Smunday is the fifteenth episode of Season 1 of Malcolm in the Middle and the fifteenth episode overall of the show.
Plot[]
Lois is sick with a severe flu and thinks it's still Sunday and tells the boys that their punishment is not over yet, so the boys decide to stay home from school but then they realize there is nothing to do. Hal goes to a car dealership to try and buy a red Porsche which he can't decide to buy or not. He later realizes he had caught Lois' flu. Francis calls home to inform the boys about a letter to Southern Alabama involving him destroying their pool during his prank to Marlin Academy and needs them to hide the letter. However when they learn that he was the reason they were grounded in the first place, they refuse to hide it. So Francis decides to bring his lowlife pals over to get the letter by force. Malcolm thinks fast and makes a fake letter for them to take. He leaves the real one with Dewey who, to his horror, hides it under Lois's pillow, causing her to read it. Although now realizing it's Monday, Lois is caught up with both her flu and Francis's prank to Marlin that she ignores punishing the boys for skipping school. With Lois ready to send Francis to an Arizona Work Farm for troubled teens, the boys try to come up with a prank that would make Lois turn her attention back to them.
Summary[]
Malcolm, Reese and Dewey are excited that it's Monday for a reason. It was the end of their two month long grounding. Reese hurries to get his homework done. Malcolm is in disbelief reminding Reese that they couldn’t do anything all weekend and Reese still managed to blow off his homework. Reese emphasizes that they didn’t deserve to be grounded in the first place, which he agrees with and that their mom went way overboard. In a flashback, the reason was for trading Dewey's bike to Francis's dead beat vandal friends, Richie, Justin and Circus, in exchange for seeing Circus eat a wet dog food sandwich. Before they start, Francis warns Richie that he doesn’t want them taking advantage of his little brothers and emphasizes that they’ll only get the bike if Circus eats the whole can. Richie agrees and Circus eats the entire can, as the boys watch in disgust Dewey claims it was worth it and wonders what they’re going to tell their mom. Despite Dewey's attempt to cry Lois could easily tell the boys were lying when they claimed it was stolen.
In the kitchen, Hal brings a tray of dishes out of his and Lois’ room and that she has a temperature of 104 degrees and she is so sick the room is reminiscent of a horrible science experiment. Malcolm states that Lois has been sick in bed with the flu all weekend, and how he would be more sympathetic, but two months with no TV has killed the part of him that cares. Reese believes he knows how Lois could tell they were lying: pheromones. She could smell the fear emanating from them and next time they lie, they have to take a shower first.
Hal tells the boys that he’s leaving for work and tells them once he gets home he can finally plug the TV back in. He warns them to behave between now and then since he has also suffered from no TV and for as much as he knows there's a new wrestling champion and to get to school on time but suggests before they leave, they walk into the bedroom and tell Lois to feel better. Malcolm is unsure and perhaps they should just let her sleep. Hal reminds them that she slept straight through the last 48 hours, so she won’t mind if they wake her up for five minutes.
After he leaves they go into the bedroom and attempt to tell her with Reese telling her that she looks better. Malcolm says he’s not wrong since Lois kills most germs on contact but whenever one of them does get through it’s a doozy. Lois tells them they’re not stepping foot outside the house today because she thinks it's still Sunday and warns them not to leave the house because they're still grounded and this is the last day of their punishment. Happy to miss school for the day, Malcolm decides to use it to their advantage and tell their mother they’re going to go continue their punishment. Reese says they’re definitely not going to school until Dewey elbows him.
On his way to work, Hal gets distracted by a Porsche dealership and fantasizes about washing it in revealing clothes. He walks in just to look at the car, and gets pounced upon by a salesman named Terry who convinces him to look at the car. Hal sees they’ve added four more ponies from last years model and the new skid control system. Terry then tells him the new brochure just came in and offers to show him. Hal says he really should get to work, but Terry asks him if his job is so important he can’t allow himself for five minutes of pleasure. Hal tells him he has no response to that.
Back at the house, as the boys rush to go outside, they soon realize they've made a mistake, since they can’t leave the house lest they get reported for truancy and they can't watch TV due to Hal taking the cable with him to work. Malcolm asks them to give him a minute to brainstorm an idea, with that they sit on the couch bored until Reese gets fed up and demands an answer. Malcolm says that he has been trying, but all he’s managed to think of are all the reasons why staying home was a stupid idea in the first place and even if they do manage to fool their mom, they’ll just end up in trouble once Hal gets home. Which basically means they’ll sit in the house bored out of their minds for eight hours and wait for their mom to top their last punishment. Reese wonders how Malcolm could be so stupid since he could’ve easily done that himself.
The phone rings and Malcolm tells his brothers to answer it before it wakes up their mom. Reese picks it up and throws it to Malcolm who attempts to disguise his voice. Francis is on the other end of the line and assuming he is speaking with Lois, aggressively defends himself that it’s all lies and he had nothing to do with it. After clearing things up and informing him about their situation he asks them to do him a favour to check the mail for a letter from Southern Alabama State University. Malcolm questions if he applied there, but Francis says there would be no point now since the letter is a bill that details the extensive damages done by him driving a backhoe into their swimming pool. Malcolm asks if they had to drain the pool but Francis states that if you put a ten foot crack in a pool, they pretty much drain themselves, although they did have to drain the gym. He asks them to take the letter and hide it and hopefully he’ll come up with a good idea on what to do with it later. The boys agree to hide the letter for a while and does them a favour by telling them about an arcade on Hilcrest where the manager is lenient to letting kids pick their own school hours. Malcolm says they don’t have any money but Francis decides to help them since they’re doing him a favour and mentions that their mom keeps money in the top left drawer on her dresser and Lois won't notice as long as they only take between five and seven dollars.
Back at the dealership, Terry convinces Hal to take the car for a test-drive. He introduces him to the financing guy and the trade-in guy. Finally, he gets Hal to initial a price and works up a whole contract and payment plan.
The boys attempt to raid the drawers but a sick Lois catches them and mentions that she hid it in the back of the closet. She also admits that she has been aware about them raiding her drawers too many times. The boys realize that, in her delusional state, Lois is truthfully answering any question she is asked. Forgetting about the arcade they decide to get some answers. After several questions learning a football Malcolm broke a window with is hidden in the garage, an unknown ingredient was used in a meal of chipped beef on toast because it was cheap, their grandfather didn’t really punch Jimmy Carter in the face, he simply threw a rock at the motorcade and ran off. Dewey’s old blanket was used to clean the barbecue, Lois' favorite color being green, and Reese finding out to his dismay that he wasn't adopted. Malcolm says now that they’ve run out of questions they should go, but Reese has one more. He asks Lois how she knew about Dewey's bike not really being stolen. She finally tells them that Francis told her everything and it was how she knew the boys were lying. They are shocked and appalled at the notion that Francis ratted them out.
At the Porsche Dealership, Terry tries to convince Hal to sign on the dotted line, but by this time Hal is freaking out and also not feeling very well. Hal fears he's come down with Lois' flu and breaks for the door, but Terry cuts him off and convinces him to stick his head in the Porsche one more time and smell the leather and look at the console. Hal stick his head in the Porsche and throws up in it. Leaving Terry to drive a very ill Hal home.
At the house, Reese is outraged by Francis and wants to give the letter to Lois so she can bust him for what he's done. Malcolm isn't so sure and wants to get his side of the story first. Sure enough Francis calls again and it's confirmed that he did tell on them to Lois that got them grounded. Malcolm is furious and tells him that he will give Lois the letter in retaliation to what he did to them. Francis says they can’t give her the letter because if they do, then she’ll know it’s not Sunday. Malcolm says she’ll tell her it came special delivery, but Francis argues back she won’t believe it because she would have to sign for it. Malcolm says he can forge her signature, but Francis retaliates that all this would do would clue Lois into the fact he can forge her signature. Malcolm says it won’t matter at all because she’ll be so furious with Francis she won’t even think about that for a few days and even if she does he’ll just tell her he didn’t want to disturb her and she’ll give him praise for being sympathetic.
Soon after the boys discuss it among themselves whether or not to give Lois the letter and later decide not to, but pretend they are to scare him. Once again Francis calls home and tells Malcolm they’re not giving Lois the letter. Malcolm doesn’t think he’s in any position to call the shots, but he has an ace up his sleeve as he has sent Richie, Justin and Circus over to retrieve the letter.
Malcolm hides it in the VCR while the three aren’t paying attention and tells Reese where he hid it. Richie suggests that if they set fire to the house: Malcolm will go straight for the letter. Francis questions why he would, but Richie claims that maybe they should just set fire to the house and find out. Francis tells Richie, Justin and Circus that they can’t because Lois is asleep in the bedroom and they’ll wake her up emphasizing they also can’t make a mess in the house or harm his brothers. When he threatens Malcolm to confess, Francis is annoyed with Richie wondering what part of “Don’t hurt my brothers” he didn’t understand. Richie claims he’s trying to help but he’s not leaving him a single creative option. Francis asks him to put Justin on the phone, but all he does is repeatedly say “You the man, Francis” until he asks him to put Richie back on the phone. Francis quickly has an idea, he tells Richie to watch Reese's eyes. He does so and of course Reese's eyes entirely gives away where the letter is hidden. Francis's friends ride off on their bikes triumphant with the letter with Richie asking who wants a latte.
The boys run out into the front yard and Reese apologizes, but Malcolm tells Reese that that was a fake letter, and he knew Francis wouldn't give up until his friends had the letter, and that Reese would give it away, so he told Reese where the fake letter was and actually gave the real letter to Dewey, which is the last thing anyone would expect. Dewey proudly announces that he hid it under Lois's pillow. Malcolm freaks out as she is likely now awake and reading the letter. Indeed, Lois has read the letter, is filled with fury upon learning it's Monday, and calls out the boys to come in to the master bedroom.
Although she knows the boys skipped school, she has entirely forgotten this as her rage is now focused entirely at Francis. Lois repeatedly says that she is going to kill him. Reese tries to distract her by making ghostly noises to make her think it's a dream. Lois doesn't buy it and tells him to shut up. Worried over her health, Malcolm wisely tries to remind her to rest up because she's sick and being angry at Francis will just worsen her condition. She refuses and mentions that she's too angry to be sick. Lois points out that Francis really has outdone himself this time and immediately rummages inside her bed stand drawer. She has decided that since military school has failed to set Francis straight she's instead going to send him to a work farm for troubled teens in Arizona. This ends up horrifying the boys who feel intense guilt over getting him into so much trouble with her and that they’ll never be able to see him again. Lois then heads to the bathroom to throw up from the rage she felt for Francis.
In the boys' bedroom, Malcolm calls Francis to apologize about what happened and that he, Reese and Dewey had no intentions of actually showing the letter to Lois. He understands and tells them that he's sorry for ratting them out. He tells them the only reason why he ratted them out was because Lois had threatened to not let him come home for the summer. He resigns to his fate, concluding that the punishment that he’ll receive is what he deserves for betraying them.
Malcolm, Reese and Dewey sit in a tree in the front yard feeling even worse than before. The three try to think of a way to save Francis's hide. Malcolm decides if they get into a whole lot of trouble, Lois will be so busy being mad at them that she won't remember to be mad at Francis. Reese and Dewey agree and that they owe it to Francis. They take all their parents' prized possessions such as their dad’s skating trophy, their wedding portrait and their mom’s favourite lamp up onto the roof of the house and put them in a wheeled cart, intending to destroy it all. Dewey sadly sacrifices one of his toys to the cart but Malcolm stops him mentioning it's only stuff Hal and Lois cares about, not his Mighty Man toy. Dewey is relieved to keep his toy. Reese adds cans of red paint onto the cart so with any luck they’ll not only destroy their parents belongings, but also take out the driveway, splash on the house and do some callateral damage to the neighbours. He claims it to be a waste though because on any other occasion it would've been the most fun thing ever. An alarm goes off and they eat what they assume will be the last candy bars of their childhood before they lure Lois outside with Dewey's Herbie alarm clock so she can see the boys roll the cart off the roof into the driveway... just as Terry pulls up to the house in the Porsche with their very sick father. Mission accomplished.
It's night time, and the boys are still up on the roof. Malcolm states how their plan worked out perfectly and Lois, now having completely forgotten she has a son named Francis, is standing outside in her bathrobe drinking a cup of tea and telling them to come down and face their punishment. They say they'll come down when she tells them what she's going to do. She says she'll tell them what she's going to do when they come down. It's a stand-off.
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[]
- None to show
Recurring[]
Cameo[]
- Peter Mackenzie as Terry
- David Weisenberg as Finance Guy
- Stan Sellers as a trade-in customer
Trivia[]
- The Porsche Dealer Hal stumbles into is the Porsche Woodland Hills dealership on 21301 Ventura Blvd, Woodland Hills, CA 91364. It's since been heavily renovated and partly rebuilt.[1]
- This episode establishes that Lois kept a brochure of an Arizona Work Farm for troubled teens in her drawer as a back up plan just in case Marlin Academy fails to turn Francis around.
- Despite being sick, Lois is aware that the boys had raided her drawers too many times and she decided to hide the money in the closet.
- The song that plays when the cart flies is "Spiraling Shape" by They Might Be Giants, who also plays the shows opening theme song.
- Shots of the 3 boys sitting on the couch, would later be re-used in the season 6 episode Stilts.
- This is the first episode to be filmed in 2000 in production order.
- The boys eat what they assume will be the last candy bars of their childhood. But subsequently eat candy in future episodes so it's likely their punishment wasn't as bad as they had originally thought.