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My Name Is Earl

Episode Report Card

DeAnn Welker: A- | 1953 USERS: C+

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Shark Attack!

By DeAnn Welker | Season 4 | Episode 23 | Aired on 2009.04.16

In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description!

Randy's sick of being bullied by Joy (she takes all of the claw machine animals he wins), so Earl tells him to stand up to himself for a change. It reminds Earl of a list item about bullying a kid at Catholic school, so he goes to make up for it. Turns out the kid's grown into a huge, giant bodybuilder, though. So Earl immediately says his name is "Cliff" and tells Randy he's going to have to complete this list item without telling Wally who he is. He becomes Wally's workout buddy (and by "working out," Wally means literally hitting each other in the face and sweating all over each other), and soon realizes that Wally wants to be Mr. Camden, but won't ever win because he's unwilling to shave his body and oil himself up like a bodybuilder for fear of being a pansy. Since Earl called him a pansy as a kid, he sees what he has to do: Get Wally into the competition.

When they're at the gym, Randy meets some guys who give him shark adrenaline (by injection into his scrotum, of course), so he finally is angry enough to stand up to Joy. He does, and then he catches Earl and Wally shaving their legs and outs Earl as Earl. Wally wants to beat him up, but Randy steps in, and they proceed to beat each other up all over Camden. Randy finally knocks Wally out at the Crab Shack, but finds a cleaned-out claw machine and a photo of a bragging Joy. Randy heads to Joy's, takes all of his claw machine animals back, and then even steals one from Earl Jr. When he hears him cry, he turns to give it back, but Earl drives up and plows Randy over with a car. Then he gives him an inspirational speech about how he doesn't have to stand up for himself anymore, because he's the sweet one. Randy's knocked out, but Wally hears the whole thing and forgives Earl. He also then embraces his pansy side and shaves himself and oils up for the Mr. Camden competition. It doesn't ever tell us if he won, but I'm pretty sure he did.

Discuss this episode in our forums, then see why vlogger Sean Crespo thinks Earl is a terrible monster in No Prior Knowledge!

Want more? The full recap starts right below!

Randy finds Earl hanging up a poster in the hotel, and asks him to please drive over and punch Joy in the face, because she stole another claw machine animal from him. We get flashbacks of Joy stealing Randy's "horse" (a giraffe), "spider" (octopus), and "bird dressed up for a wedding" (a penguin). Back in the present, Earl tells Randy that he's 32 and needs to start standing up for himself -- especially to Joy, since she's always going to be in their life. Is it just me, or does it seem weird to follow that last episode, in which Joy and Randy were in love, with this? I also find it weird that we're already at episode 23 with no end in sight. Are they trying to make up for last season's short season or something? Earl tells Randy he's done looking out for him, and done kissing his boo-boos. For some reason, we get the full original opening this week. In case we'd forgotten about Earl's lost-lottery-ticket, hit-by-a-car karma.

After commercials, Earl tells us he's "kinda happy" that Randy's bummed about Joy taking his claw machine toys, because it reminds him of a list item: "Number 32: Bullied Wally Panzer." (This episode brought to you by the number 32, apparently). Earl explains as we flash back that when his parents made a last-ditch effort to save him by sending him to private school (they should have just hit him with a car, it turns out). He realized immediately he'd need to pick on someone or get picked on, so he started bullying Wally Panzer. Wally was sort of asking for it, all scrawny and gawky and obsessed with butterflies, but still. Earl smashes a butterfly against Wally's face, which is so gross. Wally screams, and Earl calls him "Wally Pansy." Then he de-pantses him and pushes him over. Eventually, being a bully got Earl kicked out, but the damage was done.

Earl explains in voiceover that it wasn't difficult to find Wally in Camden, because if you haven't left there by elementary school, chances are you never will. That is so my hometown. Except that I left. Did I really just admit I'm from the Camden of Oregon? Oops. Anyway, as Earl and Randy approach Wally's, Earl tells Randy to be nice, since Wally was pretty delicate in high school (by "delicate," he obviously means "pansy") and he doesn't want to spook him. When someone answers the door, it's Matt Willig, former NFL tackle and recent go-to guy when a show needs someone big and strong (see Dexter and Chuck). Earl asks if he's Wally Panzer; he is. So Earl introduces himself as "Cliff," and when Wally asks if he's here about his ad in the Penny Saver, Earl says he is. Wally's excited and goes to get his belt. When he leaves, Randy wonders why Earl forgot his name, and Earl says he didn't forget it, but he doesn't want Wally to kill him, so he's going to have to find a way to cross him off without him knowing who he is. They wonder why he's getting his "belt." Randy worries that maybe they're going to get spanked, since that's what happened when their dad would go get his. They hope he doesn't want to have sex with them. Wally comes back and asks them if they're ready to pump. He walks toward the car, and Earl's all, "Oh god. He does want to have sex with us." Randy says not him; Cliff's the one who answered the ad. But Wally adds he's ready to hit the gym. They're relieved, and Randy hopes for group showers so he can show everyone he has hair now (unlike the last time he used group showers in school, apparently).