Reese vs. Stevie is the third episode of season seven of Malcolm in the Middle.
Synopsis[]
Reese tells Stevie that he is going to beat him up, which puts Stevie on the edge. After Hal catches Dewey smoking, he makes a deal with him that he will stop drinking coffee if Dewey quits smoking. Dewey and Hal engage in a battle, with Dewey drinking a lot of coffee and Hal smoking cigarettes simply because the other is not allowed to indulge in their preferred vice. Meanwhile, Lois tries to get Jamie to talk by telling him everything about herself, and eventually has an epiphany about her insecurity all these years.
Plot[]
Hal is in the garage when he catches one lit cigarette for his secret stash. After putting out, he assumes it's Reese behind it and orders him out of the hiding space. To his surprise, it's Dewey that's smoking cigarettes. Hal reprimands Dewey for smoking, mentioning how disgusting of a habit it is and along with how long it took him to quit. He asks Dewey if he wants to have respiratory problems and end up having to rely on breathing in an air tank. Hal asks him how he even got a hold of cigarettes in the first place. Dewey confesses that he found both Hal's and Francis' secret stashes in the garage. He is horrified by this because those are both of his and Francis' secret stashes from years ago that they hid in the garage. For the first try, Hal gives Dewey a one free pass. Depending on the seriousness of the offenses Dewey's older brothers committed and which Lois can't know about, he is the only one who decides in how the free pass will be used. In flashbacks, Hal gave Francis a free pass when he snuck out to go to a strip bar and handcuffed himself to the pole after stealing the money off a stripper. During this time, he ordered Francis to give the money back to her. Reese used his one free pass when he tried to teach a donkey to roller skate and accidentally killed it. Malcolm used his one free pass when he accidentally burned his and Hal's hair from a chemistry experiment gone wrong. Dewey is taken by Hal to sign some paperwork over his use of the free pass.
In the living room Lois tries to get Jamie to talk but he still hasn't said a word. Hal enters and Lois asks if he's heard Jamie say anything. He initially panics, thinking Jamie has told on him in some way, then realizes his mistake and goes quiet. Lois explains she's worried about him since he's "however old he is" and has yet to say a single word. Hal assures her that children go at their own pace and mentions in the 6th grade he had a full beard and still couldn't tie his shoes properly.
As Stevie and Malcolm study in the boys' room, Abe reveals some good news: Stevie's accepted by the Norvet Bio-Medical Institute as a research subject. Abe is excited, certain that this means Stevie will be walking from now on. Reese enters and throws Stevie's papers on the floor, declaring it to be his desk for his stuff, loudly complaining about Stevie's presence. Reese gets in Stevie's face and mocks him, only to be sprayed in the face by Stevie's inhaler. Reese grabs his shirt and prepares to punch him, but holds himself back, while Stevie only smiles. Malcolm calls Reese classy for the move, and Reese complains that Stevie's hit him plenty of times, and always makes fun and looks down on him. He lets go and apologizes as Malcolm is called away by Lois. Reese stops to pick up the papers he knocked down, only to announce he's going to go through with it this time. Although he has long kept to his self-imposed rule of not going after Stevie due to his disability, he announces an official fight, next Friday after school.
Lois reenters the house with Jamie, telling him the doctor said there's no reason he can't talk. The doctor also told her to talk to him constantly, so she begins narrating her actions in the kitchen, mixed with her annoyances and opinions about the ungrateful responses from the family for all her hard work.
Dewey is still hooked on cigarette and has a hard time quitting. Hal finds him smoking the crawlspace and calls him back out. Dewey claims he's cutting back and is under 2 packs a day. Hal asks how that's possible after he got rid of the cartons in the garage; Dewey explains there are cigarettes hidden all around the house, and is upset at the amount of money wasted on those that could have gone to putting him through private school. Hal admits they're there to stop him from panicking after he himself quit years ago. He offers that he will give up his own addiction of drinking coffee if Dewey stops smoking, so they can deal with their respective withdrawals together.
Malcolm and Stevie play March and Conquer in the dining room, but Stevie's attention is elsewhere. Reese enters and brags that he managed to convince the principal that the blood on his knuckles was his own. He mouths "Friday" to Stevie and leaves. Malcolm explains how Reese got those bloody knuckles, going into extreme detail about Reese beating up a classmate: the brutality, how much blood there was, and that Reese apparently uses dental tools on some of his victims. Stevie then asks if he's seen as abrasive, admitting he doesn't want to be hated. Malcolm misunderstands and thinks this is about a crush, teasing him. Stevie gets upset and starts to leave. Malcolm apologizes and wants to continue playing, but Stevie says he has to leave for his first appointment at the Norvet Institute. Before he can go, Malcolm tries to flatter him but ends up giving a backhanded compliment: pointing out his personality trait of humoring his dad, and letting him think there's any chance Stevie will ever walk when they know he never will. Stevie glares at him and leaves.
Lois walks through the kitchen talking non-stop to Jamie about her hair. Hal leans by the coffee maker, trying to get a sniff of coffee wherever he can. Dewey chews gum endlessly, pointing out he wouldn't need so much if Hal had bought him the nicotine gum he asked for. Dewey starts a hacking cough, which concerns Lois. Hal covers by claiming it's part of puberty and happened to his whole family as he escorts Dewey away from her.
Later, Lois lies on the couch, discussing her teens years and how she used to feel inadequate despite her accomplishments, even resorting to stuffing her bra. Jamie knocks a box of tissues down and over to her when she starts crying. Malcolm and Reese return home and she covers for her crying by springing back to folding laundry, holding up a pillowcase and claiming it's stained. She threatens a new punishment of no pillowcases for a month as the confused boys walk away.
At night, Dewey sneaks out of the house to smoke a cigarette in the garage. He hesitates to light one as Hal reveals his presence behind him. Hal begins to express his disappointment when Dewey catches him brewing coffee nearby, and he admits they both have a problem. Dewey says this is all very degrading, and that on the way home from school, he almost pulled a cigarette butt from the gutter. Hal admits he French-kissed Lois that morning just to get a taste of coffee, but is still optimistic that they can beat their addictions. He tells Dewey that they need to do some activities just to keep their minds off their cravings. They start playing catch just to get their minds off their addictions, waking Lois. She asks what they're doing, which they both claim is just a fun game of catch between father and son, as they both throw faster and harder at each other. She sighs and returns to bed.
Lois sits on her bed, continuing to talk to Jamie. She reminisces about her high school years. She describes her disastrous cheer-leading tryout, during which the toilet paper she'd stuffed into her bra trailed out behind her, humiliating her in front of everyone. She kicks herself for being so vain back then, and for still spending so much time on her hair, keeping herself pretty to escape the laughter that still haunts her. She grabs some nearby scissors and goads herself up to cut her hair off to be better than that vanity, as the phone starts to ring.
Abe calls the house, and Malcolm answers and receives a warning that Stevie's on his way to the Wilkerson house to fight Reese. Dewey stays at the kitchen table, continuing to chew gum. Malcolm rushes off to the garage to try to warn his brother, only to find him in an unused trash can filled with ice water. Reese is going to make this fight fair by making his legs numb and limp in ice water, and stabs them with an ice pick to test that it worked. He pulls himself out of the water and flops onto the ground as Malcolm calls him insane.
Hal enters the house as Dewey pulls a massive ball of gum out of his mouth. He asks where Lois is, and upon hearing she's been locked in her room for hours, apologizes for being harsh with Dewey earlier, and says he thinks the worst of it is over as he heads back outside. Hal decides to smoke again by taking out a pack of fresh cigarette packs from the lamp by the door. Dewey catches him immediately, calling it unfair to trade one addiction for another. Hal claims he's allowed because he's a grown-up, so Dewey takes up drinking coffee in revenge for breaking his promise. He and Hal both lean into their addictions as they watch each other through the kitchen window.
Lois continues to psych herself up to cut her hair as she has an epiphany: it wasn't vanity, it was her mother who stuffed her bra and made her feel worthless. Lois decides she's going to be better than Ida, and tells Jamie she doesn't care if he ever learns to talk before leaving the room. Upon her leaving Jamie finally says his first words: "Shut up".
Lois enters the kitchen into the middle of the antagonism battle between Hal and Dewey. She yells at Hal, who points out Dewey drinking coffee before throwing his cigarette away. Lois ignores Dewey and is still mad at Hal.
Reese does pushups to prepare for the fight as Malcolm tries to talk some sense into him, explaining he doesn't have to do this. Reese repeats that Stevie insults him all the time while Malcolm lets it happen. Reese accuses him of abandoning his own brother claiming that Malcolm has the brains and talent to do whatever he wants. He knows he'll go on to better things with Stevie, while the family is left behind. Malcolm wonders if Reese is jealous of Stevie, but Reese states he's more pissed than jealous. Malcolm now realizes how hurt he is feeling but mentions that no matter how much he wants to escape his family and their problems, Malcolm knows he can't. No matter where he lives or what he does with his life, him and Reese will be forced together and that since they're brothers they will be bonded together for life. The tender brother moment is interrupted when Stevie appears by kicking in the garage door. It turns out the Norvet Bio-Medical Institute is having Stevie test out a robotic exoskeleton, so Stevie also decided to make the fight fair by using it in the fight against Reese. Reese tries to crawl away and begs for mercy, but Stevie isn't having it and he uses the exoskeleton to beat Reese up. Abe arrives and begs Stevie to stop, warning of a potential lawsuit, and that the family is the type to do anything to get the Kenarbans' money.
In the end, Malcolm is doing homework in the kitchen. He explains to the audience that Stevie got kicked out from the Norvet Bio-Medical Institute's project for using unauthorized equipment. Malcolm mentions that Reese is bed-bound until he no longer sees four of everything. Malcolm looks on as a disheartened Hal appears in the kitchen with an empty trash bin in his hands. He walks over to the vent and opens it, allowing a pile of cigarettes to fall into the trash bin. Once they are all in the bin, Hal closes the vent and leaves. Malcolm faces the audience and mentions that Lois is very enraged at Hal for breaking his promise not to smoke. As his punishment, she's ordered him to find all of his hidden leftover cigarette stashes and get rid of them. According to Malcolm, if Lois finds any leftover cigarettes in the house tomorrow morning, she'll make Hal eat those left behind. Thus, he is pretty motivated in getting rid of the stashes. Malcolm mentions he's the only one who wasn't punished, before Lois enters and tells him to change Reese's bedpan. Malcolm finishes the aside by stating that Reese is still his brother.
Cast[]
- Jane Kaczmarek as Lois
- Bryan Cranston as Hal
- Christopher Masterson as Francis
- Justin Berfield as Reese
- Erik Per Sullivan as Dewey
- Frankie Muniz as Malcolm
Guest Stars[]
Cameo[]
- Cody Estes as young Malcolm (uncredited)
- Dillon John as young Reese (uncredited)
Trivia[]
- Hal reveals that he has set up a rule for his sons. Each of the boys get a "One free pass", where if they do something extremely horrible that Lois can't know about, he'll let it slide without a punishment. Each of his sons was given a free pass before. However, Hal is the only one who can decide how each boy will use their one free pass.
- Francis's one free pass was going to a strip club when he was a young child and handcuffed himself to the pole.
- Reese's one free pass was killing a donkey by putting roller skates on it in his attempt to teach it how to skate.
- Malcolm's one free pass was burning both his own and his father's hair off with his chemistry experiment going wrong.
- In this episode, Dewey's one free pass was getting addicted to smoking thanks to finding Hal's secret stashes of cigarettes around the house.
- Reese is shown to be socially obligated against hitting Stevie. However, he was shown to be perfectly fine with punching him multiple times in the episode Dinner Out.
- His social obligation is supported in both Pilot and Bully in which his bullying manual stipulated that because Stevie is in a wheelchair, he is off limits. The was violated twice with bad consequences. The first time when Dave Spath accidentally hit him and not only got reprimanded by his friends, but also expelled and possibly beaten up by Reese. In Bully, the mini-bullies violated his manual by tormenting Stevie and not realizing that he was off limits. This action offended Reese and lead to him going back to his old self by simply beating them up. Thus, restoring order in the school as the head bully.
- This episode reveals that Dewey is addicted to smoking in this episode, making him the fourth member of the Wilkerson family to be addicted to smoking, with the first three being Hal, Lois and Francis.
- The only Wilkersons who never take up smoking are Malcolm, Reese, and Jamie.
- This episode also reveals that Hal has an addiction to coffee.
- It is revealed that one of Stevie's problems is motor neuropathy. Motor neuropathy is a nerve disability in which the nerves either cease to fire or fire incorrectly, which results in either no mobility or poor movement control.
- A lot of Lois' backstory is revealed in this episode, as she explains that throughout her childhood, she's always been unhappy with who she was and has always been trying to be better, because her mother has always been forcing her to be someone she's not.
- Jamie says his first words in this episode: "Shut up". This is similar to words Francis said to Lois growing up, mentioned in Clip Show 2.
- The exoskeleton that Stevie wears is based on actual medical studies that are ongoing. Many different universities and doctors are working on assisted movement exoskeletons with a wide range of medical applications. The US military branches actually have some in test phases, being used on soldiers who were crippled in the line of duty.
- Francis's only appearance in this episode is a flashback to when he was a little kid. He was portrayed by a different actor and only made a non-speaking cameo.
- Lois told the boys that they were forbidden to use pillowcases for a month. However, in the very next scene, they are using pillowcases. To be fair, Lois was only saying this as a cover up for her crying, so she most likely didn't follow through with it.
- Hal is mentioned having a smoking addiction in the past. He was seen secretly smoking in the Season 1 Episode Red Dress and in the cold opening of Tutoring Reese. In the latter, Lois is against Hal smoking and puts he foot down on his habits after he ruins three of their shop vacuums.
- In an early scene in this episode, Hal makes a comment about breathing through a hole in your neck as a consequence of smoking. Dewey appears to be fascinated by this as if it was the first time he has heard of such a thing. However, in the episode Malcolm's Job, Francis and Dewey reminisce about a guy they saw at the truck stop who blew a smoke ring out of the hole in his throat. Though To be fair, Dewey may have just forgotten about this memory.
- The Norvet Institute is the 2nd and last time the Kenarbans are banned from a public place.
- The board game March and Conquer was previously seen in Surgery.
- The scene of Lois walking into the smoking/coffee addiction fight was originally planned to be more involved, and was likely shortened for time: Lois catches Hal smoking cigarettes in front of her and yells at him for the deed. He tries to lie his way out of trouble by claiming he was doing this out of stress because he caught Dewey drinking coffee. Hal tries to get rid of the cigarette evidence, hoping that she would ignore it and be angry at Dewey. However much to his dismay, Lois ignores it and keeps her anger at him. She mentions that she doesn't believe Dewey's drinking coffee is punishable enough for her to merit a grounding from it and he did nothing wrong. Lois tells Hal off, and says that the punishment she inflicts will be on him because she caught him breaking his promise by smoking in the house again, and keeping a hidden stash of cigarettes instead of using the money to fix their defective A/C.
- The final garage and fight scene was also planned to be somewhat different from the final version: During the talk about Malcolm leaving the family, Reese admits that he has no friends and sees Malcolm as his best friend, and doesn't want them to grow apart. Soon after, when Stevie has begun his attack, Malcolm tries to talk some sense into him with Abe's help. He goes in front of Stevie and the immobilized Reese. Malcolm asks Stevie to beat him up instead of the immobilized Reese. He refuses, pointing out that Malcolm is his friend and asks why he's covering for Reese. He explains that despite Reese's stupidity, he is Malcolm's brother. Malcolm explains that he tried to make the fight fair by numbing the lower part of his body. He points out Stevie's not fighting fair by using the exoskeleton robot to beat Reese up. Because Malcolm is mobile and can walk, he should be the one to bear the brunt of Stevie's punches. He refuses, pushes Malcolm out of the way and beats up Reese anyway. It takes Abe to get Stevie to stop by asking him to think about the consequences when the Norvet Bio-Medical Institute finds out about the unauthorized equipment use.
- Originally, the final scene had Malcolm explain that after Stevie was kicked out by the Norvet Institute, Abe is facing a lawsuit by them because of the unauthorized equipment use and endangerment of Reese's life. He reveals that Lois let Dewey off the hook for drinking coffee and that her anger was at Hal. Malcolm points out that they were the only two to escape punishment. After being told to change Reese's bedpan, Malcolm states he doesn't mind caring for Reese since he got what he deserved for picking a fight with Stevie in the first place. This may imply that Lois has punished Reese for what he did to Stevie and the medical bills he incurred.
Quotes[]
- [Hal just found out that Dewey is smoking.]
- Dewey: Now, don't blame yourself
- Hal: Dewey, you're smoking! Do you have any idea what a dangerous and disgusting addiction that is?! It took me years to quit. Do you want to end up breathing through a hole on your neck? Do you think that's cool?
- Dewey: You can breath through a hole on your neck?
- Hal: What do you think your mother's going to say about it?!
- Dewey: You can't tell mom. She'll kill me.
- Hal: Well, you should've thought about it earlier. Where would you even get cigarettes anyway?
- Dewey: There's like 20 cartons hidden in your shop back.
- Hal: Oh my God. That I my stash form 10 years ago. Lois will kill me. All right, Dewey. Under the circumstances, I am giving you: Your One Free Pass.
- Dewey: Free Pass.
- Hal: That right. I gave your brothers their one free pass one time that I didn't tell your mother about something they did.
- [Flashback from the boys' one free pass Hal as given them. The first is Francis for sneaking out from the house to go to a strip club and handcuffing himself on the dance pole.]
- Hal: All right, Francis. This is your one free pass!
- [As he tries to unlock the cuffs, Francis extends some bills toward the stripper. Another flashback goes on with Hal confronting Reese.]
- Hal: Okay, Reese, but this is your one!
- [Hal is frustrated over seeing a dead donkey on it's back with roller skates on its hooves. The last flashback reveals Malcolm's chemistry experiment gone wrong and burning both his and Hal's hair off, leaving them bald.]
- Hal: Okay Malcolm, but this is your one.
- Malcolm: Reese, you're insane!
- Reese: Am I? They thought Einstein was crazy. Until he started kicking ass! (falls and Malcolm looks confused)
- Hal: Kids go at their own pace. Heck, 6th grade I had a full beard and I still couldn't tie my shoes properly.
- Dewey: This is so degrading. On the way home from school, I almost pulled a cigarette butt out of the gutter.
- Hal: I French-kissed your mother this morning just to lick the coffee off her teeth.
- Lois: If you don't feel like talking yet, then you don't have to talk. (leaves the room)
- Jamie:[annoyed similar to Francis] Shut up.
- [Lois walks in to see Hal and Dewey antagonizing each other.]
- Dewey:[Drinking Coffee] Mm. Rich roasted goodness. Suddenly, I'm in a French café.
- Hal:[smoking a cigarette] Well I'm with two girls in a speedboat sucking down a smooth blend of fine tobaccos. Mm.
- Lois:[Catches Hal smoking] HAL!
- Hal:[takes out his cigarette] Dewey's drinking coffee.
- [He tries to get rid of the cigarette evidence by tossing it away.]
- Malcolm:[last lines] The Norvet Institute kicked Stevie out for unauthorized use of their equipment and Reese will be okay, but he's not allowed out of bed until he stops seeing four of everything.
- [A disheartened Hal comes into the kitchen, carrying a trash bin to one of the air conditioner vents where he hides his cigarettes. Opening the vent, the cigarettes all cascade down into the bin. Hal then closes it and leaves.]
- Malcolm: Mom's making dad find the last of his old cigarettes and she's gonna him make eat any she finds in the morning so he's pretty motivated. The amazing thing is I got off scot-free.
- Lois: Malcolm go change Reese's bedpan.
- Malcolm: Hey, he's my brother.