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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 (complete with no TV) 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, which they claim was worth it. Despite Dewey's attempt to cry Lois somehow knew the boys were lying when they claimed it was stolen. Reese hurries to get his homework done with Malcolm in disbelief that Reese still managed to blow off his homework after being unable to do anything all weekend.

In the kitchen, Hal tells the boys that once he gets home he will rewire and plug the TV back in, warning 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 heavyweight champion and suggests before they leave for school, they walk into the bedroom and tell Lois to feel better because she's been sick for the last few days, Malcolm claims that two months of being grounded by her has killed the part of him that cared for her. After he leaves they attempt to tell her, but she thinks it's still Sunday and warns them not to leave the house because they're still grounded. Happy to miss school for the day the boys stay home however they soon realize they've made a mistake, since they can't watch TV or leave the house lest they get reported for truancy and they'll just end up in trouble again anyway once Hal gets home.

On his way to work, Hal gets distracted by a Porsche dealership. He walks in just to look at the car, and gets pounced upon by a salesman who convinces him to look at a brochure. Then the salesman 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.

At the house, Francis calls home and tells the boys that he's worried that Lois will find out about a letter from Southern Alabama State University involving a bill that details the extensive damages he's done to it's swimming pool by driving a backhoe in it during his prank to Marlin Academy. The boys agree to hide the letter for a while and he does them a favor by telling them about an arcade where the owner doesn't bust truants. Francis also mentions that there's money in the one of the drawers and Lois won't know as long as they take between five and seven dollars. 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 Dewey's old blanket was used to clean the barbecue, an unknown ingredient was used in a meal because it was cheap, Lois's favorite color is green, and Reese finding out to his dismay that he wasn't adopted, Malcolm 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.

At the Porsche Dealership, the salesman 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's flu and breaks for the door, but the salesman 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. The salesman has 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. 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, but he has an ace up his sleeve as he has sent Richie, Justin and Circus around to retrieve the letter. Malcolm hides it in the VCR and tells Reese. Francis tells Richie, Justin and Circus to be quiet because Lois is resting from her flu, don't make a mess in the house and don't harm his brothers. When he threatens Malcolm to confess, Francis is annoyed. He tells Richie that he's not to harm his brothers. 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. Then 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 now awake and is reading the letter dealing the damages Francis has caused to the college's pool during his prank to Marlin Academy. Lois immediately realizes it's Monday and yells at the boys to come in to the master bedroom at once.

Although she knows the boys skipped school and tried to hide the letter from her, Lois ignores punishing them for the moment. Her rage is now targeted entirely at Francis for his prank to Marlin Academy by destroying a pool belonging to Southern Alabama State and leaving the family to pay the expensive bill. Reese tries to distract her by thinking it's a dream, but she doesn't buy it and tells him to shut up. Worried over Lois's health, Malcolm wisely tries to remind her to rest up because she's sick and just being angry at Francis will just make it worse. She refuses to calm down 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 pulls out a brochure to a work farm for troubled teens in Arizona, scaring the boys. Lois now intends to ship Francis off to the work farm that'll make him immediately regret leaving Marlin Academy. This ends up horrifying the boys who feel intense guilt over getting him into so much trouble with her and that they won't be able to see him any longer. 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 showing the letter to Lois and it was accidental. He understands and tells them that he's sorry for ratting them out. Lois was pressuring him to tell her the truth about them selling Dewey's bike to his lowlife pals with the threat that if he didn't he wouldn't get to come home for the summer. Malcolm, Reese and Dewey are 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. They take all their parents' prized possessions up onto the roof of the house and put them in a wheeled cart, intending to destroy it all and with any luck do collateral damage to the driveway. Dewey sadly sacrifices one of his toys to the cart and Malcolm stops him. He mentions it's only stuff Hal and Lois cares about, not his Mighty Man toy. Dewey is relieved to have his toy back. Reese claims it to be a shame because on any other occasion it would've been the perfect prank. 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 the salesman is pulling 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. 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[]

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.
  • 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.

References[]

Malcolm in the Middle episodes
Season 1 PilotRed DressHome Alone 4ShameMalcolm BabysitsSleepoverFrancis EscapesKrelboyne PicnicLois VS EvilStock Car RacesFuneralCheerleaderRollerskatesThe Bots and the BeesSmundayWater Park
Season 2 Traffic JamHalloween ApproximatelyLois' BirthdayDinner OutCasinoConventionRobberyTherapyHigh School PlayBullyOld Mrs. OldKrelboyne GirlNew NeighborsHal QuitsThe GrandparentsTraffic TicketSurgeryReese CooksTutoring ReeseBowlingMalcolm vs. ReeseMini-BikeCarnivalEvacuationFlashback
Season 3 HouseboatEmancipationBook ClubMalcolm's GirlfriendCharityHealth ScareChristmasPokerReese's JobLois' MakeoverCompany Picnic (1)Company Picnic (2)Reese DrivesCynthia's BackHal's BirthdayHal CoachesDewey's DogPoker 2Clip ShowJury DutyCliquesMonkey
Season 4 ZooHumilithonFamily ReunionStupid GirlForwards BackwardsForbidden GirlfriendMalcolm Holds His TongueBoys At RanchGrandma SuesIf Boys Were GirlsLong DriveKicked OutStereo StoreHal's FriendGarage SaleAcademic OctathalonClip Show #2Reese's PartyFuture MalcolmBaby Part 1Baby Part 2Day Care
Season 5 VegasWatching The BabyGoodbye KittyThanksgivingMalcolm Films ReeseMalcolm's JobChristmas TreesBlock PartyDirty MagazineHot TubIda's BoyfriendSoftballLois' SisterMalcolm Dates a FamilyReese's ApartmentMalcolm Visits CollegePolly in the MiddleDewey's Special ClassExperimentVictor's Other FamilyReese Joins the Army: Part 1Reese Joins the Army: Part 2
Season 6 Reese Comes HomeBuseys Run AwayStandeePearl HarborKitty's BackHal's Christmas GiftHal SleepwalksLois Battles JamieMalcolm's CarBillboardDewey's OperaLiving WillTiki LoungeIda Loses a LegChad's SleepoverNo MotorcyclesButterfliesIda's DanceMotivational SpeakerStiltsBuseys Take A HostageMrs. Tri-County
Season 7 Burning ManHealth InsuranceReese vs. StevieHalloweenJessica Stays OverSecret BoyfriendBlackoutArmy BuddyMalcolm Defends ReeseMalcolm's MoneyBride of IdaCollege RecruitersMonoHal GrievesA.ALois Strikes BackHal's DentistBomb ShelterStevie in the HospitalCattle CourtMorpGraduation
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