Earl Hickey was never one to care much about what consequences his actions had unto others, though after being hit by a car shortly after he won the lottery, he finds himself hospitalized while his lottery ticket is lost to the wind. While recovering in the hospital, he watches the Carson Daly show, and upon hearing Carson express that his good luck comes from Karma, in how hea 's always treated others nicely, Earl decides that he must right his wrongs if he ever wishes to turn his life around. He creates a list of everything wrong hea 's ever done and plans on making amends for all of them. He first decides to speak with a man named Kenny, whom he terrorized during their childhood.

Having already succeeded at righting one of the wrongs on his list, Earl must now decide what it is that he wishes to do next. However, he finds it difficult to actually tackle some of the issues head on, as he is afraid of what some people may say to him when they figure out he was responsible for their misfortunes. He decides that he wishes to take the easy way out, and tries to stop smoking in order to make amends for ruining the quality of air with his smoke, though Randy and Catalina have different plans in store for him. Meanwhile, Joy has just discovered that Earl confessed on a video camera that if he were to die, all of his possessions would go to her, so she decides to formulate a plan to kill him so that she can obtain his lottery winnings.

Earl decides he wants to use some of his lotto money to pay back the winnings he earned from a football game that he had Randy fix for him back in high school, as Randy used to play high school football and purposely lost the game. However, upon doing such, he realizes that he needs to put Randy on his list, since his greed had caused Randy to lose his one chance at scoring a touchdown, a feeling that Randy had always wanted to experience. In order to try to make amends for his actions, he gets Randy a fake birth certificate and a false father to enroll him back into high school, though Randy soon starts to enjoy going back to school more than Earl had intended. Meanwhile, Joy has gotten Earl, 's car towed, though when she discovers that his lottery money was in the car, 's glove compartment, Earl and Joy race against one another in order to try to get the cash before the other does.

In order to get out of a relationship he wasn, 't happy with in the past, Earl had once faked his own death, as in doing such he could easily leave the woman without having to deal with a break-up directly. However, it, 's time for Earl to face his actions and he must do everything he can in order to make up for what he once did, though he finds this problem to be different, as he can, 't take away the grief that he had caused this woman to have. However, his attempts to make amends with her soon blossoms into yet another unwanted relationship, leaving him in yet another odd predicament to resolve; though this time, he, 'll need to be more tactful so that he can try to get her taken off his list.

Earl teaches English as a Second Language so that he can cross made fun of people with accents off his list. When an old friend, Ralph, gets out of prison Earl convinces him to try karma, which works... for a while. Ralph ends up kidnapping Randy and demands he tell him where Earl is keeping his lotto winnings. Meanwhile, Joy tries to sabotage the business of one of Earl's students because she's afraid of the competitive edge she is gaining by learning English.

Continuing down his list, Earl must help Joy's former nemesis and her daughter win a beauty pageant in order to replace her figurine that he broke. The rare and prestigious princess figurine is awarded to the mother-daughter pageant winners, which Joy and her mother won one year when Joy was a child. Meanwhile, Joy enters the pageant on her own with her dead mother to win the figurine herself to stay on Earl's list. She wants him to still owe her so that he'll buy her the hot tub she's been eying as compensation.

This time Earl decides to pick something simple from his list - stole beer from a golfer - so that he and Randy can attend the county fair like they do every year. Seven months prior, Earl and Randy began fixing golf games in order to keep scoring free beer from Scott, who would purchase drinks for everyone whenever he hit a hole-in-one. To atone for this sin, Earl buys Scott cases upon cases of beer. He soon discovers, however, that in order to fully cross Scott off of his list, Earl must help Scott regain the life that he had before he became obsessed with the sport.

Earl learns that Joy has neglected to invite him to her and Darnell, 's wedding from Randy's invitation, which instructs him to bring anyone but Earl. Randy of course invites Catalina to be his date since he's excited about the opportunity to dance with her. Joy has also conveniently scheduled the wedding on Earl, 's birthday so that all of their friends will be unable to celebrate with him. Consequently, Earl drunkenly crashes the ceremony and accidentally breaks Joy's nose in the process, now forced to add ruined Joy's wedding to his list. In an effort to right this wrong, Earl helps Joy plan her perfect wedding and the two finally start to get along - maybe a little too well.

Earl sets out to mend his relationship with his father Carl by trying to cross number four off of his list: blew dad's chance to be elected mayor. Four years prior, Carl ran for mayor to oppose the other candidate's plan to redirect airplane traffic away from the affluent part of town and towards Carl's neighborhood. His campaign was going very well, until a misunderstanding between Earl and a police officer was caught on tape and broadcast as the opposing candidate's campaign commercial. Now Earl submits his father's name to run again, even though Carl is adamant that he does not want to be mayor. Earl, Randy, and Catalina recruit unregistered voters to boost Carl's numbers, hoping to win not only the election for Carl, but also a relationship with his father for Earl.

As the holiday season comes under way a few secrets are exposed when Earl attempts to cross number seventy-four off of his list: always ruined Joy's Christmas. Earl, Randy, and Catalina enter a radio contest to win a brand new car for Joy to make up for all of the thoughtless Christmas presents Earl gave her while they were married. While Randy and Catalina vie over the car, Earl finds out that Joy's parents believe that he's still their son-in-law and that he's just returned from the war in Iraq. Joy is afraid to tell her father, an alleged racist, that she is now married to Darnell, so Earl plays the part, afraid of ruining another one of her Christmases.

When Joy's kids are denied enrollment into the camp for troubled youth at the Right Choice Ranch, Earl realizes his reputation for burning down the Ranch's barn when he was a youngster has had a lasting effect. Earl, Randy and Catalina all travel to the Ranch to make amends for the barn burning by building a pen for the camp's new ostrich. When Earl adds Randy to his list for getting him kicked out of the Right Choice Ranch as a kid and consequently ruining his chances at succeeding in life, the truth comes out about how the barn really got destroyed. Earl then decides he and Randy should share responsibility for everything on his list that occurred after the barn incident and forces Randy to right a lot of his wrongs.

Earl and Randy try to return a stolen wallet when they find out that taking the money cost two newlyweds their honeymoon. Not satisfied enough to cross this off his list, Earl decides that he must take over for the groom at his fast food restaurant job, which will allow the newlyweds to go on a proper vacation. Earl discovers that his new boss is a complete jerk, so Randy and Catalina advise him not to put up with his bullying, but Earl can’t jeopardize another man’s job. When Earl sees the boss’ opulent house and beautiful wife, he wonder why karma has been so good to the man despite his horrible personality.

Earl does right when he returns a Pops' Old Fashioned Wiener hot dog cart, which he and Ralph had stolen years prior. His good deed is undone, however, when Ralph, working for the competition, sets fire to the cart just as business is picking up again. Earl demands that the competing franchise owner pay the ten thousand dollars to replace the cart, but he refuses, sending Earl and Randy over his head to the corporate headquarters. Earl tricks his way into a job at the company and proceeds to steal office supplies in an effort to make up the ten thousand dollars. When he realizes that it would take the rest of his life to steal enough supplies, he recruits Randy, Joy, Catalina, and Ralph to get jobs at the company as well to help him.

When one of Earl's old friends is arrested, he decides to make amends for number eighteen on his list - told an inappropriate story at Hank Lange's birthday party. Hank requests that Earl give him one good day to make up for that one bad one before he is sent away to the state prison. Hank requests a visit from his grandmother, a copy of his hometown newspaper, and donuts from his favorite shop. But providing all of these things before visiting hours end at noon proves to be more work than Earl anticipated. Meanwhile, Randy decides that he needs to find his purpose in life and begins looking for a job. After a series of disastrous first days, including taking a job as a busboy for Darnell at the Crab Shack, the brothers decide that Randy is destined to be perpetually unemployed.

Earl takes his car troubles as a sign that it is time for him to redeem himself for a long run of stealing gas out of a complete stranger's car. A few months back, Earl and Randy siphoned gasoline for about a month from an unlock car in the trailer park. When Earl goes back to the trailer park to return the gasoline, he discovers that the owner Philo is an annoying and suicidal man who is more determined than ever to succeed with his suicide attempts. Unable to just walk away, Earl makes it his duty to give Philo a reason to live and it seems that setting him up on a date with Joy is the only way of doing this. Earl and Randy however, find that something else they provide is what will ultimately save Philo.

On their way to return a stolen laptop, Earl and Randy knock over a bus stop sign. Earl promises an elderly woman that he'll fix the sign after returning the laptop, but he is sidetracked by the computer's owner, the beautiful college professor Alex Meyers. When Alex takes a keen interest in Earl and his list, the two begin dating, but Earl can't help but notice that he is constantly the target of bad accidents and random acts of violence. At first he chalks it up to plain old bad luck. Then Earl remembers that he has yet to fix the bus stop sign and decides that karma is punishing him for causing people to miss the bus every day. Meanwhile, Randy embraces collegiate life and begins pledging a fraternity.

Earl realizes that he had been cheating the government by failing to pay his taxes in the past. After adding, cheating the government to his list, Earl becomes determined to pay the government what he owes, but apparently they don't want his money. Earl's attempts to settle his debt leads him to conjuring up unconventional payback methods.

When Mother's Day rolls around, Earl remembers that he has never given his mother a good 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 entail Earl doing something nice for his father Carl. In order to fulfill his promise to his mother, Earl sets out to reclaim his father's classic Mustang, which he lost in a bet as a kid. Meanwhile, Joy's Mother's Day present - a week away from her kids - leaves her missing them all the more.

When Earl decides to cross number twenty-four off his list, stole a red take-a-number machine, he finds that he has to first convince Randy it's the right thing to do. Randy's fondness of the machine is revealed in a flashback to New Year's Eve 1999 when the gang confuses Y2K with the apocalypse leading them to believe they are the last surviving people on the Earth.

A few years ago Earl succeeded in affirming a child's fear of the boogieman when he broke into the Tollhurst household and hid under their six-year-old's bed to escape getting caught robbing the house. When Earl decides to cross off made a kid scared of the boogieman from his list, he discovers just what kind of lasting affect he had on the little boy. Ever since Earl's surprising visit, the kid has been afraid of the dark. But when Earl begins to take the time and energy to resolve his fear, the boy grows attached to Earl and decides he'd rather live with him than with his indifferent father. The boy soon realizes however, just how much his father actually cares about him and how much he would fight Earl to get him back.

In order to protect Joy, Earl finds himself in desperate need to take care of number forty-five on his list, ditched Jessie to marry Joy. When Jessie, Earl's ex-girlfriend, returns to town hell bent on seeking revenge against Joy for causing Earl to leave her and knocking out her front teeth, Earl and Joy seek refuge in a lakeside retreat. Jessie, however, cleverly weasels the secret location out of Randy enabling her to continue her pursuit.

While hanging out next to a storm drain, Earl and Randy come across an object from their past--a police badge. Several years earlier, Earl, Randy and Joy engaged in a scam in which they stole people's shoes, including the contents inside, at a bowling alley. One item this scam yielded was a police badge. With the reemergence of this badge, Earl tracks down the police officer it belonged to in order to take care of number 127 on his list, stole a badge from a police officer. Earl finds that the cop suffered a demotion as a result of having his badge stolen. Earl devises a tactic to get the officer's job back.

Earl sets out to make up for number 147 on his list, shot Gwen Waters with a BB gun. To do so, Earl must reunite Gwen with her estranged father. Getting the father to cooperate proves incredibly difficult, but Earl refuses to give up, in part, because Earl remembers why he used to have a crush on Gwen Waters. He always liked to see her smile.

In the super-sized season finale, Darnell suggests that Earl cross off number-one from his list -- stole $10 from a guy at the Camden Market -- but Earl soon discovers that he owes the guy all of his lotto winnings. Now penniless, Earl wonders when his karma is going kick in and turn his misfortunes around for the better.