up, having successfully raised the $3,000. Yes, that means the recycling
plant actually took the guardrails. Earl
knows that if Joy gets to that car, his life will be ruined, so he starts
running. We see a montage of Earl running down the street and past the trees as
he makes his way to the impound. He runs as fast as he can for as long as he
can. However, he’s almost as out of shape as Randy, and barely makes it out of
the school parking lot.
Earl and
Catalina walk along the street, having given up. Just then, Randy drives up to
them in Earl’s car, holding the locker box that Earl stashed his lottery
winning. It turns out, Randy had made a $3,000 bet against his team before the
football game started. He fumbled the ball on purpose again. Earl is happy to
have his money back but is disappointed that he once again caused Randy to give
up his touchdown. Randy tells Earl that he didn’t force him to do this. He did
this because they’re brothers. Randy figures the feeling of getting a touchdown
is about the same as driving up to Earl having saved his money and his future.
Earl and Catalina decide to lift Randy up like the team would have done if he
had scored a touchdown. Randy’s a bit too heavy for them to lift.
Earl goes
back to Rosie to pay her the $3,000 they got from fixing another game. Kenny is
let out of his trunk by one of the impound workers. The worker and Kenny fall
in love and share a weekend together in wine country. Earl gives Randy $20 to enter
the science fair. For his work, Randy receives a “Participant” ribbon. As Joy
drives to the impound, she swerves to avoid a homeless man pushing an empty
cart—the same homeless man she stole the cart of cans from earlier on. She and
Darnell crash into a ditch—which had previously been blocked off by the
guardrail that they stole.
Best Quotes:
Earl: “Randy, there’s something
to be said about waking up in the morning and feeling like a good person.”
Randy:
(looking to the side) “You are an ass.”
Earl:
“What?”
(Randy
points off screen)
(Cut to a
shot of Earl’s car, which has graffiti reading, “u r an ass” scrawled on the
door)
Earl:
“Those aren’t my kids, Joy.”
Joy: “That
doesn’t matter. They have grown accustomed to a certain quality of lifestyle
that you provided for them with all your crookery. Now, I tried to get their
new daddy to fill your shoes, but unfortunately, Darnell is not cut out for
crime!”
(flashback
of Darnell snatching a purse from a old lady)
Old Lady:
“Hey!”
(Darnell
starts to run away, but then stops and turns around to return the purse)
Darnell:
“I’m sorry ma’am, I shouldn’t have did that.”
Old Lady:
“That’s okay. Are you hungry? I think I have a candy bar in here! Would you
like a candy bar?”
Earl:
“Where’s my grandfather’s cuckoo clock?”
Joy:
(lighting a cigarette) “I pawned it.”
Earl:
“What!?”
Joy: “What,
you think cigarettes grow on trees?”
Earl: “I
can’t wait to see Rosie’s face when I pay her back.”
(cut to
Rosie grabbing Earl by the collar and smashing his face into the window)
Rosie: “You
disgust me, Earl Hickey! Fixing a game! I should pull you through this talking
hole and stomp on your sweaty little tea bag!”
Earl: “This
may sound crazy, but…I think you have to go back to High School.”
(the cuckoo
clock rings)
Randy:
“That was weird.”
Earl:
“Somebody stole my car. Randy, my money was in that car!”
Randy:
“Who’d want to steal your car? It’s a piece of crap with ‘asstronaut’ painted
on the side.”
Earl
(voiceover): “It was at that point that I realized that Joy had no idea that my
money was actually in the car.”
Randy: “Hey
Earl, Joy had no idea that your lotto money was in the car!”
Earl:
(frowns exasperatedly)
Randy:
(smile disappears)
Joy: (Has a
an expression that just screams, “Oh Snap!”)
Joy: “Look,
you know I don’t see color, but these people are never going to give me $3,000
if they see me here with a black man, okay.”
Darnell:
(walks away angrily)
Joy: “It’s
not me, Darnell! It’s America. I don’t make the rules!”
(Ten
seconds later)
Loan
Officer (a black man): “So, they tell me you’re looking for a loan?”
Joy: “Yeah;
You know what, I left something in the car. I’ll be right back!”
(Cut to Joy
and Darnell talking to the loan officer)
Joy: “We
really only need the money for, like, and hour or two.”
(The loan
officer looks from Joy to Darnell, and then down to his paperwork)
Joy:
(whispering to Darnell) “Say something ‘black.’”
Darnell:
(looks offended)
Earl
(Voiceover): “Joy didn’t realize it doesn’t matter if you’re white or black.
You can’t borrow money against a rented 1972 trailer with a documented carbon
monoxide leak.”
Loan
Officer: “I’m sorry.”
Joy: (walks
away angrily)
(Loan
Officer watches Joy’s behind as she leaves)
Loan
Officer: (to Darnell) “Nice pull, brother!”
Darnell:
“Right on!”
Kid: “Are
you ready!”
Randy: “I’m
ready, are you ready!?”
Kid: “I’m
ready, are you ready!” (pounds fists on Randy’s shoulder pads)
Randy: “I’m
ready, are you ready!” (pounds the kid’s shoulder pads way too hard, possibly
knocking him out)
Additional Notes:
Ethan Suplee previously played a
High School Football Player in Remember
The Titans.
Earl hires
someone to pose as him and Randy’s father rather than going to his real father
for help. This is because, as we later find out, Earl’s dad hates him.
Conclusion:
As Earl continues to go down a
more positive path, his relationship with his brother improves and goods things
happen to him more and more. In contrast, Joy is continuing to live a life of
crime and karma is not giving her an easy time. This is the first episode in
which Earl deals with a list item involving a family member and it won’t be the
last. These episodes were, in my opinion, some of the best the show had to
offer because proving yourself to your family is the most important step to
proving yourself to the rest of the world.
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