Shame (Malcolm in the Middle episode)
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Shame is the title of episode 104 of the Fox Network series Malcolm in the Middle. Written by David Richardson and directed by Nick Marck, it originally aired on February 6, 2000.
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[edit] Plot
Kevin, a new boy at Malcolm's school is constantly harassing Malcolm at school (i.e. throwing his baseball over the fence). After a long week of constant bullying, Malcolm finally snaps after Kevin spits pizza sauce in his face (from the pizza slice Malcolm would've eaten if Kevin didn't cut in front of him) and beats Kevin up. Unfortunately for Malcolm, it turns out Kevin is in the 2nd grade. On his seventh birthday no less, which comes as a surprise since Kevin looks years older than 7. Kevin receives the most sympathy, leaving Malcolm feeling ashamed and confused.
After telling his family about the incident, the family is anything but ashamed, they find the whole thing to be funny. With no one to help Malcolm feel less guilty, Malcolm decides to run in a charity race to ease his conscience. After raising more money for the event than all the other racers combined, Malcolm begins the race. If Malcolm won the race he would've raised over 2,000 dollars, yet as the race started, Malcolm almost immediately tripped, losing the race. After healing his scrapes from his fall during the race Lois confronts Malcolm telling him that his feelings of shame and guilt are only natural. We also learn that Hal was confronted by who he thought was Kevin's father; Hal beat him up and later learned he was only 15.
Meanwhile, at Marlin Academy, after sitting through a mandatory sex education slide show with Commandant Edwin Spangler, Francis decides to sabotage his slide show for the next class by replacing the sex ed slides with Spangler's vacation picture slides. In the end, the tables turn, as Spangler replaced the vacation slides with a slide show of his own showing Francis picking his nose repeatedly, upon knowing of Francis' plan.
[edit] Malcolm's Overview (From FOX.com)
"Okay, so I did something really bad. Definitely the worst thing I’ve ever done. Even worse than—well, Mom sometimes reads this, so never mind. I beat up a seven-year-old. I mean, I didn’t know he was a seven-year-old. He was gigantic! He must have some sort of disease. I don’t know what happened. He was really annoying and he was picking on Stevie. Then he took the last two pieces of pizza, and I was stuck with American goulash. I just snapped. Can you blame me? I started pummeling him. I was actually enjoying it; I’d never done that well before. The next thing I know, I’m in the nurse’s office and he’s crying that he’s seven. I don’t beat up little kids. (Dewey doesn’t count.) I still have this sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I feel like such a thug. The worst part was that no one in this family seemed to realize I did anything wrong. They just thought it was funny. No wonder I don’t know how to act. I tried to do something really good to make up for the bad thing I did, but that didn’t go right. I even went to church. That’s when Mom got suspicious. She finally told me this feeling is my conscience, and the fact I get sick means I’m a good person. This conscience thing sucks! I wonder how Reese got away without having one. One last thing: Mom and I need to stop having these little heart-to-heart chats in the bathroom — or Dad needs to learn to wait!"
[edit] See also
[edit] Guest Cast
- Robert Grovich – Kevin
- Paul Willson – Ed
- Adam Hendershott – Cadet Adam
- Annie O'Donnell – Nurse
- Michael Canavan – Priest
- Roger Marks – Rabbi
- Gregory Bell – New Age Guru
- Amy Higgins – Rowena
- Alessandro Canale – Krelboyn Boy
