Malcolm Defends Reese is the ninth episode of Season 7 and the 138th episode overall of Malcolm in the Middle. It aired on December 16, 2005.
Synopsis[]
Reese is being publicly humiliated by Mr. Herkabe, which leads him to depression. Meanwhile, Dewey has a crush on another girl at his school and Lois deals with a chatty and clingy elderly babysitter.
Plot[]
In the cold opening, Reese makes a dummy and puts it in his bed in an attempt to sneak out, but Lois catches him and asks if he is trying to sneak out. Reese explains that he was only trying to get comfortable on his crappy bed. Lois says if that's true he won't mind if she stands in the doorway until she sees him go to sleep. Around 2:30 AM Reese sees that Lois is still there, but is sure that she can't stay awake all night. Unbeknownst to him Lois has created her own dummy and left it in the doorway to prevent Reese from sneaking out.
Malcolm and Reese end up in the same class since Reese failed the previous year. Malcolm claims as if the situation wasn’t already bad enough, Mr. Herkabe has made Reese his personal whipping boy. He makes Reese write a historical timeline on the chalkboard.
Meanwhile, Jamie's new babysitter, Claire, drives Lois crazy with her nonstop talking. She constantly vents to Lois about being bored and alone and not hearing from her kids. She also never stops talking about her chronic health issues. Lois tolerates her, much to her annoyance, as she is good with Jamie. Through Hal's suggestion, Lois finally asks her to leave and finally snaps and fires her. However, Claire appears from the back door, thanking for being honest in expressing her hatred because they now know they have problems. She is willing to let Lois talk about them, much to her dismay.
Walking home from the park, Hal asks Dewey if he’s still upset with him. Dewey reminds his dad that he threw a baseball at his head. Hal defends it was a brushback pitch and that if he doesn’t defend the plate Dewey would be taking him downt all day. They run into Dewey’s classmate, a girl named Gina. She asks if he did his vocab homework and they exchange short answers before parting ways. Hal asks if he likes her and he says he might. He comments him for playing it cool, but realizes he may have played it too cool.
The next day, Mr. Herkabe is further humiliating Reese by pitting him against Hammy, the class hamster in a trivia game, which Hammy wins. Malcolm gas had enough and tells Mr. Herkabe that he’s nothing but a bully and a sadist and wonders how he can take any pleasure in humiliating Reese and begs him to stop. Mr. Herkabe it’s about time that Malcolm finally took action and is surprised that he didn’t do anything last week when Reese was crying.
Mr. Herkabe leads Malcolm to the school trophy case and tells him about the award he won his senior year. Malcolm incorrectly guesses several sports trophies and when Mr. Herkabe points out the plaque he earned, he claims it looks like it broke off another trophy. He claims he can’t be responsible for the myopic value the sports obsessed administration places on academic achievement. He explains that the plaque represents the highest GPA in the history of the school and it belongs to him and him alone. Malcolm isn’t impressed. Mr. Herkabe explains he had to work hard to earn that plaque to score higher than Edna Fornby, the previous recipient who held the title for 38 years. He stresses that although she was blind since birth, she was a classy lady with a towering intellect and went on to become a Rhodes scholar. He sadistically enjoyed watching her cry like a baby when he took it from her. Now, Malcolm is on the verge of taking it from him and cannot allow it and blackmails him into tanking his grades unless he wants to see him destroy Reese every day for the rest of the school year. Malcolm wonders if he’s serious and he affirms he is as serious as a heart attack.
begging Sam the janitor not to revoke his title just because he missed one semester of Gym class. He ignores it and removes Herkabe's name off the plaque. The janitor gives it to Mr. Hodges, who returns the plaque to Edna Thornby, the school's previous record holder, who still managed to pass physical education despite being blind and club-footed. Malcolm is seen pleased by his humiliation as Hodges points out that that P.E. is part of the curriculum and a requirement for the GPA award. Had Herkabe taken P.E., his award and title would've been safe. Because of Malcolm, Herkabe has lost his award and been publicly humiliated and disgraced in front of the entire school. He then storms away to notify his mother about everything before she hears about it from elsewhere.
Dewey arrives in the backyard on his bike and Hal informs him how he got their microwave to work without closing the door. Hal asks him if he talked to Gina. to help him break the ice with her.
who may lose his award for the school's highest GPA to Malcolm, gleefully humiliates Reese every day until Malcolm agrees to start getting lower grades in his classes, thus enabling Herkabe to keep his crowning achievement. Malcolm initially agrees to get Herkabe to stop tormenting Reese. However, in an air of confidence, Herkabe makes a big mistake: he casually confesses to skipping P.E. towards the end of his senior year and rather created his own AP course as an alternative.
He give Dewey candy to give Gina, but it gets him into trouble with her father and he points out that she is allergic to nuts. As Gina comes out with her face swollen Dewey can only look on in horror as Hal drives away.
Later on, he blames Hal for ruining his chances with Gina, getting him into trouble with her father and driving away from the scene when he needed his help. Hal attempts to apologize, claiming that the father intimidated him so much that he had to flee. Dewey rejects the apology and points out that he knows better than to believe him. He tells Hal off that he wished that Lois helped him instead because she would know how to deal with people. Dewey wants him to stop butting in his life and leave him alone. Hal agrees to stay out of it and let him handle it on his own.
Realizing how angry Dewey is with him, Hal decides to do the exact opposite and attempts convince Gina to talk to him by bribing her with candy without nuts and apologizes for getting her sick. She ignores him as Hal tells her to get in the car and an elderly neighbor named Mrs. Conlin witnesses this exchange. She calls the police to report him, believing him to be a child molester. Hal is arrested by the police who presume he is a child molester with intent to sexually assault Gina. He tries to defend himself, asking if the officers remember their first love, but due to his misguided wording he is arrested and taken to jail for attempted child sexual harassment.
As Malcolm enters the gymnasium, he sees Mr. Herkabe there who has decided to retake Gym to reclaim his award, despite it being twenty years after. He intends revenge on Malcolm for humiliating him. However, a grateful Reese hits Herkabe with a dodgeball. This makes him fall down and the students begin laughing at him. No sooner does Herkabe stands up, Reese hits him another dodge ball. Due to his lack of coordination, he endures more humiliation from Reese, who continues pelting him with dodgeballs as revenge for all of Mr. Herkabe's prior mistreatment of him. A smug Malcolm tells the viewers that true victory comes from the heart rather than from trophies like the GPA plaque, and that is something that can no one can ever take away.
In the end, Dewey is able to talk to Gina normally after running into her walking home from school. Gina tells Dewey his dad is really weird, which Dewey agrees with. She then asks him if he wants to eat lunch together tomorrow, which he agrees to.
The next day, Claire has died, and her sister Donna pays the family a visit. Soon she starts annoying them with the same non-stop talking.
Cast[]
- Jane Kaczmarek as Lois
- Bryan Cranston as Hal
- Christopher Masterson as Francis (credit only)
- Justin Berfield as Reese
- Erik Per Sullivan as Dewey
- Frankie Muniz as Malcolm
Guest Stars[]
Recurring[]
- Chris Eigeman as Mr. Herkabe
- Jamie and Lukas Rodriguez as Jamie (uncredited)
Cameo[]
- Hopsin as Student (uncredited)
- Steve Vinovich as Mr. Hodges
- Kathryn Joosten as Claire
- Mimi Cozzens as Donna
- Vanessa Marano as Gina
- Kevin Will as Gina's Father
- Fiona Hale as Edna Thornby
- Tom Lent as Janitor
Quotes[]
- You Know i been thinking
- Maybe she’s not the right girl for you.
- She sure made this hard on us.
- There's No us Dad.
- it's you.
- Every idea you have about girls is wrong.
- How was i ever born.
- Well by that time your mother was pretty much stuck in the relationship
- Thanks a lot Dad.
- I liked Gina.
- I really did.
- I’m sorry Dewey.
- I feel terrible.
- Maybe there’s some way I can help you...
- No
- okay right .
- I wii stay out of it.
- i can make this right .
- i have better candy.
- You'll like this candy.
- It really good.
- Come on just hop in the car .
- oh Come on give me a break.
- Don't you remember your first love.
Trivia[]
- First appearance of Mr. Hodges who replaces Mr. Block as North High School's principal.
- Final appearance of Mr. Herkabe.
- Rapper Hopsin makes an uncredited appearance as a student in Herkabe's class. This is his second appearance as an extra, after Reese Joins the Army: Part 1.
- This episode reveals Herkabe's lack of coordination. The last episode that alluded to it was in Cliques.
- This is the last episode that has both the main characters' names as the title. The first time was in Malcolm vs. Reese and the 2nd time is in Malcolm Films Reese
- The song that plays while Reese is doing the monkey dance was "Love Machine" by The Miracles.
- This is the last episode to air in 2005, the shows final year of production.
- Originally, Malcolm does his own research in why Mr. Herkabe had not taken Gym in his senior year. He meets with a former PE teacher, Coach Fox, in a nursing home. Malcolm learns from him that Herkabe actually failed the class in his junior year decades ago due to his poor coordination. This resulted in him humiliating Herkabe on a daily basis and his peers laughing at him. Since Gym was class requirement needing two years to complete, he skipped the course fearing more humiliation and created his own AP courses. Due to their shared hatred of him, Coach Fox, gives Malcolm a copy of Herkabe's grades in Gym to expose and humiliate him in a public scale.
- Originally Kurtwood Smith was supposed to return as Mr. Block who made his only appearance in Dirty Magazine. After finding out from Malcolm how Herkabe flunked Gym and lied not taking the course, he immediately revokes the GPA award. Block furiously curses out at Herkabe for humiliating the school with his behavior. Then to just piss him off, Block fires Herkabe from his job as a teacher and gives the high GPA award to Malcolm. This was replaced with Hodges simply giving the award back to Edna Thornby.
- This is the last time Hal got arrested on his own. The last three times are Charity, Garage Sale and Reese Joins the Army: Part 1.