High School Play is the ninth episode of Season 2 of Malcolm in the Middle and the twenty-fifth episode overall of the show.
Summary[]
In the opening scene, Hal comes home and Lois tells him they are on their own tonight and suggests they go out to dinner. Hal agrees before asking where the boys are. Lois tells him that Malcolm is spending the night at Stevie's, Reese has hockey practice and Dewey is at Billy's house. She tells him they've got some time to kill and wonders what he's in the mood for, Hal comes back naked and Lois knows he wants to have sex. She claims he has set a new record for getting undressed and she goes to join him.
In the Krelboyne class, Malcolm states that the teachers are always asking their class to volunteer for things assuming they're just social misfits, which is correct but unpleasant to be singled out. A high school student named Meghan tells the class they are doing "A Midsummer Nights Dream" and they need someone to play the changeling boy she tells them that play is by William Shakespeare. Dabney interjects claiming that Shakespeare was a syphilitic drunk fronting for the 14th Earl of Oxford, Lloyd calls him to leave the bard alone and how many people like him could have written "King Lear". Caroline tells the class to save their arguments for open-forum Friday and whoever signs up to do the play will have to miss class. Malcolm volunteers but Dabney reminds him that he can't since they are working on a secret project which he exposes. Caroline thought that they agreed no more secret projects after some students still haven't grown their eyebrows back from the last one that went awry.
At dinner, Lois expresses how proud she is of Malcolm from going to a part with no lines to the lead in the high school play. Hal is also proud as long as the play isn’t a musical. Reese is amused that Malcolm will be playing a fairy, but Lois emphasizes how he will be the biggest and most important fairy in the play. Malcolm tells her that rehearsals are every night and they build sets on the weekends. Lois says she can work around it and she can also drop Reese off at hockey practice unless it’s a day where he has detention which would leave Dewey home alone. Hal agrees to look after Dewey and he can rearrange his schedule and it might be nice to spend time together. Dewey asks if they can run things over with the car again, Lois glares at him for allowing it but Hal says it was already dead.
Malcolm gets a role in a high school play and starts blowing off his friends to spend more time with his new high school friends. This gives the family a changed timetable, with Lois having twenty minutes free, while Hal and Dewey spend more time together.
Lois goes shopping at Jons one day and after going through the checkout the cashier tells her it’s 5:45. After reciting that she dropped off Malcolm at rehearsal, picked up Reese from hockey practice and dinner is already in the oven, she realizes that she has the next 25 minutes free. She wanders through the store and starts getting massages consecutively from a Chinese masseur named Mr. Li, whose massages are breathtaking, until one day he moves away (presumably to avoid Lois).
Caroline gives birth in the school parking lot when the Krelboynes rocket explodes.
After the Krelboynes' model rocket launch goes awry, they are forced to wash dishes in the cafeteria kitchen as punishment. Another teacher tells them they should be lucky nobody called the police for their illegal actions. Lloyd tells him he can’t prove there was any correlation between their rocket exploding and Caroline giving birth in the parking lot. The teacher sarcastically tells them that her and the baby are fine and thanks them for asking. When Stevie shows more concern over their rocket, the teacher leaves in disgust. Dabney upsettingly realizes that both the rocket was destroyed and that Malcolm doesn’t care about them anymore, Eraserhead comforts him.
Hal and Dewey create a LEGO city, while Reese eagerly waits for Hal’s approval to destroy it. Hal admires his determination to show restraint and gives him an old radio and a hammer to smash it with. Reese excitedly runs out to the backyard to destroy it. Lois walks in and Hal assures her that things got a little out of hand but they won’t be building anymore. Lois calmly tells him it’s okay and she’s going grocery shopping, Hal reminds her that she just went grocery shopping but she leaves clearly not listening to a single word he said, clearly intending to get another massage from Mr. Li.
However, Dewey soon goes mad with power, acting as a dictator by choosing which of his Playmobil soldiers should live or die. Hal sees this and decides it’s time that he goose steps off to bed, an annoyed Dewey tells his dad that he’s embarrassing him in front of his men. But his tyranny is soon ended, when Lois comes home angry from Mr. Li abandoning her, she gripes to Hal why the LEGO is still crowding the room until she steps on a LEGO brick and in pain proceeds to accidentally destroys the city like Godzilla while Hal and Dewey watch in shock. After collapsing to the floor, Lois says “ow” as Reese comes in and is upset that they destroyed the LEGO city without him.
At the play, Malcolm forgets his lines due to his head being blank from all the gossiping. The Krelboynes get their revenge on Malcolm by Lloyd filling in his role, leaving him there to hang in shame. When the play ends Reese is in disbelief that the play is over since his dad said there would be partial nudity in it. Hal says that was a lie, along with telling him they were going to get ice cream after the show. Everyone applauds Lloyd but when he gestures to Malcolm the audience goes silent. Dewey attempts to clap but Hal stops him.
Spangler starts taking away cadets privileges and possessions and does weekly inspections, and Francis tries to put a stop to it, by keeping a flower as a form of peaceful protest. The other cadets debate over the plant fearing they'll get into trouble. Eventually, Spangler comes along during an inspection and cuts the off the flower with scissors attached to his hook. Much to Francis' chagrin as he asks cadet Joe for some more of his sisters photos.
Malcolm is left hanging in the empty high school auditorium alone due to his family leaving him behind to avoid being humiliated by him by association. As he tries to swing towards the rope he suddenly remembers his lines and begins reciting them for the empty auditorium.
Trivia[]
- Last appearance of Caroline Miller.
- The shop where Mr. Li was working is a Jons Marketplace shop on 1717 W Glenoaks Blvd, Glendale, CA 91201.[1]
- Malcolm and his theatre friends were almost hit by the rocket 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 Bully.[1]
- In the cold open, Lois says Dewey is at their neighbor Billy’s house, which could be a reference to how Dewey was the “evil twin” of Billy Prescott.
- The Playmobil soldiers that make up Dewey’s men later appear in the domino setup in Cliques.
- It is unknown how Malcolm got down from the stage after the episode, it is likely that someone found and rescued him.
- Meghan is portrayed by actress Busy Philipps.
- The cashier at Jon’s is portrayed by actress Octavia Spencer.
- This is the first episode of two where Reese had a minor role, the other was in Future Malcolm in season 4
Errors[]
- At the beginning of the episode, when Lois asks Hal what he's in the mood for, you can briefly see what is covering his private area when he walks over to the table that is behind the couch.
- When Lois is paying for her items at the store and asks the cashier for the time, the register says "THIS LANE IS LOCKED SIGN-IN TO "UNLOCK"