The Trial (My Name Is Earl)
| "The Trial (My Name Is Earl)" |
|---|
"The Trial" is an episode of the American sitcom My Name Is Earl, and is the final episode of the show's second season.
Synopsis
In order to complete item #273 on the list, "Kept myself from being an adult," Earl and Randy move out of the hotel and into an apartment. Despite this step, Earl still feels that something is missing in his life.
Joy has been apprehended in Mexico and returned to Camden, where she is being kept in jail until her trial. On the advice of her lawyer, Joy asks Earl to track down some character witnesses for her. Earl stops off at Joy's trailer, finding Darnell in pitiful shape. Joy's absence has left him depressed, helpless, and unable to control the children.
Seeing Crabman in this state causes Earl to realize that his own life is incomplete without a woman. Earl calls his former girlfriend Alex (from the season 1 episode "The Professor"), but discovers that she is now married.
On his quest for character witnesses, Earl is unable to locate anyone who has anything good to say about Joy, and goes to visit Joy's lawyer to deliver the bad news. The moment Earl sets eyes on Joy's lawyer, Ruby, he falls in love with her. Ruby is smitten with Earl as well, and after learning of the list and how Earl has changed his life, Ruby decides that Earl would be an ideal character witness for Joy.
Earl and Ruby go out on a date and end up sleeping together. As they lie together in bed, Ruby reads through Earl's list, and discovers that she is on it. Earl realizes to his horror that she is the deaf girl whose apartment he and Randy had previously robbed. Ruby ignores(or simply does not hear) his apologies and storms out.
At the trial, the case is going badly for Joy, but Ruby manages to discredit all the evidence. With the trial resting on Joy's character, Earl testifies earnestly and seems to have won over the jury. However, the prosecutor responds by playing tapes of Earl's own distress calls to the emergency services, fearing for his life from Joy's alarmingly violent behavior.
The testimony is damning, and Earl realizes that Joy will be convicted based on his own words. Realizing also how Darnell and the children will suffer if Joy is sent away, Earl decides to do something truly adult and confesses to stealing the truck, taking the rap for Joy. Ruby is greatly impressed at Earl's selfless action. The judge is impressed as well, but because Earl waited so long to "confess," he sentences Earl to two years in prison. After receiving a sincere expression of thanks from Joy, Earl is escorted from the courtroom.
As Earl is being processed as a new inmate, he reflects on how he has now become an adult, but has sacrificed everything in the process. Wearing prison blues, he is led to his cell, where he discovers that his cell mate is his friend, Ralph.
The List
| Item | Number | Source | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kept myself from being an adult | 273 | 2.23 | Completed when Earl gets his GED, gets a real job, and gets an apartment (After being arrested, Earl might have lost his job .) |
| Move out of the motel | 273c | 2.23 | Completed (After being arrested, might have been undone). |
| Been a lazy lover | 33 | 2.23 | Completed. Ruby tells Earl he can cross this entry off after their lovemaking. |
Songs
| # | Song Title | Artist |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sister Christian | Night Ranger |
| 2 | Baba O'Riley | The Who |
| 3 | House of the Rising Sun | The Animals |
| 4 | Can't You Hear Me Knocking | The Rolling Stones |
Trivia
- In a previous episode, "Stole Beer From A Golfer", when Earl was deciding to the next thing to do on his list, Randy says "Not the deaf girl, it'll take too long." This was a preceding reference to when Earl robbed Ruby.
- When Dodge is throwing the snap firecrackers, Earl Jr. is eating sugar with a straw, and the song "Sister Christian" is playing, it is a parody from a scene of the movie Boogie Nights, a movie featuring Burt Reynolds, who also played Chubby, the now deceased owner of Club Chubby.
- Ralph says that another prisoner who had a gun made of plumbing fixtures was after him. In an episode of MythBusters (episode 44 "Paper Crossbow"), when Adam paid a visit to a prison museum, the curator showed him a working semi-automatic .32 caliber made of plumbing fixtures, etc.
- Joy was apprehended in Mexico while working as a waitress, she was busted by Dog the Bounty Hunter. The scene is likely in reference to Chapman's own arrest, after busting Max Factor heir Andrew Luster, since bounty hunting is illegal in Mexico.
- When Earl is having flashbacks of all of the family moments he's witnessed, if you slow down the frames of the video, Earl (dressed as Sandy the prostitute, from the DVD Exclusive Episode Bad Karma) can be seen.
- One of the 911 calls, Joy stabbed Earl in the neck with a ball point pen. In the episode "The Professor" Earl is finishing the sentence "... and that's basically how you get a ball point pen out of your neck."
Quotes