Earl Harlan is a resident of Night Vale, Scout Master of the Night Vale chapter of the Boy Scouts of Americaand sous chef at Tourniquet.
He will sometimes appear on Night Vale Community Radio in the recurring segment "Cooking Stuff with Earl Harlan," where he will share recipes with Cecil and the listeners.
Physical Appearance[]
Earl has a trimmed mustache and hair.[1]
Personality[]
Earl is somber and self aware of his feelings. He takes his life, family, and job very seriously and often struggles with it all.
Earl states that he's never been good at making decisions. He says that he often leaves the grocery store without getting anything on his list due to how overwhelmed he becomes. He also had to block his assistant's number to keep her from asking him any questions. At one point his inability to make any decision caused him to start wearing a mask so that no one would recognize him. [2]
Earl eventually becomes so stressed by his responsibilities that it causes a timeline anomaly.[2]
Earl seems to respect Cecil's opinion very highly, venting his concerns, frustrations, and confusion whenever they talk. It's Cecil's reassurance that ends up relieving Earl enough to repair the timeline.[2]
Earl says he has to psyche himself up every morning, staring at his reflection and chanting "You can do this, Earl" until he believes it.[1] He tells his son he loves him every day, even days he doesn't remember his name.[1]
History[]
Early Life[]
Earl has a photograph of himself as a child that confused Cecil as it has a steam locomotive in the background.[3]
Earl was one of the few children in Night Vale chosen to be a Boy Scout. While it can be assumed he's received every badge, it's been stated explicitly that he received the Subversive Radio Host Badge (which he helped Cecil get too)[4] and the Survivalist badge (which has a cannibalism component).[5]
Old Woman Josie recalls that Earl and Cecil "used to be joined at the hip, wearing [their] boy scout uniforms and neckerchiefs and baseball gloves."[6] Cecil describes them as childhood best-friends[7] and Earl describes them as very close friends.[8]
Earl and Cecil graduated from Night Vale High School in the same year, although neither can remember what year that was.[8] Cecil says they spent their graduation night partying and that they "drank an entire case of warm orangemilk and told dirty jokes about the moon until [they] were frightened off by the sunrise."[8]
Cecil and Earl lost contact after high school.[8]
Later Life[]
Earl is one of the Night Vale citizens who paused aging at 19 years old[8], along with pawn shop owner Jackie Fierro[9], Blood Space War veteran Fakhir Bishara[10], and Cecil[11]. Earl claims to have been 19 for "decades, maybe a century or more" but that he can't remember exactly how long. [8] Similar to what happened to a photograph of Jackie Fierro [9], it's likely Earl's photograph of himself with the steam locomotive aged to reflect his time spent 19 but he did not actually exist a century ago. [3] Dissimilar to Jackie's experience, it seems that Earl was forced to age and did not get to choose which age he leaped to.[12]
He was Scout Master of the Night Vale Boy Scouts.[13] Since this is a volunteer position[14], it's unclear how Earl was supporting himself.
Once during a Boy Scout training maneuver he encountered his ten year old self, who trained with him all afternoon. As the day progressed, Earl began remembering having experienced this as a child. He says he remembers the horror on his own face.[15]
Before the Eternal Scout ceremony Earl was interviewed by Cecil, where he stated he was proud, terrified, and confused. It was assumed Earl died during the ceremony as he was one of the ten victims of the mute children.[13] He returned to Night Vale a year and a half later[7] despite "very few ever [surviving] Boy Scout courts of honor, especially not those dragged away by the mute children."[14]
It's unclear when Earl began ageing again, but it's assumed to be after his return to Night Vale. When Earl next appears in the podcast he is a middle-aged single father of an 11 year old son[12] and he is the sous chef at the new restaurant Tourniquet.[8] Earl states he has no memory of how he got to that point and it takes him several months to work up the courage to ask his son his name. His son is called Roger,[12] a fact Earl can remember most days but not all.[1] Roger looks identical to Earl when he was a child.[3] Earl doesn't know who Roger's birth mother could be. He later tries to connect with Roger by cooking for him and watching football together, with limited success.[3] Earl admits that he doesn't understand the rules of football.
It's unclear if Earl returned to his volunteer duties as Scout Master.[14] Although it's unlikely as Earl expressed having very little free time due to his job and what time he does have he tries to devote to Roger.[12]
Earl catered both Cecil and Carlos' wedding[16] and the Annual Kids Fundraising dinner at the Last Bank of Night Vale.[2] Earl provided the pastries for Rattlesnake Rest cemetery's re-opening cake walk.[17]
Recipes[]
- Tiramisu: Recipe from Cooking Stuff with Earl Harlan[13]
- Ingredients: a carafe of pre-made coffee, 6 eggs (separated into whites, yolks, organs, teeth, and other debris), salt, 2 tablespoons of cocoa, 1/3 cup of sugar, 2 cups of mascarpone (which is a kind of fish), a package of gluten free ladyfinger cookies, two ounces of dark rum, 1 1/2 cups of ground nutmeg (deveined)
- Warnings: Poisonous, difficult to stop making, potential to go insane
- Pulled Pork: Recipe from Cooking Stuff with Earl Harlan[18]
- Directions: Find, kill, and dismember a pig, slow cook it with vinegar, sugar, and chili, put it on a bun
- Warnings: The pig will want to live, some of the blood will be yours
- Apple Pie: Made for Old Woman Josie[6]
- Ingredients: butter crust, fresh-picked Macoun apples, cranberries, capers, and metal shavings
- Cherrie Jubilee: Demonstration given at the end of the Pioneer Days interpretive boardwalk and historical display[19]
- Directions: Feed a goose cherries until it can no longer walk or stand on its own, light the goose on fire until its screams become whimpers, when it's finally silent extinguish the flames
- Earl mentioned wanting to demonstrate pumpkin pie on Cooking Stuff with Earl Harlan since "there’s so much less blood splatter than you would think"[12]
Relationships[]
- Cecil Palmer: Cecil and Earl were childhood best-friends[7] who were attached at the hip[6]. They were in Boy Scouts together and worked on badges together. It is implied that Earl and Cecil's relationship may have been more than platonic, although the exact status is unclear.[13] Earl tells Cecil "We could have had something, Cecil. Remember that."[13] This implies that there was potential for a romantic relationship between the two of them that Earl seems to have wanted to further pursue. Earl later somberly tells Cecil he thinks they "have something".[8] After the Eternal Scout ceremony Cecil reflects: "I think often about the last moments with him, and the things that were said. I think often about many things. Other things I think less about."
- Roger Harlan: Earl's 11 year old son who mysteriously appeared one day. Earl struggles greatly with being a parent, stating "even with PBS’s help, trying to explain how weird time is, it’s hard."[12] Earl experiences conflict about letting Roger do dangerous things like walking around alone at night and wandering into the desert blindfolded, because he wants to seem cool and make sure Roger isn't mad at him. Earl often forgets Roger's name, but does tell him he loves him every day.[1]
- Melony Pennington: Earl and Melony attended Cecil and Carlos' wedding together. Melony says she doesn't know who he is (which is typical of her forgetful character) but Earl reminds her they've been friends for years.[16]
Other Mentions[]
- Live show "All Hail" (vocal appearance)
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Live show The Investigators
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Episode 133 "Are You Sure?"
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Episode 78 "Cooking Stuff: Thanksgiving Special"
- ↑ Episode 36 Missing
- ↑ Live show "Ghost Stories"
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Episode 97 Josefina
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Episode 52 The Retirement of Pamela Winchell
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 Episode 56 "Homecoming"
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Fink, Joseph; Cranor, Jeffrey. Welcome to Night Vale. HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
- ↑ Episode 147 The Protester
- ↑ Live show A Spy in the Desert
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 12.5 Episode 65 Voicemail
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 Episode 23 "Eternal Scouts"
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Episode 50 Capital Campaign
- ↑ Episode 112 "Citizen Spotlight"
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Episode 100 Toast
- ↑ Episode 178 Rattlesnake Rest
- ↑ Episode 61 Briny Depths
- ↑ Episode 143 Pioneer Days