Episode 217 : A New Leaf Following a fierce argument with Earl , Robbie storms out of the house to meet Spike and discovers an appealing leaf that when ingested makes them both effusively happy . Upon returning home , Earl is surprised to find Robbie in such an elated state until he samples some of Robbie ' s leaves . Expecting to find father and son at war , Fran is puzzled when she discovers Earl and Robbie arm in arm . Suspicious of the tantalizing leaves , Fran exhibits cautious restraint and becomes increasingly concerned when her family happily decides to remain at home rather than go to work or school . Earl ' s lack of concern after discovering he ' s been fired forces Fran , who refuses to become co - dependent , to abscond from the house and leave a delirious Earl , Robbie and Charlene to hopelessly fend for themselves . Story . Robbie ' s head spikes have grown , and Earl wants to cut his spikes . Robbie doesn ' t want them cut , and , after an argument with Earl , leaves the house . Robbie and Spike find some plants that they haven ' t seen before , and after eating them , they become unusually happy . Robbie soon comes home , bringing the happy plant home . He makes up with Earl , and gives him some of the plant , making Earl happy as well . Fran is pleased to see that Earl and Robbie have made up . Earl brings some of the plant to work to share with his co - workers . Richfield bellows his usual " Sinclair , my office . . . NOW ! " , informing Earl that he is fed up with his constant tardiness and fires him . Earl simply says it is the happiest day of his life as he has no more drudgery and gives B . P . Richfield some of the happy plant as a peace offering . At home , Earl , Robbie , and Charlene ( who has tried the plant by now ) start to foolishly wonder things , like why numerical systems are based on ten if they have eight fingers , and whether they are being watched on TV . The Baby , who hasn ' t had any of the plant , starts to get very hungry , as the others ignore him . Fran comes home surprised that Robbie and Charlene aren ' t at school and Earl isn ' t at work . She informs them that she couldn ' t afford groceries because her check bounced at the supermarket , and finds out that Earl had been fired and that they ate all of the food . Fran starts to think that the happy plant isn ' t such a good thing . Determined to get the family back on track , she orders Charlene and Robby back to school and takes Earl to WESAYSO in order to smooth things over with his boss . At WESAYSO , Fran has the same aghast as she did with her own family , as the once - hostile atmosphere has turned into a relaxed party . Earl and the guys laugh to themselves and party with a conga line . However , one of the guys , Larry , starts thinking everybody is out to hurt him , causing the guys to constanty placate Larry they are his friend and stop being so paranoid . Fran sees the happy plant can have side effects like what happened to Larry . Fran and Earl go into Richfield ' s trailer in order to grovel , but are briefly interrupted by Larry , who asks if they are talking about him behind their back . Earl says no , and after Larry leaves they face his boss . Both Earl and Fran are surprised by Richfield ' s appearance and attitude . He now wears sunglasses , an aloha shirt and has painted his horns in assorted colors . Richfield turns down the radio , which was tuned to acid rock , and is a mellow tone of voice greets " his friends " Fran and Earl . When Earl says he needs a job , Richfield apologizes for firing a " right on guy " like Earl and offers him a job as his assistant . Richfield proposes a way that him , Earl and guys will make money just for having a good time . All seems well in the world , but then Richfield answers his phone . It is Richfield ' s boss , who has terminated Richfield for not performing to expected standards . At home , Fran decides to stay at Monica ' s house , and takes the Baby with her . She chides Earl that only when he and the kids sober up from the happy plant will she return . Shortly thereafter , their plant stash is exhausted , and the three head into the forest . There , they find Spike , who found a fresh batch of happy plant . Once they see how paranoid and idiotic Spike looks , the three elect to swear off the happy plant . Charlene proposes burning down the patch of happy plant , but Earl in a moment of wisdom , actually forbids her from doing so . Earl ' s reasoning is twofold , that burning down the plant could spread and burn down the whole forest , but more importantly , it could create an even worse problem to have a " war on happy plants " . When Robbie protests about the danger of the happy plant , Earl agrees , but says the only adult way to handle it is that everyone must voluntarily sober up , and that there must always be the temptation to struggle with . Then , the show wraps up , as Robbie talks to the audience about the dangers of drugs , and how when most sitcoms have anti - drug shows , they are too serious . Robbie tells the viewers to not do drugs , and help put an end to preachy sitcom endings like this one .