Gretchen Mannkusser

Gretchen Hildegard Mannkusser is a German woman who is the co-runner of The Grotto and the wife of Otto Mannkusser. She was the secondary boss of Francis and Piama, with Otto being the primary, starting with the episode Zoo.

Biography[]

Gretchen Mankusser is a kind and caring woman, and it is not in her nature to be aggressive. She is the co-owner of a cattle ranch called "The Grotto" alongside her husband, Otto. The Grotto is named after both of them. "Gretchen" and "Otto" combined becomes "Grotto". Aside from her husband, Otto, Gretchen also has a teenage son named Rutger.

When the Wilkerson's visited the ranch for the first time, in the episode Boys At Ranch, Dewey paid special attention to Gretchen's valuable doll collection and was trusted by Gretchen not to tamper with the dolls. Dewey did not live up to the promise and broke her favorite doll and which upset Gretchen. Dewey felt guilty about it and tearfully explains to her that despite knowing he was not supposed to take it, he really liked it and did not mean to break it. She understood and admitted she felt terrible about yelling at him, she explains when she feels guilty about something, she does excessive number of chores as penance as it helps clean her conscience as much as the house she cleans. She gets Dewey to join her cleaning around the Grotto, which they end up enjoying together. She gifts Dewey a toilet scrubber and asks him to always think of her when he uses it.

Gretchen is an aspiring actress and has always wanted to be in movies and has some minor experience in acting. In episode Stereo Store, Francis allowed her to have her big break by hiring a studio to film at the ranch (though she was only picked for the role because the original actress dropped out). Francis eventually found out he accidentally hired a pornographic director and that the movie was going to be a porno. Francis desperately tried to evict the crew, despite knowing this would hurt Gretchen. After finding out that Gretchen didn't care what kind of movie she would be in (not aware even if it was a porno), he allowed the set to stay and continue filming. The dialogue for the porno was left unedited, but the direction of what the characters did was changed to something non-sexual. Gretchen played a housekeeper at a hotel, who went into a woman's room after the room service comes in to give her food. The female actress said things like "Put it there", but referred to putting a tray of food there, on a table and the entire scene carried out like that. Gretchen's only part in the film as housekeeper was for this scene where she would just walk in, after the room service employee drops the food and makes a mess, saying the line "Looks like we are going to need more towels," then walks out. Afterwards, Gretchen talked to Otto about the movie and said that the scene was kind of pointless and could have used more sex. Otto dismissed this, saying that Americans are very prudish and would not have allowed that.

She would appear in the next episode, Garage Sale, where she was excited to get a letter from her and Otto's son, Rutger, but is getting prepared to hide it. However, Otto quickly takes the letter from her and burns it. With Francis witnessing it, she tells Francis all about Rutger and how Otto was upset that Rutger is not part of the family business and instead went on to be a doctor. She gets worried as Otto began to visibly cry after burning the letter but continues to deny anything being wrong. She then goes through Rutger's old baby clothes and toys to show Francis. She shows Francis an old sock puppet named Schlupi that Otto used as a communicator with Rutger to tell him things Otto could not, like a chore or to quit a disgusting habit. Gretchen begins to cry for how much she misses him and how she missed the love the family shared in the house. Francis takes over to help Otto confront his feelings with missing his son with Schlupi's help. It is revealed that while Otto was disappointed that Rutger would not join his parents in the Grotto, he is proud of Rutger being a successful doctor but could not bear to see or speak to his son, fearing how Rutger would feel if Otto expressed pride or disappointment as it would mean he has to let Rutger go and would have to miss him.

Gretchen briefly appeared in Academic Octathalon as Francis and Piama had a brief argument about chores which they quickly stopped themselves because they feel that is all they do anymore and should spend time loving each other more. Francis then tells Otto how he just had a wonderful time with Piama then asks Otto if he and Gretchen ever argued about chores, to which Otto never thought about. However, Otto and Gretchen then argue and fight over it before quickly making up to which then it gets passed along to other couples when Otto asks another couple about it.

In Vegas, she briefly appears with Otto to surprise Francis with a cake to celebrate his 1-year anniversary with the Grotto. She appears again at the end with Piama finding and rescuing Otto and Francis when they fell down a well that Francis forgot to fence up. The wives find their husbands after an oil leak trail that Francis failed to notice was made up to Francis's truck near the well.

She next appears in Christmas Trees, she and Otto have their family from Germany come to spend the holidays with them. They constantly are arguing and fighting with their family to which Francis and Piama watches in familiarity as a foreign and old-fashioned version of their own family holidays. Otto and Gretchen get so fed up with fighting their relatives, Francis offers to have them spend the holidays with Francis's parents instead, to which they are delighted despite the Wilkerson house being occupied by Christmas Trees.

She appears in Dirty Magazine, where her and Otto are celebrating their anniversary. Otto wants to learn how to waltz and recalls how terrible of a dancer he is to the point where he accidentally ripped Gretchen's wedding dress for her butt to be seen by everyone and get into a physical fight with her father and spending the wedding night in jail with his new father-in-law. Francis succeeds in teaching him, however, Otto could still not dance with in-tune with Gretchen but was able to show her he could with Francis.

In her final appearance in Hot Tub, much of Gretchen's backstory has been explored in the show. Otto revealed to Francis their marriage is deceit: Gretchen was actually the former fiancé of Otto's childhood friend Manfred Schmidt, but Otto loved her as well. When they were planning to elope, Gretchen's intended arranged for her to meet him at a rendezvous point, but Otto lied about the actual location and told Manfred that they would meet at a train station in Berlin. When her fiancé did not show up, she was left crying in the rain and Otto came and comforted her, leading to their event marriage and a son named Rutger Mannkusser, who is now grown up and no longer lives with them. Manfred gets invited to the Grotto to visit Otto and Gretchen to reconcile, Francis tried to drive him off, knowing the truth was better left unsaid to Gretchen as Manfred never moved on from her. Francis inadvertently sets off a series of accidents which then has a wheelbarrow cart Manfred away and getting him blown up, likely killing him.

She is never seen again as Otto fires Francis off-screen due to him losing the deposits into a machine he thought was an ATM, but was not. With Francis's termination from the Grotto, he and Piama never went back or saw the Mannkussers again.

Episode Appearances[]

Trivia[]

Her last name, "Mankusser" comes from the ill-formed German expression "Mannküsser", which literally means "man kisser".
In the German version of Malcolm in the Middle, Gretchen and the other Mankussers are Danish.
It is unknown what happened to her after Hot Tub as she disappeared for the remainder of the series. This is likely due to Francis being fired in Hal's Christmas Gift, and he and Piama never returned to the ranch again.