By Sabrina Cognata
I guess time doesn’t fly while you’re hanging out in prison, even if your brother’s now employed as a prison guard. Even though Earl (Jason Lee) is making the most of his jail time experience he’s still locked up and that sucks. The first person to admit this is Joy (Jamie Pressly), Earl’s ex-wife and the reason he’s in jail. During her visit this week Earl tells her that she has got to stop feeling badly about the fact that he’s doing hard time so she wouldn’t have to. While Joy’s explaining that she’s feeling “more and more terribler” each day that goes by and Earl is still in jail with the sorts of fellows that could slit his throat if he looks at them wrong she notices another inmate she knows, Frank (Michael Rapaport) & Earl knows him pretty well too.
Turns out about seven years prior, Earl & Randy’s (Ethan Suplee) parents kicked them out of the house & they spent the better part of a week looking for a place to live. Behind a flyer on a telephone pole Earl notices a poster saying there’s a room for rent. This room is the kitchen in Frank’s house. Frank is both the brother’s roommate and their landlord as they shared the trailer space along with one other man, Paco who rents the living room.
Meanwhile, Joy’s in deep trouble of her own. After a one night stand with an anonymous stranger she ends up pregnant. Once she starts to show her parents kick her out prompting her to yell at them “YOU’LL BE SORRY IF THIS IS THE BABY JESUS OR A TUMOR!” Damn straight they’ll be sorry, if that was the case there’d be money made in selling her story to the press. So Joy packs her things and moves into the motel in Camden. She realizes she’s got to nab a man to help her raise this baby so she sets into action.
Everything is going pretty well for Earl and Randy. They’ve got a place to live and are enjoying spending time with Frank as he also works in the Crab Shack. While visiting him there Frank introduces them to his prostitute friend whom has her “client” with her. She comments that the Japanese man could afford a better looking hooker, check out the diamonds in his watch, but none of the better looking hookers will do the disgusting stuff she will. Once Randy & Earl catch a glimpse of that watch they realize they need to steal it to pay for rent.
In the interim, Joy is jumping through hoops to find a man that will marry her and take car of her unborn. She ends up with the town celebrity, the sort of drunk that orders three drinks at a time just to keep their own pace up. The two of them decide to go back to the motel where he comes out of the bathroom dressed as a baby. Joy throws her hands up in the air and exclaims that she’s officially disinterested. Next door to her Earl & Randy are breaking into the Japanese man’s room. When they get into there they see another set or burglars and realize the duo is actually their roommates, Frank & Paco. When the foursome realizes they all have thieving in common they plan to rob the local Indian casino.
The night the guys are suppose to pull of the heist Earl gets stuck at the Crab Shack with Joy. She gets him so intoxicated that he marries her. He calls Randy and tells him to go on ahead with the robbery without him. When Earl shows up with his new bride at the trailer Randy is sitting comatosed in front of the television. Apparently, he’s been sitting there since Earl called and forgot to join his partners and pull off the crime.
Back in present time, Frank tells Earl and Joy that everything went fine during the heist, but he ended up rear ending a FBI van while getting away and was arrested. The FBI van was dropping Darnell, Joy’s current husband off as he’s apart of the witness protection program. Joy puts the pieces together and realizes that had she not duped Earl into marrying her he’d be spending 20 years in the slammer like Frank. She concludes that she saved Earl 18 years of jail time and now she doesn’t feel so bad about him doing two years for her.