Malcolm in the Middle: Season 4

Malcolm is depressed, and the family goes to the zoo. Reese battles a goat, while Malcolm and Dewey end up in a tiger pit. Dewey calms Malcolm long enough for Reese to save them by tossing the goat in the tiger pit. This experience makes Malcolm see his life in a whole new light. Lois' ex-boyfriend, Matt (Tim DeKay), works at the zoo and his demonstration of a tarantula on Hal results in Hal getting a nasty bite. While Hal recovers, Matt inadvertently reveals to him that Lois actually had a thir

Malcolm's first day of high school gets off to a bad start when Lois embarrasses him in front of the entire school, causing him to have no friends except the Krelboynes. He tries to commit an offense that would make Lois send him to military school, but Cynthia warns him that if he does so, she will 'never have sex with him again', lying and sacrificing her own reputation to restore his. Lois and Hal volunteer in the school, where Hal clashes with Mr. Herkabe. With Malcolm and Reese away, Dewey

Francis and Piama visit just as the family goes to Hal's family reunion for his father's birthday, and Hal's family makes Lois miserable because she is from a lower-class family. Hal, Piama and the boys are furious for this and plot revenge on the family. Hal clashes with his father, Walter (Christopher Lloyd), and forces a confession from him by tickling him. The boys drive a golf cart over the celebration with the help of their younger cousins, destroying the party, and incurring the wrath of

Malcolm pretends to be stupid so he can win over a cute girl named Alison (Brittany Finamore) who really is stupid and soon finds that he is actually becoming dumber. Stevie wins Lois' approval and she takes him to the school dance. Hal rents a steamroller and becomes addicted to running over various objects until Dewey brings him back to his senses by standing in front of it. Meanwhile, Francis saves Otto from being conned by a con-artist selling him cow sunscreen.

Days before Malcolm's birthday, he and Reese pull increasingly severe pranks against each other. Flashbacks throughout the episode gradually reveal how their feud began when Malcolm ate a blueberry Reese was saving. Dewey worries about his role as Abraham Lincoln in the school play and takes Lois' advice to imagine a set of parents, leading to a memorable performance. Hal enlists Craig to help him find Malcolm a birthday present, but is driven crazy by his constant demands. Although Craig calls

Malcolm starts to date Nikki (Reagan Dale Neis), a girl from his school that he tutors in his free time. It becomes increasingly complicated to manage their alibis and avoid her dad who dislikes him. Hal and Lois cannot have sex for a week while Lois takes an antibiotic regimen. They find new energy to care for the kids and improve the house, but have a hard time staying apart. At the ranch, Otto is furious with a neighboring ranch repeatedly destroying the fences that Francis has built to keep

Malcolm decides to keep his opinions to himself, but he becomes so repressed that he is hospitalized with a peptic ulcer. Reese must enlist Craig to drive him and his girlfriend, Alison, to a concert. When Reese learns that Craig wants to go on a hayride date and will not let him renege, Alison ditches Reese to go to the concert alone, and he is forced to spend the evening with Craig. Hal starts practicing race-walking, and ends up having talents for it, until he makes a fierce rival, Wheeler. H

Hal and the boys visit Francis at the ranch. Everyone is shocked to find that Francis is a lot different from whom they remember. As Hal laments that the ranch succeeded where he failed in instilling responsibility in Francis, the boys try to restore Francis to his old self by revealing a secret stash full of rockets and fireworks. Hal and Otto get drunk and end up stranded in the desert during the night. The boys set off the fireworks, helping to rescue Otto and Hal but blinding themselves.

Francis and Piama visit the family the same day Grandma Ida's last day of visit. However, Grandma Ida is injured by slipping on leaves Reese neglected to rake up, and she sues Lois and Hal – just when Lois discovers that she is pregnant. To make matters worse, she hires an expensive lawyer and sues for a vast sum. This turns to horror when their insurance company cancels their policy via a loophole, which could lead to Ida evicting them from their own home and taking all of their belongings

Hal asks Lois what sex she would like her new baby to be, but they are interrupted by the boys fighting. Exasperated, Lois imagines life with daughters instead of sons, with Reese as Renee (Mimi Paley), Malcolm as Mallory (Lisa Foiles), and Dewey as Daisy (Jennette McCurdy). The fantasy also depicts Hal as an obese, weak-willed secret smoker who is easily manipulated by the girls. Though the fantasy starts pleasantly at home and at a local mall, Lois soon discovers the potential problems with ra

Reese is sent to prison for a day as part of a "Scared Straight" program for troublemaking kids, where he clashes with a wrestler imprisoned for beating a man to death. Meanwhile, Lois takes Malcolm (who's been sneaking around with his girlfriend from "Forbidden Girlfriend") on a lengthy drive to her sister's house, during which she tells him everything about sex and relationships; Dewey dissolves Hal's band by planting seeds of doubt among the members; and Francis tries to cover up the fact tha

A combination of Malcolm's disgust at the house falling apart around them, and Hal's fear-induced "zero tolerance" attempts at maintaining peace and order in the family, results in Malcolm being kicked out of the house. The longer he has no home, the more his sanity begins to slip away. Hal finds Malcolm at his ex-girlfriend's house and agrees to keep this between them, knowing that Lois would have gone through greater lengths to find him. At the ranch, Otto's family arrives and Francis has to d

Hal gets a second job at "U-Buy It," and tries to fit in with the younger workers. Meanwhile, Jessica (Hayden Panettiere), a girl from Malcolm's school, babysits Malcolm, Reese, and Dewey while Hal works the night shift, and she ends up humiliating them in front of her friends, and a film crew picks The Grotto to shoot their new movie, but when Francis recognizes one of the actresses from a porno he saw (and sees signs that the film crew is for an X-rated movie), he must hide the truth from Gret

Hal meets with an old high-school friend, Larry (Joel Murray), who has not changed in all the time since they have seen each other. Hal claims Lois believes Larry is a horrible influence on him, which is proven right when Hal and Larry accidentally knock down the bedroom wall. Malcolm and Stevie convince their Krelboyne friend Dabney to become more independent from his overprotective mother. Dewey manipulates Reese to do favors for him by pretending Lois is giving Reese orders through the phone.

Home from a visit with her sister, Susan, who had called her "hopeless," Lois puts Reese in charge of the family garage sale to build his character, but he gets carried away with the authority. When Reese sells Dewey's piggy bank that had $16 inside it for a fraction of said money, and Lois refuses to do anything about it, Dewey takes revenge on the family by selling all the valuable items inside the house (TV, stereo, bookshelf, etc.) Hal finds his old pirate radio transmitter and restarts the

Mr. Herkabe forces Malcolm to join the academic octathlon team in an expensive hotel, but soon discovers a cheating conspiracy. Meanwhile, Dewey alienates Hal after Hal tells him he is too big for their bedtime ritual, Reese tries to bail out of going to the dance with his girlfriend so he can save money on a leather jacket, and Francis and Piama decide not to get into any more petty squabbles, but their lack of arguing causes other couples to fight.

Hal and Lois are penning their will, and think back to all the trouble their sons put them through. Hal forewarned against making out the will because he and Lois are not equipped for the task and wanted to go to a professional to make out the will. Lois' history with Francis is finally revealed and how her inability to admit when she is wrong lead to a lot of the problems the family has been dealing with.

Reese decides to throw a party while Lois and Hal take a last weekend getaway before the baby is born. Unfortunately, he invites Francis' friend Donnie and his gang, on the same night that Malcolm had planned a romantic dinner with his new girlfriend Kathy (Danielle Panabaker), and they turn the party into a crystal meth operation. When Francis fails to blackmail Donnie into leaving, Dewey solves the situation by tattling on the delinquents to their mothers. Hal and Lois have a miserable time at

At the park, Malcolm meets a depressed middle-aged man named Leonard (Jason Alexander) who has much in common with him. Fearing that this might be his future self, Malcolm tries to help Leonard to improve his life. Lois cannot understand why she is gaining weight in spite of her dieting attempts. Dewey keeps playing stunts, using the excuse that the baby "told" him to. Lois is about to punish him, saying the baby is not talking to him, when Dewey tells her the baby "says" to look behind her, rev

Hal and the boys spend the day at a bridal exposition (which Hal had mistaken for a car exposition). Reese is lent a tuxedo by a vendor; he enjoys how much nicer he is treated so much that he refuses to return it. Dewey enlists several people at the convention to humiliate Hal by publicly announcing that the baby's planned delivery date is his birthday. Malcolm has been accepted to a prestigious boarding school in England, but Hal forbids him to go because the family cannot function without him.

A frantic Hal crashes the car while trying to get home to Lois. Reese, Malcolm, and Dewey take a parenting class to be better brothers to their new sibling, but realize everything they were taught in the class is the opposite of what their parents did for them. Piama and Lois trick Susan and Ida into making amends to get Ida to leave. Francis is forced to help Lois give birth when the paramedics do not arrive in time. They manage to deliver the baby, who is named Jamie.

A church-run daycare center accepts Lois' wailing newborn, but it comes at a price. Not only must Reese, Malcolm, and Dewey attend Bible-study classes, but Hal and Lois are expected to take part in the church community. Malcolm and Dewey both hate it, Hal bonds well with the church members, Reese accepts God, and Lois has an epiphany about being a terrible mother to her own children. Meanwhile, a rival ranch reports an alien sighting, so Francis fabricates a sighting on Otto's ranch, which gets