Lois' Makeover is the tenth episode of the third season of Malcolm in the Middle, which was broadcast on January 27, 2002.
Plot[]
Lois is mortified upon learning that she ranks poorly in the appearance reviews by a critic of the Lucky Aide secret-shoppers performance and is asked to dress up her appearance. However, when she is mistaken by a customer who mistakes her for a hooker, she returns to her normal self. Meanwhile, Hal is reenergized at a game of basketball until the boys discovers his plans and enact a revenge of their own. Francis gets a side job as a rat exterminator, but faces his big challenge with Rosemarie.
Summary[]
In the opening scene, in the kitchen Hal asks Lois what's for dinner and she tells him it's leftover parfait much to his disdain. Malcolm claims that leftover parfait is even worse than it sounds, explaining that every once a week Lois cleans out the fridge and anything that doesn't actually have something growing on it gets thrown into the casserole and served for dinner. Reese asks Dewey if they had spaghetti or Chinese food on Thursday but he says they didn't have either of them. Hal attempts to dig but Lois reminds him there's no digging and she plates some up for everyone. As Malcolm looks at the dish he realizes the unthinkable has finally happened and that the fifth level of the leftover parfait is last weeks old leftover parfait.
At Lucky Aide, Mr. Fisher hands out secret shopper evaluations to all the employees and he will be meeting with everyone individually that week to discuss how they can make improvements. Craig is mortified at the idea of spies judging their work and wonders if cavity searches on the loading dock will be next. Lois sees it as no big deal since companies do this all the time. Craig still finds it unfair how he’s expected to work hard without even knowing if he’s being watched. However, after reading her performance review Lois is mortified when she learns that she performs poorly and that the secret shopper said that she was slovenly and her personal hygiene was questionable. Craig agrees with Lois and reads his review and his secret shopper called him apathetic, lazy and overweight and wonders what planet they’re from before crinkling up the form and taking a five minute break.
Hal and the boys are playing basketball as Malcolm informs the audience that they’ve been playing basketball with their dad since they were old enough to walk. Dewey calls out to Reese that he’s open before Hal scores another basket and gloats about it. Malcolm says that the score is Hal: 342, Boys: 0 and they’re starting to get a little discouraged by it.
In Alaska, Francis' roommate Artie demands to know who has been poking through his underwear drawer and has eaten all of his jerky in his locker. Eric points out that the teeth marks on the bag indicate that it is the teeth of a rat. Very shortly, a rat appears in their cabin, even though rats do not exist in Alaska; Francis in fear stands up on a chair, and he crushes the rat when the legs break, Artie, Pete, and Eric are amazed by this.
Later, a logger hears about Francis' kill on a rat and asks him to clear out one in his cabin. Francis finds a hole in the wall where the rat is coming in and asks for a cookie or something to lure it out. They lure it out with a cracker and Francis kills the rat by aiming a shoe at it, only to hit the mirror above it instead causing it to fall and shatter on top of the rat.
At the lodge Francis walks in and a logger named Buzz asks him how it went. Francis tells Buzz he doesn’t want to bore him with technical details but informs him that Cabin 15 is now rodent-free. Very soon Francis becomes the logging camp's rat catcher nicknamed "Rat Boy". Suddenly, a blind, elderly nomad claims that he has only caught a bunch of tiny rats, and that the real challenge is Rosemarie, the rat queen, who the nomad claims is "biggest, ugliest, meanest rat North of Kotzebue”. Francis tells him to srtart building a very small coffin because he is going after her.
In the living room, as Hal lies on the couch with his ankle wrapped up the boys come in. Dewey asks how his leg and he says it’s feeling a little better. Reese states how interesting it is that he just happens to hurt his leg. Hal wonders what they’re getting at, and Malcolm says that some people are willing to go to pretty drastic lengths just to avoid being beaten by their kids. Hal is upset thinking that he did this intentionally just to get out of playing basketball and decides to play them right now and even though his ankle is hurt, he’ll still mop the floor with them. Reese says it’s okay and he should rest, Malcolm says they can wait as Dewey knows that his ankle has to heal sometime.
At Lucky Aide, Craig brings out a thermos for a customer ensuring that he got the slightly darker blue one she requested and how he move a couple dozen bags of charcoal briquettes and got a few spider bites digging for it but that doesn’t matter as long as she, the customer goes home satisfied. After she leaves without thanking him an old woman asks him where they keep their dog toys. Craig points them out behind her but she says those are leashes. Craig points out that the dog toys are just three inches to the right, and she requests a little hot dog toy on the top shelf. Craig gets one for her on a lower shelf but she reminds him that isn’t what she asked for since the hot dog has mustard on it and her dog Peekaboo doesn’t eat mustard. Craig now losing his patience states that the one on the top shelf has mustard on it too and that it’s not even real mustard. The lady questions if he’s going to give her what she asked for or not, realizing he can’t argue any further he climbs up to get the hot dog toy off the top shelf.
performance reviews, Lois tries to dress up her appearance, but returns to her normal self when a customer mistakes her for a prostitute. After this incident, Mr. Fisher asks his brother-in-law if his wife will have a hissy fit.
Hal is re-energized after beating the boys at basketball, until they discover his plans.
Francis gets sent underneath the floors of the main lodge via a trap door and crawls to where Rosemarie resides in. Pete asks him if he can have his pillow if he dies, but Francis states he already promised it to Artie. He soon finds rat droppings and broken mousetraps before finding a baby rat and learns that the reason why she has a mean, carnivorous attitude is because she is a mother. Francis doesn’t want to kill a baby, regardless of whether or not it’s vermin. The baby rat retreats behind a piece of rotting wood, Francis crawls towards it to pry it off but then is ambushed by a litter of baby rats crawling all over him screaming in fear as his scream echoes throughout Alaska.
Back in the schoolyard, the boys are playing against Hal and are up by one basket and have the lead.
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
Recurring[]
Cameos[]
- Stephen Tobolowsy as Mr. Fisher
- Jack Donner as Old Man
Trivia[]
- In the Hulu version of this episode, the song that plays while the boys do "the play" in their basketball game against Hal, is not the original song that aired with this episode. The song that originally aired with this episode was "Bring It On" by Handsome Devil. It was announced by Fox Home Entertainment in a statement in 2016 that the reason the show has not released on DVD past Season 1 is due to copyright issues. This is likely the same reason this song was replaced on the streaming platform.
Goofs[]
- In the first game of basketball the position of the Sun/shadows changes significantly between Hal's two basket (when viewed from behind the basket).
- In Hal's second (and the final) game of basketball with the boys, the court is in full sunshine and full shade in different shots.