Louis T. Moyle

It's Mother's Day and Earl is feeling particularly disgusted with himself for never having 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 too.

Earl decides to cross `made a kid scared of the boogeyman' from his list, and discovers the lasting affect he had on the boy.

As the festive season approaches, Earl tries to win Joy a car to make up for all the times he ruined her Christmas. Problems arise when he finds out that her racist dad thinks they're still married and Earl's just back from the war in Iraq.

Earl is set an assignment after attending a prison class which focuses on creative writing. It doesn't take long before Earl realises that writing is harder than he first thought.

When trying to enrol her children into the Right Choice Ranch for troubled youth, Joy finds her application blocked because of a barn-burning incident at the hands of a younger Earl. So Earl, Randy and Catalina travel to the camp to make amends for the barn burning by building a pen for the camp's ostrich.