"Morp", or "Backwards Prom", is the 150th episode of the series and the 21st episode of the seventh season. It aired on April 23, 2006.
Synopsis[]
Malcolm aligns himself with the unpopular kids to form an anti-prom they call "Morp". Dewey discovers there aren't any childhood pictures of him, so he concocts an elaborate scavenger hunt to punish Hal and Lois in order for Hal to get his wallet back. And for the senior prom, Reese gets paid to take Jeanie, a studious girl in class, but only after she gives him a makeover and schools him in manners.
Plot[]
In the cold open, Malcolm complained he didn't sleep much last night due to studying for finals. Reese replies he slept like a baby and wrote his answers on paper and taped them on his sunglasses, proving to Malcolm there is more than one way to be smart. However, he puts on his shades and cannot see where he's going due to the answers blocking his vision and causing him to crash into a house object. 
Prom season is here and unlike the rest of the school, Malcolm is not excited as he thinks people are just being phonies while spending thousands of dollars just for one night. Malcolm decides to organize a "Morp" with a classmate, Carla, as an alternative to the traditional Prom, for those pupils shunned by the "cool" kids. Meanwhile, Reese is bullying a kid and shoving him into a locker. He is approached by Jeanie, a popular and studious girl, to take him to prom. He accepts after she pays him $200, however, she also desires to gives him a crash course in how to be a proper gentleman and a makeover.
Back at home, Dewey is working on an autobiography assignment for school and needs photos from his early childhood. He is very impressed to see how much was put into all his older brothers' photo albums (which get thinner with each passing child) but is disappointed to find he does not have a single photo. Lois tries to defend herself saying he at least has a memory book which is more than they got for Jamie. This upsets Dewey, showing how little his mom cares, to which she argues, he is the fourth child and by the time he came around the house was in chaos and she was already busy dealing with the other boys, admitting she could not take any of his pictures or videos, or even getting him all his vaccines. Not having his vaccines shocks Dewey, to which Lois snidely promises if he gets a whooping cough, she'll take plenty of pictures.
Meanwhile, Malcolm holds a gathering of the unpopular and misfit kids to make a plan for Morp. Initially, the group was antagonistic of each other, especially AJ, who considers everyone scared masses and Malcolm being a tyrant leader bossing everyone around. He closes his argument by saying they need to make their own prom statements and pick their places to make it, to which Malcolm rebukes AJ that they might as well just stay home. However, Malcolm brings them back together to help them realize they need to do this because they all share the common problem of never belonging and that this will get them to hang out with others just like them while still being individuals. Later, when Dewey gets home from school, Hal presents Dewey with drawings he found that Dewey did as a child they kept. Dewey initially feels appreciated but then falls suspicious looking through them and seeing a drawing of his grandmother, Ida, with her whiskey and oddly missing a leg. He questions this drawing given that she did not lose her leg until the prior year, Hal initially dismisses it by trying to make Dewey think he saw into the future. Dewey gets upset realizing Hal did all those drawings and feels his parents not only neglect him but think he is an idiot.
Prom begins, Reese and Jeanie are in attendance and were greeted by Jeanie's friends, who are surprised to see him with her. Reese surprised everyone, including Jeanie, with his gentle demeanor, complimenting the kid he usually beats up and steals lunch from about his mother's tuna fish sandwich, then compliments Jeanie. Jeanie was impressed and Reese and her begin to dance. Meanwhile, the Morp is in the school's basement boiler room and the kids are having a good time, but Malcolm feels unsatisfied and believe something else is missing. At home, Hal excitedly arrives after dropping off Jamie with the babysitter, and quickly disrobes. With the older boys at the prom and Jamie at the babysitters, Hal and Lois uses the opportunity to have sex. However, while naked in the kitchen and getting ready Dewey walks in, Hal and Lois having forgotten that Dewey is not old enough to be at prom. While Lois suggest they need to take a raincheck, Hal quickly refuses and sends Dewey out with his wallet, suggesting he go enjoy himself with a movie or a burger, etc.
Later, Malcolm decides goes upstairs to the prom realizing he wants the kids at prom to know about their party. He sees Reese who is having a good time, but Malcolm dismisses him saying this is all phony. Reese argues telling him that something that starts off as phony could turn into something real, then looks to Jeanie, showing that they grew genuine feelings for each other. Malcolm then gets on stage to stop the music and tries to make the popular kids feel guilty by announcing the party downstairs of people the popular kids excluded and it is so much better than the prom. They chose not to care and found Malcolm annoying; the DJ resumed the music as everyone continued to have a good time. Back at home, Lois and Hal just finished and they see a voicemail from Dewey. Dewey decides to tell Hal and Lois where to find him if Hal wants his wallet back. This turns into a series of scavenger hunts forcing them to drive all over town with items of his wallet being returned to him with each stop while collecting tons of party supplies and costumes, while being ridiculed and disgusted by the people Dewey ask to help him.
Back at the Morp, Malcolm feels defeated and humiliated for the prom kids' response to him. However, Kelly and a few other popular students later appear in the basement, surprised there really is a party like Malcolm said. Disgusted by the location and feeling bad for the other kids who aren't having a good time at the Morp, they invite the Morp kids to come upstairs to enjoy the prom as there is only a short time of school left and popularity feels silly. However, Carla jumps on Kelly reminding her that she was the only kid on their block not invited to her birthday party when they were kids. Kelly, however, said she sent an invitation and really wanted Carla to come and thought Carla stood her up. Realizing there was a misunderstanding, Carla and Kelly embrace in a hug and Carla invites the rest of the Morp kids to all go to the prom with Kelly and the popular kids. Many jumps at the chance to go to a real party and file out. Malcolm, however, calls out to them to come back because they shouldn't forget how they were picked on and how one invitation and apology (that was never even said) by the popular kids does not make up for 12 years of bullying. Everyone ignores him and leaves, with the only person left in his Morp being Ken, who is naked and is happy to have everyone gone. At the prom, everyone is having a good time and having a slow dance, Jeanie, growing genuine feelings for Reese, invites him to be alone and intimate with her. He accepts, but before being ready to kiss, his alarm on the watch goes off and he bids her good night as his service time expired.
Hal and Lois arrive with presents and a cake, hoping to find Dewey at Chuck E. Cheese. He appears and Hal demands his wallet back, to which he returns. They threaten him and tell him he is not going to have this party and to help them return everything. Dewey then reveals the party is not for him, but it is for Jamie, who is there with his babysitter. Dewey didn't want Jamie to have his childhood ignored as it is already too late for Dewey's. He presents his parents with a camera also to expect them to be able to document every moment of Jamie's childhood. Hal and Lois relent and decide to allow the party to happen. Lois tells Dewey that he did a nice thing for his brother, and tells him to make the most of the cake as everything he is going to eat afterwards for a long while will be dipped in sardine juice. At the sight of Dewey's dismayed face, Lois takes a picture commenting that he now has his first photo for his memory book.
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[]
- Caitlin Crosby as Kelly
- Amy Halloran as Carla
- Kate Micucci as Heather
- Scarlet Lam as Jeanie
- Jeff Braine as AJ
- Shanna Collins as Shana
- Adam Rose as Ken
Recurring[]
- James and Lukas Rodriguez as Jamie (uncredited)
Cameos[]
- Samantha Streets as Anna
- Nicki Boyer as Pedicurist
- Jozef Fahey as Mike
- Eddie Pepitone as Homeless Nick
- Evan Sabara as Kid in locker
- Josh Gundling Williamson as Employee Robbie (credited as Joshua Gundeling Williamson)
Trivia[]
- One of the high school students that Malcolm sets up Morp with is played by Kate Micucci, who at the time of filming, was 26 years old.
- In this episode, Reese mentions his career counselor suggests he should be a mechanic. Reese, now, dismissed the idea with hopes to make a career on being a prom date after Jeanie paid him $200 to be her date. 
- Dewey mentions that Ida lost her leg a year ago. This is a callback to the episode Ida Loses a Leg.
- Kelly is played by Caitlin Crosby, who previously played the role of another popular teenage girl from Malcolm's school named "Joanne" in the episode Watching The Baby.
- "Circus Burger" from the episode Reese's Job appears again in this episode, as one of the places Hal had to go to in order to get all the contents on Dewey's scavenger hunt.
- Josh Gundling Williamson, who played the Circus Burger drive-thru worker Robbie, was also second assistant camera on over 80% of Malcom in the Middle episodes.
- It is possible that the sexual intercourse between Lois and Hal in the episode is how their unnamed 6th child in Graduation was conceived.
- The comeuppance that Malcolm gets from refusing to go to the prom with the other unpopular kids when asked by Kelly and her friends, is to be forced to spend the evening with the naked and cynical Ken. His own egotism ends up being his own downfall when he realizes just how similar he is to Herkabe in being cynical and miserable.
- However given that Malcolm was picked on by popular kids in the past its obviously because he still holds a grudge against the popular kids. This could have something to do with his past in middle school when he was forced to join the Krelboynes at Lois's admonition back in Pilot.
- Jessica was supposed to be in the scene and finally convinces him to go to prom. From there, Malcolm discovers that a lot of his real issues were on himself because he never gave people a chance to apologize and be his friend.