History Recap / TalesFromTheDarksideS1E20ItAllComesOutInTheWash

* ForWantOfANail: Had Sam not drunk-dialed Carl about Chow Ting's laundromat, the episode wouldn't have happened.

On the advice of a friend, real estate mogul Carl Gropper (Creator/VinceEdwards) visits a laundromat owned by Chow Ting (Creator/JamesHong). Having heard from his friend that he can perform a "special service", Ting confirms to Carl that he is able to wash away sin from the clothes of every customer who asks for said service. Carl enthusiastically pays Ting for his special talent, then goes on to engage in a number of despicable and immoral acts to succeed in his business, believing that Ting will wash his sins away, allowing him to be free of guilt. When Carl accidentally breaches the rules of this service, his laundry isn't the only thing that begins piling up.

On the advice of a friend, real estate mogul Carl Gropper visits a laundromat owned by Chow Ting. Having heard from his friend that he can perform a "special service", Ting confirms to Carl that he is able to wash away sin from the clothes of every customer who asks for said service. Carl enthusiastically pays Ting for his special talent, then goes on to engage in a number of despicable and immoral acts to succeed in his business, believing that Ting will wash his sins away, allowing him to be fee of guilt. When Carl accidentally breaches the rules of this service, his laundry isn't only thing that begins piling up.

* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: Carl keeps performing mean and cruel deeds under the belief that his sins will be washed away by Ting's special service. What he doesn't understand is that the whole point of ridding one's self of guilt is to keep them guiltless of their own effort.

** When Carl learns that Ting has retired and shut his laundromat down, he's overwhelmed by the guilt of all the cruel and amoral things he's done over the past few days. Given his office is on a floor tens of stories high, it's only natural he leaps out the window.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Chow Ting is noted to up the price of his laundry services as long as customers keep committing sins. As a result, it's left unanswered as to whether Chow Ting truly ''can'' wash away his customers' sins and genuinely needs the cash to do so, or whether he's a scam artist who spins the lie to get villainous people like Carl to fork the money over while they destroy themselves. The latter carries a smidgen of weight when Ting signs off with "Sayonnara!", which Carl notes isn't even Chinese.

* WhatYouAreInTheDark: Believing that his sins and guilt won't be an issue to him anymore, Carl becomes an utter sadist who murders baby seals for their fur, orders a hit on the dad of Marvin's best friend (after having already bankrupted him), and divorces his wife after giving her a boquet of roses.
* YankTheDogsChain: One of Carl's heinous acts is to send his wife Cheryl a boquet of roses for her birthday, and then send her divorce papers the next day.

* DrivenToSuicide: When Carl learns that Ting has retired and shut his laundromat down, he's overwhelmed by the guilt of all the cruel and amoral things he's done over the past few days. Given his office is on a floor tens of stories high, it's only natural he leaps out the window.

* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: The entirety of the episode is watching Carl's progression into an utterly inhuman monster, shamelessly making a goldmine off baby seal fur, having his son Marvin's best friend Billy Timmer's father murdered, and ''then'' trying to marry his best friend's wife, who's been having an affair with him.

* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: The entirety of the episode is watching Carl's progression into an utterly inhuman monster, as he shamelessly makes a goldmine off baby seal fur, having his son Marvin's best friend Billy Timmer's father murdered, and ''then'' trying to marry his best friend's wife, who's been having an affair with him.

Real estate mogul Carl Gropper visits a laundromat owned by Chow Ting, a mysterious man who claims he is able to wash away the guilt of his customers. Carl enthusiastically pays Ting for the use of his "special service", then goes on to engage in numerous despicable acts to succeed in business, believing that Ting will wash his sins away. When Carl accidentally breaches the rules of Ting's service, his laundry isn't only thing that begins piling up.

!!"It All Comes Out in the Wash" provides examples of:

* AllForNothing: After committing sin after sin to move up in the world, Carl finds out the hard way that, after violating Ting's rules, Ting has won the lottery, shut down his business, and retired to Florida, leaving Carl to stew in the guilt of every immoral thing he's done in the past few weeks and throw himself out the window.
* BottleEpisode: Barring the opening scene in Ting's laundromat, the entirety of the episode is set in Carl's office.
* CallBack: Chow Ting is heard watching the same quiz show that Leon watched in [[Recap/TalesFromTheDarksideS1E11AllACloneByTheTelephone All a Clone by the Telephone]], which he says is called "Wheel of Fate".
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Carl Gropper is this to a T.
* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: Carl continually does mean and cruel things under the belief that it will all be washed away by Chow Ting's services. What he doesn't understand is that the whole point of washing away guilt is to keep one guiltless of their own effort.
* DrivenToSuicide: When Carl realizes that Chow Ting has retired from "washing away sins", he's overwhelmed by all the guilt of the mean, cruel and amoral things he's done the past few days. Given his office is on a floor tens of stories high, you can guess what he does next. Earlier in the episode, Carl's friend Sam Larchmont, who was the man who recommended Ting in the first place, did the same thing when Gropper broke his rules.
* EntertaininglyWrong: Near the end of the episode, Carl believes that Chow Ting is after his soul, willingly leaving Ting a message saying that he can have it in exchange for his laundry. At the end of the episode, Chow calls him back by saying that he wasn't interested in his soul, but he shut down the business and moved to Florida.
* {{Jerkass}}: Carl is one, without question.
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: The entirety of the episode is watching Carl's progression into an inhuman monster, from shamelessly making a goldmine off baby seal fur, to murdering his son's best friend's father, and ''then'' trying to marry his widowed mother.
** [[EstablishingCharacterMoment Before that]], he decides to have roses delivered to his wife for her birthday, and then have divorce papers delivered to her the day after.
* VillainProtagonist: Carl fits the bill for this.
* VisualPun: With every new sin Carl commits, more and more "dirty laundry" piles up in his office.

* DrivenToSuicide: When Carl realizes that Chow Ting has retired from "washing away sins", he's overwhelmed by all the guilt of the mean, cruel and amoral things he's done the past few days. Given his office is on a floor tens of stories high, you can guess what he does next.

** And even before he met Ting, he singlehandedly ruined the business of his son's best friend's father.
* VillainProtagonist: Carl fits the bill for this.

* AllForNothing: After committing sin after sin to move up in the world, Carl finds out the hard way that, after welshing on his deal with Ting, Ting has retired, shut down his business, and moved to Florida, leaving Carl to stew in the guilt of every immoral thing he's done in the past few weeks and throw himself out the window.

** [[EstablishingCharacterMoment Before that]], he decides to have flowers delivered to his wife for her birthday, and then have divorce papers delivered to her the day after.

** Before that, he decides to have flowers delivered to his wife for her birthday, and then have divorce papers delivered to her the day after.

* DrivenToSuicide: When Carl realizes that Chow Ting has retired from "washing away guilt", he's overwelmed by all the guilt of the mean, cruel and amoral things he's done the past few days. Given his office is on a floor tens of stories high, you can guess what he does next.
* {{Jerkass}}: Carl is this, without question.
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: The entirety of the episode is watching Carl's progression into this, from shamelessly making a goldmine off baby seal fur to murdering his son's best friend's father and ''then'' trying to marry his widowed mother.

* CorrupteCorporateExecutive: Carl Gropper is this to a T.
* DrivenToSuicide: When Carl realizes that Chow Ting has retired from "washing away guilt".

* VillainProtagonist: