My Name is Earl: Stole P's HD Cart

While attending Earl Jr.'s (who is not really Earl's son) 5th birthday party, Earl and the gang reminisce about the old days where their life of petty crime brought them great joy. However, Earl's karmic convergence has led his "old gang" to express their boredom, but he reiterates the fact that he cannot go back to his old ways.

Earl then recalls the time years ago when he and his partner in crime Ralph stole the local favorite a Pops' Old Fashioned Weiner hot dog cart after accepting $200 from the competing Winky Dinky Hot Dog Chain. Earl decides to cross number 159 off his list by returning the cart to Pop, and helps Pops get back in business by passing out 2-for-1 discount flyers, but Ralph sets fire to the cart after accepting another bribe just as Pops gets going again.

Incensed by Ralph's actions, Earl demands that the Winky Dinky franchise owner pay $10,000 to replace the cart, but Earl backs off when the owner says he will tell the police about Earl's theft from years before. Earl now must do what he can to make restitution to Pops, even though it was Ralph who did the dirty deed.

Earl finds out that Winky Dinky is owned by a major corporation, and by enlisting the help of his friend Kenny, he gets a job there or, as he puts it, "starts a new pretend career in business." (Earl in his slicked back hair and his business attire is a sight to behold!)

Earl encounters corporate owner Mr. Covington in the elevator, and he proceeds to tell him about the Pops/Winky Dinky situation. Mr. Covington quickly dismisses him and says that these things happen in business. He then uses the old plausible deniability tack by saying "I didn't know about it."

Earl still needs $10,000 to get Pop a new cart, and by enlisting the help of his brother Randy, they decide to steal $10,000 worth of office supplies to sell. Of course, pencils that look like pens may be appealing, but stealing as many of them as possible, even though it's for a "good reason," still won't bring in enough cash.

Earl gets the old gang to also get jobs at the company and concocts a plan for a mass pilfering of office supplies. However, Ralph gets the brilliant idea of stealing the huge copy machine that will surely bring in enough money. As the gang tries to push it through, it gets stuck in the doorjam, and they are stuck for the night. After being "rescued" the next morning by security, everyone hightails it out of there. I wasn't too thrilled with this episode. It wasn't bad by any stretch of the imagination, but I just wasn't blown away by it. There were some generally funny moments, but this episode didn't really do it for me. The one gripe I have is that Randy is increasingly being used to blurt out non-sequitors that don't really add anything to the story. He was so much better in the first few episodes but he's kind of reverted to being fodder. Hopefully the writers will bring him back as a major player.