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.
Mortified when she learns that she performs poorly in Lucky Aide secret-shoppers' 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.
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 kills the rat by aiming a rock at it, hitting instead the mirror above causing it to fall and shatter on top of the rat. Very soon Francis becomes the logging camp's rat catcher Nick named "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 -- who claimed by the nomad is "biggest, ugliest, meanest rat North of Kotzebue." Francis gets sent underneath the floors of the main lodge via a trap door and crawls to where Rosemarie resides in, he soon finds a baby rat and learns that the reason why she has a mean, carnivorous attitude is because she is a mother. 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.
Cast[]
- Jane Kaczmerek 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.