2.9 "Malcolm in the Middle" - "High School Play" Quiz

Answer: Hockey

When Hal gets home, Lois tells her husband that none of their children are home so she was thinking of going out to dinner. Lois says that Malcolm is at Stevie's house, Reese is at hockey practice, and Dewey is playing with one of the neighbors. As she asks what Hal is in the mood for, he returns to the room completely naked, to which Lois simply replies: "that has got to be a new record".

Answer: A syphilitic drunk

The Krelboyne class has a guest speaker asking for a volunteer to participate in their school play. The play in question is Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream". While Dabney says that Shakespeare was "a syphilitic drunk fronting for the 14th Earl of Oxford", Lloyd defends the Bard and his works, specifically "King Lear". Malcolm explains that his class is usually chosen to volunteer for things no one else wants to do because they assume the Krelboynes have nothing better to do.

Answer: He gets to miss class

Meghan, the high school girl who is asking for a volunteer for her play, is looking for someone who can play the role of a changeling (a younger boy) in "A Midsummer Night's Dream". Caroline, the teacher, interrupts and points out that the downside to volunteering is that the student will probably have to miss class.

As soon as she said that, Malcolm enthusiastically raised his hand and quickly prepared to leave the classroom.

Answer: I Am Bored

As Malcolm walks into the theater, he takes a look at what the much older students are doing. He sees a couple kissing, a student tattooing the words "I Am Bored" with a pen into his arm, and two students with several tattoos and piercings. He tries to talk to Travis, who was reading "On The Road", but Travis ignores him. Still, Malcolm is very happy because he is in a room where no one cares about anything, which reminds him of his older brother Francis.

Malcolm is asked to read the lines for Puck to fill in for an absent actor. He impresses the director and the other actors and earns the role of Puck, one of the most important characters in the play.

Answer: Guacamole

The first time we see Francis in this episode is when he is enjoying some chips and guacamole in Marlin Academy's living room. He compliments his fellow cadet, Joe, on the guacamole, who replies that "the secret is fresh lime juice". Commandant Spangler interrupts the cadets and admonishes them for desecrating the room's "wall of remembrance". He imposes a new weekly inspection requirement and forces them to relinquish most of their personal items.


Guacamole is usually prepared with avocados, salt, and lime juice. Depending on taste, people may add other ingredients like chilies, vinegar, pepper, or garlic. Pico de gallo is another delicious Mexican food item made with tomatoes, onions, chillies, and lime juice.

Answer: Octavia Spencer

Lois was shopping for things like spaghetti and glitter for Malcolm's costume at a place called Jons. She is pleasantly surprised when the cashier confirms that it's 5:45pm, which means that Lois accomplished all her tasks in less time than she thought and now has 25 free minutes. Lois is confused because she is not used to having any free time for herself.

The cashier is played by Octavia Spencer, an American actress born in 1970 in Alabama. One of the first movies she participated in was "A Time to Kill" in 1996, and she had some other minor roles in the 2000s before becoming more popular in the 2010s. This episode of "Malcolm in the Middle" was one of her first TV appearances.

Answer: Get a massage

Lois finds an Asian man offering 15-minute massages inside the store. Even though she warns him that she has "never been relaxed", she accepts the massage since she has some free time to kill. Soon, she starts feeling relaxed and even begins crying at one point. She likes the massage so much that she decides to return and get another one.

Meanwhile, Hal and Dewey are using their time together to develop a better bond. They find a shared activity in creating an entire city out of Legos. Shockingly, Lois finds no problem with the fact that the whole house is covered with toys. This is possibly because of how relaxed she is after the massages.

Answer: A rocket

The Krelboynes asked Malcolm not to forget their secret project at the beginning of the episode when he volunteered for the play. However, Malcolm is so excited with the attention he's getting from the high school students that he forgets all about the project. He hastily makes calculations for the rocket, which was their secret project. Unsurprisingly, those maths are incorrect and the rocket ends up nearly hitting the car Malcolm was in.

While Malcolm is having fun listening to the high school girls gossip, the rest of the Krelboynes have to wash dishes as a punishment. The rocket exploded near Caroline and next, we then learn, Caroline gave birth in the parking lot!

Answer: Lois

When Lois returns to the store, she is shocked to hear that the massage therapist no longer works there. She gets irritated and is now back in her normal mood. When she gets back home, she trips with a plastic block that was on the floor, setting off a catastrophic chain of events that ends in Lois bringing down the entire "society" that Hal and Dewey built. Reese was tempted to destroy it earlier but Hal convinced him not to.

Answer: Yes

At first, Malcolm was so good at reading lines that he got one of the main roles in the play. However, he became so absorbed in the high school gossip that he forgot to memorize his lines! When he is thrust into the scene, he smiles, only to realize he can only remember the voices of the girls gossiping. Embarrassingly, Malcolm stays completely silent for five full minutes. Lloyd decides to forgive Malcolm for his "betrayal" and whispers some lines to him, but Malcolm keeps forgetting. Eventually, Lloyd ends up reciting all of Puck's lines while Malcolm hangs from the ceiling and covers his face in shame.

When the play ends, the audience claps for Lloyd, but no one claps for Malcolm. Then, Malcolm is left hanging on the stage, still in his full costume, because everyone else left. Finally, Malcolm members his line and performs in the empty theater. Apparently, all he needed was a moment of silence away from the gossiping high schoolers.