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Dewey's Opera is the eleventh episode of season 6 and one hundred-eighteenth overall episode. It aired on Febuary 20, 2005.

Plot

When Lois and Hal argue over a king-sized bed, Dewey decides write a opera based on the argument between Lois and Hal. Meanwhile, Malcolm tries to compete with a talented street luge racer who keeps forcing him off the road.

Summary

In the scene before the credits Lois asks Hal whether he has baby-proofed the kitchen. He assures her he has. We then see Jamie opening a kitchen cabinet, only to be scared off by Reese who's hiding inside.

Malcolm and Reese are bored and sort of blame it on Stevie, who limits their activities. Stevie seems to be happy reading a magazine on extreme sports. Malcolm notices an article about street luges and gets very excited about it, though he hides it from Stevie.

Hal is irritated by the fact that Lois bought a new bed, a bigger one than before. He suspects that she's trying to keep a distance between them. Jamie spends most of his time staring out of the window, looking at a female toddler across the street. Dewey tries to fight his boredom by watching television. He gets completely bowled over by an opera and decides to write his own. If only he could find a subject...

Malcolm finds out about local street luge activity by logging on to a street luge chatroom. When Reese and Malcolm take their self-made luge board to the steep hill, Reese chickens out. Malcolm is prepared to have a go, but he quickly gets pushed off the street by a mysterious luger in a dark helmet.

When Hal and Lois fight once more about the bed, Dewey realises he has found his subject for the opera. In his mind the argument turns into a mass spectacle. Later on he has his classmates play out his composition. He quickly comes to understand that he hasn't got a satisfying resolution for the conflict/opera though. Meanwhile, Malcolm keeps rebuilding his luge and keeps crashing it. He asks for Stevie's help, unaware that he's the mysterious street luger. As part of the plan to ensure Malcolm's victory, Reese will jump out in front of the luger and for him off the road, not caring for his safety. Stevie tells them that he hates to be that luger.

When Hal notices that Lois moves away from him during the night, he takes that as proof of his wife's growing coldness to him. After a while, Lois admits there is a problem. At the end of the day she suffers from gas. If she releases it during the night, Hal shouldn't be too close. To her surprise, Hal is not shocked. He tells her she has been farting in bed every night of their marriage. He's used to it. Hal and Lois are so relieved that they kiss and make up, giving Dewey the final act for his opera.

Malcolm believes he has created the perfect luge board and he dares the mysterious luger to a race. To his shock and disappointment, the rider lifts the mask part of his helmet and it's revealed to be Stevie. The plan fails when Reese is shocked to see Stevie lifting his mask to reveal his identity. Confused, he steps out of the way and Malcolm is forced off the road. With the help of the jet propulsion of his inhaler Stevie wins the race, but he accidentally drives onto a trailer truck and is propelled into the air, hitting a tree. Jamie has a bad day as well: he notices a little boy staying with the little girl across the street.

The family goes to Dewey's school to see the first performance of his opera. Stevie is injured on both arms an tells Malcom that he owes him $80 bucks for losing. Lois hopes Dewey won't make a fool of himself, not realising that her son will soon tell everyone her embarrassing secret.

Trivia

  • Chad wears three signs in this episode. The first is while he's in class, and says "Do not corner". The second is part of his costume in the rehearsal for Dewey's opera and said "Jamie", implying that he's playing the role of Jamie Wilkerson. The last one is when he's actually on stage, the sign says "Spooked by Applause".
  • First and only episode where Jamie has a love interest.
  • Dewey once again mentions wanting a dog but not having one.
  • In one of the songs Hal sings to Lois, he says "You know I get spooked when I see a monkey. This may have been a reference to the episode Monkey, when he was attacked by a crazy, murderious monkey.
  • Dewey replaced the names of the members of his family when writing the play, for example, renaming Lois "Glacienda" and Hal "Don Argento". Strangely enough, Chad was seen wearing a sign that said "Jamie".
  • In the episode Lois Battles Jamie, Reese says that as he's getting older, the voice in his head, telling him to do something insane is getting quieter and quieter and he's starting to be more intelligent. This is continued in this episode, where he is too afraid to go down the hill because he thinks it's too dangerous and that he could get seriously hurt.
  • The opera that Dewey watches on TV at the beginning is Nessun dorma by The Three Tenors.
  • This episode won an Emmy in 2005 for outstanding music and lyrics.

Errors

  • On television listings and other programs such as Tivo and Netflix, this episode is only called "Opera".
  • The teacher has a list of farm animals, paired with the sounds they make written on the board and is reading the same thing from a book. There are some inconsistencies when he does this. When he lists the animals, he lists them as Cow, Horse, Pig, Chicken, Sheep, and Duck, before getting cut off. When he lists the respective sounds, he lists them as Moo, Neigh, Oink, Cluck, Gobble, and Silent. This would mean that the sheep goes "Gobble" and the duck is not known to make any sounds.
  • Hal says that he fears Lois will leave him to go and live on a beach in Ibiza. He makes the common mispronunciation, calling it "Eye-bee-za", when it's really pronounced "Ee-vee-thah".
  • When Malcolm is getting ready to skate down the road, his helmet isn't "locked", but his helmet is locked in the very next shot.
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