Today, the first post-strike episode of "My Name is Earl" aired. And let me tell you: It was well worth the wait!

After a brief appearance by NBC Universal President/CEO Jeff Zucker -- who talks us through an online two-minute recap of how the show left off, complete with eSurance promo -- we get right back into the action: Earl and Billie are unconscious after she hit him with her car, then she gets out to check on him, only to get hit by a car driven by former Officer Daniels. When the paramedics arrive, they rush to Billie, leaving Earl on the street. But, Randy comes along and, in a stroke of genius -- this is Randy, after all -- loads Earl into the ambulance and takes off for the hospital.

Along the way, Randy sees Joy, Darnell and Catalina on the side of the road, dealing with car trouble. He tells them to hop in, and they each try to revive him as they make their way to the hospital.

Unfortunately, Earl ends up flying out of the ambulance, gets stuck to a semi's grill, and ends up the in the home of Sissy, the semi driver who wants to make the dying Earl her lover. Eventually, the quartet gets him back and brings him to the hospital.

Of course, the entire time, Earl is still narrating the action. The thing is, though, he's having some sort of dream (hallucination?) that he's happily living in the 1960s and he's newly married to Billie (and they have a lot of toasters). As the friends try to wake him up, his dreams are adjusted accordingly. Even Paris Hilton shows up to say her favorite line: That's hot!

In the second half of the hourlong episode, Gerald, a pint-size faith healer nicknamed "God's Little Finger," is introduced. The four remember that he healed Earl years ago, and want him to do it again. Only now, he's not healing anymore. It seems that after he healed Earl and Joy, he saw them commit a crime on TV, and decided to give up healing because these were not good people. They tell him about Earl's list (even adding him to it), but he's still unconvinced that Joy is now a good person.

Luckily, Darnell -- with the help of a blue tarp and some experience making propaganda films -- is able to compile a video of Joy's good deeds through the years. (Think "Forrest Gump," only funnier.) After watching the video, Gerald agrees to resume healing.

They head to the hospital, and he tries to wake Earl up. Unfortunately, it's all for naught, as Gerald's father finally admits that his son never had healing powers, that it was all a big scam. (Earl was in on it and healing Joy was a fluke due to some hospital-strength Neosporin his father always put on Gerald's fingertips.)

So, everyone leaves the room so Randy can say goodbye to his brother. (Loved the doctors hovering outside the window with coolers, to presumably to collect the picks they made earlier in the Transplant Draft.) As Randy talks to Earl about how good he was and how God might reward him for getting as far as he did on his list, he realizes that Gerald can now be crossed off. As he does that, he notices Earl's heartbeat increases. (And viewers see his dream change, too: Instead of leaving everyone to move away for a promotion, he decides to stay.)

So, all is not over for Earl J. Hickey. I don't know how soon he'll wake from his coma -- hopefully it won't take as long as his recent jail stint -- and how they're going to resolve Billie's storyline. After all, she's also in a coma, on the other side of Earl's hospital room wall.

I guess this means I'll have to tune in next week to find out. And thank goodness for that!