History Heartwarming / MalcolmInTheMiddle

-->You see this scar? When I was six and you were four, Dad said we didn't get dessert because we were bad, and you dumped his pudding on his head and said, "Yeah, well neither do you!" And I laughed so hard I fell and hit my head on the corner of the coffee table. See those four freckles on your left ankle? We used to play connect-the-dots, and I drew a bunny, and you named it 'Footy'. And this hole in my ear is from when you got Dad's tackle box and pierced my ears for me because I was too chicken to do it. [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments And that cap on your tooth is from when Cindy Bauer called me a bitch, and you beat the crap out of her and didn't think I ever knew about it. And this is the scar I got from the kidney I gave you because I love you.]] [[TearJerker Don't you tell me I don't love you.]]

* One from the "Pilot", that Malcolm is forced to be friends with Stevie by Lois because they ate lunch together once and is sent on a playdate with him. Despite Stevie's wheelchair, slow speech and lack of television, when Stevie reveals his collection of comic books, the two immediately bond, with Stevie offering to let Malcolm read one and Malcolm saying he wouldn't want to wreck it before they begin discussing "Savage Dragon'together.

** While it's unclear if they were old enough to understand what's gogin on, it's also kind of nice that most of the kids younger cousins help them out by rigging the buffet table to collapse.

* After failing music class, Malcolm reluctantly seeks tutoring from Dewey. After trying and failing to teach him, Dewey gets frustrated and tells Malcolm that he simply has no appreciation for music. This leads Malcolm to take revenge with a prank that leaves them both temporarily deaf. A few days later, Malcolm wakes up to the sound of birds outside his window. Joyously realising that his hearing is back, he puts on a classical music CD to celebrate. The episode ends with Malcolm listening to the music with a deeply thoughtful look on his face.

* "Red Dress" has a strange platonic one that doesn't even involve a main character. It's oddly moving how Hal spent his anniversary befriending the unnamed bathroom attendant who was happy that someone made eye contact for once, and by the end of the night they're sharing the meal that was meant for Lois, over a copious amount of alchohol and hearty laughter. It's only mildly ruined when you find out [[spoiler: it was Hal who burnt the red dress and ruined the evening for everyone else.]]

* In "Malcolm Defends Reese", Malcolm needs almost zero deliberation before he decides to purposely tank his grades to get Mr. Herkabee to stop torturing Reese in front of the class -- even after Reese responds to Malcolm's offer of sympathy by splitting his lip open. The fact that his decision is never commented on or acknowledged as a big deal is what makes it particularly heartwarming, as is the scene at the end where only a blink-and-you'll-miss it glance between the two brothers, no big confrontation or declaration of gratitude, implies that Reese knew what Malcolm did for him and that his pummeling Herkabee with the dodgeball was for Malcolm's benefit as well as his own.

* ''Reese's First Job'' has one for Herkabee, off all people. After the ChildProdigy he was going to make his apprentice left to join NASA, Malcolm and the other Krelboynes give him a gift: a photo of the kid and his dad with Herkabee's face pasted over the dad's. Herkabee is genuinely touched by this.

** When it came to light that Malcolm had a credit card and used it to buy Lois and Hal's Christmas presents (since they were all supposed to ''make'' their own presents that year), everyone got indignant with Malcolm... except for Hal, who repremanded him for thinking Christmas was a competition and said all he ''really'' wanted was a loving gesture, which he proceeds to show by hugging Malcolm and forgiving him. [[SubvertedTrope Except it is clearly obvious that Hal's true intent was to steal Malcolm's credit card,]] [[ZigZaggedTrope and take everyone to a ski lodge for Christmas (since his own homemade present was crap and had spent the entire episode up until that point driving until he figured out a solution).]]

* In one episode, Lois takes dance classes. While she enjoys them, when she looks at the recording video of her duet with the dance teacher, she realises that she is actually a terrible dancer, even unintentionally kicking the teacher in the groin when he tries to dip her. Lois tells Hal to turn the video off. Only for Hal, who is watching the recording with an enraptured expression, to say with absolute sincerity that he can't believe how beautifully she dances.

* Just about everything about Hal's old boss Mr. Dawkins from ''Hal's Friend''. Hal's friend Larry drags Hal to seek restitution from a previous boss who made them work extra hard cleaning up after a broken water pipe and then withheld their paychecks. They arrive for a fight only to find an old man in a trailer park happy to make them tea and talk about the old days. Mr. Dawkins casually reflects about how, [[SelfServingMemory contrary to Larry's recollections]], Hal and Lary were the ones who broke that water pipe in the first place and how he actually did send them (or at least their fathers) the paychecks afterwards in spite of his boss wanting to punish Hal and Larry by docking their pay (something Hal also remembers with that extra context provided). And then when [[{{Jerkass}} Larry]] pettily decides ram his car into Dawkins trailer and collapse the roof down on him, the first words that Dawkins calls out from the rubble is asking if ''Hal and Larry'' are ok. It's little wonder that incident causes Hal to end his friendship with Larry and hurry out to help Mr. Dawkins.

* After failing music class, Malcolm reluctantly seeks tutoring from Dewey. After trying and failing to teach him, Dewey gets frustrated and tells Malcolm that he simply has no appreciation for music. This leads Malcolm to take revenge with a prank that leaves them both temporarily deaf. A few days later, Malcolm wakes up and, after turning on a classical music CD, joyously realises that his hearing is back. The episode ends with Malcolm listening to the music with a deeply thoughtful look on his face.

* After collectively forgotting ''and'' ruining her birthday, Hal and the boys track down Lois to the local SuckECheeses, where she's taking out her frustrations in the batting cages, and (poorly) sing her ''"Happy Birthday"''. She issues a list of ultimatums to which Hal and the boys immediately agree, and then follows one of the series' most absurd and heartwarming moments:

* "Watching the Baby," by the end of the episode, the boys sacrifice a chance of making out with beautiful girls [[OperationJealousy to get back at their boyfriends]], just because Reese found Jamie's binky in his pocket, and they steal the girls' limo to rush back home to give it to him.

* Fed up with the booster clubs lackluster fundraising, at a charity auction Malcom makes sure to humiliate them by offering things like a picture of the lovable alpha bitch pre-nose job, or a video of the dumb jock crying after he was benched during a football game. The heartwarming part comes when, rather than get embarrassed or angry, the boosters are excited by how much money they raised and leave Malcom stupefied by voluntarily offering more embarrassing pictures and stuff to raise more money, getting a lot of bids. Malcom then follows up by realizing he misjudged them and even though they probably wouldn’t have even realized to be mad at him, he announces that the next bidding item is the right to duct tape his mouth shut (the bidding goes pretty high). Afterwards, he relates the lesson he learned to Lois in a way that gives her a jerkass realization about how she’s been with Hal that episode. Also has shades of an awesome moment.

** The B plot at the ranch is an attempt to get a better review from a hotel critic. When we meet the hotel critic we quickly find out he's a HateSink spewing some of the most condescending insults as a running commentary. No one reacts that badly at first until he insults Piama, smash cut to the next scene of him being taken out on a stretcher bloody and bruised. Francis cared about his wife so much he beat the critic to a bloody pulp for insulting her but the real moment is that [[BenevolentBoss Otto]] of all people also took part in the beating because one of his employees was insulted.

* In one episode, Lois takes dance classes. While she enjoys them, when she looks at the recording video of her duet with the dance teacher, she realises that she is actually a terrible dancer, even unintentionally kicking the teacher in the groin when he tries to dip her. Lois tells Hal to turn the video off. Only for Hal, who is watching the recording with an enraptured expression, to say that he can't believe how beautifully she dances.

** As Hal is saying this, Lois has a look that seems to be a mix of touched that her whole family would go through this trouble for her, and trying not to {{Corpse}} at Hal's OverlyNarrowSuperlative attempt at punishing their children.

** After the boys sign up Lois for a beauty contest as a joke and she decides to participate, Hal gets enraged because of this, especially because Lois thinks that they sent the form as an appreciation to her.

** When Malcolm and Stevie go to Lois about Reese being unwilling to help them unless he gets credit, Lois takes Reese side and basically forces them both to give him the credit he technically deserves.

-->You see this scar? When I was six and you were four, Dad said we didn't get dessert because we were bad, and you dumped his pudding on his head and said, "Yeah, well neither do you!" And I laughed so hard I fell and hit my head on the corner of the coffee table. See those four freckles on your left ankle? We used to play connect-the-dots, and I drew a bunny, and you named it 'Footy'. And this hole in my ear in from when you got Dad's tackle box and pierced my ears for me because I was too chicken to do it. [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments And that cap on your tooth is from when Cindy Bauer called me a bitch, and you beat the crap out of her and didn't think I ever knew about it. And this is the scar I got from the kidney I gave you because I love you.]] [[TearJerker Don't you tell me I don't love you.]]

* The episode where Lois loses confidence in her mothering abilities, and the flashback with her attempt at parenting Francis as a toddler (An EnfantTerrible one at that) was pretty heartwarming, especially compared to their regular interactions. She catches him as he's trying to set a teddy, doused in lighter fluid on fire, takes it and holds it in the fireplace. Then she turns on the flame, still holding her hand in the fire, and gives a speech to the toddler about how she'll do anything to keep him safe - even if it means having him hate her later.