Repeating Themes

I noticed in Jessica Stays Over that there are a couple of things that are oddly familiar. For example:

Reese mentions that his Chinese penpal should apologize for his country bombing Pearl Harbor (wrong country BTW--poor, stupid Reese ). The last episode that Jessica was in was "Pearl Harbor."

In Jessica Stays over, Hal says that the bee has a "vendetta" against him. In Pearl Harbor, Reese calls for a "vendetta" against Jessica. These are the only two times this word has been spoken on the show, I think. Both times were episodes that Jessica was in. Just odd...

In Jessica Stays over, Dewey is seen playing a gameboy with no cartridge. Reese was playing a gameboy with no cartridge in another episode (sorry, don't remember which one.) This is probably a goof, but it also could have been on purpose like an inside joke or something.

This stuff could just be coincidence, but I found it interesting. Malcoholic also mentioned a lot of repeating themes in the Halloween episode thread. I'll let him post them here because I don't want to take credit. I'm sure there are similarities between other episodes too. Has anyone else noticed stuff like this?

I did see one major theme from "Therapy" repeated in "Jessica Stays Over." In "Therapy," Malcolm fakes all sorts of emotional trauma to the school shrink just to get out of Medieval Week. Then the shrink visits Lois, and Lois makes Malcolm repeat all his fake sob stories. But halfway through, Malcolm starts pouring out his real anxieties about being under a lot of pressure to excel, and the fakery turns into a real tear-fest, with Malcolm and Lois bawling on each others' shoulders. In the Jessica story, Malcolm again starts off faking pain, again talks about how much pressure he feels to be perfect in school, and again slips into really feeling sorry for himself and gaining Lois' sympathy. He ends both stories crying on a female's shoulder. I suspect there's a deliberate effort in this episode to repeat the theme that Malcolm really is so miserable, he can't fake misery without slipping into the real thing.

Good catch, Malcoholic. You're right about Malcolm. Manipulation plans always backfire on him.

You should post the repeating themes that you mentioned in the Halloween thread too.

Wildcat said:

You should post the repeating themes that you mentioned in the Halloween thread too.

Click to expand...

OK, I wasn't sure that's what you wanted:

--The cold opener repeated the "blame-for-sale" joke from the Season One opener where Hal pays Malcolm to take the rap. The going rate is 5 bucks per offence.
--The "performance art" joke from "Burning Man" was repeated literally: the trick-or-treaters thought Hal's warning them to run away was all an act.
--When Lois rattles off to Reese and Dewey her checklist of every conceivable mischief that they must not commit when trick-or-treating, she's repeating the joke from the scene at the Lucky Aide in "Lois vs Evil," where she forbids every conceivable thing the boys could mess with at the store. (These checklists don't mean much: here she forbids eggs, and they throw eggs anyway; in the original joke, she didn't mention "Don't mess with the steam cleaner," but she punished them anyway.)
--As in "Halloween Approximately," the boys end up stuck and helpless while pelted by their erstwhile victim.
--Also in "Halloween Approximately," in the flashback of the three boys trick-or-treating, the friendly guy giving them candy asks the boys what their costumes are supposed to be, but Reese rudely tells him to just shut up and give them the candy. In this episode, Reese tells Dewey he wishes people would stop asking about their costumes and just hand over the candy--"They know what we're here for!" I'm pretty convinced now that these repetitions are intentional. The point of repeating this joke seems to be to reinforce the idea that Reese approaches trick-or-treating with the mentality of a hold-up man: "Just shut up and hand me the money!"

In Red Dress, Lois is so angry she's practically speechless at the thought of the boys playing with fire. This reoccurs in season six, when as part of a flashback it shows Lois bringing up a young Francis (I think the episode is Chad's Sleepover). She apparently found it hard to discipline Francis, whereas Hal was quite strict; this was until the point Francis tried to set fire to his teddy, when she adopted the characteristics that we all know so well.

On the other hand, this is also an example of a complete breakdown in continuity, as there are numerous references to the fact that Hal has always been the one who's soft on the kids, and this is definitely the nature of his character. Also, i think it's at the end of the Flashback episode when Lois said that she had always found it hard to get on with Francis because she'd had in infection when he was born. This meant she had to stay in hospital worrying about him, only to find when she was discharged that Francis was ok, and she didn't feel he needed her. So she'd never have treated him as she does in this particular flashback.

That is strange how Hal was the strict parent in the flashback (that was in Lois Battles Jamie, wasn't it?) It's almost like they switched personalities. I never really thought about that before. Maybe Lois became so strict that he felt he had to soften up a little to balance things out. Otherwise the boys wouldn't stand a chance. You're right about the fire references too.

Although it wouldn't really fit the continuity of today's MITM as we know it, I believe that it felt well in that particular flashback (Yes, it was Lois Battles Jamie. I recently watched that episode as well as Flashback, so these ideas are fresh in my mind.)

One of the things MITM has always exceled at, were other series have floundered is evolution. The characters are not static. This is not the Simpsons--where every episode is like the same series of days happening over and over again. MITM shows life. People change and evolve. We've seen this first-hand with Reese. I think that what we're seeing between this flashback and the Pilot episode is an evolution of Lois and Hal.

You may recall from the Flashback episode, that when Francis was first born, Hal was a workoholic and never had time for the kids or for Lois. He asked his boss if he could cut back on his hours a bit, and he was moved to Supplies in an office outside the bathroom. We're led to assume that he quit fairly soon after because in Ida Loses a Leg, we learned that Francis spent six months with Ida when he was a few years old, while "Hal was between jobs." The age gap between Francis and Reese is a couple of years, so those six months were probably exclusively Hal and Lois time, where they could digest the first kid and figure out how to handle subsequent ones. It was probalby also during this time period where they made the pact that Hal would be the soft one who would help the kids (Lois Battles Jamie) and that Lois would make all the decisions in their marriage (Living Will).

We've only seen seven years--a mere snapshot--of Hal and Lois' life, but we're given clues about their lives before the boys, and using these clues, we can guess what may have happened.

For the moment I can only think of two: Just like in Rollerskates Reese kind of "crippled" Lois in Secret boyfriend because he did something stupid.

Maybe that´s not a really good one, but in the cold opener of Krelboyne girl Reese stole Malcolm´s disgusting sandwich. In secret boyfriend he didn´t want to be outsmarted by Malcolm and didn´t trust him which also didn´t pay off.

@Yardgames: You're right, i'd forgotten about some of the plot development you mentioned; but I still think there are some inconsistencies. It just seems to me that Hal could never change that much, and neither could Lois, it'd have to be a bit more deep rooted. Also in the episode where Reese reads Lois' diary, we see that she's always been quite similar in character to how she is nowadays. I guess we're splitting hairs really. Overall though the MITM continuity is excellent, and makes it stand out from other series.

I'll be hoenst--I forgot what Lois was like when Reese read her diary. I guess I would argue that, like Smunday where through Malcolm's eyes we see Lois magically rise out of bed, the diary is through Lois' eyes; this is what she saw happening, and it may be exaggerated to what really happened. Also, having a baby changes everyone (even if only temporarily in Lois' case).