At the core of My Name Is Earl was a group of criminals, many of whom tried to do better in life. That was mostly thanks to the influence of Earl Hickey and his list. But one of the things that were revealed quite quickly in the series was the fact that Earl was never the worst guy in town. That honor belonged to Ralph Mariano who proved to everyone the first time he appeared on the series that he was the worst of the worst in Camden.
Earl Hickey and his brother Randy had truly terrible lives. They were petty criminals who victimized pretty much anyone and everyone, particularly their parents. Seemingly no one was safe from their lifetime of criminal activities. Earl eventually married Joy, a woman who was quite easily as big a degenerate as he was. Much to his surprise, she played a big part in getting Earl to turn over a new leaf in life.
After winning $100,000, Earl was hit by a car, Joy left him for Crab Man and he lost his home. But after some sage advice from Carson Daly, Earl realized that he needed to make amends for all of the bad things he had done in the past. After that, his life started getting a lot better. To be fair, Earl’s bar for success was exceedingly low. For him and Randy, having a sketchy motel room to stay in and all the vending machine snacks they could eat was a great existence.
But not everyone was happy about Earl’s new life. Ralph Mariano was an old friend of Earl, Randy and Joy. He met the Hickey brothers when they were kids, with Earl essentially mentoring him as a criminal. As they grew up, they stayed friends and continued to commit crimes together. In Season 1, Episode 5, Ralph made his series debut when he got out of prison and wanted to return to his former ways with his old buddy Earl.
Not surprisingly, Ralph did not take Earl going straight well at all. He actually attacked his friend and tied him up in an attempt to steal Earl’s money. The plan was foiled by Earl’s ESL students, fortunately. But this whole situation highlighted how terrible a person Ralph truly was. This man was willing to turn on his mentor and closest friend the second he had any inclination that Earl was on the wrong side of the criminal/civilian line.
Things only got worse throughout the series. Every time Ralph popped up, it was part of an even sketchier scheme than the last time. What made him the worst person in the series was the fact that he showed no signs of even being willing to change his ways. Even Joy started to turn things around and be a nicer person by the end of the show. Again, being nicer than she was in the first episode was a pretty low bar for Joy to clear.
It wasn’t just Earl, Randy and Joy; Donny Jones, another former criminal and friend of Earl’s, went straight all on his own. He redeemed himself when he found God in prison. Ralph stayed a criminal simply because he wanted to. And he repeatedly tried to turn his closest friends into victims. He was one of the few characters in My Name Is Earl not to find a path to a better life by being around Earl and the odyssey of his list.
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