Ida's Boyfriend is the eleventh episode of Season 5 and the 96th episode overall of Malcolm in the Middle. It aired on February 8, 2004.
Plot[]
Ida announces that she's engaged to a Chinese man named Mr Li, but, when Malcolm discovers that Ida has drugged him with mood aggravation laced tea, the family must now stop the wedding before Ida illegally marries Mr Li against his will.
Synopsis[]
In the cold opening, Hal plays with Jamie as he throws a ping pong ball at him from his high chair and Hal plays along until Reese knocks him out with a basketball. Reese tells his brothers how he looked like he was enjoying it before they all run away.
Reese comes into the bedroom and sees Dewey building a model ship of the USS Constitution. He compliments him on it but as Dewey is explaining it’s history Reese yells out “Typhoon!” and smashes it with a tennis racket. As a result. Dewey wishes he doesn’t exist, and he goes to great length to pretend Reese has truly disappeared. He wonders if it would work on other objects but after looking at a hairbrush he decides against it since if it were gone he’d actually miss it. Reese is horrified enough to try to apologize.
Ida brings a wealthy Chinese man to whom she is engaged to the family's house for a dinner, informing them of her plans to fly to Hong Kong to live with him. Lois expresses disbelief that she’s moving to China, which Ida explains how there will be chickens in the streets, children in sweatshops and everybody smoking it’ll be a paradise for her. This overjoys the family because they would never have to listen to her complain about their lifestyle again and they’d be the entire molten core of the planet away from her, with Hal comparing it to Christmas.
Malcolm gets his tongue pierced, but it then swells up due to the piercing being botched. He must hide it and the resulting lisp from Lois until the wedding ends.
In the Grotto Ranch, Otto hires a mystery theater group as part of the new act. However, the acting troupe does not do a very good job with their performance, constantly shouting their lines and acting too over-the-top. That night in dinner, a "murder" is staged that results in the actor playing the victim ruining someone's dinner and the lead actor interrupting a marriage proposal to "interrogate" him. Francis and Otto finally confront Phillip, the lead actor. Otto pretends the troupe must leave due to a schedule conflict, but Phillip begs not to be fired, stating this is the last and lowest place for actors and they'll have nowhere else to go. As Otto and Francis walk away down the hallway, Francis berates Otto for not firing them.
At the wedding, Malcolm discovers that Ida is drugging Mr. Li by making him drink opiate-laced tea to change his mood, allowing her to take advantage of him and get his money. When he tells Lois about it, she is upset by her mother and confronts her. Ida responds by drugging the entire family with the opiate mood aggressor drugs. However, in her confusion, she accidentally gives Mr. Li's drugged tea to the pastor officiating the wedding. During the ceremony, everyone is under the influence of the drugs and are unwilling to stop the wedding. Lois asks Malcolm how he was able to figure out Ida's plans. He explains that she snuck the drugs into the food because she knows they wouldn't been able to turn down a free meal. In his haze, he also reveals his tongue piercing when Lois asks why he has a lisp. Even in her blissed out state, Lois makes it clear she'll be ripping the piercing out with pliers when the drugs wear off. The family watch on as the pastor (also under the influence of the mood aggressor drugs) keeps interrupting the ceremony to talk about how happy he is. Mr. Li comes out of the effects of the drugs and sees her for the horrible person she is. He dumps Ida at the altar much to her dismay.
At the Grotto Ranch, the Mystery Theater group has a new audience whom are truly intrigued by this. After the show ends, Francis is shocked to see how much the new guests are responding well. Two audience members thank Phillip, the lead actor, but use very stilted and artificial lines to do so. Francis confronts Otto about hiring the audience to pretend to enjoy it, and Otto replies he hated to see the troupe so depressed.
Malcolm is forced by Lois and Hal to scrub the toilet with a toothbrush the next day as his punishment for piercing his tongue. Dewey finds more drugs in Ida's thermos and gives it to Lois. Hal wants to take a sip from it, but Lois dumps it in the toilet, much to Malcolm's frustration.
Cast[]
- Jane Kaczmarek 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[]
- Cloris Leachman as Ida
- Kenneth Mars as Otto
Cameos[]
- James Hong as Mr. Li
- Patrick Bristow as Phillip
- Dan O'Connor as Edward
- Kristina Hayes as Julia
- Andy Umberger as Minister
- Larry Clarke as Don
- Larry Dorf as Warren
- Christie Lynn Smith as Angela
- Marcy Goldman as an Employee
- Lynn Alicia Henderson as Audience Member 1(credited as Lynn A. Henderson)
- Jim Grohlman as Audience Member 2
- David William James Elliot as Nick Smith(uncredited)
- Scot L. Treger as Man in Black(uncredited)
Trivia[]
- An earlier version of the script had the murder mystery scenes play out somewhat differently: the guests begin complaining to Francis about the acting troupe, saying it's ruining the romantic setting. During the staged murder, he overhears some guests threatening to leave the ranch for other places. Francis calls Otto out for having not fired the actors at all. Despite Francis' warnings, Otto continues to give the group too many chances. When Otto and Francis speak to Phillip in his room, Francis demands the troupe leave at once. Phillip begs to be given another chance. Francis starts refusing to give them one, pointing out that they're ruining the guests' experience on the ranch. Before he can tell Phillip to pack up and leave, Otto agrees to give them another chance. This leads to Francis confronting Otto and pointing out that they're taking advantage of him again.
- The finale of the murder mystery also played out differently: Phillip thanks Otto for giving them another chance and suggesting a Mystery Dinner night for the new guests. When Francis asks him what he meant, Otto explains that he understood the frustrations of the guests and Francis' own for not firing the actors. Otto admits he gave some thought to doing so, but Gretchen had helped come up with a great idea to salvage the actors without causing a commotion to their future guests looking for a romantic getaway. She suggested that to avoid having their romantic vacations ruined by the Mystery Theater group, they should do a Mystery Dinner night for guests intrigued with mystery. This suggestion works well and Francis realizes that Gretchen had come through again.
- This was dropped, and Hot Tub remains Gretchen's last appearance. She would've been mentioned in this episode as being on a road trip with Piama to Tucson.
- In the original plan for this episode, Lois found out about Malcolm's tongue piercing much earlier because Dewey found him at the piercing parlor. Enraged, she reminds him of what Francis did back in Home Alone 4. This was dropped because it would've been expensive.
- Warren and Angela, the couple whose proposal was ruined by the acting troupe, previously appeared in Reese's Party where their proposal was also ruined, that time by a heavily-pregnant Lois.
- James Hong and Bryan Cranston both appear in this episode, 12 years later, they would both star in Kung Fu Panda 3.
- An instrumental version of the Bach piece "Jesu, Joy of Man's desiring" plays during the wedding scene in this episode.