Plot summary
Joy is caught by Dog the Bounty Hunter in Mexico and returns for her trial. As the next item on Earl's grown-up List is to find someone to love, he falls for Joy's lawyer Ruby Whitlow ( Marlee Matlin ). However, after their one-night stand, Ruby discovers through Earl's List that he had taken advantage of her deafness to loudly burglarize her apartment. To make matters worse, Doug injures his tongue, rendering himself unable to speak for Ruby, with the only other sign language interpreter speaking fluent Mandarin instead of English, and the prosecution has abundant evidence of Joy committing the crime.
However, Ruby, with the help of a Nescobar-A-Lop-Lop who translates Mandarin to English, is able to sway the jury towards a 50/50 chance of winning. However, when the prosecutor presents tapes of Earl's 911 calls where he is reporting about Joy, the momentum is lost. Realizing Joy has no chance of acquittal, Earl admits to the court that he committed the crimes. The judge sentences Earl to two years in prison, and thus Earl has to give up his job, his apartment, his love life, and his List.
Credits
Adapted from Wikipedia contributors, My Name Is Earl season 2. HTML formatting and reference markers removed.