Mr. Lionel Herkabe is Malcolm's hateful, sadistic teacher. He was introduced as a Krelboyne teacher as a replacement for Caroline Miller in the episode Emancipation. In the episode Humilithon, he transferred from teaching middle school to high school, just as Malcolm graduates, just to continue following him around.
He serves as one of the primary antagonists of the series.
Biography[]
Lionel Herkabe was born on July 8, 1963, to John and Ida Herkabe. Herkabe was a Krelboyne in his youth and attended Princeton and earned a double doctorate in business at Harvard. His life all started going downhill when he quit a government think tank job to start a dot com, leading to him dropping from his one time net worth of two-hundred million dollars to a mere $137. He was previously married, but his wife divorced him after his poor decision. He first became a teacher at the school in the episode Emancipation. Following the events of Caroline Miller giving birth in the episode High School Play, someone had to fill in for her. However, rather than being as nice and caring as she was, Mr. Herkabe came in and immediately started mistreating his students. Despite being a former Krelboyne and having suffered the same bullying as a child that his students do today, he was absolutely disrespectful and cruel to all of his students and tried making them all feel terrible.
Mr. Herkabe very quickly becomes Malcolm's nemesis and did the same for all the other students. He shares the same traits and personality as Malcolm, but he hates him profoundly and goes out of his way to try to torment him during class. After Malcolm defeats Herkabe’s student rating system, Herkabe brings in a young boy genius named Barton in the hopes of outshining Malcolm. Unfortunately, Barton not only proves to be a helping hand to Malcolm, but also Barton’s father learns how Herkabe uses him to deal with his own issues and takes Barton out of the class.
He is generally emotionally abusive towards his students. In his first appearance he sets up a board at the front of the classroom, ranking each student from smartest to least based on extremely small decimal point differences between their relatively equal grades. This caused the Krelboynes to become so stressed they could no longer function properly, with Lloyd not even being able to remember his own name. He was particularly cruel to Dabney Hooper. He announced to the entire class that Dabney was an emotionally needy bed wetter who did not receive affection at home. He then tells Dabney not to turn to him. He also causes Dabney to break down into tears by moving Dabney's name down nine spots on the board after he'd given an answer about the book "Moby Dick".
In the episode Humilithon, Malcolm and the other Krelboynes begin high school, where Mr. Herkabe is the new dean of discipline. He also gives orders to the parent volunteers at the school, meaning that he can also harass Hal and Lois for working at the school.
In the episode, Malcolm films Reese, Herkabe sets out to prove that Malcolm is no better than he is by getting Malcolm to film and humiliate his brother Reese, as part of an attempt to re-enact the Milgram experiment.
In the episode Academic Octathalon, both he and Lois blackmail Malcolm into joining the Octathalon with the Krelboynes. He also asks Malcolm to cheat. When he discovers that it's an all out cheat race, Malcolm & his schoolmates secretly take the results of the Octathalon, predictably ending in disaster. Herkabe actually becomes nicer to Malcolm afterwards, thinking Malcolm steals the answers to give North High an advantage, harboring no antagonistic feelings for Malcolm, until discovering exactly what Malcolm does. The host orders Mr. Herkabe, along with the other teachers in the conference room, for a meeting to discuss their actions.
Herkabe appears again in the episode Tiki Lounge, where he gets Malcolm in the Boosters Club in order to collect a $200 advisor fee if the group becomes an organization when they get their minimum of 10 members. Malcolm gets blackmailed to join as Herkabe wrote 2 versions of Malcolm's letter of recommendation, which includes all of Malcolm's achievements but also the other version with Malcolm's unlikable personality. After Malcolm was ready to quit, Herkabe challenges his ego by telling him he can, and the other members won't even care and don't want to put up with him. This makes Malcolm want to prove he is better at fundraising than the rest of the members on stay in the club. Lionel once again respects Malcolm for being able to raise the funds to improve the club by using unorthodox techniques.
In the episode Malcolm Defends Reese, Herkabe convinces Malcolm to perform worse in Herkabe's class intentionally, so that Herkabe won't give Reese a hard time in class; this is so that Herkabe can stay the record-holder of the school's highest GPA. However, Herkabe makes a big mistake, carelessly telling Malcolm that during his senior year, he bailed on his final semester of gym class, rather making his own AP Renaissance Literature class, so that he could win his title. Malcolm tells the school principal, Mr. Hodges (Steve Vinovich) about it. The next day, Herkabe is disqualified for skipping gym and lying about it for years. The GPA plaque is returned to Edna Thornby, a blind and clubfooted woman who managed to pass gym despite her disabilities. Herkabe is last seen when; after trying to re-take gym to re-claim the GPA award, he finds Reese throwing dodgeballs at him as revenge for all the humiliation he endured in Herkabe's class. After that, Herkabe is not seen again for the rest of the series.
Personality[]
Herkabe at heart, is a conniving, vile, hateful, despicable man who shows complete disrespect for his students. He attacks them with insults and offensive comments that mainly focus on their intelligence and overwhelms them all with tons of mental challenges that are too much for them to handle. However, Malcolm is the only one who is seen to handle Herkabe's mental abuse due to dealing with a similar one from Lois.
Despite being very unlikeable, Herkabe does have a softer side in which his hardened personality could be for good intentions. In his first appearance (Emancipation), despite coming off as being cruel to The Krelboynes he works them hard as he states he will not allow them to fall into the traps that society will have planned for them. He does reveal like the Krelboyne's he was coddled and treated with his talents to be gifts, and he is very capable of anything only to lose everything and grow bitter and hardened. It is likely he is dealing with deep-seeded depression and loneliness as hinted in Reese's Job, he was using Barton to do great things and reclaim all he has lost through him, but when Barton's parents wanted him transferred, Herkabe gets saddened for him leaving just like his wife and all his therapists have already.
However, Herkabe's conniving and despicable ways return to haunt him when Malcolm exposes his horrible secret in skipping Gym and covering it up for years to Mr. Hodges, North High School's principal. Herkabe decides to take a last semester of Gym to reclaim his title upon being disqualified. However, Reese, out of gratitude to his brother and revenge against Herkabe for all the previous humiliation he put Reese through, throws dodgeballs at him, when even the class joins Reese. After this, he is never seen again.
Episode Appearances[]
- Emancipation
- Poker (Mentioned)
- Reese's Job
- Cliques
- Humilithon
- Academic Octathalon
- Malcolm Films Reese
- Tiki Lounge
- Mrs. Tri-County
- Malcolm Defends Reese
Trivia[]
- It's possible that Herkabe is Ida's illegitimate son with another man named John Herkabe. He could be Lois and Susan's half-brother, Hal's brother-in-law and the boys' uncle. However, this is all just speculation as several characters in the series share the same name. Such as: Jessica, Lloyd, Kevin, Eddie, Richard, Donna, Sara and Mike.
- Originally Herkabe was supposed to be a good-natured character, former Krelboyne and a successful businessman selling top of the art home security. He was originally linked to Caroline and had a daughter with her. Herkabe shows concern for the Krelboyne class when she becomes neurotic, controlling, and cynical in taking her anger out on them by using a point system and making them do extra homework. He becomes friends with the class, especially Malcolm, as he was once the normal kid in the class.
- It is possible Herkabe is dealing with deep-seeded depression and loneliness, in Reese's Job, when Barton leaves, he gets saddened as Barton leaves him just like others always do, including his wife and all his therapists.