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Hal (Bryan Cranston) and Lois (Jane Kaczmarek) discover that Francis (Christopher Kennedy Masterson) has been using their calling card to call his girlfriend, Beebee (Lauren Hodges), from military school, and he's run up a huge bill. The commandant revokes Francis' phone privileges for a month. With Stanley (Karim Prince) enforcing the ban, and Malcolm (Frankie Muniz) unwilling to steal Mom's credit card to buy him a cell phone, Francis decides to escape so he can run off to Canada with his beloved. Francis hitchhikes home and hides in the backyard, depending on Malcolm to feed him, contact Beebee for him, and most importantly, keep his whereabouts a secret from Lois. After delivering a message to Beebee, who can't remember Malcolm's name, but enlists him as a co-conspirator in her shoplifting, Malcolm begins to have doubts about the wisdom of Francis' actions. And how can he possibly keep a secret from his supernaturally intuitive mother? When Dewey (Erik Per Sullivan) hears Malcolm arguing with Francis in the backyard, he thinks it's the monster that Reese (Justin Berfield) and Malcolm told him has been hiding under his bed.