Finally, NBC listens to the Pittster and realizes that maybe, just maybe, they can drop the thirty-second recap of Ed's life at the beginning of the show and won't leave viewers in the lurch as to what the hell's going on. NBC has now replaced that repetitive recap with a "Previously...on Ed" recap which makes me dance around the room in spastic fits of joy until I fall down from chronic dizziness, hit my head on the coffee table, and black out for the duration of the recap.

We open this week's show at the Smiling Goat, where Ed sits in a booth with Mike and Nancy. Mike informs Ed that the reason the three of them are there is because Mike and Nancy want to watch Ed talk to girls. Mike and Nancy are obviously starved for entertainment. Mike tells Ed and Nancy that if Ed doesn't start talking to girls, Mike might talk to them himself. His wife tells him to "knock himself out." What a coincidence...I just knocked myself out and then this and...awww...forget it.

We zip over to Carol's house where she's throwing down at Weepy Fest 2000, by watching the classic bad movie Xanadu starring Olivia Newton-John and...and...you know...I don't remember anyone else being in that godawful flick. Carol is curled up on the couch with her Kleenex, trying desperately to get over Nick, with whom she broke up last week. Molly shows up, banging away on the window like Corey Feldman in The Lost Boys. Carol lets her in and luckily, Molly doesn't try to latch on to Carol's jugular. Molly looks larger than normal. She must have stopped and inhaled a roast pig on the way over. Molly asks Carol if Ed's asked her out since the breakup with Nick. Carol insists that Ed's a friend and would never, EEEEVER try to take advantage of her at this vulnerable stage in her life.

Back at the Smiling Goat, Ed's trying to decide how to put the moves on Carol now that she and Nick have broken up. Nancy insists that now is not the time to be pitching woo with Carol -- she's still getting her mental frame of mind back in shape. At this point, Mike decides that it's time for the weekly $10 bet. This week, Mike bets Ed that he won't walk up to a gorgeous blonde at the bar and offer to buy her a drink. Ed asks, "Is that it?" Mike tells him he has to do it with his mouth full of beer nuts. Ed takes him up on the bet and follows through, thoroughly disgusting the blonde. Ed's ten dollars richer, minus ignorance taxes.