Monica, a brontosaurus, moves into the neighborhood. Earl and Fran are surprised to learn that she is divorced, a concept unknown to them, and she mentions that when it was time to renew the marriage license (something Fran didn't even know had to be done), she looked at her husband and decided he wasn't worth the money to renew. Later, Earl and Fran have arguments, and when Earl looks at the marriage license, he finds that it's expired. When they go to renew it, Earl fails the test, though he got them all right the first time around. The two have to get divorced. Earl stays with Roy while Fran has trouble raising the kids in a single parenting household. Earl and Roy go out to a bar that Fran and Monica also go to, and Earl and Fran have renewed interest in each other. When they retake the marriage test, Earl improves but is still a few points behind. Earl then talks about what really matters in a marriage, and he is awarded more points and their marriage gets renewed.
Includes examples of
- Ambiguous Syntax: When Earl is about to leave, Fran says "what about the kids?", meaning what do they tell them, but Earl thinks this is a game show question, saying "I know this one! Robbie, Charlene, and... Uh..."
- Bait-and-Switch: A bedtime scene establishes that Thursday night is their night. At the end, after getting their marriage license renewed, Fran decides they should celebrate by pretending it's Thursday, and Earl is excited - that's spaghetti night.
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Monica left her husband because he didn't care about the things that were important to her - like remembering her birthday, taking her out to dinner, or sucking parasites out of her ear.
- Burping Contest: The episode begins with the males burping after finishing their drinks, with Baby trying to burp.
- Comically Missing the Point: Back in "Endangered Species", Earl and Fran celebrated their 20th anniversary. In spite of knowing the marriage license has to be renewed once every twenty years, they have to be told theirs expired.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: When Roy first meets Monica, he's able to talk coherently to her, in contrast to later on when he often gets into a daze whenever he starts talking to her.
- First Appearance: Monica.
- Limited Wardrobe: Earl packs, taking an extra copy of his own shirt.
- Obnoxious In-Laws: Ethyl is happy that her son-in-law left.
- Recognition Failure: As part of the test, Fran is placed on a line up with cardboard cutouts of female dinosaurs that don't look like her. Earl fails to recognize her.
- Series Continuity Error: In this episode, when Monica tells Fran she was divorced, Fran does not know what that means. In Hurling Day, Ethyl ask Fran to get a divorce and remarry a better hurler for her, and Fran seemed to know what a divorce is then.
- Shout-Out: The title is a parody of Married... with Children.
