Character age confusion- Malcolm and Reese

primehunter1

New member
So I've been watching reruns of the series lately and yesterday's episode was Flashback (Season 2 Episode 25). During the credits, among others it showed actors playing Malcolm at age 4, and Reese at age 6. Now previously, I had understood that Reese was one year older than Malcolm.

So I checked the Wikipedia site and it stated the following:

Reese starts high school- early Season 3
Malcolm starts high school- early Season 4

Malcolm celebrates birthday (turns 15 acording to wikipedia) - early Season 4

Between Episodes 2 and 7 of season 7, Reese turns 18

Now if Malcolm turns 15 in early Season 4, we can assume that he turns 18 in early season 7- Yet, Rhys turns 18 in early Season 7.

Now this makes the boys around the same age- now they can't be, as they're not twins. This is different from the 1 year of difference that is commonly implied in the series, and certainly different from the 2 years difference in the credits of Flashback.

So- Who is wrong?

Did the writers make a mistake?
Did the wikipedia writer make a mistake?
Was there a mistake in those particular credits?
Heck- maybe I made a mistake!

You guys might have an idea of what it is- maybe you've discussed this before.

Cheers.
 

wando

New member
yeh, we will never know, sure they drop hints here and there but none of its concrete because the writers dont know.
 

Ryebeach

Moderator
Hi primehunter1 and welcome to the forums. :)

That's a very good question and I know the reveal by Reese in season 7 that he's 18 caused a lot of confusion amongst viewers. But as I said back then and still believe, I do not believe the writers made a mistake. Far too many people have to read the script and then view the episode long before we get to see it and someone would have caught it if it was a mistake. My personal belief is that the writers needed Reese to be 18 for either a storyline they ended up using in season 7 (not sure what that could have been though) or one that they were planning on using but didn't. I think that's why they had him reveal his age on camera.
 

wando

New member
im not saying that they dont know (which is kind of a contradiction), because it has been revealed a few times but as primehunter1 said if you work it out from all the information avaliable, it kind of doesnt add up.
 

Murph

New member
It's possible, Reese could have just turned six, and Malcolm didn't turn five until later in the year.
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
Welcome to the forums--great first question. As you can see, it's a rather hot topic. :) Here's my personal opinion:

Wikipedia is just inferring from all the information we've been given, and that's what a lot of this is about--inferring. We know that Reese is one grade above Malcolm, because he had to repeat his senior year in high school, then graduated at the same time as Malcolm.

During Flashback, Reese could actually have been 6 and Malcolm had been 4 based on when their birthdays fall during the year. For example, Reese is technically about one year older than Malcolm, but he wasn't born one year after Malcolm to the day.

I agree with Ryebeach that a huge fuss was made over Reese being 17 in "Health Insurance" and my guess was probably that they wanted to do something with that when they went to the young "doctor," but that scene seemed awfully short; it was probably cut for time. So from a standpoint of the show as if it were real as a whole, our best bet would be that a) the writers screwed up or b) Reese forgot how old he was and Hal was too exasperated to realize it.
 

tony_montana

Semper Fidelis
It's kind of funny once we begin discussing the ages of the characters when we remember that Frankie is actually over a year older than Justin and they are both in their twenties, not teens!:D
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
Yeah, that rather muddies the situation, doesn't it? Stupid Frankie, he should have been born a few years later! :D
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
OK, I found evidence that supports Rye's claim. (See, I work for the other side too :)) At the beginning of Bride of Ida, Ida explains that in her home country, the children breastfeed and are treated strictly as children until the age of 16, and then they are watched closely as they're trained for a year before facing the trials to become a man. That would put it at 17. And that's the best I can think of. But he still would have to be 18 to get married (even in Vegas) and he still should be 18 within the context of the series.
 

Wildcat

Retired Moderator
Another possibility is that Reese was close to turning 18 so he just rounded his age up. I'll do that sometimes when it's within a month or two of my birthday, especially when it's an "important" birthday like 18 would be.

That would also fit with Reese saying that he's going to be 18 soon in Lois Battles Jamie in season 6. Assuming that the series doesn't follow real time, Health Insurance could have taken place a month or so after Lois Battle Jamie in MITM time--and since it was close to his birthday, Reese just said that he was 18 when he was really still 17. Lois indicates that Reese has actually turned 18 in Secret Boyfriend so maybe his birthday took place sometime between Health Insurance and Secret Boyfriend. That would also put him at 18 for Bride of Ida--old enough to get married.

That would be a clever way of confusing the viewers as to the character's real ages without actually making a mistake. :D
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
Well, I am in agreement that even though there's a show every week, in real time, something didn't necessary happen to Malcolm's family every week (and sometimes it happened more often) but I do believe that they were at least aired in order. And Lois Battles Jamie was inthe middle of season six, nowhere near Health Insurance. There's no way Malcolm's Car, Billboard, Dewey's Opera, Living Will, Tiki Lounge, Ida Loses a Leg, Chad's Sleepover, No Motorcycles, Butterflies, Ida's Dance, Motivational Seminar, Stilts, Buseys Take a Hostage, Beauty Pageant, and Burning Man could have all occurred within a month. It's just not possible.
 

Wildcat

Retired Moderator
I agree, that is quite a bit of stuff to happen over the course of a month or so. If we assume that one episode is equivalent to a new week in MITM time (which likely isn't the case) that's about 4 months between Lois Battle Jaime and Health Insurance. But Reese said "I'm going to be 18 soon" so that kind of leaves it open as far as how long he meant. "Soon" could be 1 month, or 6 months.
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
This is when we refer to the handy dandy Timeline--because we all know it's perfectly accurate. :D

So, according to the Timeline, "Lois Battles Jamie" is in February 2005. Reese turns 18 in July of that year. (6 months for you.) Health Insurance is in September.

Now, Health Insurance definitely cannot be earlier than September, because it comes after Burning Man, which is an actual festival that takes place the week before Labor Day. Lois Battles Jamie could not be earlier than February, because Hal Sleepwalks comes before it, and that episode is significant in that it observes Hal and Lois' anniversary, which is in February. (Don't ask why--there was a lot of episode shuffling and I basically tried every month and February was the only one that worked out :D) It could theoretically be later than that, but every episode between it and Buseys Take a Hostage has to be sometime through June, because Buseys Take a Hostage is obviously school-related, so school must be in session. So, at the time of Health Insurance, Reese had been 18 for approximately two months--maybe he just forgot.
 

Wildcat

Retired Moderator
Well since there's no way anyone can prove it, I suppose he forgot sounds like as good an explanation as any. Maybe somewhere in his subconscious he didn't want to accept that he was actually an adult since he was so worried about it happening. Knowing Reese, that's probably what happened. :D
 
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