Season 1
Episode: 1x01 | Airdate: Sep 20, 2005
Today is the first day of the rest of Earl Hickey's life. After coming into a $100,000 scratch-off lottery ticket and losing it just as fast upon being hit by a car, Earl has an epiphany in the hospital--to make up for all the terrible things he's done in the past. With his brother Randy and a motel maid named Catalina, Earl writes up a list of every misdeed he was a part of. Earl sets out to do just that, starting with number 64--Kenny James, a boy he picked on in elementary school.
Episode: 1x02 | Airdate: Sep 27, 2005
Earl tries to make amends with Donny, an intimidating thug who spent two years in jail for a robbery Earl committed. It turns out the only way Earl can make it up to him is by helping Donny's mom quit smoking. Meanwhile, Joy discovers she's the beneficiary of Earl's will and tries to kill him.
Episode: 1x03 | Airdate: Oct 4, 2005
Back in their high school days, Earl ruined Randy's chance to score a touchdown during a key football game. Now Earl must figure out a way to make things right.
Episode: 1x04 | Airdate: Oct 11, 2005
When Earl met a tough biker chick at a Halloween party, it looked like a match made in heaven, but when the costumes came off, the mismatch became apparent and Earl took drastic measures to get out of the relationship. Now, years later, Earl must find a way to make amends for deceiving the girl.
Episode: 1x05 | Airdate: Oct 18, 2005
Earl takes Catalina's advice to teach English as a second language in order to cross "Made fun of people with accents" off his karma list. When an old friend Ralph is released from prison, Earl tries to teach him about karma, but Ralph kidnaps Randy to try to get his hands on Earl's lottery winnings.
Episode: 1x06 | Airdate: Nov 1, 2005
In order to replace a fancy figurine that he broke, Earl lends a hand to help Joy's former adversary and her daughter win a mother/daughter beauty pageant. However, Joy enters the pageant also with her "dead" mother trying to win that same figurine, hoping to trade it for a hot tub.
Episode: 1x07 | Airdate: Nov 8, 2005
Earl attempts to help Scott get over his preoccupation with golf, an obsession caused when he and Randy started fixing Scott's golf game to get free beer. But after becoming so thoroughly entangled in Scott's personal life that he drives Randy away, Earl realizes that he may be the one with the obsession.
Episode: 1x08 | Airdate: Nov 15, 2005
Earl talks Joy into letting him set up a new wedding with Darnell after ruining their last one, but he only makes things worse by sleeping with her before the wedding.
Episode: 1x09 | Airdate: Nov 22, 2005
Earl tries to cross off number four on his list, "blew dad's chance to be elected mayor". Four years earlier, Carl Hickey ran for mayor to redirect a proposed airplane traffic route over his house and away from the wealthy part of town. Earl unfortunately ruined any chance of his father winning when caught on tape assaulting a police officer. Earl must now help his father get elected and mend his relationship with his father.
Episode: 1x10 | Airdate: Dec 6, 2005
As the holiday season comes under way a few secrets are exposed when Earl attempts to cross number 74 off of his list: "Always ruined Joy's Christmas." Earl, Randy and Catalina enter a radio contest to win a brand new car for Joy to make up for all of the thoughtless Christmas presents Earl gave her while they were married. While Randy and Catalina vie over the car, Earl finds out that Joy's parents believe that he's still their son-in-law and that he's just returned from the war in Iraq. Joy is afraid to tell her father, an alleged racist, that she is now married to Darnell, so Earl plays the part, afraid of ruining another one of her Christmases.
Episode: 1x11 | Airdate: Jan 5, 2006
When trying to enroll her children into the Right Choice Ranch for troubled youth, Joy is denied enrollment because of a barn burning incident at the hands of a younger Earl. Earl, Randy and Catalina travel to the camp to make amends for the barn burning by building a pen for the camp's ostrich. Earl learns the real reason behind the barn burning incident and decides that every incident on his list after the fire should be shared by Randy.
Episode: 1x12 | Airdate: Jan 12, 2006
Earl works as a fast food clerk for a week for a man he stole a wallet from. While he's there, he discovers that his new boss seems to be immune from bad karma--he's a total jerk but lives a charmed life.
Episode: 1x13 | Airdate: Jan 19, 2006
Earl crosses another number off the list when he returns Pop's Wiener Hot Dog cart he and Ralph stole in their youth. The good deed does not last long as Ralph, who works for a competing franchise sets fire to Pop's cart. Earl now must set things right with a bizarre plan while recruiting Randy, Joy, Catalina and Darnell to assist him.
Episode: 1x14 | Airdate: Jan 26, 2006
Earl tackles number 18 on his list when one of his old friends is arrested. Remembering that he told an inappropriate story at his birthday party, he must give him one great day to make up the terrible one before he was sent to prison.
Episode: 1x15 | Airdate: Feb 2, 2006
Earl takes his car troubles as a sign that it is time for him to redeem himself for a long run of stealing gas out of a complete stranger's car.
Episode: 1x16 | Airdate: Feb 9, 2006
Earl is nervous about returning a laptop computer he stole from a college professor, mostly because he is uncomfortable around smart people. When the professor turns out to be a beautiful woman, he feels even more ill at ease, until she flatters him and asks him to speak about his list in front of her class. Meanwhile, Randy experiences fraternity life and absolutely loves it.
Episode: 1x17 | Airdate: Mar 2, 2006
Earl tries to make up for not paying taxes his whole life. Unfortunately, the Government is not interested in his money, so he has to figure out another way to pay the money back.
Episode: 1x18 | Airdate: Mar 16, 2006
It's Mother's Day again when Earl remembers that he has never given his mother a Mother's Day gift. Just as he and Randy are about to finish carrying out his long overdue gift, his mother decides her repayment should include Earl doing something for his father.
Episode: 1x19 | Airdate: Mar 23, 2006
When Earl is attempting to cross number 24 ("Stole a red 'Take-a-number' machine") off his list, Randy tries to get Earl to back down by trying to make him remember, through a flashback, how they got the machine around New Year's Eve 1999. Darnell convinces the gang to believe that Y2K will signal the end of the world and they, happily, will be the last people on Earth.
Episode: 1x20 | Airdate: Mar 30, 2006
Earl decides to cross off "made a kid scared of the Boogeyman" from his list. Earl soon discovers just what kind of lasting affect he had on the little boy.
Episode: 1x21 | Airdate: Apr 6, 2006
The girl Earl dumped for Joy years earlier has become a bounty hunter and tries to track Joy down. Earl feels responsible for the mess, until Joy tells him how they really hooked up.
Episode: 1x22 | Airdate: Apr 27, 2006
Earl tackles no. 127 on his list by making amends for pilfering a police officer's badge. When he discovers that the theft resulted in the cop's demotion, he tries to get the officer reinstated.
Episode: 1x23 | Airdate: May 4, 2006
Earl attempts to cross out number 147 on his list, "shot Gwen Waters with a BB Gun". To make things right he must reunite Gwen with her estranged father, which Earl finds increasingly difficult.
Episode: 1x24 | Airdate: May 11, 2006
Earl decides to cross off the first number on his Karma list, "stole ten dollars from a guy at the Camden Market". Earl to his dismay finds out that he owes much more than ten dollars, in fact he must surrender all his lotto winnings. Earl now ponders when Karma is going to help him with his misfortunes.
Season 2
Episode: 2x01 | Airdate: Sep 21, 2006
Earl helps Joy try to get rid of a stolen delivery truck, which becomes harder when they discover that someone is still in the back of the truck.
Episode: 2x02 | Airdate: Sep 28, 2006
Earl and Randy ask Catalina to return to her old job at the strip club, but they don't tell her that they need her to do it so that the club's owner will pay for Joy's bail.
Episode: 2x03 | Airdate: Oct 5, 2006
Earl makes up for teasing a mustached girl in school, and it forces him to confront his fear of taking his shirt off in public.
Episode: 2x04 | Airdate: Oct 12, 2006
Randy has a crush on the the next woman on Earl's list, so he pretends to be a cat lover. But based on Randy's past experiences as a poser, Earl knows that this one will end badly.
Episode: 2x05 | Airdate: Oct 19, 2006
Earl has to get his old band back together to take care of an elderly man on his list. But it only brings out a nasty secret which ultimately forces Earl to marry Ralph's mom.
Episode: 2x06 | Airdate: Nov 2, 2006
Earl wants to make amends to an angry, bitter trailer park manager for playing a trick on her. But the trick caused her to change her life for the better, and the apology makes her even angrier than she ever was.
Episode: 2x07 | Airdate: Nov 9, 2006
Earl promises to help a man from the trailer park win the girl of his dreams, but he falls for her instead. And Joy gets mad at Darnell when she learns that he's in the Witness Protection Program.
Episode: 2x08 | Airdate: Nov 16, 2006
Earl makes up for stealing an air conditioner from a stoner and winds up living on a commune for a week. The experience makes him environmentally conscious, which only frustrates him even more.
Episode: 2x09 | Airdate: Nov 30, 2006
Earl tries to make Kenny more masculine at his request, but he just winds up getting them addicted to gambling. His addiction causes Catalina to be deported, right before Randy was going to declare his love for her.
Episode: 2x10 | Airdate: Dec 7, 2006
Earl and Randy go to Mexico to bring Catalina back and hopefully give Randy a chance to win her heart, but Earl's fear of flying causes unforeseen problems.
Episode: 2x11 | Airdate: Dec 7, 2006
Earl inadvertently agrees to marry Catalina so that she can return to the U.S., which breaks Randy's heart.
Episode: 2x12 | Airdate: Jan 4, 2007
The gang fondly watches an episode of "Cops" in which they were featured.
Episode: 2x13 | Airdate: Jan 11, 2007
Earl tries to return a set of precious silverware he stole from the public library. But when he discovers that it's gone, Randy, Joy and Crabman each reveal their own secrets about the whereabouts.
Episode: 2x14 | Airdate: Jan 18, 2007
A guilty conscience forces Earl to have a funeral for the guy he and Joy found in the truck Joy stole. Unfortunately, however, he can't seem to find anyone who knew him.
Episode: 2x15 | Airdate: Feb 1, 2007
While Earl tries to help a former French foreign exchange student on his list, Randy finally declares his true love for Catalina. Catalina says she loves him too, but she really doesn't--she just doesn't want to hurt his feelings.
Episode: 2x16 | Airdate: Feb 8, 2007
Earl tries to correct a past wrong he did to Joy's half-sister, who is trying to become a professional wrestler and can't overcome her life-long hatred of Joy.
Episode: 2x17 | Airdate: Feb 15, 2007
Earl tries to celebrate his good deeds at his birthday party, but his friends' reactions only makes him realize that he still has a long way to go to on his list.
Episode: 2x18 | Airdate: Feb 22, 2007
We flashback to around the time when Earl Jr. was born, and as we do this, we witness Earl's first reactions to his second-born illegitimate child.
Episode: 2x19 | Airdate: Apr 12, 2007
Earl and Randy work to cross #29 off of the "Harrassed a Reporter" list; meanwhile, Randy embraces the true power of karma and the media as a way to get out of his brother's shadow.
Episode: 2x20 | Airdate: Apr 19, 2007
Camden County's well-known businessman Richard Chubby dies. His son Little Chubby takes his place. Like his father, Little Chubby also had a terrible demeanor, until an "unfortunate accident" caused by Earl several years ago. Earl wants to cross Little Chubby off his list, but when he goes about helping him, it only turns out for the worse.
Episode: 2x21 | Airdate: Apr 26, 2007
Earl gets a taste of what it's like to teach juvenile delinquents when he asks his old high school teachers to help him get his G.E.D..
Episode: 2x22 | Airdate: May 3, 2007
Earl and Randy get jobs in the shipping department at an appliance store. But Earl really wants to work in the front as a salesman, which gets him in hot water with both his fellow shipping workers and the salesmen.
Episode: 2x23 | Airdate: May 10, 2007
Earl is a character witness for Joy's trial, but he soon learns that the only way Joy will get out of a conviction and her third strike is to falsely confess to the crime himself.
Season 3
Episode: 3x01 | Airdate: Sep 27, 2007
Earl begins to serve his prison sentence. While he's there, he runs into Sonny, who teaches Earl the best way to go unnoticed. Meanwhile, Joy and Darnell are forced to take care of Randy while Earl is gone.
Episode: 3x02 | Airdate: Sep 27, 2007
Earl begins his prison sentence. Meanwhile, Joy tries to repay Earl by taking care of Randy, who is struggling to adjust, and a prison bully is looking for Earl.
Episode: 3x03 | Airdate: Oct 4, 2007
The warden offers Earl a month off his sentence if he can negotiate a truce between the African-American gang and the Latino gang. But during the negotiations, he learns that the the two leaders are actually in love.
Episode: 3x04 | Airdate: Oct 11, 2007
Earl runs into his old roommate Frank, who is in prison for a bank robbery that Earl and Randy were supposed to help with. However, Earl missed the robbery at the last minute because he married Joy the night before.
Episode: 3x05 | Airdate: Oct 18, 2007
While Earl struggles to write a paper for his prison creative writing class, Randy, Joy, Darnell, and Catalina have no trouble coming up with creative story ideas of their own.
Episode: 3x06 | Airdate: Oct 25, 2007
Earl tries to get Frank back together with his girlfriend after she breaks up with him, but he has second thoughts when he discovers that she'd be better off without him. Meanwhile Catalina gets a compromising cell phone photo of Joy.
Episode: 3x07 | Airdate: Nov 1, 2007
While enjoying TV time in prison, Earl and Randy are excited when they see that the show "Cops" is filming in Camden County.
Episode: 3x08 | Airdate: Nov 1, 2007
Randy and the prisoners watch a second episode of "Cops," which features the Camden County Police responding to a series of disturbances on the first 4th of July after 9/11.
Episode: 3x09 | Airdate: Nov 8, 2007
Earl is supposed to set up a "scared straight" lecture for school kids, until he gets in a fight with Randy over who's taking care of whom. Meanwhile, Joy tries to induce labor.
Episode: 3x10 | Airdate: Nov 15, 2007
Earl and Randy are teamed up against their will to catch Frank, who escaped from a prison van under Randy's watch. Joy and her sister fight over how Joy's baby will be born.
Episode: 3x11 | Airdate: Nov 29, 2007
The warden promises to take the last six months off of Earl's sentence if he helps him out of one final jam. It ultimately will require him to spend the remainder of his lottery winnings on putting on a prom in the prison.
Episode: 3x12 | Airdate: Dec 6, 2007
The warden reneges on his promise to Earl to grant an early release, so Earl launches a plan to escape from prison.
Episode: 3x13 | Airdate: Jan 10, 2008
Earl is out of prison, but he and Randy are broke and homeless. So when he sees Ralph living the good life doing bad things, he declares that there is no karma and throws away the list.
Episode: 3x14 | Airdate: Apr 3, 2008
Earl is in a coma after being hit by a car. Randy steals an ambulance to get him to the hospital, but getting there proves to be difficult and complicated.
Episode: 3x15 | Airdate: Apr 3, 2008
Nothing can get Earl out of his coma, so Randy turns to a young faith healer from their past. However, the boy says that he no longer heals people because he discovered how Earl lived his life after he "healed" him the first time.
Episode: 3x16 | Airdate: Apr 10, 2008
Randy discovers that crossing items off Earl's list improves his condition, but the first item he chooses, returning a stolen motorcycle, brings back a frightening memory from Randy and Earl's past that Randy had forgotten.
Episode: 3x17 | Airdate: Apr 17, 2008
The next item that Randy tries to cross off of Earl's list involves ruining their parents' vacation--by leaving a duffel bag full of marijuana they found in the bed of their truck at their parents' house, only to have them find it.
Episode: 3x18 | Airdate: Apr 24, 2008
Earl is still in a coma but released from the hospital, and Randy finds a way to get him to cross an item off the list by helping out a pair of paraplegic siblings.
Episode: 3x19 | Airdate: May 1, 2008
Now that Earl is out of his coma, he sets out to find his true love, Billie. However, finding her is difficult, and he discovers that she has several other suitors trying to get her.
Episode: 3x20 | Airdate: May 8, 2008
Billie starts her own list, and she and Earl help out a grocery store bagger whom they share on their lists. However, Earl soon discovers that Billie doesn't completely understand the concept of karma and The List.
Episode: 3x21 | Airdate: May 15, 2008
Earl discovers that helping the women he wronged on his list causes karma to improve his marriage to Billie.
Episode: 3x22 | Airdate: May 15, 2008
When Earl finds out that making up for all the bad things he did to women changes Billie's behavior to the good, he picks the worst thing he ever did to women on his list. Billie wants him to choose between her and his list. When he picks the list, she steals it and starts un-doing the items he has already accomplished.
Season 4
Episode: 4x01 | Airdate: Sep 25, 2008
When Earl discovers that a dying kid whose wish he ruined years earlier is still alive, he promises to help him make a movie.
Episode: 4x02 | Airdate: Sep 25, 2008
While working on the list, Earl uncovers a one-night stand from 1985 between his mom and their old neighbor. When Earl's dad finds out, he moves in with Earl and vows to get revenge.
Episode: 4x03 | Airdate: Oct 2, 2008
Earl gives Joy a hot tub he found on the side of the road to cross an item off his list. However, Joy suffers an infection, and Crabman quarantines her in the trailer. As a result, Earl must perform Joy's daily chores.
Episode: 4x04 | Airdate: Oct 2, 2008
Earl and Randy make amends for a depressed elderly man whose RV they stole years earlier. Their efforts fire him up enough that the man now wants to take revenge on another man who left him on the front line during the Korean War.
Episode: 4x05 | Airdate: Oct 9, 2008
Earl needs to make up for sleeping with local stuntman's girlfriend. Joy gets carjacked and feels the need to buy a gun.
Episode: 4x06 | Airdate: Oct 16, 2008
Earl makes some great personal sacrifices to help Randy realize his dream of going to cheerleading camp, and Joy is upset because her son finds Catalina sexier than her.
Episode: 4x07 | Airdate: Oct 23, 2008
Earl finds out that he is no longer covered by the criminal code of ethics when someone steals Randy's birthday present from him. When he learns that the law of the underworld no longer protects him, Earl struggles with the idea of going to the police, despite Joy's protests that snitches are the lowest of the low.
Episode: 4x08 | Airdate: Oct 30, 2008
Earl has a chance to cross two items off his list by throwing Joy's boys a Halloween party, and getting Randy a "little brother"--Catalina's nephew. But both could fail because everyone thinks Catalina's nephew is possessed.
Episode: 4x09 | Airdate: Nov 6, 2008
Earl discovers that the apparent psychopath who has moved in next door to him and Randy at the hotel is actually a guy from his past who is on the list.
Episode: 4x10 | Airdate: Nov 13, 2008
Earl reminisces about his and Joy's near-disastrous first wedding anniversary party, in which Earl finds out that Joy slept with Earl's cousin who is better than him at everything.
Episode: 4x11 | Airdate: Nov 20, 2008
A series of tornadoes hitting Camden County aren't Earl's biggest concern when he loses his list. A wild ride in a boat causes Randy to think he's invulnerable and he ponders how he should use his newfound power. Joy and Darnell argue over who is the smart member of the couple. Catalina and Patty have a religious awakening.
Episode: 4x12 | Airdate: Dec 4, 2008
Earl and Randy discover that an old friend is living in the woods in a Bookmobile they stole years earlier, and that he has gone completely crazy.
Episode: 4x13 | Airdate: Dec 11, 2008
When Earl tries to make amends to a man that he conned out of $100, he discovers that Joy and her friends are still conning him.
Episode: 4x14 | Airdate: Jan 8, 2009
Earl tries to help his old babysitter, whom he got pregnant by poking holes in her condom, by whipping her deadbeat son into shape. However, Randy gets mad at Earl when he recognizes the similarities between the man and himself.
Episode: 4x15 | Airdate: Jan 15, 2009
Earl tries to get Joy a spot on a reality show starring Erik Estrada. However, he only causes great embarrassment, and accidentally gets Darnell's Witness Protection location revealed.
Episode: 4x16 | Airdate: Jan 22, 2009
With Darnell's identity compromised, the Turners receive a new Witness Protection identity as a Jewish family. But what will they do with Joy gets a second chance to appear on "Estrada or Nada?"
Episode: 4x17 | Airdate: Feb 5, 2009
When Randy wins the lottery, he decides to create a list item for himself. Meanwhile, Joy is dissatisfied with her family's Witness Protection identities and locations.
Episode: 4x18 | Airdate: Feb 12, 2009
Earl visits Joy at her new Witness Protection location to return Mr. Turtle to Darnell, and stays to help her make new friends. Meanwhile, Randy makes a new "friend" while Earl is gone.
Episode: 4x19 | Airdate: Feb 19, 2009
Darnell's father uses Earl and Randy to track Darnell down and tell him that he can get his old identity back if he agrees to do one more top secret job for The Agency.
Episode: 4x20 | Airdate: Mar 5, 2009
Earl makes amends to an astronaut on his list who runs a space academy, but in the process discovers that he's a fraud. However, the man he's posing turns out to be no better than the impostor.
Episode: 4x21 | Airdate: Mar 19, 2009
Earl tries to make amends to Camden's "Witch Lady," which only sparks her anger and causes her to hold everyone who's wronged her in the past hostage in her basement.
Episode: 4x22 | Airdate: Mar 26, 2009
Randy finds out that Joy was his first childhood crush, and that Earl went behind his back for selfish reasons to break them up.
Episode: 4x23 | Airdate: Apr 16, 2009
Earl tries to help a man he bullied in grade school, but hides his true identity because the man has become a scary bodybuilder. Meanwhile, Randy begins taking shark adrenaline so that he can finally stand up to Joy.
Episode: 4x24 | Airdate: Apr 23, 2009
Earl's efforts to help a reverend who is on his list multiple times drive the reverend back to his old life of crime, while Joy risks getting her third strike when she hits Catalina with a riding lawn mower.
Episode: 4x25 | Airdate: Apr 30, 2009
The investigative television show "Inside Probe" looks into the disappearance of the owner of the Crab Shack.
Episode: 4x26 | Airdate: May 7, 2009
Part 2 of the "Inside Probe" investigation of the owner of the Crab Shack's disappearance uncovers surprising new revelations.
Episode: 4x27 | Airdate: May 14, 2009
Joy tells Earl that Little Chubby is Dodge's father, and Little Chubby makes Earl's life Hell after he tells him the news.