User:Nothin' at all/MITM/202

"Halloween Approximately" is episode 2 of the second season of the television series Malcolm in the Middle. It first aired on November 8, 2000.

Plot
After getting in trouble at military school, Francis arrives home after Halloween and plots the ultimate prank.

The Blue Car
Hal becomes obsessed with a delinquent who begins frequently speeding down the street in a blue muscle car. Failing to find help in the local neighborhood association (whose primary reason for meeting is to complain about the Wilkersons), Hal takes matters into his own hands. To the neglect of picking up Francis at the bus station, he waits in his van for seven hours for the car to pass. When it finally does, he breaks off his key in the van's ignition in panic. The illegal speed bump he constructs in the street proves only to encourage the rogue driver. Lois discourages his efforts until she sees the speeder deliberately litter the street, at which point Hal and Lois tail the speeder to a party and, with the original intention to let the air out of his tires, end up stealing the car. Speeding out of town, Hal proposes a romantic scenario in which the couple move to Mexico under the names Raul and Consuela. Afterwards, they realize the stupidity of the idea and push the car into a lake, walking thirty miles back home.

The Slingshot
Aware that it was supposed to be their first year as mindless vandals on Halloween, the boys are disappointed that Francis was unable to come home. Far from discouraged, Francis makes a heartfelt speech about the spirit of Halloween, revealing his design for a massively powerful slingshot capable of throwing objects up to two city blocks. Unsupervised, the boys collect a variety of items to be used as ammunition; such as water balloons, rotten eggs, string cheese, dirty diapers, and the contents of the house's storm gutters. While Hal and Lois speed out of town, they construct the catapult on the roof and begin firing on anything that moves, beginning with Malcolm's classmates (Krelboynes) who have congregated across the street to watch the Leonid meteor shower. After reigning terror across the neighborhood, they are suddenly attacked by the Krelboynes, who have constructed their own catapult using Stevie's wheelchair and what remains of their telescopes. With their own catapult destroyed, the boys are shown no mercy and their attempts to surrender are ignored, culminating with the ladder being knocked away from the roof. Malcolm expresses relief at knowing what the next two hours of his life will be like, and absently turns his attention back to the meteor shower.