Reese Comes Home is the first episode of Season 6 and the 108th episode overall of Malcolm in the Middle.
Summary[]
Both Lois & Reese head in opposite directions, Lois goes on a search to Kabul to find Reese and Reese himself deserts the Army.
Plot[]
The episode begins with Hal going over the recent events in his life; he was wrongly arrested thanks to his company framing him for embezzlement causing Lois to have a nervous breakdown and also get fired. As if this wasn't bad enough, Malcolm stole Reese's girlfriend causing Reese to join the Army under a pseudonym and now no-one has any idea where he is. The girl scout seller is asking him for money because she is there to sell cookies and not to hear about his life stories.
Hal is seen doing his fatherly duties when Malcolm asks if Lois is coming back from the Army recruiters. This is answered when he and the family hears her yelling at the army recruiters who brought her back. After Lois goes inside, one of the recruiters explain to Hal that she was being very volatile in attacking them with her tirades and demanding to know where Reese is. It escalated to having her attack them in the groin area, the recruiters had to arrest her and take her back home. Hal tries to bribe the recruiters to drop the case on Lois with the little money he has left to avoid a potential lawsuit in which the family can't afford. The men refuse to take the bribe and informs him that if she attacks them again physically and with her tirades, they will likely have her arrested again and she will be locked up in jail.
When they leave, Malcolm asks Lois if she's okay. She answers in her angry tirades that she's not and explains that the recruiters won't divulge in any information to Reese's whereabouts, despite her explaining that he's underage. Lois mentions that the only way the Army can help is if they can provide the name Reese joined under, which they don't know, and even then, it'll take six months minimum to find him. She mentions that the family can't wait that long because she wants him home ASAP. Hal tries to calm her down, but Lois remains angered by the lack of progress. She points out doesn't trust the recruiters to help her find Reese, so the family must do their part to find him. Since Lois doesn't trust the family to help her find him, it means she must find Reese by herself. This concerns Hal because he knows how things would turn out given how stubborn and controlling, she is. Malcolm is also worried due to Reese's knowledge in using a gun from last time and that her rage is making things worse. He tries to convince Lois on finding the name Reese registered under without the Army's knowledge. Once they have it, they can get him home sooner like she wants. Lois furiously reminds Malcolm that it was his fault from the beginning for stealing Reese’s girlfriend and causing the mess the family is in. She sarcastically claiming that it’ll definitely be the army’s fault if Reese gets killed(although more likely, she will blame him for what will happen). Hal convinces Lois to go easy on Malcolm because Francis had already disciplined him enough for the earlier deed and conserve her wrath for Reese when or if they find him at all. She calms down enough to agree to the plan. Dewey realizes they’ll be having angry meatloaf for dinner and sarcastically thanks Malcolm. Malcolm is sure that Reese will be fine since all he has to do is lay low and not do anything stupid, before he realizes that those are the two things he cannot do.
Parachuting into Afghanistan, Reese repeatedly says in his head that he’s a lean mean fighting machine. However, on his way down he gets distracted by thinking about robots, Green Lantern and pie. However, immediately upon landing Reese abandons the troops upon arrival in Afghanistan and goes AWOL.
In the boy's bedroom, Dewey comes in and asks what Malcolm is writing about. Malcolm tells him he’s making a list of every bad thing that Reese ever did to him. He claims that he’s sick of having to defend himself and no matter what Reese has still done way worse things to him than he has to Reese. Dewey says now that they’re admitting they have lists he decides to show Malcolm his own. Dewey says that his list started in January 1995, Malcolm says his began on October 3, 1996, with his first “knuckle pizza” before listing several other painful things Reese did to him. Dewey wonders if Malcolm believes that if Reese dies, then they’ll be even.
Hal decides to go down to the recruitment office himself and has more luck, learning that Reese signed up under the name 'Jetson'. However, the army recruiter makes the service sound so desirable that Lois has to stop Hal from signing up himself.
Reese wanders around aimlessly through the desert and ends up dressing in a burqa to masquerade as a woman and getting himself married to an amorous man.
Fleeing, Reese ends up wandering through the desert is at the point of giving up until Mr. Waffles appears to him as a mirage and encourages him to get home just to have good waffles again. Reese is unsure since he’s been shot at, married and when the man found out Reese was his bride it wasn’t exactly a deal breaker. Mr. Waffles reminds him that people in Afghanistan don't know what real breakfast is since they simply take rice from the night before, cook it into a thin paste and pretend it's breakfast. He also informs him that his new waffles have 20% more blueberries that plump up in the batter which makes them juicier. His words motivate Reese to stand up and put all his remaining effort and strength into getting home. Mr. Waffles says he is proud of Reese as he asks what happened to Mrs. Waffles who he thought was hot. Mr. Waffles agrees that she was, but she didn’t increase product awareness in girls 3 to 18 a single percent. Reese returns to reality and finds a train station and sneaks into a large crate and attempts to get home by train, ship, camel and turtle to get back home.
Further guilty for his actions, Malcolm decides to volunteer at a V.A. hospital. His boss there, Nurse Peterson, informs him on what day and hours he must give the medications to the elderly charges. She mentions to Malcolm that under no circumstances he can take them out of their medications but refuses to explain why.
Lois heads down to the boot camp where Reese was previously sent and meets Sgt. Hendrix. After recognizing Reese as Private Jetson due to her showing him the picture, the two discuss disciplining children. Sgt. Hendrix is so impressed by Lois that he leaves the file about Reese in the open and decides to gaze out the window for exactly 120 seconds, letting her know he's giving her the opportunity to view the information while he looks away from her direction. Getting the information she needs; Lois sells the family car and flies off to Kabul despite Hal's pleas.
At the V.A. Hospital, Malcolm decides to throw the pills out believing they were the source of their misery. Nurse Peterson reprimands him for the deed and this yields predictable results with the elderly fighting. While calling security to deal with the issue, she explains that the chaos and fighting is what the hospital were trying to avoid. Nurse Peterson tells Malcolm that he broke the one rule that she explained in the job earlier: Don't take the elderly veterans off their medications. She mentions those meds were needed to keep them calm and civil. Realizing his mistake, Malcolm tries to calm the elderly veterans down to predictable results.
At home, after picking him up from the V.A. Hospital, Hal reprimands Malcolm for making things worse. He mentions it's bad enough that Lois is going against his advice and left town to search for Reese. Rather than come up with a snarky insult, Malcolm apologizes to Hal for the behavior. Hal mentions that he can be forgiven for trying to ease the guilt over his actions. He then realizes the frozen peas he gave Malcolm to nurse his bruises are actually part of their dinner that night before taking the bag away.
It does little to comfort Malcolm and he heads to his room that he now shares with only Dewey. He lets Dewey know that God decided that he's a horrible brother and doesn’t deserve to redeem himself and now he gets to carry his soul-crushing guilt for the rest of his life. Dewey has been trying to compose a requiem for Reese but can’t get in the right mood using a glitter marker. He then comforts Malcolm and wisely counsels him that they're going at it the wrong way. Reese wasn't the kind of person who helps others, he was a troublesome delinquent who loves causing mayhem and getting into all sorts of trouble for no reason. If they want to honor Reese, they should do it the way he would’ve wanted. Malcolm wonders if he has something in mind, and Dewey suggests they go to an art fair and honor him properly by doing all sorts of mayhem that he enjoys. Dewey lists all the activities including driftwood art, yarn owls, dream catchers, face painting and folk dancing. Malcolm says with so many chintzy activities they are kind of begging to be pranked but is unsure. Once Dewey mentions that there will be rapping grannies, Malcolm agrees to go to the art fair to properly honor Reese.
Reese is found in small town in India, making an insult to the Hindu God, Hanuman because it looked like a monkey. Despite his threats, Reese comes face to face with Lois and is relieved to see her. Lois thanks the local men helping her find Reese and they leave. Lois then proceeds to yell asking what on earth Reese was thinking by illegally joining the army and mentioning how filthy he is and how his nails are a mess knowing that he has been tomb robbing and informs him the fun stops now as she drags him home to California telling him how much trouble he will be in.
On top of a roof overlooking the art fair, Malcolm and Dewey solemnly launch diaper-balloon bombs (filled by Jamie) over the unsuspecting patrons where they go over the times Reese had tormented them with his mayhem. Malcolm can’t believe that Reese could really be gone. Dewey finds a diaper that has to be five pounds and Malcolm likes to think Jamie knew what it was for. Malcolm states that all his life he wished that something horrible would happen to Reese, but now that it actually has, he misses him so much he’d do anything to take it back. Dewey will miss him too and remembers a time when Reese shaved off his eyebrows and glued them back on, so he’d look permanently surprised and how he thought that prank was genius. Malcolm detonates more diaper balloons onto more disgusted fair goers before remembering the look of pure joy of Reese’s face on Christmas morning when he was smashing his brothers presents. Malcolm says no matter how hard he tried he could never get their mom furious enough to turn her face a special shade of purple which they dubbed “Reese Purple”. Malcolm is upset about why he couldn’t have said something meaningful to Reese before he left. Dewey tells him he shouldn’t do this to himself before popping more balloons onto more disgusted people. Dewey knows how much Reese would’ve loved to join them in their plan and Malcolm wishes he was here to see it. A newly arrived Reese surprises them on the rooftop. After a heartfelt warm and fuzzy reunion hug, Malcolm tells him how happy he is to see him. Reese is glad to be back as well and is ready to reclaim his place in the community. He asks how their plan works as Malcolm and Dewey explain it and how they were saving one diaper from when Jamie had swine flu. Reese launches the diaper-balloon out into the fair and drops it right onto the rapping grannies. Reese says how much he loves this country and how glad he is to be home. The boys are back, indeed.
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[]
- Steve Rankin as Sgt. Hendrix
Cameos[]
- Caroline Aaron as Nurse Peterson
- James Black as Sgt. Rick
- Drew Massey as Mr. Waffles (voice)
- Matthew Atherton as Military Police
- Larry Marko as Ed
- Farrah Grey as Flight Attendant (credited as Farrah Skylar Gray)
- Sunny Bedi as a tribesman
- David Kavandi as Mullah
- Luke Bayback as a teenager
- Emma Lockhart as Girl Scout
- Matthew R. Anderson as a paratrooper (uncredited)
- Paul Michael Bloodgood as Recruiting Officer Dorn (uncredited)
- Dave Powers as Private James (uncredited)
- Wells Rosales as Private Martinez (uncredited)
- Nicholas Roy as Private Franklin (uncredited)
Trivia[]
- This is the first episode to air in high definition.
- Reese gets legally wed to an Afghan man, while he is wearing a burka in disguise and posing as a woman. He never technically got divorced with this man, but he did run away from him. In the later episode, Bride of Ida, Reese would get more officially wed to a girl named Raduca. This would technically be making Reese a polygamist, until the episode College Recruiters, where Reese and Raduca would get divorced. However, since there probably wasn’t a license signed by Reese [with his legal name if there was a license] then this first Afghan wedding was never officiated or 'real'.
- It has been theorized that when Reese says that his husband didn't mind when he found out he was a guy, there was a possibility that something that was not completely consensual happened between them.
- Under the military code, Reese going AWOL upon arriving in Afghanistan could have resulted with him receiving a dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and a confinement of up to of 5 years in federal prison. To make matters worse, if the Army found out that Reese used the false surname Jetson earlier, he would be considered a military impostor and would also result in imprisonment.
- Reese is seen getting punished by a group of Hindus for making fun of one of their religious deities. Reese claims that he only made fun of it because he looked like a giant monkey man. This may have been a reference to Hanuman.
- Francis and Piama do not appear in this episode. It's presumed that they returned to New Mexico after Hal’s trial ended.
- This marks the fourth time Lois had been arrested. The first three times are in Traffic Ticket, Book Club and Monkey. Her final time being arrested is in Halloween.
- This is Steve Rankin's final appearance as Sgt. Hendrix
- The missing refrigerator returns in this episode.
- This episode marks the 6th time that a cold opener has deviated from most of the cold opener in which one plays a significant role in the story itself. The first time was in Traffic Jam. The second time is in Emancipation. The third time is in Humilithon. The fourth time is in Day Care. The fifth time in Reese Joins the Army: Part 2. The last time would be in College Recruiters.