My Name Is Earl: Sweet Johnny

Over the past few seasons, I've seen Earl Hickey at his worst. I didn't think it was possible, but in this episode, the writers managed to top themselves in terms of Earl's bad behavior. On its surface, #7 on the list: "Slept with Sweet Johnny's Girlfriend" seems harmless enough. Earl has lied and cheated plenty of times before and has done his best to right those wrongs. But in this case, merely crossing Sweet Johnny off the list seems a bit paltry, considering Earl tried to kill the guy on more than one occasion.

Sweet Johnny (David Arquette) was a local stuntman with a hot girlfriend named Sheila. When Johnny was laid up in bed recovering from his post-stunt injuries, Earl would fool around with Sheila. Earl soon came up with a twisted plan – if he could convince him to do more dangerous stunts, (like "The Human Speedbump" and "The Rocket Unicycle"), Johnny would get more severely injured and Earl would have more time to spend with Sheila. Only after convincing Johnny to try a stunt called, "The Human Wrecking Ball," did Earl put an end to the relationship.

Years later, Earl decided to set things right with Sweet Johnny, but found that it was much more difficult than he had hoped. Due to a non-stunt-related injury, Sweet Johnny suffered brain damage and memory loss. As a result, he would wake each morning not remembering anything from the previous day (think Memento meets Groundhog Day,) and this had been going on for 10 years.

This put a hitch in the plan, because with no memory, Earl had to start fresh each day apologizing for sleeping with Sheila and fending off Johnny's subsequent staple-gun attacks. After a painful week of trial and error, Earl realized he was being selfish. He wanted to cross Johnny off the list for his own benefit, not for Johnny's, because he wouldn't remember it anyway. So instead, he circled #7, knowing that if Johnny could never remember, Earl would never forget.

The humor of the episode lay in the way the plot unfolded like Groundhog Day, with David Arquette perfectly cast as the brain-damaged stuntman. Given that Johnny's memories stopped in the late '90s, this explained his love for Ricky Martin's "La Vida Loca" and his tendency to greet everyone with, "Wazzzzup." Unfortunately, those jokes couldn't hide the fact that, below the surface, this was a really sad episode. Unlike many downer episodes, (which usually border on bittersweet, but ultimately positive,) it's tough to forgive Earl for almost killing someone. His crimes in the past have all been somewhat goofy, but attempted murder is another story. The tone of this episode never felt right, given the severity of his mistake. It's tough to root for a killer in a sitcom.

In "Sweet Johnny," the four main characters didn't have much interaction with each other. Joy and Darnell were busy dealing with Joy's new handgun (which would discharge haphazardly throughout the episode), while Randy was peeling labels off beer bottles in order to prove he wasn't a virgin (as if that were all the proof he needed). Sure, those subplots were funny, but because they didn't relate to the main story, the characters didn't evolve and the emotional core of the episode didn't resonate as loudly.

Similar to the last episode, "Stole an RV," this one had all the pieces that make a good Earl episode, but in terms of jokes and heart, the final result was only average. Plus they may have crossed a line in terms of Earl's evil plan. I know the show can be great, and overall, this season has been an improvement over last season. I just hope this show's best days are in front of it.