Ida Loses a Leg thoughts

yardgames

Retired Administrator
Re: Ida Loses a Leg

Wow, you really have looked deeply into the episode. Best of luck on your final thesis.

Responding is very difficult to do, because you have pretty much covered even the response bases.

I never really thought about keeping dreams and reality separate, but you have an interesting idea. When you dream something, no matter what happens, it can always be euphoric, but there will be complications in real life, complications that are out of our control, which was demonstrated very well to Lois in Traffic Jam. I think the times when we're most at peace with ourselves are the times when we don't even realize it. Our happiest dreams, for example, will be forgotten before we even wake up.

The symbolism you pick up on in these episodes is amazing. I worked long and hard on a timeline that the writers probably didn't even think about when they wrote the episodes, but that is water under the bridge (not quite the right cliche here, but that's ok...) when compared with what you have pointed out. I enjoyed reading about how Dewey's remote controlled car could essentially be a symbol of his life, and I too found it quite entertaining that Hal felt sympathy for Lois, not for Ida, in the days following the loss of her leg.

I'm going to be so bold as to say this is one of the best un-funny episodes of the series. I wasn't laughing the entire episode (it had it's funny parts, but certainly not like Dewey's Opera or Hal's Christmas Gift), but it was special in its own way. We've never had such a disaster as an amputation happen before; we've never dealed with issues quite this large before; and we've never delved quite this deeply into the Wilkersons before. By learning more about the Wilkersons, in some cases we can learn more about the stereotypical family, and learn more about ourselves, whether we fit that stereotype or not. To quote Malcolm from season 4's Kicked Out, "I like this new Malcolm."
 

allison

New member
Re: Ida Loses a Leg analysis

I´m very impressed. You guys mentioned some things I didn´t realize before. It´s true that both Francis´and Dewey´s dream suddenly come true and that they still don´t feel happy which is quite surprising.
I watched the episode again and now I think it´s really great. I think a lot of things have changed. In "Traffic ticket" Hal said that Lois never admitted that she ever did a mistake. When the situation gets out of control and Hal begs her she manages to say that she was wrong (even if it´s not true) but it´s very hard for her. She never apologized when she treated her children unfair, but suddenly she is able to apologize for everything she has ever done to Francis. I think that was kind of interesting, it changed a lot about the original concept of the show.
Also Malcolm and Reese have changed in a way. I really get the impression that they gave up picking on Dewey. I´m pretty sure that in earlier seasons they would have glued Dewey´s face to the floor since he didn´t even stay awake.
It´s really interesting how the show will go on and what other secrets are going to be revealed. The characters really developed since season 4 (some in a positive way and some in a negative though) and I´m really looking forward to see how they all are going to "turn out".
Dewey changed from a weirdo into a smart kid, Malcolm became more stupid and definitely isn´t the main character of the show anymore, Reese became softer in a way and you can really see that he´s growing up and even Francis became more responsible and isn´t anything of the delinquent he used to be.
I´m sure until the end of the 7th season (if there is one, but I really hope so) there will be many surprises.
 

Amigo22

Super Moderator
Lois in Ida Loses A Leg (Francis and Military School)

In Home Alone 4 she said it was the "best decision we ever made". In Clip Show #2 she said "that one we couldn't afford. He needed the discipline". And now In Ida Loses A Leg she says she's sorry and she shouldn't have sent Francis to Military School - and all she said was "I'm sorry" which is a load of bull! Regardless of whether she meant to or not she did it, and in my opinion just saying sorry for sending your child away is nowhere near enough!

And as for not telling Francis until now that he lived with Ida for a while when he was younger - if she couldn't manage two kids, why would she have more? Not that I don't like Malcolm or Dewey or Jamie.

What did you guys think about this?
 

allison

New member
Re: Lois in Ida Loses A Leg (Francis and Military School)

You´re right, though I never thought she would EVER apologize for that. On the other hand, what else than sorry can she say? She made a lot of mistakes by sending him away (both to military school and her mother) but she said that it really hurts her (or something like that) that she wasn´t the mother he deserved. It´s right that sorry isn´t enough, but unfortunately she can´t turn back time.
Your question why they have so many children if they can´t even manage one or two kids is quite good. In one episode Lois said something like "We´ve got our calender child our diaphragm child, our condom child and our two abstinence children." And we could see how unhappy they were when Jamie came along. Maybe they just didn´t want to have an abortion.

Watching the episode I also wondered about another thing (it´s just a random question): How many years is Francis supposed to be older than Reese? Because Francis said he was a baby at this time (and this was the time when Reese came along) but he could talk already. He must have been quite young if he doesn´t even remember this, because when you spend half a year at your grandmothers´house at the age of 3 years you can remember that, I think. And I think Francis is more than 2 years older than Reese.
Can someone explain this to me? :D
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
Re: Lois in Ida Loses A Leg (Francis and Military School)

Let's see, Francis was 15 in season 1 when he was sent away to military school; Malcolm was in 6th grade, which would put in Reese in 7th grade, making him 12 or 13 years old, take or give a few months.
 

Amigo22

Super Moderator
Re: Lois in Ida Loses A Leg (Francis and Military School)

In the Flashback episode when Reese was 2, Francis looked about 4, so he would have been only 2 when Reese was born.
 

allison

New member
I think Francis was 16 in the first episode which would make Reese (if he was just 2 years younger) 14. I don´t think Reese was supposed to be 14 during the first season, so probably Yardgames is right that Reese was about 12 or 13. So Reese is about 3 or 4 years younger than Francis, But then again he had to be at least 3 years old when he stayed at his grandmother´s house.
The spoiler from "no motorcycles" says that Hal promised Francis something for his 21th birthday. Reese stated in "Lois battles Jamie" that he´s going to be 18. This would make him 3 years younger than Francis, so it seems to be true. So according to this Reese was 13 and Francis was 16 in the pilot.
Again I´m wondering why he can´t remember anything then, but maybe I´m just taking this too seriously. :D
 

arach

New member
First I didn't want to say anything to that episode, because I still don't know what I should think of it...

The most important thing for me was Lois' confession to Francis. We get to know that she's actually a human being! ;)
Sometimes, and in very seldom cases, she gets an emotional breakdown, like when Ida visits. And Ida is also the key to her committing that she wasn't a good enough mother to Francis. And that was the scene where I didn't know what to think anymore. Lois admits to Francis that he was right? All the time? With no "but's"? That was very odd and sounded very unrealistic. But it still was funny, when she gave him the money and the tic-tacs. :D But all in all it was very weird and I still don't know what I should think of it.

Well, Ida causes a lot of trouble. "Let him go. It's the little one that owes me his life." It was hard for Dewey too. But he just get's over it. No problem for him. Now, with those two storylines (francis-ida and dewey-leg), the episode would have been a bit too sad, so something hilarious was missing - and that was the Reese-Malcolm-plot. I really had to laugh about them. Glueing their faces to the floor... lol. :D To me, both actors, Frankie and Justin, have shown that they still can be humorous and entertaining. I almost forgot that this was sarcastic Krelboyne Malcolm and suddenly-nearly-grown-up-Reese. It was like back in the old series, again. :)
 

allison

New member
arach said:
To me, both actors, Frankie and Justin, have shown that they still can be humorous and entertaining. I almost forgot that this was sarcastic Krelboyne Malcolm and suddenly-nearly-grown-up-Reese. It was like back in the old series, again. :)
You´re right, I´m pretty glad about that. They may be adults now, but there´s still a child inside them. :D If they only gave them adult storylines now the show would become totally different. Of course they can´t do all the things they did when they were younger, anymore, but I´m glad that they didn´t turn into totally responsible adults. :D
Lois didn´t apologize for everything, she apologized for sending him away. Maybe she didn´t mean that Francis was always right, but that it was defintitely wrong to send him away instead of trying to solve their problems in a different way. If she had said he was always right THAT would be really unrealistic.
 

arach

New member
allison said:
Lois didn´t apologize for everything, she apologized for sending him away. Maybe she didn´t mean that Francis was always right, but that it was defintitely wrong to send him away instead of trying to solve their problems in a different way. If she had said he was always right THAT would be really unrealistic.
Yeah but when she talked to him, she also said that she has not been a good enough mother for him, and that it was breaking her heart that he didn't get this mother. And to me, that's like admitting that he was right all along - That she always was a bad mother. And that's the thing he always wanted to hear.
Maybe you know what I mean.
 

allison

New member
You´re right, that was really out of character. And it´s true that it´s kind of unrealistic that a person like her would ever apologize for everything. But maybe she felt so sorry for sending him away in that moment (and maybe she was also kind of "embarrassed" that Francis found out that he spent half a year at his grandmother´s house) that she just wanted to apologize without starting another argument with Francis. Of course there was a reason why she sent him away and of course he also made some mistakes, but Lois seemed to have a really bad conscience in that moment. That´s my only explanation. Another reason could be that Francis was very calm in that moment. He didn´t yell at her when he found out (well a littlebit maybe), he was just very insulted and hurt and didn´t talk to her anymore. Maybe this made Lois think about what she had done. In an earlier episode Francis yelled at her when he left military school and whenever someone yells at Lois she gets aggressive. When Francis told her how horrible military school was she just said "we made sacrifice after sacrifice for you and you caused us nothing but pain." Then he told her what a horrible mother she is. But this time, as I already said, he was just hurt and didn´t talk to her.
Most of the time Lois just reacts to people (mostly in a very exaggerated and unfair way, though) and when someone provokes her she kind of "explodes".
Probably it´s also true what Yardgames said: The presence of her mother makes Lois softer and this could also be a reason why she apologized.
Of course he wasn´t ALWAYS right, but the things she did were maybe still worse than the things he did and that´s why she thought she was a bad mother.
 

NeCoHo

Retired Mod
If the Wilkersons are so poor, why did Lois have 200 dollars in her pocket? Is she hoarding all the money for herself?

My grandfather did that to his wife and kids, he had a secret bank account with like over 3,000 dollars in it. My father lived in near poverty, only to find when his dad passed away they had more money then they thought.
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
Appanah, I like your user title. You are indeed our Philosophical Member.

We really don't know a whole lot about Lois' trip; I would still like to know exactly where she was going. I mean, her mother was at her house and the rest of the fmaily doesn't even talk to them, so I doubt Lois was going on a trip for pleasure. The only other choice is business, and she's a store clerk for a drug store, where is she going to go for business? The whole trip concept just doesn't add up; it was weird the way Lois didn't talk to the rest of the family (except for Francis and Ida) at all.

Why are we suddenly assuming that Lois' money is CAD? We know Ida is from Canada, but how does that lead us to the conclusion that Lois took money from Ida? Why would Ida give Lois money?
 

Dewey

Minimalistic
The question I have regarding this episode is regarding Dewey with the legs in the garage. Why was he wearing a surgical mask?

Contary to what the mask was being used for in this episode, standard masks are not designed to protect the wearer from disease. Instead, they are designed to prevent the wearer from spreading disease (which is why the Japanese wear them hen they have a cold). They are therefore worn in operating theatres by surgeons to protect their patients.

As Ida's leg was not attached to a living person, it is technically dead, and the wearing of a mask would therefore be useless. [Not that Dewey is likely to have any pathogens that are likey to cause harm]

There are special masks (such as N-95 masks) designed to protect the wearer, but these must be sized to the individual, are more expensive and often more difficult to breathe through. (Dewey was not wearing a N-95 mask)

Source: "Behind the mask" in Business Traveller, (June 2005): pp 6
 
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