| “ | You insinuate yourself into every part of our lives just to make sure there's no place we're not miserable! | ” |
— Malcolm describing Lois
| ||
Lois Wilkerson (née Welker) is one of the main characters of Malcolm in the Middle. She is the wife of Hal and the mother of Francis, Reese, Malcolm, and Dewey and Jamie.
She serves as one of the primary antagonists of the series.
Personality
Lois is highly intelligent, caring and loving, but she can also be stubborn and even in some instances, cruel. She ultimately driven by love for her husband and children, and a desire to see them succeed and thrive, but because of her own abusive upbringing, this manifests as toxic as often as it doesnt.
Lois is monumentally stubborn. Her pride normally makes her go against logic, reason, and common sense. She views herself as being right in every situation, even if there was evidence going against her. When she was sentenced to traffic school after she accidentally cut off a car on the road, she was convinced that the police officer was corrupt. She thought he sentenced Lois for purely vindictive, petty reasons—more specifically, for making him pay full-price for iced tea. She was even prepared to go to court, although she had no chance of winning. When witnessing herself actually nearly cause a car to rear-end her the car on video tape, thus clarifying that she was in the wrong, Lois still insisted that "the tape was wrong." Hal eventually convinced her otherwise. In the end, Lois was proven right, as shown in Craig Feldspar's tape. The car U-turned into her lane, absolving her completely. Hal destroyed the tape on the spot, and the boys threaten him into not saying anything as they know this is possibly the only time they will ever be able to convince Lois she is wrong about something.
The reasons of her need to constantly be in control stems from her horrible childhood and all the unfair treatment she was forced to endure. She refuses to let any enemy she has win.
Her views of punishment are extreme. She has made Malcolm, Dewey and Reese stare at a wall for hours on end (on one occasion she and Hal forgot they were punishing Dewey and he was left staring an entire night). Lois has grounded her sons for months on end and will hold their punishments and groundings against them until their sentence is served, acting almost as a prison warden. Even if they are injured, Lois will still make them carry out their punishment as seen in "Forwards Backwards" in which she makes an injured Malcolm and Reese scrub the floor. When she is under great stress, Lois will even punish her sons harsher than usual as seen in "Health Scare" and "Reese vs Stevie". Lois is extremely obsessive and determined for justice and punishment, but has actually been known for being extremely unfair and unreasonable, an excellent example of this is in "Evacuation" in which she harshly punishes Malcolm for simply not helping move a couch (he was off doing school work) and when spending the night at the gymnasium, she confines him to his cot and utterly humiliates him and almost spanks him, all the while completely ignoring Reese and Dewey who are running around the gym causing real trouble. Lois can also be somewhat hypocritical on her own views of justice and being a mother has become her second nature, her maternal attitude is not only consistent to her children but to other people. For instance when she was assigned jury duty and the rest of the jury voted him guilty she immediately voted innocent (she actually did believe he was guilty but was frustrated when she discovered the rest only voted so they could leave early). Ironically Lois herself indulged in the jury for personal reasons as well; he reminded her of Francis and after realizing this, was asked to leave. Even though she won't admit it, it is very clear that Lois sincerely enjoys the power she holds over her family but she doesn't enjoy punishing her sons, but merely has to to make them learn from their mistakes. Overall she is not purely cruel for the sake of being cruel she only punishes the boys when they misbehave and she merely wants them to be well-behaved in hopes of them becoming better adults. In spite of this she has on numerous occasions shown pleasure and enthusiasm in punishing her sons for their misbehavior, notably in "Stock Car Races" and "Reese's Apartment".
Lois has also shown an extreme hatred towards motorcycles, believing them to be dangerous metal death traps. She forced Hal to quit riding them after she met him, and showed extreme adversity towards him after he brought them up in context and later took Francis on a motorcycle run. She also chained up a small motorbike that Malcolm, Reese, and Dewey bought and refused to let them ride it despite them bribing her, sucking up to her, and promising their safety to her. However, she was proven right when Reese secretly took out the motorcycle and injured his leg.
The causes for Lois' anger and hostility can be traced to her completely unhappy and unloving childhood, Her great regret at the poor decisions she and Hal have made, The unbearable disappointment at how their own lives have turned out and Her children's outlandishly bad behavior and the sheer fact that they're not turning out so great either.
Amongst all her children, she intervenes with Malcolm's life the most as he is the only Wilkerson who has any chance of success (aside from Dewey). She unanimously decided for Malcolm to join the Krelboynes, even though he didn't want to but claimed that it was for his own good and understood that even though he will love a successful life it was never going to be an easy one. This also seems to involve depraving him of any form of happiness since she is convinced indulging in such things was what ruined Hers and Hal's lives and why they have the problems they do now.
Early life
Lois was born in December 21, 1958. She lived with her parents, Ida and Victor Welker (though she was unaware that Victor wasn't her biological father) and her younger sister named Susan Welker, who later became wealthy. For much of her life, Lois was completely unaware her father had another family (Which Victor greatly preferred over Lois and Ida, though he still came back for he loved Susan). Lois was forced to endure a miserable childhood with Ida's abusive bullying and ignoring her by favoring Susan. This is due to the fact that her mother blamed her for chasing Victor away from her and Susan. Lois went to school when she was 5 in 1963 and graduated when she was 18 in 1976. She soon got a part-time job at the Lucky Aid. When she was in college she met the man of her dreams, Hal Wilkerson (Despite the fact Hal was one of the things that ruined her life, along with the beginning Susan's resentment for she was dating him.) As a teenager, Lois had a lot of dreams that were destined never to come true, including being a blackjack dealer in an Indian casino. Her hot temper and controlling behavior grew from this.
Lois was pregnant and went into labor with her first child, Francis, right in the middle of hers and Hal's wedding in the episode "Flashback". Hal accidentally leaves Francis in the closet when he's a baby, but soon finds him. Three years later Lois went into labor for three to four hours with her second child named Reese. When Francis was four and Reese was one, Lois got pregnant again and moved into a two bedroom, one bathroom house. When Lois and Hal got into an argument, Hal went for a ride and Lois's water broke and had Malcolm in the yard.
Five years later; Francis, age nine, was already getting into legal trouble, Reese, age six, was obnoxious and Malcolm, age five, had a high I.Q.. When it was raining Malcolm accidentally filled the house with chlorine gas and Lois had Dewey in the yard. Nine years later she had her son Jamie on the bed in her and Hal's room, while Hal was away at the hospital. In the last episode of the last season, Lois is seen taking a pregnancy test, which reveals to be positive.
Even before her children were born, Lois' need for control stemmed from a miserable childhood under her mother, Ida, who blamed her for ruining their family's life by making Victor leave. This was amplified when Ida like Hal's own family were angry at her when they found out that she stole Hal from Susan and married him against their wishes. After marrying Hal, Lois was a different person. For instance, she had been sweet and loving, even enjoying a normal marriage to Hal. Her personality took a complete 180 when an infant Francis almost burned himself, she was able to scare the boy back into his highchair while holding his stuffed bear over an open flame regardless to any burns she would suffer. That dominant personality has stuck with her ever since. Lois cannot stand when something is out of her control, an excellent example seen in the episode "Traffic Jam" in which she attempts to make the workers clear the jam though they all refuse to listen to her and taunt her when she attempts to operate a crane herself and is defeated when an officer tells her that she is a stubborn control freak who has absolutely no power over the present situation and that it will end when it ends.
Lois must be right about everything, and she must win any argument no matter how petty. There were a few times Lois had actually admitted she was wrong, doing so results in her spirit breaking. She must have the last say in everything and most importantly she must have total control over her sons' and husband's lives and to an extent the lives of people she knows. She becomes furious when they choose to do anything for themselves, something that has put her at odds with Francis since he delights in going against her. She is so controlling that she actually planned out what career path Malcolm is to take and has even forbidden him from seeing girls until she chooses his wife for him, this controlling aspect faded later in the series as shown when she didn't care that Malcolm was dating a girl. She finally realizes this problem herself when stuck in the above mentioned traffic jam and uses a crane to lift cars out of the way, though she didn't change this problem afterwards. A another major example was when she was on jury duty and was frustrated with many of the jurors because their behavior resembled Francis' own.
One of the main reasons Lois tries to control every aspect of Malcolm's life, is that she believes he is the only one of her children with a chance of amounting to anything. However, this would later prove to be false as she recognizes Dewey having musical talents and that he will be the 2nd Wilkerson son who will amount to anything. Lois is greatly aware of her and Hal's own poor decisions in not finishing college that ruined both their lives. She also sees her own failure in not properly raising Francis and keeping from going down the wrong path, which he greatly enjoys for he is aware of the original plans she had for him and ended up living similar to Hal (at a job he likes, but never told Lois about). The only child she didn't plan for his future was Reese, for she saw that in spite of his cooking talents, she was aware that he would still amount to nothing. Lois doesn't care one bit about the humiliation and misery she causes her boys because in her opinion it's all for their own good.
Out of her sons, only Dewey was grateful in Lois' sacrifices and he was the only one she acted like a normal mom. This was likely due to Dewey being a nicer and more polite individua. Whereas, she had to act like a stern disciplinarian around Francis, Reese and Malcolm mainly because the boys blame her. Mostly evident with Francis and Malcolm who blame Lois for their miserable lives she inflicted on them. Only one child had been capable of beating Lois in her own game: Jamie. When he went out of control, she was deeply at a loss for words and Lois nearly ceded defeat. This was until Lois found out from Dewey that Reese had been feeding Jamie energy fueled sodas, leading to her punishing him for it.
Throughout the Series, Lois and Francis's relationship continued to be a poor one since Lois could never truly forgive Francis for all the misery she's caused her over the years. This seemed to start when Francis was a baby and didn't seem bothered when Lois was in the hospital for a staph infection.
Lois's family history is quite complicated, she never knew that Victor Welker wasn't her biological father and didn't realize this until after he died. She first found out in Victor's other family where Lois and the boys (except for Francis, Dewey and Hal) went to Canada to visit his secret family. Things went well until Ida came to ruin the moment and demanded for his pension. Because of this, Lois had to help her with an upcoming lawsuit and during that time it was the closest thing she had to Ida loving her. However, she discovers that Victor isn't her biological father but a man named Radu Gorosky and abandons the case. Lois mentions this to Sylvia, Victor's other wife and her daughter. She also mentions that although he isn't her biological father, she mentions that he will always be her father even if they are not blood related because he cared for her and raised her as if she was his own. While Malcolm actually starts to bond with his step-cousins, Lois reveals everything to him and he stands in the living room shocked and disappointed. This reveals that Victor's secret family is not even related to the Wilkersons and so it is unknown if Susan is her biological sister. It was also revealed in Garage Sale that Victor and Ida clearly favored her and thought Lois was hopeless and untalented. Against Malcolm's admonition, she encourages Reese to head the garage sale and later regrets it when she realizes he inherited Ida's greedy and selfish nature.
Although Lois is married to Hal, his family still continuously mistreats her cruelly because she is not high class like them. Hal's family is even against this marriage just because of her her loudmouth, pushy personality. They dislike her to the point that they tricked into leaving a family photo snapshot so she couldn't be a part of it. This proves that despite being married to Hal, they don't consider her a part of the family and still wished he married Susan instead of Lois because she was talented and higher class. This stunt forced the boys to get revenge on the Wilkerson family by destroying their family dinner and specially baked cake with a golf cart. Lois was grateful for this but never admitted it and acted like she was angry. This incident caused her to be nicer to Piama seeing how her treatment towards her resembles the way Hal's family treats her. It was also noted that she was the only one who didn't back down when Lois went after her in Hal's Birthday. Lois and Hal deeply love each other. But the with their advanced age, and the extremely passionate way they make love, their relationship is often seen with disgust. Often by their own sons and mostly by their neighbors. Mainly the neighbors quickly are disgusted by this and more by the fact on how classless Lois is.
Lois possesses absolutely no nurturing bone in her body. When Dewey was too scared to get off of a high swing rope, Lois tried to get him off by throwing rocks at him while he was also sunburned. She burned Reese's Christmas stocking, in order to teach them to behave which made the boys take back their Christmas and later regretted it. Lois has forced Francis to spend Christmas with Ida rather than pay for bus fare to let him come home, mainly because she still blames him for dropping out of school against her wishes. Many of the times, Hal has to remind Lois of all the cruel things she's done to their boys. Mainly when she cancelled Christmas, hating all their children as babies and often tried to abandon them, and even trying to force Malcolm to play on the Lucky Aide baseball team. This in turn made Lois realize what a terrible mother she had been to her boys.
Another Reason for Lois's absolute need to be in charge is because she is greatly aware of Hal's gullibility and incompetence. Such as she refused to take pain killers when she hurt her back until Reese secretly sneaked the painkillers inside the milk as he was aware that Lois knew Hal tried to sneak them in her sandwich and failed.
Neighbors greatly despise Lois and her boys because of all the trouble it caused them and made no attempt to hide it, except for Hal. Unlike Malcolm, she doesn't seemed to be bothered by it and attempts to blend in with them for gatherings. The neighbors sees Lois as an overbearing, loud-mouthed and pushy control freak who doesn't care about their feelings (which they are correct). This was shown a couple of times in the show. The first time was in Season 2's New Neighbors, when Lois attempted to get along with Tina, but got into a serious dispute with her after she took action in disciplining Emily by clamping her nose tight and forced her to let go of Reese if she wants to breathe properly. She was happy when Tina and her kids moved away immediately because she doesn't have to deal with her. The second time it was shown was in Season 5's Block Party, when they celebrate the weekends that Lois along with Reese, Malcolm and Dewey are away. The third time was in Season 7's Mono, the neighbors invited Hal to their social gathering and though happy about it, he realizes that they're only celebrating because she has mono and she won't be there to ruin it by picking fights with them. This proves that Lois is unpopular and was never invited to all of the neighbors' gatherings, despite them getting along with Hal. This was also seen when she was on jury duty.
Relationships
Hal Wilkerson
Lois and Hal love each other deeply and have an overall good marriage and relationship. The two enjoy spending time with each other above everything else to extents so great that they have neglected their sons, blown off working for money they desperately need and have allowed their house to fall in disrepair. Hal however greatly fears Lois just like his sons and Lois will punish him in a harsh manner whenever he gets into trouble. Hal has even bribed his sons to take the fall for things he has done in order to avoid facing Lois' wrath. Lois has on numerous occasions shown disgust at Hal's stupidity and neglect of their children and as such has no hesitation in making him miserable as punishment. Hal however enjoys being able to get away with trouble and much like his sons has a desire to outsmart Lois and prove her to be wrong at something. This was seen notably in the episode "Traffic Ticket" where after discovering evidence that will completely exonerate Lois for a false accusation of impeding traffic, Hal is the one to destroy the tape and threatens Craig to never speak a word of it as he, along with the boys, enjoy Lois' broken spirit and their possible one chance to convince Lois she is wrong about something. Hal and Lois on numerous occasions get into conflicts with each other and if not for their sons to vent their anger and problems on, their marriage could potentially collapse in an instant. In spite of this, Hal loves Lois deeply and almost always takes her side in punishing their sons for their misbehavior and is angered that their actions cause Lois so much emotional pain. The one thing Hal desires most of all is to one day be free of all their children and grow old and happy together with Lois.
Francis Wilkerson
Of all her sons, the one Lois has the most conflict with is Francis. The two have been at war with each other since the day he was born and as such his behavior is what forced Lois to become the domineering, control freak that she is. Francis has made it his life's goal to stand up to his mother at all cost and absolutely refuses to fall under her control. Francis views Lois as being nothing other than a tormenting control freak and hates her with a burning passion. He blames her for all of his problems in his life and refuses to accept responsibility for his own failures and idiotic decisions. He once attended an AA support group (despite not being an alcoholic at all) in which he described his mother as being worse than the Devil himself. Francis' hatred of Lois however can be justified to some extent as it is shown that Lois has intentionally humiliated him on numerous occasions throughout his life and punished him for minor misbehavior and he also hates her for how she treats his younger brothers and how she has always tried to domineer him. Francis however has shown that he still cares for his mother, notably getting angry at his brothers for once ignoring Lois on her birthday and led the boys in destroying their grandfather's birthday celebration due to Hal's families' mistreatment of Lois. Lois has demonstrated that she still loves Francis on numerous occasions and seems to want him to turn his life around and become a responsible adult. This actually ends up occurring at the end of the series where Francis gets an excellent new job but hides it from Lois as he does not want to give her the satisfaction of knowing that he is finally listening to her and is doing something that she wants him to do and instead still pretends to be unemployed just to annoy her; something he strongly enjoys.
Reese Wilkerson
Out of all of her sons, the one Lois absolutely despises the most is Reese. She hates him for his delinquent nature and for being a complete moron and failure in general. Lois has on numerous occasions harshly punished Reese for his actions and enjoys making him suffer and once even allowed Dewey to continue torturing him while he was locked in a crate. Lois has tried on a few occasions to give Reese opportunities to redeem himself and become a better person, notably in "Garage Sale", however these attempts usually end with Reese completely screwing up and showing that he is a selfish, idiotic delinquent. After the events of "Garage Sale" Lois finally accepts that Reese is indeed completely hopeless and simply wants him gone. This was made clear in "Graduation" in which she told him the minute he was graduated he was out of the house and into Craig's, showing that she cannot wait to get him out of the house. In spite of this, Lois has demonstrated that she still cares for Reese and once revealed that she would sell Malcolm down the river in a heartbeat to save Reese as Malcolm will survive regardless and even once helped Reese get revenge on four girls who humiliated him and drove him to complete depression. While Reese hates Lois for her domineering personality and enjoys seeing her in misery and breaking her rules, Reese has shown that he cares for Lois as well and the two have gotten along on occasions.
Malcolm Wilkerson
Out of all her sons, the one Lois domineers the most is Malcolm. Ever since discovering that he is a genius, Lois has done nothing but interfere with Malcolm's life and attempts to control him in every possible way and never lets him have any form of freedom that is not of her choosing. Lois has made him work with her at her job at Lucky Aid against his wishes and refuses to let him pick his own career path and has prevented him from dating girls and once even stated that she will be the one to pick his wife. Lois' actions do stem from good will however as she views Malcolm as being the only one of her sons that will amount to anything (aside from Dewey) and as such has made it her mission to motivate him to live up to his true potential, regardless of the misery and humiliation it causes him. In the final episode of the series, Lois prevents Malcolm from accepting a high paying job and tells him he will attend college, where he will still suffer and will one day become president of the United States, showing that she has full faith in his abilities and knows he will one day live up to his potential.
Malcolm however absolutely despises Lois for never leaving him alone or giving him any freedom and tries desperately to get out of Lois's grasp, a task he rarely succeeds at. Lois is shown to become angered at any sign of defiance from Malcolm, as seen in "Standee" where she deliberately humiliates him due to him not listening to her at work (where she no longer has authority over him). Lois despises when Malcolm breaks her rules and gets into trouble and as such will harshly punish him and humiliate him, notably seen in the episode "Evacuation". Malcolm has shown much pleasure on the rare occasions when Lois is defeated and broken and enjoys getting into trouble alongside his brothers just to piss her off. Despite that Lois and Malcolm are generally at constant war with each other, the two have gotten along on numerous occasions and Malcolm has shown gratitude on occasion for Lois' actions and in the final episode of the series directed some kind words towards Lois in his valedictorian speech.
Dewey Wilkerson
Out of all of her sons, the one Lois ignores the most is Dewey. Due to him being the fourth child, Lois claims that she never had the time to give him much attention and even took no pictures of him when he was an infant and as such has completely ignored him for a majority of his life. Unlike Hal who commonly attempts to cheer Dewey up after ignoring him, Lois very rarely attempts to do the same and just goes along with the fact the she gives Dewey very little attention. Like the rest of her sons, Lois will punish Dewey when he breaks the rules and is angered whenever he gets into trouble. In spite of this, Lois recognizes that Dewey is very talented and intelligent and aside from Malcolm, is the only one of her sons who will amount to anything and claims he will drift through life into happiness and live a life of fame and luxury. Lois has on numerous occasions punished Malcolm and Reese for their bullying of Dewey and has shown that she enjoys spending time with him as seen in "Casino" and "Buseys Run Away".
Dewey on the other hand hates Lois for how she ignores him and makes him suffer and views her as being a mean person, however he also recognizes that Lois can be reasonable if you don't push her buttons, something his older brothers cannot remotely comprehend. Despite this, Dewey still enjoys getting into trouble with his brothers and pissing Lois off and seeing her broken when they are able to outsmart her and once even betrayed her and began hanging out with a better mom, which completely broke her heart. To make amends, Dewey got her name tattooed on his chest to prove that he does love her, which both made her angry and deeply touched. The two have gotten along on numerous occasions.
Jamie Wilkerson
It is very evident that Lois was visibly shocked when she found out she was pregnant with Jamie and was frightened at the prospect of raising another destructive child. Jamie at first put Lois and Hal through complete hell and Lois even claimed that she did not like Jamie, but in the end ended up loving him. Jamie was the only one of her sons to almost kill her and break her and forced her to perform an extreme punishment on him to get him under control. Jamie's first words were telling Lois to shut up after she talked nonstop to try and get him to talk. Like Dewey, Lois almost began to completely neglect Jamie until Dewey manipulated her and Hal to give Jamie a proper birthday party and take pictures of him and not destroy his childhood like they did his, something Lois claimed was a good deed.
Ida Kenzel
Lois' evil and sadistic chain-smoking abusive mother. She and Ida aren't on good terms mostly because the latter blamed Lois for being weak all her life(which she thinks passed on to Malcolm), along with the other troubles she caused her over the years. She was also mean and abusive and unloving to Lois when she was growing up and always mistreating her compared to Susan who was her favorite. She is responsible for Lois negative traits.
Susan Welker
Lois' younger sister who also blamed and hates Lois. She was extremely bitter when she learned that Lois was having an affair with Hal, that caused even Victor and Ida along with Hal's own family to despise her.
Friends
Like her boys, Lois doesn't have a lot of friends and only ones she does have, she ends up having conflicts with them. Only on a rare occasion that she would get along with them
- Kitty Kenarban - She was a mild mannered, soft spoken person before meeting Lois and her family. They initially were friends until she had left her family in Goodbye Kitty. When Kitty returned in Kitty's Back to reconcile with her family, Lois found it hard to forgive her for the bad things she has done to Abe and Stevie and told her off to stay away from them. But the reality of it was, Abe and Stevie were both still angry with Kitty for abandoning them. So they used Lois's deed as an excuse to use her as a scapegoat and vent their anguish on her. This got her in a serious dispute with Abe and Stevie. Lois finally forgives Kitty after hearing Frank Wolston's speech about manners affecting everyone.
- Polly - Introduced in Season 5 as Jamie's babysitter, she got along with Lois pretty well. She attempted to secretly set her up on a date with Craig, so he can forget his obsession over her.
- Stevie Kenarban Although one of Malcolm's friends, Lois greatly likes having him around, evident when he came to stay with her family in Season 4's Stupid Girl. Unlike both Reese and Malcolm, he was very helpful and she proudly pronounces that it's nice to have someone in the house whom isn't a rude little monster. For all the hard work he's done for her, Lois rewards Stevie by taking him to the dance.
Enemies
- Mr. Pinter - Lois' boss in Lois VS Evil. He fired her out of spite because she was originally up for promotion as manager of Lucky Aide and she refused to take it. She would later confront him for all the misdeeds he's done and revealed Pinter's horrible secret about him sleeping with the district manager's wife. Unknowingly enough, Lois' accusations didn't go unnoticed as half of her co-workers overheard and planned to tell the district manager the truth. Pinter turned around and quit to avoid humiliation.
- Tina - One of the new neighbors that lived next door to the Wilkersons. Tina was Mike's wife along Josh and Emily's mother. Lois tried to get along with her, but she immediately knew Tina is extremely rude and antagonistic towards her. She was offended when she saw Lois disciplining Emily by clamping her nose tight and got into a serious dispute with each other. Tina moves away with her kids immediately after Malcolm and Reese, along with the neighbors caught her cheating on Mike with her gardener. This made Lois ecstatic because she didn't have to deal with her rude and antagonistic behavior anymore.
- Hal's Family - Hal's family hates Lois because she's lower class, has a loud-mouth, pushy personality and is untalented. Whenever she comes to visit them, they would always continue to mistreat her as a reminder that they don't consider her part of the family.
- Susan Welker - Lois' younger sister who holds a personal grudge against her for stealing Hal away from her. Their relationship still hasn't changed even after Susan ungratefully accepted her kidney.
- Matt - A previous boyfriend who appeared in Zoo. Matt was bitter with Lois for dumping him and marrying Hal. He found ways to embarrass him just to win her back. In the end, Lois tells Matt off to leave Hal alone because she loves him and that won't change her mind.
Trivia
- In later seasons, Lois appears to be slightly calmer. While the earlier seasons, she was shown to be overbearing and constantly screaming.
- Interestingly, the name Lois means "warrior," which perfectly reflects Lois's strong, soldier-like personality.
- It was revealed in Garage Sale that Susan was the family favorite and she gave her a hard time about being called "hopeless" while she was pregnant. This made Lois reflect on how bad and unmotivated Reese is and tried to help him build up his self-esteem by letting him lead a garage sale against Malcolm's admonition because it was his idea. She soon realized her mistake when he finally told her about an old computer he found which would've brought them an awesome $1300. Lois loses her faith in Reese when he destroys the computer and she reprimands him for it.
- In both Home Alone 4 and Family Reunion, it's revealed Hal's family hated Lois and gave her a hard time because she was lower class, untalented and very pushy. They would've preferred that he had married Susan Welker instead because she was more talented and a higher class woman. This reflected on how Lois mistreated Piama and finally started to get along with her better.
- During her early stages of pregnancy in If Boys Were Girls, Lois began thinking about the consequence of having to raise another brawling son after a fight between Malcolm, Reese and Dewey. Having enough, she dreamed of what her life would've been like if she had well-behaved daughters to begin with. Though starting off nice and pleasant, she soon learns it would've been more difficult in different ways with lots of feminine problems. While boys are mischievous and destructive, girls are manipulative and rude. Despite what happened, Lois secretly still wants to have a daughter, proving that she hadn't learned her lesson or anything from the experience.
- In the Series Finale, it was revealed that Lois was pregnant again. She had also planned for her children's future. Francis was the only one who had followed Hal's footsteps and it greatly infuriated her because she had big plans for him and he rebelled against it. Out of her sons, she didn't plan for Reese' future because she was aware that he amounted to nothing, but a janitor at his former high school. Malcolm a president (though he didn't like that), Dewey a rich musician and Jamie (unknown for his future).
- Despite having liked Hal because of his similar interests in activities, everyone in the neighborhood despises Lois, except for the Kenarbans, Abe's poker buddies and Mrs. Griffith. This was shown three times in Season 2's New Neighbors, Season 5's Block Party and Season 7's Mono because she would often get into serious disputes with the neighbors.
- In Season 5's Victor's Secret Family, Lois' real father was revealed to be Radu Gogorsky, a man Ida had a secret affair with before she married Victor. Shocked and upset with her mother for lying to her, Lois willingly abandoned the case and returned home to California with her boys.
- Although her middle name is never revealed, in the episode Victor's Other Family, Lois mentions that she has five letters in her middle name.
- Lois' favorite color is green which is revealed in the episode Smunday
- Lois appeared in every episode except Clip Show, Boys At Ranch, Kicked Out, Stereo Store, and Hal's Friend.
- The episode Halloween explores Lois' real reason that she wanted time off on Halloween. This is at the time the boys were toddlers on their best behaviors and cute enough to dress them in costumes however she liked. Then every year after that, Lois prefers to work on Halloween and avoids celebrating it like the plague. Her sons consistently misbehave whenever they go trick-or-treating and always end up being arrested by the cops for their pranks. Lois winds up picking them up at the police station.
- Halloween also exposes Lois' own anger at Hal for making her miss out on the original house that she wanted just because he had a problem with the defective doorbell. Hence, she punished him by getting the house they currently live in and not telling him of the history of the house's presumable past as a murder scene.
- In the show's run, Lois has been arrested more times than Hal. Her first solo arrest was back in Traffic Ticket, followed by Book Club, Monkey, Reese Comes Home and Halloween
- Her only joint arrest with Hal is in Halloween Approximately.
| Lois Wilkerson | Gallery |