A.A is the fifteenth episode of Malcolm in the Middle.
Synopsis[]
The family has to go an visit Francis at his A.A celebration, for going one full year of being sober.
Plot[]
Hal and Lois are packing their bags to visit Francis to help him celebrate one year of sobriety. While both are happy over his seeking help and being a responsible adult, their jovial moment is replaced with what to do with Malcolm, Reese and Dewey at home. Lois mentions her plans to let the boys be alone in the house while they're gone. Hal is unsure if they should let Malcolm, Reese and Dewey look after themselves. He mentions that he would feel a lot better to have someone supervising them while the parents are away. Lois refuses to let that happen this time around. She reminds Hal of their previous attempts to leave Malcolm, Reese and Dewey with babysitters before leaving town. The previous results proved disastrous with the boys misbehaving themselves by chasing another babysitter away, the neighbors calling the cops and Hal and Lois's cancelled vacations to field complaints from them in regards to their sons. Lois also reminds Hal about the last time they let Ida babysit Malcolm and Reese while they were going to St. Louis for Dewey's recital. The result also proved disastrous with her mother misbehaving herself by making the two older boys compete for her nurse, Raduca's hand in marriage, the neighbors complaining, Reese getting married to her and getting divorced after that she was caught with her lover. Thus, Lois decides that she's not going to risk fielding complaints anymore and the boys can look after themselves while Jamie is being dropped off at a babysitter's house. Hal takes their luggage to the car and the boys show up. Lois tells them that she left money for pizza, hid Hal's spare keys to his car and given the numbers to the hotel room they're staying at. After giving the usual warnings to behave themselves, Lois grabs the old vase which is the last thing of value she has that Malcolm, Reese and Dewey haven't broken, mentioning that she doesn't want to worry in how they'd break, trying to hide the pieces and even coming up with a cover story. Hence to ease her own thoughts, Lois breaks the vase herself and the boys are in disbelief. Before leaving, she once more warns them to behave because she doesn't want a phone call from the neighbors and even the police in regards to them.
At the apartment, Francis and Piama shows them around the single room living area and have prepared them a mattress on the floor to sleep in. This is worrisome to Hal who thinks the place is not ideal for him and Lois to stay in, believing its too rundown. He tries to suggest that they stay in a hotel room while they're visiting him. Francis isn't having any of it and insists they stay here. Francis and Piama reveal that Francis has a job... only he hasn't actually, as he wants to go into business for himself making crystal ornaments but needs a $20,000 loan to get himself started and wants his parents to lend him the money. Hal is receptive to the idea, but Lois refuses. At the A.A. meeting, a lot of Francis' friends speak of how much their own suffering and abusive backgrounds paled in comparison to his living hell with 'L'. Lois is horrified to realize Francis blamed her for his alcoholism. Lois tries to persuade Hal of this and that Francis is only being nice to them to get the loan, only to learn that he's already signed the paperwork.
Meanwhile, Dewey finds the spare key to Hal's car. Reese and Malcolm are excited to use the car and enjoy some wanton destruction and revenge against their enemies. However, Dewey simply wants to go to the arcade because he's trying to obey Lois' orders Reese and Malcolm tell him to get lost. Dewey therefore hides the key and makes Reese and Malcolm his servants for a while until they apologize for their treatment of him over the years. When they do, Dewey admits he swallowed the key. Thus, the two try to make him pass the key through his body in time to have fun with the car with high fiber foods. When he does eventually produce, Malcolm and Reese prepare to sift through the thrown up food only to hear the car pull away as Dewey hadn't actually swallowed the key.
At the apartment, Hal tries to calmly diffuse the situation. Lois points out that Francis had always made her life a living hell as well. He insists that they should leave on good terms. Lois then apologizes for her behavior and gives Francis the loan. However it then turns out that Francis was never an alcoholic (and in fact can barely handle a drink) and had simply said he was as a way to blame Lois for his lousy life. Realizing that Francis isn't going to change, Lois leaves angry and heartbroken. Angered by this, Hal rips the loan papers and calls him out for his behavior. He points out that Francis should stop trying to blame everything on Lois and look at where his problems really are. Hal tells him that he has a month to get his life in order and will see him on his birthday to make sure of this. He leaves the apartment with his and Lois' things. Taking a good long look in the mirror, Francis decides he needs to face the truth that the person to blame for all his problems is much closer to home... unfortunately, this results in him blaming Piama for everything instead.
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[]
Recurring[]
- Emy Coligado as Piama
Cameos[]
- Stephen Lee as Speaker #1
- James Geralden as Speaker #2
- Matthew Willig as Crash
- George McQuade as George
Trivia[]
- Piama's first appearance in season 7.
- Lois says that she's officially given up on having people babysit the boys while she and Hal are gone. The last time she had someone babysit was in the episode Bride of Ida, where Ida babysat them and tortured them with her sadistic games for a chance of marrying her caretaker, Raduca. Reese runs away from home and get married to a girl he knew little to nothing about. This is very obviously why Lois gave up on that, showing that she cares about Reese.
- Another reason that Lois has given up on having someone babysit the boys while she and Hal go out of town is because she is tired of the constant complaining that they received from previous babysitters in regards to the boys' misbehavior. This is mainly evident with Malcolm and Reese in Water Park as it's a prime example in how badly they misbehaved each time that she and Hal go out of town. Dewey did nothing wrong and got along with his babysitter in Mrs. White.
- Reese's Party also supports the reason why Lois has given up having someone babysit them at the house. In order to curb the constant complaints from the boys' potential babysitters and avoid having the neighbors calling the cops on them, she and Hal decided to separate the boys from one another. In that episode, Malcolm is to spend the weekend at Stevie's house, Dewey is to stay at Craig's home and Reese has to spend the weekend on the bus.
- Malcolm says he wants to do donuts on the lawn of his old basketball coach. This could be a reference to when he was on the JV basketball team in Malcolm Holds His Tongue.