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Lois Wilkerson
Lois
Gender: Female
Portrayed by: Jane Kaczmarek


Lois is the wife of Hal and mother of six+ children, in the final episode we see Lois holding a positive pregnancy test, as well as the daughter of Ida and the half-sister of Susan Welker(Laurie Metcalf). She is very high strung and her sons believe that she is sadistic. This is due to her serious disciplinary actions, involving destroying toys, banning cooking, and turning sons against each other.

Biography[]

Lois has never had a child normally. She went into labor with Francis in the middle of her wedding to Hal. Lois had Reese in the hospital and pushed him out hours before he would come out naturally, because he kicked her so hard. It was revealed in Clip Show 2 and in Flashback that he was directly responsible for her Staph Infection due to his uncontrollable kicking during her pregnancy with him. Malcolm was born on the lawn when Francis locked her out of the car, and Dewey was born on the back porch of their house in the rain after Malcolm accidently created a toxic cloud with his chemistry kit forced them to get out of the house. Jamie was born in her bedroom, Francis delivered him because the paramedics had not come due to taking a donut break. Lois had a particularly horrible childhood because of her parents favored her sister over her. Ida often blames her for being the way she is and believes her to be the direct cause of Victor leaving their family. She had a lot of dreams in her teen years that never came to pass, and although she loves Hal, it's clear marrying him ruined her life(which comes to light in Lois' Sister when Susan makes her visit to the house). Although both blame their children for money being constantly tight and for the house being such a mess, a majority of it appears to be due to their own irresponsibility and the fact they put having sex above all else(except one time when Lois had herself and Hal take medications to deter them from having sex for a month). Her relationship with her children is particularly poor especially with Francis. Lois has planned for most of her sons' futures. It was hinted that she had big plans for Francis' future(aside Malcolm) and he often took pleasure in reminding her that she has no control over him. This serves to frustrate Lois all the more frustrated as he was the only son who followed Hal's footsteps and yet did amount to something. She barley acknowledges Dewey despite his music talent(earlier), mainly due to her dealing with his older brothers. Lois later acknowledges him and his talents in the series finale. She planned for him to be a rich musician and live a happy, carefree life. Lois constantly hounds Malcolm because she believes he is only one with a chance of amounting to anything and tells him that he will not date women. She tells him that only she will decide his wife(possibly ending up being Jessica because she was the only girl Lois tolerates being around him). Out of the boys, the only one that Lois had not planned for his future was Reese. She and Hal both are aware that in spite of his cooking talents, Reese still amounted to nothing. They believe he is hopeless and works as a janitor in his former school. Despite the sacrifices she made, the boys(especially Francis, Reese and Malcolm) are not grateful because as far as they are concerned she is to blame for everything wrong in their lives.

However, the only son who does appreciate Lois is Dewey and he is the only one that she hasn't acted sadistic towards. He is also the only son who see more to her than his older brothers who believe her to be evil and sadistic(Malcolm does see this briefly in Victor's Other Family when he showed empathy for Lois and in Mono when he is forced to bunk with Lois). As such, Lois treats Dewey like a normal child and appreciates the nice things he does for Jamie, though she tells him that she will still punish him for it in using her card to keep a Chuck-E-Cheese open.

Personality[]

Lois is at heart a very loving mother who genuinely cares or her children, though this is undermined by her need for control. As a child she never had control over anything in her life and believes herself constantly screwed over because of it, possibly from Ida constantly blaming her for everything that is wrong between in their family. It was stated Lois used to be a charming and caring mother until Francis' bad behavior opened up her controlling, domineering personality.

Lois is the epitome of a control freak. She must win every fight no matter how small and insignificant, she must win every argument and she expects people to do whatever she tells them to regardless of who they are. Anytime she is questioned or ignored she will pursue the matter until it is resolved in her favor and refuses to admit that anything is out of her control. The greatest examples of her controlling nature is when she told Malcolm that she would choose who he could marry. This has gotten her called out by Hal who reminded her of the previous times that her inability to stop being a control freak is causing their family's misery. This was revealed in Clip Show 2 and thus Lois finally admitted that she never once was a control freak after Francis' birth. She became one after two factors: Francis playing with fire in Lois Battles Jamie and the lack of concern he felt while she was gone dealing with the Staph Infection caused by Reese's uncontrollable kicking in her womb She had an epiphany over being a terrible mother to her sons a few times in the show's run. The Prime Examples are Christmas, Clip Show 2, Day Care, Lois Battles Jamie, Ida Loses a Leg.

She has an extremely unhealthy hatred of being screwed over, evident from her childhood where Ida and Victor treated her like crap over Susan. This has lead to her being very petty, mean, controlling, resentful and vengeful. She had a melt down over an insignificant few cents in a pizza place, and when a blender she bought 10 years ago broke she demanded her money back.

It was revealed in Mono and explored in earlier seasons, that Lois's controlling nature is the main reason why everyone in the neighborhood hates her so much and refused to invite her to any of their gatherings. Unlike Malcolm, she's not bothered by it and does her best to blend in, even if it's forced. If they should invite Lois with Hal, she would end up fighting with them and being a control freak. She has shown a lack of concern for their feelings and the neighbors celebrates the weekends that Lois and the boys are out by having their annual block party.

Family[]

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Ida
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Hal
 
 
 
Lois
 
Susan
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Piama
 
Francis
 
Malcolm
 
Reese
 
Dewey
 
Jamie
 

Lois' history with her family is quite screwed up. She had never known that Victor Welker wasn't her birth father until years after his death. Ida constantly is a chain-smoker and blames Lois for being such a screw up that she favored Susan over her. She believes that her need for control was a pathetic attempt to try and win her over. Ida also believes that unlike Susan, Lois was untalented, bossy and hopeless. Her father, Victor, had treated her with indifference and had stayed away from her in favor of his other family, although he still comes back to see Susan. When they found out that Hal married Lois, Victor and Ida were furious. They had hoped that he would've been wise to marry Susan because she was talented and high class. Victor and Ida believes that Hal marrying Lois would ruin his life(a sentiment Hal's wealthy family also shares). The only time Ida came close to loving Lois was when she was helping her for a potential case against Sylvia's family. This quickly disappeared when she discovered that Victor wasn't her biological father was and that her mother had an affair with a man named Radu Gogorsky whom is Lois' real father. Horrified by Ida's lies and the fact that she wasn't related to Victor the whole time, Lois willingly abandoned the case and fled back to California with Reese, Malcolm and Jamie.

Lois's relationship with Hal's family is non-existent. Walter and the other Wilkerson family blame his poor choice of wife on her, believing that Hal would be more miserable with Lois because she would control him. They also believe that he would've been much happier with Susan, whom they approved of marrying. It was because of this maltreatment, Lois finally realized that she had been unfair to Piama and starts getting along with her better.

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