Cliques is the twenty-first episode of the third season of Malcolm in the Middle, which was broadcast on May 5, 2002.
Plot[]
After a chemical mishap, the Krelboynes are forced to join the general school populations, and they all find new groups. Meanwhile, Piama is using the money she and Francis have been making from the casino business to go shopping instead of saving it up to pay off Lavernia.
When Dewey is stricken with chickenpox, Lois tries to keep him busy with dominoes--but then she forbids Reese to knocking them down, and Reese tries to keep Hal from knocking them down, because Lois will blame Reese, no matter what happens to the dominoes.
Sypnosis[]
In the opening scene, Hal walks by the boys bedroom and sees Dewey having a tea party with his stuffed animals. Upon seeing Dewey acting effeminate he decides to get him a stealth bomber model he's been asking for so he'll stop acting like a girl, Dewey agrees. Once Hal leaves Dewey tells Mrs. Bear sometimes it's almost too easy manipulating his father into getting him expensive gifts.
Malcolm and his friends are doing an experiment in class when Lloyd asks if they would like to come camp out in front of PC World so they can be one of the first to get a new game. Kevin asks if Lloyd's mother would let him but he states she is currently holding his place in line for him. Malcolm doesn't see what the big deal is about camping out for video games but Dabney informs him that they have lives outside of school too now. Mr. Herkabe checks in on them and asks if they’re sticking to the experiment, since it’s so tempting to stray from a rigidly defined protocol but they must resist its siren song of pure research but must resist its seductiveness and has them recite one of his rules, “Unstable compounds require stable minds”. After he leaves Stevie calls him a jackass and Kevin agrees since he’s talking to them like they’re children before adding a purple chemical to their beaker.
The resulting chemical mishap ends up exploding and covering the students, Herkabe and the entire classroom in chemicals leaving them all to be hosed off outside. Kevin claims that it was a legitimate variation and there was less than a 48 percent chance of it happening. Mr. Herkabe expresses his fury at them for their cavalier disregard for the laws of the classroom and the laws of nature has lead to the inevitable and it will now take weeks to sanitize their classroom. He then states that during that time the Krelboynes will be forced to join the general school population. The Krelboynes are terrified over it as the whole school hates them and they're rage is a projection of their own insecurities. Mr. Herkabe is a substitute Gym teacher where he gets to wear a whistle and dress in shorts but assures them that the explosion will in no way affect their end of year grades.
At the house, Dewey is stricken with chickenpox and Lois tells him playing connect the dots with them will lead to infection. Dewey emphasizes how bored he is so Lois reminds him that he promised to use his not horrible whining voice and then grabs a box of dominoes to keep him busy. Dewey initially refuses until Lois reminds him he will be contagious for six more days and he has the choice of either spending those days at the house like a good little boy, or in the hospital. Dewey reminds her that you don't go to the hospital for chickenpox until he realizes she will physically send him to the hospital if he continues whining, Dewey agrees to play with the dominoes.
In Alaska, Francis is at odds after a failed attempt at fixing his and Piama's house. Piama suggests tacking up a blanket to cover the hole but Francis is upset that because of the tribal council they aren't allowed to expand their own house, as part of it resides on tribal land. Piama tells him that her idiot grandfather built their house on a glacier and it moves slightly every year, claiming after the next century they'll have a nice view of the lake. Upon learning that their home is on Native American soil, Francis opens up a legalized gambling facility.
At the school, Malcolm and Lloyd arrive at the regular class where Lloyd is terrified of how the other students are all planning on torturing him and the different ways they will dispose of his body. Malcolm is more at peace with being back in the general populace and finds his way back to his old friends Ian and Eddie. Lloyd is scared to leave Malcolm's side but reluctantly does so to avoid trouble. Malcolm and Ian have a simple conversation and Malcolm forgot how much he missed them. Lloyd is surrounded by a clique of goths and recites a dark passage from "Dante's Inferno" over the gates of hell, which impresses the main goth Ronald. Later on in woodworking class, Dabney is apprehensive as he hovers near a group of jocks and fails to hammer a nail. After helping a jock remove a splinter, the jock helps him hammer a nail.
When Hal arrives home from work he is impressed by Dewey's domino set up. Dewey explains he got the extra dominoes from a late neighbor who was buried with one of his dominoes so it isn't a complete set. Reese comes home and like Hal, wants to knock over the dominoes. However, Lois busts him and reminds him those dominoes are the only thing that's keeping Dewey from playing with his chickenpox. She forbids Reese to knocking them down, and Reese tries to keep Hal from knocking them down, because Lois will blame Reese, no matter what happens to the dominoes, she tells them if a door slams, an earthquake occurs or if a condor dies in mid flight and knocks the dominoes over he will be blamed for all of them, Reese only states how unfair the reasoning is until he sees Hal with a look on his face that he usually makes himself when he acts uncouth, realizing that his dad plans to knock the dominoes over on his own so he resolves not to let him out of his sight. That night, Hal is dreaming of Lois encouraging him to knock down the dominoes to give her an excuse to blame Reese. When he enters the kitchen, he finds Reese not only sitting in a chair, but also waiting for him with a baseball bat and guarding the dominoes. He warns Hal to return to bed at once. Should he ignore the warning and knock the dominoes over, Reese will bash him in the head with the bat and then show Lois the evidence of his wrongdoing. This would mean that she will have to punish Hal for ruining Dewey's hard work. Soon he and Reese are locked in psychological warfare.
Back in Alaska, Francis finds that Piama has been using the money to go on a spending spree by going shopping. He confronts her, and she admits to feeling weird about how Francis has been calling his actions "all in the tribe". Francis responds that they're both part of each other's families and peoples now, and asks if he doesn't deserve any of that money he's making from the casino. She asks why he's obsessed with the money, and he answers that he's eager to pay off Lavernia so they can move out of Alaska together. He explains that he hates it in Alaska, while Piama believes it's their home. When Francis mentions not wanting to raise kids there, Piama yells back that she hates kids. They both pause to admit they're overdue to talk about these issues in their relationship, then start making out. Later, they're lying together on the bed, listing views they have in common. Piama admits that she and Francis are like Hal and Lois in some ways. They fight and make up afterwards, which even he agrees.
At school, Malcolm gets word from his friends of a potential fight between the cliques as a disruption of the lack of Krelboynes. All the groups prepare to fight each other over the rights to the cafeteria as their hangout spot. Therefore, Malcolm must come up with a plan to diffuse the situation before it gets worse. At the same time, he finds himself caught between doing the right thing in stopping the fight and his own needs to ignore it and go back to being a normal kid.
Reese runs home and gets to the inside door just before Hal. Hal discovers that Dewey is no longer sick and has put the dominoes away. When asked why, Dewey doesn't understand why he would, given how long he spent setting them up. Hal is dismayed by this because he wanted to see the dominoes fall.
At school, Malcolm attempts to defuse the situation by appealing to his classmates that their differences are meaningless and that hating school is the one thing they had in common. However the other students realize that they each have a Krelboyne in their group, and that they are the reason each group wanted to fight in the first place. The cliques realize they should stop hating each other as it was their hatred of the Krelboynes that united them together in the first place. Before Malcolm could sneak away, Dabney snitches on him by claiming him to be their leader. The cliques pants the Krelboynes and Malcolm, who are left at the school in their underwear. Mr. Herkabe returns as their teacher and in a rare moment, he shows empathy for them and Malcolm by telling the class their new classroom will be ready in five weeks, much to their dismay.
Back at home, Hal resets the dominoes just how Dewey had it previously. However, when he leaves to get a camcorder to film it, the wind from the closing door knocks the first one down, with the whole chain finishing just as he re-enters. He groans in frustration.
Cast[]
- Jane Kaczmerek as Lois
- Bryan Cranston as Hal
- Christopher Kennedy Masterson as Francis
- Justin Berfield as Reese
- Erik Per Sullivan as Dewey
- Frankie Muniz as Malcolm
Guest Stars[]
Recurring[]
- Chris Eigeman as Mr. Herkabe
- Craig Lamar Taylor as Stevie
- Evan Matthew Cohen as Lloyd
- Kyle Sullivan as Dabney
- Emy Coligado as Piama
- Victor Z. Isaac as Kevin
- Kristin Quick as Flora Mayesh(uncredited)
Cameos[]
- Ivan Naranjo as Ivan
- Richard Gross as Dave
- Miles Marsico as Ian
- Shawn Pyfrom as Eddie
- Michael Lawrence Morgan as Goth Ronald
- Jesse Flanagan as Jock Joey
- Charlie Zigler as Jock Wally
- Curtis Williams Jr. as Skater Andy
- Richard Alan Brown as Skater Dave
- Glenn Lutz as Preppie Kent
- Thomas Mills as a Teacher
- Gary Ambrosia as Mike Jeffers(uncredited)
- Ricky Dominguez as Bryan(uncredited)
- Ted Hollis as a Janitor(uncredited)
Trivia[]
- Last episode where Malcolm is in middle school, as well as the last appearance of the middle school.
- It is the only episode where the Krelboynes split up to join other gangs.
- Reese runs home from school here on this fake road on the premises of the CBS Studio Center. This private location would later be reused several times over the course of MitM, next time in Forbidden Girlfriend.[1]
- In the scenes of domino tiles you can see the Hot Wheels Shark Park set, created in 2001.
- In an original scene, Dewey was going to tell Hal and Reese that he saw what Lois's plan was and decided to clean up just to she can't do anything. This was going to humiliate Hal.
- Originally, part of the ending would have been Reese coming home, taking pictures of Hal's misery, and laughing at him for missing the toppling of the dominoes. He would then show this along with the video to Lois to prove he had nothing to do with it. Lois, finally enraged at Hal, would punish him for the deed. This was removed to cut down on airing time.
- This episode premiered two days after "Deuces Wild" released in theaters starring Frankie Muniz.
- An original scene before the ending was going to have Piama explain that she had already paid off Francis's debts with Lavernia. When he asks why she didn't tell him this sooner, she mentions she was going to surprise him earlier with the ticket. However, Francis never gave Piama a chance to do so due to his suspicions. He soon apologizes for his behavior and asks if Lavernia will leave him alone. Given what Piama was capable of, she reassures Francis that Lavernia won't mess with him again. That is unless she wants to deal with Piama again.
- In the end Hal received some form of karma for his earlier behavior.
Errors[]
- Mr. Herkabe made the comment that Albert Einstein was a nerd, who carried around a spare pair of pants until he was 24 and that he was made fun of by everyone for being so nerdy. This is absolutely untrue, although he was a genius, Einstein was not a "nerd" when he was at this age group, he was actually very suave and seductive with women. Although this is a common misconception, made by many people, being as educated as he is, Mr. Herkabe should have known this was false.
- Or probably, Mr. Herkabe was lying to avoid hear crying from the Krelboynes. Whatever were his reasons to say that Einstein was a nerd never were explained.
- During the scene when Hal sets up the dominoes and they accidentally fall causing a chain reaction; while this is happening a hand can be seen near the end of the domino flag. This is likely due to the episode being edited with a 4:3 aspect ration and later being converted to 16:9 (widescreen) as TV viewing standards changed. There's also a hand briefly seen at the end of the domino rally where Hal comes in disappointingly with his video camera finding them all knocked over.
- One of the goth kids asks Lloyd if the Dante's Inferno quote was from the "new Ministry album". Ministry is an industrial metal band that developed a respectable fan base during the 1990s and into the early 2000s (and again since the band's reformation in 2011). Although releasing the live album Sphinctour in 2002, Ministry did not release any studio albums that year (the last one being 1999's Dark Side of the Spoon, while their next album (Animositisominia) would be released roughly a year after this episode aired)
- In the scene where Malcolm and Lloyd are assigned to a new classroom (Room 117), Lloyd says to Malcolm that "there's no more seats." However, it can be seen that there is a whole row of empty seats to the right of Lloyd. There could have been assigned seating but that doesn't seem to make sense as both seats Lloyd and Malcolm take appear to be random. This may also be due to the aspect ratio changing between the original air date and when this episode was rebroadcast/streamed with a wider angle ratio.
Gallery[]
