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Malcolm, Pilot
Malcolm Wilkerson
Frankie-muniz 121300
Gender Male
Age 12-18
Birthday December 5th 1988
Hometown Star City, California
Profession Lucky Aide (formerly)
Janitor (currently)

President of the United States (future)

Family & Friends
Significant other Sarah Coleman (First Girlfriend/Ex-Girlfriend)
Alison (Ex-Girlfriend)
Nicki (Ex-Girlfriend)
Angela Pozefsky (Ex-Girlfriend)
Anita (Ex-Girlfriend)
Vicki (Ex-Girlfriend)
Parents Hal Wilkerson (Father)
Lois Wilkerson (Mother)
Siblings Francis Wilkerson (Older Brother)
Reese Wilkerson (Older Brother)
Dewey Wilkerson (Younger Brother)
Jamie Wilkerson (Younger Brother)
Unborn Sibling
Piama Wilkerson (née Tananahaakna) (Sister-in-law)
Friends Stevie Kenarban, Lloyd Jensen, Dabney Hooper, Kevin, Eraserhead, Cynthia Sanders
Frenemies Jessica
Reese
Enemies Lionel Herkabe
Josh
Ida Welker (Maternal Grandmother)
Production Information
First appearance Pilot
Portrayed by Frankie Muniz

Malcolm Wilkerson (born December 5, 1988) is the protagonist of the series. He is shown to be the most intelligent of his family but has a rather unjustified superiority complex, believing he deserves a much better life than what he has, although he brings much of his misfortunes upon himself.

Overview

He's a social outcast and spends most of his spare time alone, or with his friend, Stevie, growing very self-absorbed and egotistical. His lack of friends and popularity is mostly due to his parents and home situation, as well as his own ego and need for fairness and truth. A heavy example of this is in the episode "Malcolm Holds His Tongue," in which he gets kicked off his basketball team for stating the noticeable flaws in his coach's game plan, and thus attempts to keep his thoughts to himself, only to get a peptic ulcer by the end, after continually listening to what people had to say and not speaking his mind.

In the Pilot episode, Malcolm was shown to have an IQ of 165, placing him in the "exceptionally gifted" section of the IQ chart and making him a genius. Malcolm's intelligence allows him to remember things such as a large series of numbers and he is able to perform arithmetic in his head and without needing to write it down. However, Malcolm never gets any respect in society even though he is a genius because like he always calls things "unfair", which is a recurring theme in the show. Malcolm's genius does not work when he is pressed for time. If he is in a situation where he is told to "think fast", the resulting idea will always be bad. This was seen at its worst in Poker #2, where Malcolm had the idea of stealing a loaded gun from a girl who was illegally carrying one, lock it in inside of a tire jack, and saw it in half, which resulted in the gun being shot into the house. It wasn't until afterward that he decided to call the police. Upon telling a cop the story, the cop called Malcolm out on his alleged "exceptionally gifted" intelligence level, believing it to be false. This could be one of the reasons why nobody respects Malcolm's genius.

Malcolm has an incredible memory, although it usually revolves around things he resents. As he puts it, "I remember anything that ruins my life." He will also hold a grudge for things that have happened years ago, as seen in "Morp", where he tried to convince the others to stay by complaining about things that actually happened to him, such as people making fun of his haircuts and calling him "Malcolm Balcolm".

Malcolm is the only one who seems bothered that the whole neighborhood hates his family. In the Pilot episode, both of Malcolm's next door neighbors were seen selling their homes and regretfully, but willingly, planning on moving out because of having to be near the Wilkerson family. It wasn't until the episode Block Party that the rest of the family started caring that nobody else liked them, when they came home early from their yearly vacation to see that the neighborhood throws a yearly block party every time they go on vacation. Everyone in the family then tried to make themselves likable and succeeded. It was then revealed that the Wilkerson family served a purpose in the neighborhood as the family to absorb all of the negative energy from the other families in the neighborhood. Once the neighborhood started liking the Wilkersons, they all started directing their hatred at each other and the whole neighborhood spiraled out of control into complete chaos.

Malcolm's relationship with his brothers is one of seeming animosity at most times, although there have been several instances of unity and friendship between them. He believes he is the most popular out of the brothers who are still at home until it is implied by Francis that Malcolm is actually the least liked among his brothers. At one point he feels that he is being excluded by Reese and Dewey, and when he talks to them about it, he is told that the reason they exclude him is because he's a drag due to always having to be the special one. It is also revealed that Francis took Reese and Dewey on a beach trip and chose not to invite Malcolm. Francis is Malcolm's favorite brother and often looks up to him because he was rebellious and can tell Lois off. But, like Reese, he felt disappointment when they visited Francis on the ranch that he worked at and saw that he was no longer their delinquent idol, and had become a responsible adult, even acting stunned when he said that sometimes Lois is right to punish them.

Though he felt great guilt after having cheated with Reese's girlfriend (prompting Reese to join the army), Malcolm compiled a list of things Reese did to him that he insisted were much worse. While he enjoys pulverizing Dewey and making him miserable, he occasionally attempts to help him, although it usually goes wrong (such as when it becomes apparent that Dewey may also have a genius-level intellect, Malcolm attempts to keep him from being transferred into the Krelboyne class, thus sparing Dewey the misery he endured, but instead manages to get him sent to a class for emotionally disturbed children after sabotaging his answers for his IQ test).

On another occasion at the zoo when Dewey fell into the tiger cage, despite Malcolm being in a deep depression for most of the episode and apparently several weeks beforehand, Malcolm showed genuine concern and jumped over several rails and into the cage to get to his brother, only to trap himself in the cage as well. While in the tiger cage, believing he was about to die, he confessed that he actually did love his family.

Throughout the series, Malcolm's intellect has proven to be more of a burden then a blessing, as he is the person the family usually turns to when faced with a crisis. This was shown when Hal refused to let Malcolm go to an out of country school (Malcolm tried to use it to escape his family). Hal said he was the family's last hope. His genius is also the reason Lois tries to completely control his life, as she believes Malcolm is the only one of her children with a chance of amounting to anything. Many episodes show Malcolm struggling to get out Lois's control, but all his efforts prove to be in vain.

As expected from his ego and arrogance, Malcolm is often blind to his own moral failings and has a constant need to blame everything on the people in his life for him being the person he is. For all of Malcolm's hardships, he is, at heart, an arrogant, whining ingrate.

While Malcolm is, for most part, extremely unpopular with girls, he has had a number of girlfriends throughout the show. However, they all end in an extremely unhappy fashion either because of Lois (who plans to choose who he marries for him) or Malcolm's own actions.

Malcolm has had five jobs in the series. His first was a babysitter for a wealthy family to earn money to purchase a robotics kit, but he quit after learning that the family's parents were spying on him. In the fourth season, he worked as a tutor to a girl named Nikki, whom he eventually dated for a few episodes. Later, in the fifth season, Lois forced Malcolm to take a job with her at the Lucky Aide as a way to have him under her control. While he hated the job and tried to quit many times, Lois would not let him. He finally quit at approximately the time he graduated high school. In the final episode, he gets a job as a janitor at Harvard to help with his tuition.

In the final episode, it is revealed that Hal and Lois do not plan for him to have an easy life. Because Malcolm consistently exceeds his parents' expectations, by both his intellect, his character, and sense of ethics, by the time he graduates from high school, they have the highest of expectations for him: to become President of the United States. As part of an elaborate plan for his future, Malcolm's parents force him to follow through on plans to attend college instead of letting him accept a six-figure salary job offer straight out of high school. Lois says that at Harvard, Malcolm will have to work harder than his classmates and will accomplish more than they do, but they will continue to look down on him. When Malcolm argues that he could have taken the job and "bought (his) way into office", Lois concludes that Malcolm "wouldn't have suffered enough" (even though he has suffered his whole life). Because of the struggles he is forced to endure, Malcolm will realize that there is more to life than flaunting how intelligent he is. After college, the plan provides for him to channel his energies into a political career, and after starting off as a district attorney or running a foundation, he will be elected governor of a mid-size state, and then President. They envision that he would then become one of the greatest Presidents ever because he would represent, understand, and, more importantly, have empathy for the interests of poor people like his family, which, his parents say, no other President has (however, this seems unlikely given Malcolm's selfishness). Malcolm accepts his parents' plans for him after his mother asked him to look her in the eye and tell her he was not capable of becoming President, but he could not, knowing it was well within his ability.

It appears that his brothers and Grandmother are aware of these plans, as when Malcolm looks around at his family after being told this, they all nod at him, and Francis simply states, "Thought you knew." After hearing this, Malcolm ultimately understands that even if he does move out of the house, he will never truly be free of his family, will never know happiness (or at least any of his own choosing), and will constantly be cursed by his genius. For all the misery he has had so far, Malcolm understands that his hardships have only just begun and his life is about to get much worse before it ever gets better. Although he recognizes that his parents' plans are outlandish and improbable, and complains that they are making decisions for him that are rightfully his to make, he signals that he has accepted their vision for him and will carry it in his valedictorian speech at his graduation ceremony. The series ends in a rather mediocre way for him, as he does maintain contact with his family (as evidenced from a phone conversation with Reese). He is shown to be working as a janitor while attending Harvard. Malcolm does seem to have realized the good this will do for himself, accepts he can do it, and has comes to terms with his future.

Personality

Malcolm is a smart, diligent, hard-working, but very annoyed, arrogant, condescending, often whining, bitter, self centered, egotistical, ungrateful, mischievous, reckless, impulsive and anti-social kid, who seems to have a very crappy life. He has an obnoxious family and a school full of people who hate him. He is seclusive and an anti-social introvert who has no friends aside from a few Krelbroynes who would only become his friends during the events within the episodes of the series and this lonesome behavior gives him the time to only think about himself and his own personal feelings on everything. He has sort of "trained" himself to belief all of these very horrible, terrible things about the rest of the world and all the people around him and think nothing but the best of himself, making him a very self-absorbed and egotistical kid and he might actually be right to do so. Malcolm is a repressed genius as he was revealed to have an IQ of 165 in the first episode, which is considered to be "exceptionally gifted", and given all of the disrespect and disregard he has to put up with in his life, his genius is not being expressed to the world the way it should be. Malcolm also has an absurd sense of entitlement.

Malcolm views himself as a victim of extreme unfairness, believing he deserves a much better life and family. While being a Krelboyne made him a social outcast at school in the earlier seasons and an embarrassment caused by Lois when he started high school assured his continued suffering, Malcolm is blind to how his own obnoxious ego and arrogance drives most people away. He is intolerant to the incompetence he views in most around him, and is quick to call them idiots. Rather then seeing his intelligence as a gift, Malcolm is often burdened by it. His ego and arrogance is so great that even his own brothers cannot stand him all the time and they exlude him from activites just to get a break from him once in a while. Francis openly tells him he is the least liked among the Wilkerson brothers, which shocks Malcolm who thought he was the most liked.

Although not all of it is their fault, Malcolm puts much, if not all, of the blame on his family for everything wrong in his life. He is constantly embarrassed by them and often tries to disassociate himself from them as much as possible. His personality causes him to occasionally put his own best interests ahead of others, despite the cost. He has been shown to leave his best friend Stevie Kenarban more than once, and often ran out on his Krelboyne classmates in favor of a more popular crowd (although, it is shown the Krelboynes have no true problem selling Malcolm out themselves). He is shown in later seasons to be extremely self-centered and self-absorbed. When he was feeling left out by Dewey and Reese, Francis pointed out that his feelings weren't hurt, but rather, his ego was just bruised.

Because of the constant pressure they put on him and their own failings, Malcolm does not look up to Hal and Lois as role models or parental figures. He has little respect for Hal because of his great incompetence as man and outright hates Lois because of her tyranny and ruining of any chance he has for happiness.

Despite being egotistical and self-absorbed in the later seasons, Malcolm has shown concern for his family. This was very evident in the episode Hal Grieves, while Reese and Dewey took advantage of their father buying presents. Malcolm realized it was wrong and even being promised a new car, he tried to stop Hal from going through with the purchase by telling him that he'd still love him regardless. It wasn't long until Lois finally steps in.

Relationships

Family

  • Lois Wilkerson - Out of all the members of the family, Lois is the one that Malcolm hates the most. He hates how she controls him and makes him do whatever she wants him to. However, it is shown (especially in the episode "Mono") that they can get along and enjoy spending time together. At the beginning of the series, Malcolm was more afraid of Lois and near the end of the series, he was more hateful to her. But almost every time, with a couple exceptions, Lois has always been the one in control.
  • Hal Wilkerson - Malcolm doesn't hate Hal in the way that he hates his other family members, given that he never punishes him or does anything annoying. In fact, Malcolm likes him better than Lois and would rather spend time with him instead of her. But Malcolm doesn't exactly have a whole lot of respect for Hal. Because of Hal's incompetence as a man, Malcolm hardly sees him as a father figure and only views him with pity. In the episode "Health Scare", Malcolm thought that his parents were getting a divorce and hoped that Hal was going to get custody of the kids.
  • Reese Wilkerson - Malcolm hates Reese more than he hates his other brothers and gets into fights with him the most. Although Malcolm hates him most of the time, he still cares about him and shows sympathy for him. For example: In the episode Cheerleader, Malcolm wanted to help Reese with the girl that he had a crush on, which would in no way benefit himself and showed concern when he became a cheerleader and in the episode Experiment, Malcolm realized that Reese was depressed because he thought he was stupid and felt sympathy for him and let up on the insults and abuse for a while. In the episode Reese Joins the Army: Part 1, Malcolm stole Reese's girlfriend from him, and everyone who heard about it shamed him for it, telling him it was a cruel and scummy thing to do. Malcolm tried to justify it by listing all of the things he thought to be even worse, that Reese did to him in the past, but he came up short because his memories exaggerated the small amount of things he really did. He also was shown to genuinely miss Reese when he was gone. Also when Reese tried to marry Raduca, Malcolm desperately tried to stop him, so that he wouldn't mess up his life.
  • Dewey Wilkerson - Malcolm is very condescending toward Dewey and sees him as just a little kid who doesn't know anything. Sometimes, Malcolm will pretty much ignore Dewey's existence, much like the other members of the family do. When he does pay attention to him, he is always bullying him. Although, Malcolm still cares for Dewey as a brother and has helped him on a few occasions. In Dewey's Special Class, Malcolm attempted to keep Dewey out of the Krelboyne class by convincing him to fail his I.Q. test.
  • Francis Wilkerson - At the beginning of the series, Malcolm saw Francis as "his only good brother" and was unhappy with the fact that he got sent off to Marlin Academy. He would always talk about how much he missed him and called him on the phone and looked up to him for advice. Later in the series, Malcolm sort of stopped caring about Francis and just saw him as another one of his brothers.
  • Jamie Wilkerson - Jamie is the only brother that Malcolm doesn't fight with and disrespect because he was a baby for the majority of the series. In "Baby" parts 1 and 2, Malcolm got the idea to join a parenting class so that they can help take care of Jamie. In "Day Care," Malcolm was the one who had to babysit Jamie while the rest of their family tried to get him a daycare with the local church. In "Vegas," Malcolm had Jamie in the carrier while Lois went around.
  • Ida Welker - Ida is Malcolm's cold-hearted, bitter, and evil Grandmother. His relationship with her is a very sour one due to the fact that she treats him and the rest of the family like a waste of space. She thinks that he is a weak person due to her own personal opinion of Lois and that he isn't the real genius of the family.
  • Wilkerson Family - Unlike of Victor and Ida, his aunt, Claire and the other Wilkersons (especially his grandfather Walter) treat Malcolm much better. They believe he's the only one in his family with potential and they respect for his high intelligent. His relatives encourage him to continue behaving the way he does in the hopes of getting him away from his low-class mother, Lois.

Friends

Malcolm used to be a fairly normal kid, with a few good friends, but because his mom forced him to be in the Krelboyne Class, he started to have trouble making friends and was getting bullied. As the series continued, it was shown the main reason for his lack of friends was not because he was a Krelboyne, but because of his own egotistical nature, smug arrogance, and condescending views on others. His genius may have made people view him as weird and alienated him from other kids, but Malcolm took a lot of pride in this and saw himself as better than others because of it. The few friends that Malcolm actually did have, were other Krelboynes and even they would sometimes be annoyed with his egotism. They also proved on many occasions that they had no problem abandoning him or selling him in order to advantage themselves. Though Malcolm, himself was more than willing to do the same thing.

  • Stevie Kenarban - Stevie is Malcolm's best friend. Stevie first becomes friends with him in the "Pilot". Lois forced Malcolm to hang out with him because Stevie had no other friends. Malcolm was hesitant to do this at first, but he couldn't deny it because Stevie was in a wheelchair. They were put in the same accelerated learning classes throughout middle school and most of high school. Stevie has a sarcastic side, has outsmarted Malcolm and Reese numerous times, and has even managed to get the better of Reese physically on occasion. He has been shown to be a far stronger person than both his parents (even Abe admitted he was a weak, small man). Stevie has suffered from Malcolm's egotism a lot and has been driven insane by his constant talking about himself, shown most prominently in episodes such as "Future Malcolm" and "Malcolm Dates a Family". However, Stevie has managed to deal with Malcolm's self-centered behavior and just completely ignore it. In the episode "Stevie in the Hospital", Stevie was in the hospital and Malcolm visited him, only to rudely lash out at him and act like a jerk for a few seconds and then leave, without letting Stevie get a word in edgewise. Instead of getting offended by this, Stevie was happy that Malcolm came. As the series progressed, Stevie eventually proved to be Malcolm's only friend in the end.
  • Lloyd - Lloyd is one of Malcolm and Stevie's Krelboyne classmates and friend for the first four seasons of the show. Lloyd is portrayed as nerdy, physically and emotionally frail, and overly-dramatic. As a Krelboyne (gifted student), Lloyd is often bullied by his classmates (including Reese), and often suffers the consequences of schemes in which he helps Malcolm. Lloyd suffers from anger displacement tendencies and major self esteem issues, which is why he regularly sees the school's therapist, Mrs. Gilbert. He has been publicly humiliated several times, most famously during "Krelboyne Picnic", when he got his braces stuck to a super-powerful magnet he built. It is lightly hinted that he is suicidal, as it is stated by his friend, Dabney, that the majority of his ideas end in suicide, and that he has more than once made a death pact. In "Cynthia's Back", Lloyd mentions that he has a third nipple. Like Malcolm's other Krelboyne friends, Lloyd appears less frequently during the show's fourth season, eventually leaving Stevie as Malcolm's only friend by Season 5. Interestingly, Lloyd is an undergraduate house at Caltech, a university well known for its emphasis on the natural sciences and engineering.
  • Dabney Hooper - Dabney is one of Malcolm and Stevie's more emotionally-stricken and flamboyant Krelboyne classmates and friends for the first four seasons of the show. Like other Krelboyne students, Dabney is regularly bullied and often suffers the consequences of schemes with which he helps Malcolm. Dabney has an unhealthy relationship with his mother, Dorene, who orders her son around and attempts to dominate almost all aspects of his life. However, in "Hal's Friend", after Dabney receives a paintball gun as a birthday present from his grandfather, only for Dorene to take it away, Malcolm secretly takes him to a paintball battle course, and in the process he learns to stand up for himself and adopts a no-nonsense attitude towards his mother. Like Malcolm's other Krelboyne friends, Dabney appears less frequently during the show's fourth season, eventually leaving Stevie as Malcolm's only friend by Season 5. Interestingly, Dabney is another undergraduate house at Caltech, a university well known for its emphasis on the natural sciences and engineering.
  • Eraserhead - Eraserhead is one of Malcolm's other Krelboyne classmates. He is seen less frequently than the other Krelboyne students but is shown to have a talent for playing the piano, and often gets involved in class theatre productions. It is known he has an older brother, Alphonse, who beats Reese up in the episode "Krelboyne Picnic" after he is caught tormenting Eraserhead.
  • Kevin - Kevin is a nervous and easily excitable Krelboyne student and one of Malcolm's friends that first appears early in the third season. It is hinted that he's berated at home, as he once exclaimed, when he got a bad grade on a test, "My stepdad's right, I am useless!". Like Malcolm's other Krelboyne friends, Kevin appears less frequently in Season 4, eventually disappearing midway through the season. Kevin's presence in the series seemed to fill the void of Eraserhead.

Enemies

  • Lionel Herkabe - Played by Chris Eigeman, Malcolm's main enemy aside from Lois. A former Krelboyne himself, he became a Krelboyne teacher who, despite sharing many of Malcolm's traits and personality, hates him profoundly and does whatever he can to outdo him. In the third season, he tries his best to make Malcolm feel small, mostly because he is less of a genius. Because of that, Malcolm has a strong sense of right, which Herkabe strongly objects to because he thinks that because he is miserable, Malcolm has to be miserable. The only time he was actually nice to Malcolm was in Season 4's Academic Octathalon, when Herkabe had learned that he snuck into the room, stole the results and believed he gave North High an advantage. In Season 7, he once got Malcolm to agree to fail all of his classes intentionally, in exchange leaving Reese alone; this was so that Herkabe could keep his crowning achievement: being the record-holder of the school's highest GPA and the award that came with it. However, Herkabe makes a big mistake: in his gloating, he casually confesses to Malcolm that during his senior year, he cheated his way out of gym class and lied about it for years in order to protect his GPA award. Malcolm got his revenge on him by telling the school principal, Mr. Hodges (Steve Vinovich) about it. Herkabe loses his GPA award (which is then returned to original recipient, Edna Thornby, who managed to pass gym despite being blind and clubfooted) and had to retake the course again. He's last seen being humiliated by an overly excited Reese tossing dodge-balls at him out of revenge for all the humiliation he endured.
  • Josh - Played by Michael Welch, was a next-door neighbor of Malcolms and supposedly wanted to be his friend empathizing with him about his hate for Lois. It was soon revealed that he was a pathological and conniving liar who got him into serious trouble with everyone. One night he and Reese teamed up to destroy his lies, but caught Josh's mother, Tina, cheating on her husband (who was the only family member that got along with Hal) with her gardener in a jacuzzi. This embarrassed her into making her children move away from Malcolm's family to avoid having them spill the beans on the affair. Josh was never seen again, possibly embarrassed by his mother's affair with the gardener.
  • Jessica - played by Hayden Panettiere, is a teenage girl who first made an appearance as a babysitter that Hal hired so that he could take on a second job while Lois was away tending to her pregnancy. Proving to be more of a threat than initially thought, she turned out to be as scheming, conniving and manipulative as any of the boys. In later episodes, she was a frequent visitor as a neighbor who would come over to escape a negligent father. Working again for her own benefit she proceeded to create uncomfortable situations including convincing the family to see "Mamma Mia!" and convincing both Malcolm and Reese that the other was homosexual. In Season 7, she replaced Stevie as Malcolm's best friend and, though manipulative, did her best to look after Malcolm during that time. In one of the final episodes she appears in, she convinces Malcolm to end a detrimental relationship claiming that she has feelings for him. After he returns to her once he ends his previous engagement, she confesses that she had once again lied. When Malcolm is upset that he has once again fallen for one of her tricks she kisses him, responding next with 'Yeah, nothing.' With Stevie's return, Jessica is no longer seen; even during graduation. Much like Cynthia, her character has frequent breaks in between episodes, but unlike Cynthia, Jessica is given much more of a back story and her absences are fewer in the later season, making her more of a central guest character. In one episode, it is revealed that she dates a very large and muscular Asian named Mike, whom Dewey uses to his advantage, in order to get Reese beaten up.
  • Family - Many episodes showed Malcolm's biggest adversaries were his own family. Mostly Reese, Dewey, and his mother Lois. Since most of his relatives from Hal's side of the family, excluding Walter, treat Lois like dirt Malcolm and his brothers thinks of them as jerks.

Love Interests

  • Julie Houlerman - Julie was Malcolm's first love interest in the series. He was in love with her back in elementary school. The two of them were good friends and Julie really liked Malcolm back, only it was unknown if she liked him back romantically or just as a friend. In the episode Funeral, Julie was introduced to Malcolm's family, which completely horrified her and brought her to the point where she started freaking out and disliking Malcolm. She was never seem again after this, putting an end to their friendship and any chances of them becoming a couple.
  • Jessica, Jessica was a one-time love interest in the episode Traffic Jam and Malcolm's second love interest after Julie. The two of them met each other in a large traffic jam. She was from a place that was too far away from where Malcolm lived for them to meet each other regularly, so they had to make the best of their one day together. Jessica got very deep into Malcolm's emotions and told him that he complained a lot and was always suffering from everything. She taught him how to enjoy himself and just forget about all the pain in his life. At the end of the episode, she tried giving him her phone number so they could stay in touch, but a dog grabbed the number from them and they never saw each other again.
  • Cynthia Sanders - played by Tania Raymonde, is a new and outgoing Krelboyne girl who joins Malcolm's class in the episode "Krelboyne Girl." Cynthia is one of Malcolm's first crushes throughout the series but quickly takes on the role of a caring and compassionate friend. She knows Krav Maga, which she promptly uses to subdue Reese when his behavior becomes too annoying to her. She is later cited as also having very large breasts for her age. In the episode "Cynthia's Back", her prolonged absence is explained by stating that she was on a long trip to Europe. After sharing a brief romance with Reese (in which he is only trying to take advantage of her to see her breasts), she returns in the Season 4 episode "Humilithon," saving Malcolm from making a horrible mistake by saying they had sex; destroying her own reputation in the process. After this episode, she is never seen again, and there is no explanation as to what became of her.
  • Beth - Malcolm's love interest in the episode Bowling. Malcolm and Reese both fought over Beth and they both tried to win her over. Reese, however, was extremely disgusting and made Beth hate him, while Malcolm was nice to her and actually made a decent impression on her. He completely humiliated himself in front of her, but she was the only one who didn't laugh at him. At least she didn't laugh at him in public. She did unwillingly laugh at him when they were alone, and then quickly apologized. The two of them then became enamored of each other and started making out, until Lois pulled Malcolm away.
  • Sarah Coleman - Malcolm's first official girlfriend in the episode Malcolm's Girlfriend. Sarah's face was never shown throughout the entire episode. It is unknown how their relationship began, given that they were already dating when the episode started, but Malcolm was pretty excited about dating her. He was so obsessed with her, that he completely neglected his family and friends and every other aspect of his life just so he could focus on her. Malcolm made out with her a bunch of times because she would let him kiss her whenever he wanted. However, Malcolm seemed to care more about himself having Sarah as his girlfriend than he did about his Sarah, herself. Because of this, Sarah broke up with him, leaving Malcolm screaming in pain and misery, wanting to get her back, only for her to ignore him.
  • Alison - Malcolm's girlfriend in the episode Stupid Girl. Malcolm loved Alison only for her looks because he certainly didn't love her for her brains. Alison was an idiot and Malcolm was a genius, but opposites attract and Malcolm realized that her idioticness was actually an advantage on his behalf, because he could entertain her and answer all of her questions, simply by saying the most simple and unintelligent things to her. Their relationship ended when Lois caught them at a party, where Malcolm was drinking alcohol, and because he had gotten so used to not using his brain, he didn't even think of a clever way to get out of it. After their relationship ended, Alison very quickly moved onto dating Reese.
  • Nicki - Nicki was Malcolm's first girlfriend that he kept for more than one episode. The two of them first started dating in the episode Forbidden Girlfriend. Malcolm was working as a tutor for people that needed help with math and Nicki was one of his students. The two of them instantly fell in love and very quickly became boyfriend and girlfriend. Their relationship with each other was perfect and they loved each other for all the right reasons. However, Nicki's disapproving war veteran father was completely against them being a couple so they had to keep their relationship a secret. Nicki continued to date Malcolm and she was always sneaking around with him and just narrowly missing getting caught, which was an extremely nerve-wracking endeavor for Malcolm. This was actually good for him though, because Malcolm loved the rush of almost getting caught and it brought excitement into their life. However, their relationship eventually got to the point where Malcolm made everything about himself and never thought anything about Nicki. In the episode Kicked Out, Nicki started having a problem with Malcolm complaining about himself and him never listening to any of her complaints. Malcolm was being so egotistical and self-absorbed that he didn't even care and so she broke up with him and locked him in her attic, never to be seen again. At the end of the episode, Malcolm broke through the ceiling and landed in her room, right in front of her father, revealing what happened, putting an absolute end to their relationship.
  • Kathy McCulsky - Kathy was Malcolm's date in Reese's Party. She was described as a promiscuous girl who doesn't date anyone for anything less than 2nd Base. She was supposed to spend time with Malcolm but ended up making out with one Donnie's hoodlum friends in the background.
  • Angela Pozefsky - Malcolm's Girlfriend in Malcolm Dates a Family. Despite dating Angela he spent more time with his family and only continued to date her so he could spend time with them instead.
  • Wendy - Wendy was a fellow teen co-worker of Malcolm's at Lucky Aid. She only appeared in Butterflies where Malcolm is shown to have a huge crush on her and is upset that he has to work the night shift and can't attend a party with her. He takes advice from the guy hiding in the store on how to charm her and it works for a while, until he lets too much info slip and she assumes that Malcolm is stalking her. This results in her getting a restraining order against him.
  • Beth (Reese Joins the Army: Part 1) - Beth was Reese's Girlfriend at one point and Malcolm initially found her annoying. In a hilarious turn of events, Beth ends up cheating on Reese with Malcolm and drives Reese to run away in a heartbroken state.
  • Anita - Anita is a shaman who appeared in the episode Burning Man. When Malcolm met Anita, he began to sympathize with her and realize they shared the same feelings. They kept going deeper and deeper to the point where they sympathized on a spiritual level and they both fell in love with each other. Malcolm loses his virginity in this episode to Anita.Anita breaks up with him, as she told him that they could never be together because Malcolm was just too much of a pushover who would have only gone by her rules and not his own realizes that Malcolm is willing to do whatever she wants. Anita is also the oldest love interest Malcolm ever had, having been mentioned to be the same as as Lois Wilkerson, who was 46 by that time. Given that Malcolm was about 17 by the time they had sex, this makes their sexual intercourse with each other what's known as ephebophilia. This showed how truly desperate Malcolm was for love and affection in ANY Form. And how it's also clear how Malcolm loved Anita.
  • Vicki - Vicki was Malcolm's popular but secretly smart girlfriend in Secret Boyfriend. She reveals herself as a genius to Malcolm and they start going out. But she only goes out with him in secret because she doesn't want to lose her popular reputation. This detrimental relationship goes on until Jessica convinces Malcolm to break up with her. He does break up with her at the school dance and she walks away in tears.
  • Hannah - Malcolm had a very short-lived attraction towards Hannah only due to her being very pretty. But she was a terribly bad dancer and ended up accidentally hitting him during practice. After she breaks her ankle during practice he moves on to Danielle as a dance partner.
  • Danielle - Danielle was Malcolm's second dance partner in the episode, Bomb Shelter. Malcolm initially didn't choose her as a partner because he wanted to dance with Hannah. But after a disastrous dance practice with Hannah, Malcolm ends up being Danielle's dance partner. She kisses him the day before the contest and he becomes interested in dating her until she reveals that she initially thought he wasn't good looking. After an argument during the dance contest she drops him on the floor and leaves.

Trivia

  • Malcolm's IQ is 165, as revealed in the Pilot as he was taking an IQ test.
  • Malcolm was the first character to speak in the series, with his first line being "This is the world."
  • In the episode Stock Car Races, it was revealed that Malcolm was named after an in-series famous racecar driver named Rusty Malcolm.
  • In the episode Flashback, it was revealed that Malcolm was born on the front lawn of his house.
  • Malcolm loses his virginity to, at the age of 17 to a woman named Anita in the episode Burning Man .
  • Out of the boys, Walter Wilkerson (the boys' grandfather and Hal's father) likes Malcolm the most because of their love for history. This was partially shown in the episode "Family Reunion" when they were trying to recreate a battle scene between the Union and the Confederacy.
  • In the episode "If Boys Were Girls", he had a female counterpart in Lois' fantasies named Mallory, who was played by Lisa Foiles. Like Malcolm, she has a great intelligence level, but she does not share his egotistical, self-absorbed nature and actually has a decent social life. She was also not as violent as Malcolm was. However, she did attack people verbally and she really said some extremely cruel and offensive comments about her mother and sisters.
  • Malcolm has appeared in every episode of the series except for Clip Show #2, where the rest of the immediate family was seen, but Malcolm only appeared in flashbacks.
  • Malcolm's parents plan on him to become more and more successful for the rest of his life, but for him to suffer and be miserable throughout the entire time, and for his entire life to lead to him becoming the president of the United States. They want him to avoid being happy on his way to presidency, because they know that if he suffers, he will actually give a crap about the citizens of America, unlike most previous presidents. It is unknown if this actually happened in Malcolm's future as his life beyond college was never seen, but if Malcolm's parents are really right about the futures of all of their children, then it's very likely. (Graduation) However this isn't likely because of all the federal laws that Hal,Francis and Reese broke with Hal Making Intolerable speeches about the Government on his pirated Radio signal Reese Faking his age in order to join the army underage and Francis Violating a lot of American international Treaties.

Behind the Scenes

  • Malcolm was originally written to be nine-years-old, and Frankie Muniz was sure this would prevent him from getting the role, as he himself was thirteen at the time. However, the makers of the show liked his acting so much that they bumped up the age of the character up to eleven.
  • Martin Spanjers auditioned for the role of Malcolm before Frankie Muniz. In the Pilot episode, he made a cameo appearance, playing the role of Malcolm's friend, Richard.
  • Although Malcolm is the younger brother of Reese, Malcolm's actor, Frankie Muniz, is actually older than Reese's actor, Justin Berfield, but only by a few months.
  • His name may be a pun on the word "Malcolntent", which means a trouble-making rebel, who's often complaining or unsatisfied with their life. This would make sense, since that describes Malcolm perfectly.
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