Are you kidding me?

I might have let it go, if they’d just never mentioned Darnell’s family again. Who am I kidding? I’d have never let it go, but now My Name is Earl has added fuel to the fire. Yeah, I called it a fire. Stop judging just cause I get hopped up about my programs. Gah.

Anyway, tonight we found out that several years ago Darnell was living with his grandmother. You know, that woman who you are either related to by blood or through adoption? The kind of person with whom you would cut all ties if you are actually in the Witness Protection Program?!

Why must I be so tortured by sloppy, inconsistent plot points?

Attack of the kickass guest stars!

I was excited about the return of Men in Trees (shut up, it's good), but I was pretty distracted after seeing Justine Bateman's name in the opening credits. I kept looking at the brunette regulars and thinking, "That's not Justine Bateman" and then questioning my own actor-recognition prowess. Then at the last minute she shows up as the bitch who broke Jack's heart. Just in time to screw up Jack and Marin's budding love! I do love a formidable opponent for affection. It's no fun when one side of the love triangle is a Duncan (was that mean?).

Earlier in the evening Kadeem Hardison (or as we all know him Dwayne Wayne) and Dean Winters (my favorite Irish sociopath on Oz) showed up on My Name is Earl and 30 Rock, respectively. Hardison was underused as a guy who turned Earl onto an illegal betting ring, but Winters was awesome as Tina Fey's on-again/off-again boyfriend, who by virtue of being the only retailer left, is the Beeper King of New York. Since he turned her attempt to dump him into an invitation to move in, it looks like we'll be seeing more of Ryan O'Reily, er... The Beeper King.

But what about Crabman's family?

Last night's Joy and Crabman storyline on My Name is Earl was cute enough. She was pissed that he never told her he was in the witness protection program, so she kicked him out of the house. This led to him crashing with the Hickey boys and getting to be the crabmeat of an Earl and Randy po' boy.

My problem is that it seems the writers decided to just ignore the fact that we've met Darnell's family. I'd say that maybe they were his paid Witness protection family, but he was pretty pissed when Joy told him Earl slept with his mother. Nitpicking aside, it was a solid, if unspectacular episode. Jenny McCarthy was sweet as a personal trainer lacking the confidence to tell men how she really feels and Catalina walked away with my favorite line of the night with the flawlessly delivered, "I'm gonna kill someone again."