The "old ways" of Ida's country, which Ida is trying to preserve, are all designed to insure the survival of a people who clearly are located along one of the bloody ethnic fault lines of Eastern Europe, the scene of age-old conflicts between neighboring peoples, where the price of defeat can be extinction. Ida's "test of manhood" is a folk custom that insures that only the toughest males are allowed to breed, and weaklings are excluded from the gene pool. In a brilliantly clever plot, the theme of Ida trying to transport her folk ways to America is combined with the theme of Reese's inability to relate emotionally with girls. Ida is going to force Raducca to marry Reese as soon as Reese proves he's tough enough to be allowed to breed. What is, to the modern American mind, an unacceptably primitive way of selecting a mate, looks like a good deal to Reese--he's never had much prospect of carrying out a successful American-style courtship; the ancient ways of Ida's people are better suited to Reese's primitive temperament than those of modern American culture.
The over-sophisticated Malcolm is repelled by the brutality of Ida's "ways" and thinks he can foil the barbaric custom. Reese beats him at the two tests of physical toughness. But there is a third test: to survive, a man must be not just tough, but clever; otherwise, he can be entrapped by a weaker but trickier opponent. Malcolm beats Reese at the cleverness test, and he thinks he has triumphed over Ida's ways:
Malcolm: "The wedding is off! After two thousand years, your ways are dead!"
Ida: "I am content! The ways have been followed."
Malcolm: "What! No! No! You don't have to pretend you're OK with this! I never followed your ways! Well... , I did. But it was for a different reason!"
Ida: "Pack up your things, cow! We leave in five minutes."
Malcolm in fact validated the primitive custom--he weeded out a thug not clever enough to be allowed to breed. In an ironic twist, it's Reese who overthrows the old ways. He failed the manhood test, but he doesn't have to abide by it. This is America, not the old country, and in America Ida is powerless to enforce the old ways:
Reese: "I'm going to marry her anyway!"
Ida: "It is forbidden! The ways don't allow you!"
Reese: "Well then, from now on I reject your ways forever."
Then Reese makes a bleakly honest marriage proposal to Raducca: "Listen, I'm not the perfect guy. I might not even be a good guy. But if you marry me, we'll both be certain for the rest of our lives that I never could have done any better."
No American girl could accept such a proposal, but to Raducca Reese's clumsy declaration of love sounds a lot better than what was in store for her. It's no accident Ida calls her a "cow." Under the old ways, Raducca has no more say about her future than does a head of cattle. But now she's in America, and Ida has no more power over her. Marrying Reese is a liberation from the past. Ida is old and can't let go of the past; Raducca is young and wants to shake off the past. She and Reese run off to Las Vegas--a place that's a purely American invention, with no past, no traditions, no rules, no questions asked. That Vegas here represents what is totally American is reinforced by the background music: as soon as Malcolm says "Vegas," a version of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" starts playing and is the background music during the wedding ceremony.
The confontation between Lois and Dewey harks back to the last time Dewey entered a piano competition, in "Army 1." In that story the family was indifferent to Dewey being in the competition, and Dewey was indifferent to the calamities befalling the family--it showed a vicious circle of neglect from the family and self-absorption by Dewey. Here the theme is taken a step further--Dewey accuses Lois of being downright hostile to seeing her son succeed. The question of whether the accusation is true is left purposely ambivalent. Lois' "So what" appears to mean: "I don't think I'm trying to sabotage you, but who knows what dark motives may be lurking in my subconscious. I don't claim to be the perfect mother. It doesn't matter. Crap flies at you, that's the way life is. You've got to try to succeed anyway, and if your parents aren't as supportive as ideal parents ought to be, well then, you'll just have to try harder." The tone of this scene is uniquely MITM: it is as free of sugar-coating as it is free of bitterness.
Some side comments:
--The dog in the sack looked just like Marshmellow, the bull mastiff in "Dewey's Dog." I'll bet it's the same dog.
--The spoilers for forthcoming episodes say nothing about Reese, leaving the outcome of his marriage entirely in suspense. I'm on pins and needles!
I´m really not sure if Reese will stay married or not. I mean he always had bad luck with girls and Raduca maybe is finally the one who could make him happy since she hardly talks and seems to be okay with almost everything. So Reese probably doesn´t hurt her with his remarks and she won´t hurt him. But still I can imagine that Lois won´t be very pleased and I don´t really think that she´ll let Raduca live in her house sleeping in the boys´bedroom. 
