It's definitely rare for the syndication-friendly Two and a Half Men to feature a "to be continued..." ending, but apparently last night's episode, "Crude and Uncalled For" had just too much story to pack in there.

Last night, Alan's Internet date landed him in jail (really, whose hasn't?), and Charlie's fiancee seemed to be crushing hardcore on Alan's lawyer, Brad (Steven Eckholdt).  That takes us somewhere about ten minutes into the episode.

From there, the episode became about Alan convincing Charlie he should be jealous and never have let Chelsea go to Brad's charity event by herself.  Rather than simply arriving, we spent the rest of the time with the boys as they dragged Jake along and failed to follow their GPS to the ranch.  Instead, they get lost and Jake does a horrible mountain lion impression.

Our biggest complaint with the episode isn't the jokes, because they were there, despite there being no appearance by our favorite cast member, Berta.  Our biggest complaint was that the episode couldn't resolve itself in a neat half hour package, while wasting time on pointless scenes.

Two and a Half Men is a sitcom and there's really no reason to drag this out into two episodes unless there's actually going to be major plot development.  We're crossing our fingers that Chelsea did in fact cheat on Charlie and we can return to the old formula that made this show work so well.  Otherwise, shame on you writers for messing with us.

With that in mind, we're giving the episode a boost to our rating, hoping this means to downfall of a lame couple.  Now on to our favorite Two and a Half Men quotes after the jump.

Alan: Ten hours! Ten hours I sat in that urine-soaked jail cell.
Charlie: You shouldn't have peed yourself. | permalink

Evelyn: Nobody wants to go to jail sweetie, but let's face it, if all we're talking about is sixty days alone in a room with no friends, how's that different from two months squatting in your brother's house? | permalink

Alan: That guy is everything you're not.
Charlie: What's that mean?
Alan: He likes people, he loves his mother, works with children, and he doesn't tumble through life stinking of whsikey and KY jelly.
Charlie: Hey, KY jelly is odorless.
Alan: Not where you put it. | permalink

Charlie: If Chelsea were your fiancee, you'd have bigger problems.
Alan: Like what?
Charlie: Being the last man on Earth. | permalink

Eric Hochberger is the programmer of TV Fanatic, so please forgive his mediocre writing. His programming is far better. Follow him on Twitter and/or email him. Just don't request threaded comments. They're coming.