Lois Strikes Back Opinions and Analysis

reese35

New member
This countdown just keeps getting better and better. This episode is living proof that Lois does care. Reese gets devastated when the pig comes and Lois, determined to get justice, puts every form of torture on the culprits. My favorite scene was when Hal gets in the way of Lois' anger (and the close-ups) and retreats to the garage. As Hal plays his baseball routines, again Bryan's impersonations make it better. The most heartwarming scene you'll find thus far in this season was when Lois apologizes for going on her rampage instead of caring for Reese. Still, if we didn't know Lois cared for her young before, we DEFINATELY know now!

And now, instead of my own scale, I'm gonna use the customary MitMVC scale.
Hal plot - ****3/4
Main plot - *****
Eppy - *****

p.s. Note the name Heidi Kaczenski - she's the MitM costume manager.
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
Not only did the episode show Lois' caring side, but it also exemplified Lois' destructive side. We don't generally see it, but at the same time, we know that Lois isn't always the perfect mother. In Red Dress, she took more than dramatic measures to get the boys to fess up; Book Club saw a drunken Lois sabotage the "perfect" mother; Hal's Christmas Gift and Lois' most reckless destruction to date; and now this. It personifies the characters because it shows they, like real people, are not perfect.

It also cemented that Malcolm's values hold strong, even in trying times. We've seen this a few times in the past too; namely Malcolm Films Reese and Jessica Stays Over.

The Hal plot was a classic demonstration of how to find things to do when you're bored--things that only Hal could stay obsessed with for such a long period of time.

And the cold opener exemplified how everything can be recycled somehow. :D
 

tony_montana

Semper Fidelis
Question before I start my review-did anyone think that Lois calling Reese a "hot guy" was weird or not?:Sick:
Great episode, as usual for this season! And despite myself, I DID feel sorry for Reese. I guess wildcat was right about it being emotional stuff and all that makes Reese Reese. I have to say that if girls did that to me, Id come down on them like a ton of bricks(I got stuff up my sleeve:D ) but anyway, it kicked major ass to see Lois defend Reese and go after all those girls! I love how Reese and Lois got together near the end and went after the last girl(with help from Hal's softball machine). Best plot of the show...well, seeing as there was only two.
On the second plot, great for Hal. Just have to take 1/2 a point away because I really really wish they would have developed it more. I love Hal's storylines!:D Loved it when the machine shot the balls through the garage door.
Anyway, here are my grade(my own grade scale of 1-10) :
Lois/Reese-10/10
Hal-9.5/10
 

alleyboy

New member
I was thinking how Lois was a horrible mother to Reese and Francis, but this ep showed she really cares about Reese. I think this is the first time she ever really stood up for Reese. I loved it! Tie up Dudley Do-Right Malcolm was Classic!
 

Wildcat

Retired Moderator
Great episode! I loved seeing Lois totally lose it and go after those girls with a vengence. Damn, I wish my mom was that cool. :D It was perfect the way she planned it out and pulled it all off so beautifully. Kind of a strange way for a mother to show how much she cares for her son, but it definitely got the point across. And the scene at the end with Lois and Reese "bonding" was really sweet in it's own twisted sort of way. :D

Malcolm got on my nerves in this episode. I just wanted to tell him to shut up. :D Of course, being the voice of reason, he was right and Lois was wrong by seeking revenge, but those girls got exactly what they deserved--whether it was morally right or not.

I felt so sorry for Reese. I don't know how anyone can say that they didn't feel sorry for him in this ep, despite all the bad stuff he's done in the past. Did you see the look on his face when he saw the pig? :( I can imagine that something like that would be completely devestating, especially seeing how excited he was about the date in the beginning of the episode. Poor guy. At least he got the satifaction of getting even with them though--thanks to Lois!
 

NeCoHo

Retired Mod
I'm going to start of by saying that I want to build that catapult....

I loved this episode. One of the best in a while, probably my favorite since the Reese joins the army eps. I have to make this short so....

I would love having a mom as destructive as me. or more. I don't know if Reese could have pulled off the 2nd one (Heidi) without a little help (cause we know he doesn't keep spagetti sting tops in his closet) But it doesn't matter.

I love how MITM is going back to the more violent/destructive side of almost everyone. And Hal and his robots... that's 2 now? I think so. :D

I don't have much more to say then that. great ep!
 

rzombie1988

New member
This was a really good episode. As another said in this, I like the more desrtuctive side of MITM as well. I thought Hals plot was great especially with his baseball commentary. I felt bad for Reese as well, and it was nice to see a different side to Lois. I didn't get why Malcolm was saying all of this stuff was wrong, since last episode he was doing bad things to Dewey.
 

ReMoss85

New member
rzombie1988 said:
I didn't get why Malcolm was saying all of this stuff was wrong, since last episode he was doing bad things to Dewey.
Malcolm has a conscience when he sees others doing wrong, but he himself can't stay out of trouble and he does bad things too, just like all his siblings. The same goes for Lois, who is constantly talking about "the rules" and how everybody must always do the right thing. That is, until one of her kids is picked on and then she can't stop herself from terrorizing the local teenage community.
 

Amigo22

Super Moderator
Yeah... like how she went up to every random in the park in "Francis Escapes" and started lecturing them.
 

tony_montana

Semper Fidelis
I have to agree with anyone who said that they wanted to tell Malcolm to shut up. I don't get Malcolm. When it comes to Lois, Malcolm believes she has a certain moral code she HAS to follow and Malcolm thinks it's wrong if she falters. But then Malcolm does crap like what he did to Dewey in "A.A" Is that morally right to Malcolm?
 

Malcoholic

New member
What I found most striking about this episode was how it combined outpourings of extremely wrenching emotions with typical MITM tongue-in-cheek irony. I can't think of a more gripping moment than when Lois realizes her disaster of a son, Reese, is an extension of her--"I am you!" She seems devastated--"All I can say is, I'm sorry. I'm deeply, deeply sorry!" And then the mood-jolting ironic twist: Reese: "There's one left?" The marvel of this episode is that the irony, the mockery of the characters' feelings, in no way lessens the story's emotional power. When Malcolm is at its best, as it is here, it ridicules and empathizes with its characters all at the same time.

Lois is portrayed as having two conflicting sides to her personality: She is a brutal vindictive savage and she is a strict moralist. The savage side is all Ida. The moralist side is her rejection of Ida's raw savagery as unfit for a civilized society and her embracing of strict respect for rules and for authority as necessary for civilized life. Here she first goes to the accepted authority figure, the school principal, who clearly intends to do nothing and rather enjoys Reese's misery. This unleashes the savage in Lois, and she goes on a vindictive rampage that would make Ida proud. What finally reawakens her moralism is the realization that she was enjoying her vengeance too much: "I enjoyed crushing those girls and watching them suffer. I tapped into some dark ugly place inside me." That place is the primal bloodlust of the savage who after killing his enemy cuts off his head and hangs it as a trophy. It's also the part of her personality that she passed on to Reese.

The notion that Reese's savagery is just an extension of Lois' is reinforced by the incident that triggers Lois' sense of shame: she frames a perfectly innnocent boy to take the blame for her own mischief, exactly what Reese did in his most wickedly callous escapade, the "evil twin" scheme ("Forbidden Girlfriend"). The difference is that Reese has none of Lois's moralism, so he never sufferered from pangs of conscience.

That moralism all went to Malcolm. Lois isn't just Reese. She's also Malcolm, and throughout this story Malcolm shows himself to be the other, moralistic half of Lois' personality, the part that rejected Ida's brutality. This theme has been around throughout the whole series, as Ida has always despised Malcolm as an over-thinking twit and saw Reese as the family's only hope.

Hal's story completes the circle by showing why Malcolm and Reese's characters have been shaped entirely by Lois. Hal wants no part of getting in the way of Lois' rage. He's terrified of her. He thinks up all kinds of pretexts for rejecting Malcolm's plea that he do something to stop Lois. Instead of playing a father's role, he retreats into a boy's make-believe world, fantasizing that he's a major league ballplayer. As has often been shown in many episodes, Hal is more of a pal and playmate than a father. Lois is the only real parent, and her boys' characters are entirely reflections of the different parts of her personality.

Some side tidbits:

--The pig looked familiar. He looked just like Ralph, the pig who shared Francis and Piama's bed in one of the ranch episodes (can't remember which.) If I'm right, this is the second encore appearance by an animal this season, the first being the return of "Dewey's Dog" Marshmellow in "Bride of Ida."

--In the sponge bath scene, the caulking in the bathtub is grimy with mildew. This little detail is part of what gives this show the sense that we are seeing the real house of a real family, rather than the set of a tv show. It's yukky, but very effective.
 

Kratos

New member
What can I say! I loved it, cant wait until the main site is updated and I can give it an awesome 5/5!

Also great when Lois and Reese had the talk, I never saw it before but Lois and Reese are the most alike out of the whole family :eek: The dynamics of all of the family and the way they are all linked but at the same time have one on one relationships is stellar!

A good crazy episode with Malcolm being "Lois" for a day. "The sane voice" as it's been mentioned before. :)
 

tony_montana

Semper Fidelis
Seems no one saw my question at the beginning of my review(Did you all think that Lois saying Reese was a hot guy weird in any way?:Sick: ).
 

Wildcat

Retired Moderator
tony_montana said:
Seems no one saw my question at the beginning of my review(Did you all think that Lois saying Reese was a hot guy weird in any way?:Sick: ).

Not really. It's not that unusual for parents to tell their kids that they're beautiful (for girls) or handsome (for guys), or whatever. I guess she just used the word "hot" to say it in his own language. If she had said handsome instead of hot it wouldn't have sounded as wierd.
 

Amigo22

Super Moderator
yardgames said:
I'll update the main site when somebody (SAMBOO :D) gets me the pic. :)

Yeah, and also people who are unable to see the eps would like to be able to view pics in the gallery... which hasn't been updated since College Recruiters...;)
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
Samboo is supposed to get the vidcaps so yell at her. :)

If anyone else has vidcaps from the episodes, post or PM me a few and I can get everything updated.
 

Malcoholic

New member
tony_montana said:
Seems no one saw my question at the beginning of my review(Did you all think that Lois saying Reese was a hot guy weird in any way?:Sick: ).
The choice of the word "hot" may seem a bit peculiar, as Wildcat pointed out. My view is that the story went out of its way in the opening scene to show Lois as being fond of Reese, in order to add to the emotional impact of the bedside "I am you" scene. That scene gets its power by showing a Lois that loves Reese intensely and so suffers devastating pain when she realizes that she is responsible for the brutal streak that has made him a social outcast. This is a brilliantly written episode where every detail supports the point of the story.
 

Amigo22

Super Moderator
Malcoholic said:
--In the sponge bath scene, the caulking in the bathtub is grimy with mildew. This little detail is part of what gives this show the sense that we are seeing the real house of a real family, rather than the set of a tv show. It's yukky, but very effective.

Who was sponge bathing?
 
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