Malcolm in the Middle

The Bots And The Bees

Season 1, Episode 14, Aired 5/7/00

Episode Summary

Malcolm and his Krelboyne classmates enlist the help of Hal for a school project, which involves a robot, and an enormous swarm of bees. Lois visits Francis at his school after he becomes injured and soon clashes with Spangler.

8.8

EPISODE RATING: Great

75 votes

Your Rating: 10

"Perfect"
Your Rating: 9.5

"Superb"
Your Rating: 9

"Superb"
Your Rating: 8.5

"Great"
Your Rating: 8

"Great"
Your Rating: 7.5

"Good"
Your Rating: 7

"Good"
Your Rating: 6.5

"Fair"
Your Rating: 6

"Fair"
Your Rating: 5.5

"Mediocre"
Your Rating: 5

"Mediocre"
Your Rating: 4.5

"Poor"
Your Rating: 4

"Poor"
Your Rating: 3.5

"Bad"
Your Rating: 3

"Bad"
Your Rating: 2.5

"Terrible"
Your Rating: 2

"Terrible"
Your Rating: 1.5

"Abysmal"
Your Rating: 1

"Abysmal"

Rate It

Watch Online

Cast & Crew

See All EDIT

Jane Kaczmarek

Lois Wilkerson
Bryan Cranston

Hal Wilkerson
Chris Masterson

Francis Wilkerson

Fan Episode Reviews (5)

See All

The Bots And The Bees

8.5

"Great"

By futuramarama, Jan 01, 2010 Report Abuse

Malcolm and the rest of his Krelboyne friends want to make a killer bot to enter in a bot fight contest. But none of their parents would allow this, so Malcolm asks Hal, who of course does accept. But soon Hal takes over the whole project and becomes insane.

Lois is at Marlin Academy visiting Francis, who has had his appendix out. But Lois acts differently then she usually does.

At the end of the episode everything is back to normal of course.

A decent episode, main plot is more interesting but sub plot is funnier. 8.5 score from me, a great onemoreless

DO YOU AGREE?
0 0
Damned good!

9.0

"Superb"

By Chasis1991, May 18, 2008 Report Abuse

I thought the Francis/Lois story wasn't funny at all, but the rest was soooo funny.

The part with the "bee cannon" is so funny, its Hal's face as it aims at his head...it's just like...LOL!!!!

Hal's decine in sanity and appearance reminds me of Jack Nicholson in The Shining

i think the Bee Cannon should be used in the army...that'll teach people to mess with the the greatest country on Earth...ENGLAND!!!!!!

But this review isn't about England...despite how good we are...anyway...

i highly reccomend this episode having just finished watching it for the 5th time ever...

(the rest of this is just filler for the 100 words...sorry :/ )moreless

DO YOU AGREE?
0 0
Funny!

10

"Perfect"

By VGFreak8, Dec 16, 2007 Report Abuse

Malcolm and his nerd friends try to build a killer robot. When Lois leaves to see injured Francis, Hal becomes crazy without her there. He starts helping with the robot, but goes too far, which makes the nerds not want to work on it anymore. He lets Reese, Malcolm and Dewey do whatever they want. Meanwhile, Francis is driven nuts with Lois there. She is actually being cool.

This episode was great! I can't believe how crazy Hal was! Lois seemed cool at the school, I wonder why? I think that the robot looked cool! This episode gets a 10!moreless

DO YOU AGREE?
0 0
Not that bad...

8.5

"Great"

By OeTvGreat, Jul 01, 2006 Report Abuse

This episode was not as much as I expected to be, I think that it would be a lot more funnier than this, but still it was not something horrible to watch and by myself I think that this episode is really good and is not bad at all, and well the only thing is that I don't think that this episode have a certain plot in it, more of like they do any stupid thing about it, but I still think that this episode is really cool...moreless

DO YOU AGREE?
0 0
Malcolm and the krelboynes design a robot

8.8

"Great"

By jimbo_001, May 11, 2006 Report Abuse

This episode is crazy, the end being spectacular with Hal being covered in bees and the rest of the episode with Hal slowly descending into madness was terrific, and the characters' reactions were very real.

Lois being a completely different person at military school and therefore making the cadets think Francis was a liar was actually a very understandable idea since Lois had gotten a bad but true reputation and embarassed Francis by not being her usual self.

Overall, this episode was definitely a silly one and more farfetched than most Malcolm episodes but that is why it is entertaining and that is the main thing.moreless

DO YOU AGREE?
0 0

Write a Review

Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

See All

Trivia
ADD TRIVIA
- When Hal tells the boys to run because the robot is about to fire, he clearly has plenty of time to run himself. You only have to stand still AFTER the bees attack, not before. Edit
- When Spangler is talking to Lois, he says "The all Alabama gay rodeo is in town." He should have said the all gay Alabama rodeo to be grammatically correct. Edit
- When Hal was covered in bees and told the kids to go to the neighbor, they don't because Malcolm says the neighbors won't let them over anymore. They could go to Craig's house as he was there the whole time. Edit
Notes
ADD NOTES
- Battle Bots is actually a real show. Edit
- Cold Open: The boys continually rush back and forth from the house and the arcade to grab quarters for an Area 51-style shooting game after each time they die. Edit
- Starting with this episode, Catherine Lloyd Burns is no longer in the opening credits. This is likely because this episode, along with "Smunday" and "Water Park," are part of Season 2 production-wise. Edit
Quotes
ADD QUOTES
- (Lois and Francis are at a gay rodeo) Lois: Are you sure you're not embarrassed to be seen with your mother? Francis: Nah! (the camera backs up and we see teen boys with their mothers as well) Edit
- (Hal is covered in bees) Hal: Call animal control. Malcolm: You ripped the phone off the wall. Hal: Go to the neighbors. Malcolm: They won't let us over any more! Hal: Do something! Edit
- Malcolm: I thought this was porn. Dabney: Ew! No, this is much better. Edit
Allusions
- Help by adding allusions to this episode. Add allusions