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(S01E24) We've followed Earl Hickey on his quest for karma and for good things in his life to happen after doing many bad things. Despite the good fortune of winning $100,000 from a lottery ticket (after stealing things from a parked car), he immediately gets hit by a moving car and ends up in the hospital, and loses the ticket.
After lying in a hospital bed and his wife Joy divorcing him, he finds salvation in the words of Carson Daly who attributes his success to the results of doing good things for other people. Earl makes a list of all his bad deeds, and begins making things right. Of course, the winning lottery ticket finds its way to him, and he decides to use the money to help him do what he needs to do.
Over the course of the season, we've seen Earl cross a number of things off of his list, but he hasn't come close to number one--"stole ten dollars from a guy at the Camden Market." Upon Darnell's (Crabman's) suggestion, Earl finally decides to tackle his number one misdeed. He discovers that his good fortune was the result of stealing money from a convenience store customer (Paul) in the first place, so in order to fulfill his karmic quest, he decides to return the money to Paul.
I just wanted to lay out the basic premise of the story because I thought this episode was one of the best of the season. Despite Randy's protestations and his freaking out, Earl stays true to his vow of doing the right thing, no matter what the consequences are, because he is confident that good things will continue to happen for him. Of course, seemingly the best laid plans go to waste as he crosses off other misdeeds from his list, and Earl and Randy become hungry, homeless, and destitute. (How great was the "chip dust" scene?)Finally, fate (or karma) smiles on Earl as we learn that Paul is selfish with the money and decides to help no one but himself. He eventually finds misfortune (by becoming a hood ornament on a bus) and he eventually gives the money back to Earl. He and Randy return to the life they recently had and, as Earl says, "Everything was back to normal."
This season finale was a bit of a morality play, but still, it was good to see Earl have someone do something nice for him for a change. Overall, this first season of My Name is Earl was a successful one. Jason Lee (as Earl) is a fine comedic actor, and the supporting players did a good job for the most part. I'm not sure if this show will last more than three or four seasons, only because the idea of crossing off something from a list every week will get stale sooner or later. Maybe we'll see Earl get into a romance situation (Catalina? The college professor?) to introduce some new storylines.
In any event, I'm glad I got the chance to watch and review this show this season and look forward to the next one this fall.
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