By Sabrina Cognata
When we last saw Earl Hickey (Jason Lee) he was exercising his Hooker with a Heart of Gold syndrome by taking the rap for Joy (Jamie Pressly), his ex-wife, to keep her out of clink and taking care of her family. This season we are confronted with the fact that every last one of Earl’s efforts to rebuild his grownup life has crumbled since he’s been sentenced to serve two years in state prison. Boo hoo, someone tell the producers to stop playing the world’s smallest violin—we get it, Earl is the everyday anti-hero, a model martyr to losers everywhere that have the gumption to change.
His name is Inmate 28301-16 and the episode begins with Earl acknowledging his luck at sharing a cell with fellow inmate & friend Ralph Mariano (Giovanni Ribisi). In a cleverly paid homage to the 1994 film, Shawshank Redemption, Ralph escapes during the night from a hole hidden behind his Dolly Parton poster. Earl discovers Ralph’s busted out of the joint when a watermelon falls from the top bunk and he sees Ralph’s parting note.
At any rate, due to Ralph’s untimely escape Earl’s forced into the general population, which is described as a 2-year slumber party with murderers and rapists. That sounds like a two-year slumber party I’d want to attend! Immediately, Earl starts to adjust to prison, explaining the monotony his daily life. Things are not going well for Earl, but what can you expect, no one ever said doing hard time would be a walk in the park.
Meanwhile, things for Earl’s friends and family are not going well. Joy is having a tough time expressing how thankful she is that Earl took the rap for the crime she committed. Randy (Ethan Suplee), Earl’s younger brother, has ceased to function as an adult without Earl around to tell him every move to make. Do I smell a pact coming on? In order to save his brother and rectify what he’s doing for Joy—Joy agrees to care for Randy, a fully non-functional adult.
Back in the joint, Earl runs into Sonny (Leo Fitzpatrick, most famous for playing Telly the kid spreading around AIDS in the 1995 film Kids), his beer can tag friend. Sonny acts like a guide, highlander style, to a struggling Earl and teaches him the most effective prison survival technique: INVISIBILITY. Equipped with a +6 invisibility level Earl uses his newly found might and magic & begins adjusting to life as an inmate. Sonny explains to Earl he developed this instinctually after accepting a candy bar from another inmate thereby agreeing to owe said inmate a favor. WHOA, DO I SMELL A SETUP COMING ON? The person Sonny owes a favor to is none other than Glen Shipman (played by an uncredited Ben Foster). It turns out that Glen’s on Earl’s list. The entire reason Glen’s a lifetime screw-up is due to the fact that Earl conned him into breaking into a house when they were kids. The former do-gooder & Boy Scout is the baddest mo’fo in the big house. Sonny immediately rats Earl out in order to get Glen off his back.
While Earl’s trying to keep Glen from breaking his face, Joy’s dealing with the fact that Randy doesn’t know how to function without Earl. Joy says he is basically like a daddy long legs after the legs have been removed. Randy calls himself a “spiderball” and I make a mental memo to throw this terminology into my vernacular, awesome! Joy nurtures Randy in her uncouth, white trash way more effectively than Earl has ever been able to. Oh God, I think we have another hooker with a heart of gold—only Joy isn’t a hooker—she’s just regular old trailer trash with a smart mouth.
Amazingly, Earl tells Glen about his list and the fact that he is on it. Earl then offers to right his wrong by doing something for Glen. Glen accepts Earl’s auspicious offer and tells him all he wants is a prison shank. Simple. Easy. Effective. Once Earl makes & delivers the shiv to Glen, Glen turns around and uses it to shank Earl in the bicep. Is it possible that Earl’s been ignoring his karmaic calling to adhere to life behind bars? Oh no, it’s a lesson for all, especially Earl!
Earl then confronts Glen with the fact that Glen’s been intentionally screwing up his chances to be paroled because he is no longer equipped to live life in the real world. Earl realizes that Glen needs to have something to care about—something from his past. Glen tells Earl that he was two merit badges short of achieving his honor sash. Like all good martyrs Earl sacrifices his last bit of invisibility to help Glen obtain his archeology & natural science badges, making deals and owing favors to all sorts of inmates. With the help of Earl, Glen achieves his honor sash and overall changes the direction of his life. Word of this gets to the parole board & Glen is awarded his freedom. I never saw that coming, did you?
In the same way, Randy’s learns to behave as a grownup. Joy does more than steal, act insane or beat people up. Glen gets out of jail and decides not to adhere to his criminal impulses because the other people view him doesn’t matter nearly as much as how he views himself. The prisoners accept Earl and promise not to hold the favors he’s promised them against him because he got Glen released. And finally Earl realizes that he isn’t Inmate 28301-16. He’s Earl Hickey, general do-gooder and schmuck.