Later, Ed hires Tom on "There's Something About a War". In the following episode, "Silly People", he and Tom place bets that Tom could do certain tricks. Lynette tries to stop all of these games, so Ed tells her if she could eat a package of raw bacon, they will stop. Lynette succeeds and Ed and Tom have had a business-like relationship since. But after having marital problems with his wife Fran (Penelope Ann Miller), he asks Lynette to send instant messages to her to help him with his sex life. When Fran figures out it was not Ed, she tells him to fire the person who wrote the IMs or she will leave him; he fires Tom instead. In season three, Ed threatens to fire Lynette after she fakes being ill to help Tom with his pizza business at a fair. Lynette eventually quits the job to work at the pizzeria.