When Malcolm Manipulated His Therapist to Skip Class

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]We all knew that Malcolm was a genius.

[00:00:02]But one of the episodes from Malcolm in the Middle that best represents this is season 2 episode 8, therapy, where young Malcolm literally manipulates his school therapist just to get out of class. We start the episode off with Dewey, Malcolm, and Lois getting ready in the bathroom. Lois then tells Malcolm that he needs to put on his jester costume as it is medieval week at his school. This essentially means that all of the kids in Malcolm's class have to dress up in medieval costumes and perform a dance.

[00:00:31]It's already known that the Krelllboys are constantly bullied simply for just being nerds. So, these costumes are only going to make it worse for Malcolm's social status. We then cut to Malcolm in his Krelllboy class, and everyone is wearing their medieval costumes. By the way, shout out to whoever designed Steviey's costume as the Pope, as it looks amazing. The teacher then addresses the class, stating that it is time to begin the harvest dance. Before the dance begins, the teacher tells Dabney that he has a dentist appointment, to which Dabney begrudgingly leaves the room. The students then begin their harvest dance.

[00:01:04]And yeah, I can definitely see why Malcolm wants no part of this. As the dance continues, Malcolm learns from Lloyd that Dabney isn't actually leaving to go to the dentist. Instead, dentist is a code word for the school therapist, which he knows because Lloyd also goes to see the dentist. Later, the teacher then addresses the classroom, explaining that they have been granted permission to perform the harvest dance at the assembly in front of the entire school.

[00:01:33]She even mentions that the students attending will be given fruit in case they want to participate in the dance.

[00:01:40]Yeah, I'm sure that won't go poorly at all. Showing up to school wearing this jester outfit and dancing was already bad enough, but now the teacher expects him to do this in front of the entire school later that day. Therefore, Malcolm decides to do something ballsy.

[00:01:55]As the classroom resumes practicing their dance, Malcolm literally decides to shove a kid to the ground in an attempt to fake a mental breakdown so he too can go see the school therapist with the aim of ditching the school performance. And this plan worked as the next shot is Malcolm sitting down talking to the school therapist.

[00:02:16]Although he isn't really talking per se.

[00:02:19]Instead, he decides to use this time to play video games because I guess the therapist just has this cool looking arcade game in her office for the students to relax. Malcolm obviously doesn't actually need therapy. He is only faking all of this to get out of doing the assembly. So, when presented with the option of talking to the therapist or playing video games, he obviously chooses the latter as to milk the clock out as much as possible. The therapist then suggests talking about Malcolm's little episode in class, to which Malcolm sternly shuts it down, as obviously that was all just a ploy to get himself in here. Malcolm then realizes that the therapist will not let up until he gives her some sort of substance to justify him being here.

[00:03:02]After Malcolm feeds the therapist some crap about being sad and making mistakes, he turns to the camera to explain that his goal is to keep coming back here, but to not seem disturbed enough to need medication. Later, we cut to Malcolm walking into his house as he is greeted by Ree, who explains to Malcolm that he missed a great school assembly and how stupid it was of the faculty to give them fruit as they just threw it at the Krelllboys. No surprises there. Reys demands an explanation from Malcolm as to why he wasn't there since even though they are brothers, that does not mean that Ree will show mercy to Malcolm and was planning to throw tomatoes at him. Malcolm obviously does not plan on telling Ree about what he's doing. We then cut to the next day where Malcolm is again coming home from school. We can also see that Malcolm is holding a book called Adolescence and Children in Anxiety, entailing that Malcolm is brushing up on his psychology in an attempt to keep feeding his therapist with nonsense while also not seeming troubled enough to be put on medication. We then cut to a montage of Malcolm studying psychology while continuing to attend the therapy sessions. The therapist is completely buying all of this and does not see at all what Malcolm is doing. From her perspective, Malcolm is just a normal kid who has a few issues. She is completely blindsided to the fact that Malcolm is just making all of this up just to get out of class. He even goes as far as faking panic attacks and seeming disoriented to sell this image of him being a kid in need of therapy.

[00:04:30]And it's honestly just hilarious.

[00:04:33]Whatever Malcolm is telling the therapist, it really seems like this is a hard case for her as she too is also seen hitting the books, reading up on psychology, trying to crack open Malcolm and understand him. The fact that this is all being caused by a 10-year-old, and she probably has a master's degree is just insane and really goes to show just how smart Malcolm really is. The next day, we cut to Malcolm back in class with the Krelllboys as Lloyd approaches him, stating how proud he is for taking the steps and going to therapy. Lloyd claims that admitting you needed help was the hardest step, to which Malcolm makes a smug remark, claiming that actually keeping up with all of the cognitive and behavioral therapy was the hardest step. And honestly, as savage as Malcolm is in this episode, this was really a nasty thing to say to him. To Malcolm, this is just a game to ditch class. But to Lloyd, this is a real battle for him, and therapy actually means something to him. The teacher then addresses the class, claiming that tomorrow they will be visiting the medieval torture museum, followed by pizza. Malcolm is super excited about this, but is then let down as he is told that he will be unable to go due to his dentist appointment. Now that Malcolm's little therapy plan is stopping him from doing something enjoyable, Malcolm decides that it's time for him to have a mental breakthrough with his therapist. We then cut to Malcolm back at the therapist's office as he is laying on the couch explaining a dream he had last night in an attempt to make the therapist believe that he no longer needs therapy.

[00:06:05]Although this might have worked, right as Malcolm exits the office, he is greeted by Ree, who somehow managed to figure out what Malcolm has been doing this whole time. This is honestly super surprising as Ree is generally depicted as being astonishingly stupid. But here, it actually required some wit to see through Malcolm's plans. Malcolm is obviously super disappointed to see Reese here as Malcolm has been working hard to put the therapist right where he wants her and he is worried that Ree will ruin all of this. As the therapist comes to the door claiming that she is ready to see Ree, we see Reese begin to talk with his finger trying to simulate some sort of psychotic multiple personality disorder. So yeah, we can clearly see that whatever Ree is planning, chaos will ensue. Later, we cut to Malcolm sitting in his room as Ree walks in. Reys explains that he did his own research to fool the therapist.

[00:06:58]However, his research was nothing like Malcolm's. Reese's version of studying was horror movies, and he even plans on wearing a mask next time to really sell the image of him being crazy. We never hear Ree explain exactly what it is that he told the therapist, but whatever it was, it worried the therapist enough to actually show up to the Wilkerson's house. As we see Lois and the therapist walk into their rooms, Lois immediately is able to sense what is going on. We then cut to later at the house as Lois and the therapist and Malcolm are talking. Reese is also present in the room, but whatever he decided to do or say caused him to be punished like a prisoner. The therapist explains to Lois that she spent a whole week with Malcolm and believes that he is truly mentally disturbed and needs further help. The therapist then pulls out a drawing that Malcolm made. The drawing appears to be the entire family except Lois is portrayed as a giant monster and she is eating one of the kids. This is interesting because it entails that even though Malcolm was just making stuff up for the therapist to look into, it seems that he did for some reason decide to bring Lois into this, which means inadvertently he was being possibly a little bit truthful. Now, I'm no expert on therapy or anything. But isn't this supposed to be confidential? I guess I'm just sort of surprised that the therapist decided to go through with all of this considering that it looks like it's a breach of her confidential agreement with Malcolm. Maybe it's different with Malcolm because he's a minor or because it's the school therapist. I'm not sure. Let me know what you guys think in the comments.

[00:08:32]Malcolm then starts talking and mentions how he believes that Lois has unrealistically high expectations of him. So, although this all started as a ploy to ditch class, here we can actually start to see Malcolm taking this seriously. He claims that he feels too pressured with all of the advanced classes that he has to do. And on top of that, he also has to help Reese and Dwey with their homework. Essentially, this whole situation dulges into both Malcolm and Lois having a mental breakdown and beginning to actually take this seriously. This is hilarious as in the beginning of this situation, this was all just a joke to everyone except for the therapist. But now they are getting all emotional and begin crying to each other except Ree. This is all still just a joke to Ree. This has always been one of my favorite episodes of Malcolm in the Middle. Not only was it funny, but it also goes to show just how smart Malcolm really is, but also ends on a serious note about the mother son relationship between Lois and Malcolm.

[00:09:28]Amazingly written. That's going to be it for today. Please be sure to like and subscribe, and be sure to comment your thoughts down below and let me know what you want to see next. YouTube thinks you'll enjoy this video right here, so I highly suggest going to check it out.

[00:09:40]Anyways, thanks for watching. Bye-bye.