I'm afraid I might have scared...

I'm afraid I might have scared up a bit of bad karma myself by laughing out loud at some of the jokes made at the expense of Earl's new English-as-a-second-language students. Particularly at Joy's commentary about her rival in the nail decorative arts: "I don't care if she's Vietnamese, Chinese or Chuck E. Cheese!" (Also? Love that she calls Earl's project his "Touched by an Angel list.") This appearance of Ralph (a well-cast Giovanni Ribisi) gave us a good glimpse into what Earl was really like before his big epiphany: a fun, completely selfish guy, who took the good with the bad as long as there was not too much effort involved. Ooh, that good-and-bad observation gives a whole new meaning to Ralph's tattoo of "two tadpoles doing it," aka a yin-yang symbol. Thankfully, Earl's twinge of regret for leaving a friend behind wasn't overdone or sappy, or even very moralistic for that matter. Earl's not condemning his old ways, just trying to reap the benefits of the straight and narrow. And tonight's benefit is that when Ralph double-crossed Earl and Randy, karma, contrary to popular belief, was just like Lassie and came when they called it, in the form of Earl's loyal foreign students. Awww. "Seacrest, out!"