Pearl Harbor is the fourth episode of Season 6 and the 111th episode overall of Malcolm in the Middle. It aired on December 5, 2004.
Synopsis[]
After always being cast in his neighbor's shadow, when it comes to holiday decorations, Hal tries to make an extremely elaborate Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day decoration. Malcolm and Reese are getting annoyed because of how their neighbor Jessica keeps barging into their home uninvited.
Plot[]
Jessica (Hayden Panettiere), Malcolm and Reese's teenage neighbor, is coming over to the house more and more to escape her own miserable home life. She enjoys manipulating the two of them into doing whatever she wants. She later tricks Lois into taking the family (and her) to see the touring production of Mamma Mia. When Malcolm and Reese separately confront her, she claims she actually did it for the other brother who is secretly gay. Malcolm and Reese then endure the show and spend the next few days being nice to each other much to the family's confusion (and Jessica's enjoyment).
Meanwhile, Hal, tired of competing with a neighbor named, Mr. Randall, who always outdoes his Christmas decorations, decides to create his own "holiday" to decorate his house for Pearl Harbor Day. Dewey is doing a report on Hal being his hero, but he rips the report because Dewey lied about him, Dewey quits his report on Hal, which saddens him. Hal starts giving him the cold shoulder and insults him in front of Lois. She is angered and yells at him at the top of her lungs. This inspires Dewey to write a report about Lois to his amusement.
Reese and Malcolm start to realize that Jessica only tricked them into thinking the other was gay. They decide to retaliate, but Malcolm informs Reese they must be careful because Jessica has Lois on her side now. Reese gives Malcolm a hickey. Malcolm then ensures Lois sees it (by trying to hide it) and acts like it was Jessica who gave it to him. Lois takes Jessica to her bedroom, where Jessica claims that she only did it to help Malcolm's self-esteem because he liked another girl. Lois makes it clear that she isn't so easily lied to and knew about her tricking Malcolm and Reese into thinking the other was gay the whole time but went with it since it made them nicer to each other for a couple of days. However, Lois still bans Jessica from the house for trying to trick them and for violating her trust...to which she expects Malcolm and Reese to now forgive Jessica and start sneaking her in. She wants Jessica therefore to supervise the boys while she's at work for the next few months: making sure Reese does his half-hour of assigned reading for school & having Malcolm do all of his college applications, not only for Ivy League schools, at least until Ice Capades comes to town.
After Mr. Randall outdoes Hal again for Pearl Harbor Day, Dewey reconciles with Hal and together they dump worms on his decorations, encouraging birds to fly down, knock all of the decorations down and defecate all over them. In turn, this humiliates him enough into not competing with Hal again.
The last scene shows Reese shoving Malcolm's belongings off of Malcolm's dresser, leading them to exchange harsh words, with Reese eventually saying he liked Malcolm better when he was "gay", as Malcolm agrees with him about Reese.
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[]
Cameos[]
- Hayden Panettiere as Jessica
- Curtis Taylor as Bill Rendall
Trivia[]
- Jessica, previously seen in the episode Stereo Store, appears again;
- Hal mentions that they haven't gotten snow in over two years. The last time it snowed on-screen was in the episode Christmas, which was three seasons ago, equal to three years in the in-series timeline;
- Pearl Harbor was an attack on the U.S. by Japan as the spark that led the U.S. to join World War 2.