D.W.'s Snow Mystery
D.W. likes collecting strange things from outside, from acorns to her favorite magazines. Arthur thinks that the snowball is the weirdest one, which she's kept in the freezer for months. He doesn't know why she likes it. One day, however, D.W. checks on it and finds it missing. She immediately confronts Arthur and his friends, who are working on a group project. Buster agrees to figure out how the snowball went missing, and questions D.W. and the Reads about what happened the day before. Hilarity Ensues.
Tropes for this episode include:
- The Cloud Cuckoolander Was Right: It turns out Buster was right that aliens stole D.W.'s snowball. They had mistaken it for a dessert and thought it would be fun to take.
- Comically Missing the Point: D.W. tries an Imagine Spot about how Pal could have opened the freezer and eaten her snowball. It involved him using a chair and an umbrella to open the door. Francine points out one obvious fact: dogs don't know how to use umbrellas. D.W. says maybe Pal learned.
- Drama Queen: It's understandable that D.W. is upset that one of her prized objects is missing. What's not-so-understandable is that she starts accusing everyone in the house and pins the blame on Arthur despite the fact that he is the last person who would take the snowball, given he thinks she's a hoarder in the making. Thora even lampshades it, saying everyone needs to calm down before someone's feelings are hurt.
- Everyone Has Standards: Arthur says that he didn't do anything with the snowball. Besides the fact that it was moldy-old, he knew how important it was to D.W.
- Foreshadowing: Both Jane and Arthur say they don't know who would want D.W.'s snowball. Jane even says no one in the family or friend group would take it. They end up being right; aliens did so.
- Hidden Depths: Pal apparently likes watching tennis on TV.
- Karma Houdini: The aliens suffer no repercussions in this or the sequel episode for taking the snowball and starting the feud.
- Only Sane Woman: Grandma Thora is the only one who doesn't jump into the Blame Game when everyone accuses each other of stealing the snowball. She says that a wrongful accusation is as hurtful as someone not confessing because she believes no one in the room would take D.W.'s things.
- "Rashomon"-Style: The whole episode runs on this as everyone, Buster included, tries to recap what happened the day before and when the snowball could have gone missing.
- D.W. thinks that Arthur was weasley while Grandma Thora called D.W. her favorite grandchild and asked about her snowball. Arthur brings everyone back to reality and reminds D.W. that Grandma didn't know about the snowball.
- Arthur says that he was manly and taller while D.W. was being annoying, and Grandma Thora secretly asked for aspirin because D.W. was giving her a headache.
- Jane claims the kids behaved like monkeys and were bouncing off the walls, embarrassing her, Grandma Thora, and Mrs. MacGrady.
- Grandma Thora says that her grandkids were angels, and Jane invited the ladies to have some ice cream.
- Francine mentions she and Buster visited the day before. She was a model child and claims Buster was a pig and must have eaten the snowball.
- Buster gets mad and doesn't even write down Francine's testimony. He says that he wouldn't use a snowball for a snack. Then he gets back at Francine by mentioning that actually, he was entertaining everyone with his jokes while she was a rude grump, and she probably used the snowball when there was no ice in the fridge.
- The Scream: This is how D.W. reacts among seeing her snowball is missing from the freezer, screaming so loud it can be heard outside the house and through town!
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: In the end, no one figures out what happens with the snowball. Snow does fall outside, however, and Arthur reassures D.W. that this year may not be the same, but it will be fun.
- Spotting the Thread: Buster cuts through people's theories about who took the snowball to point out something: the plate is missing. Whoever took the snowball took the plate as well. He was right; the aliens mistook it for a dessert.
- Tempting Fate: Jane tells D.W. in the Cold Open that her snowball isn't going anywhere. The first shot of the episode is D.W. finding her snowball missing.
- Troll: It's implied that Arthur's Imagine Spot of D.W. being annoying and Thora asking for aspirin is him getting back at D.W. for how she portrayed him in her own recollection. When D.W. protests that Grandma never said she got a headache from her granddaughter, Arthur smirks and says he could tell Thora was feeling it on the inside.
- Unreliable Expositor: Happens more than a few times:
- D.W. posits that Grandma Thora asked about her snowball. Arthur points out that Grandma never even knew about it.
- Jane says that Arthur and D.W. were behaving like monkeys. Thora gently corrects her that what actually happened was Arthur and D.W. said they were happy to see her, and Jane invited the ladies to have ice cream.
Team TroubleArthur mentions how he, Francine, and Buster are great friends. They also play well together in sports. Naturally, then, they are thrilled when Mr. Ratburn assigns them a group project to give a report on Rome. After lobbing ideas, Arthur notices the book Buster is checking out from the library about making comics. He gets a "Eureka!" Moment and says they can do a comic book about Rome. The problem is that they break up the pages, without talking to each other about what they're going to do. Everyone then has a different idea.
Tropes for this episode include:
- Angry Guard Dog: A pack of them chase the gladiator skeletons, hungry for the bones.
- Artistic License – History: Subverted. At first, Arthur, Francine and Buster don't do any real research for their different comic pages; Buster's page depicts Spartacus preventing the Trojans from stealing Roman pizzas and has Julius Caesar on a hang glider, Arthur thinks that ancient Rome had gumballs to trip up pesky skeletons and sea monsters to trap determined senators, and Francine's comic depicts herself beating Arthur and Buster at every event in the "Roman" Olympics. Prunella calls out Arthur for not using any history at all, and Brain points out to Francine that the Romans never had the Olympics; they were invented by the Ancient Greeks and the Romans actually banned the event in 194 BCnote . In the end, the kids cut up their comic to make a poster while including more accurate historical facts about Rome.
- Brick Joke:
- Buster suggests they could do their report as an interpretative dance, but Francine vetoes it. They find out that Binky, Sue Ellen, and Muffy present in Egypt using that exact method.
- In Buster's third page, he drew Spartacus stopping the Trojans from stealing Roman pizzas. After the kids finish their revised report, Mr. Ratburn says with amusement that he doesn't think the Senate had pizzas delivered to them.
- Comically Missing the Point: Francine discusses making a movie on Ancient Rome. Arthur asks how they can make it look ancient. Buster volunteers that he has an old coat.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: The trio admits they should have done research on Ancient Rome before doing their comic and talked out a plan on drawing.
- Damned By a Fool's Praise: Buster says that he knows he needs to start over because Binky actually liked his page of the comic.
- Department of Redundancy Department: Binky's report on Egyptian mummies: "Mummies were dead Egyptians who died and got embalmed and tightly wrapped in cloth after they died."
- Epic Fail:
- When drawing their comics, the trio completely forgets to be on the same page, literally and metaphorically, and none of them do any actual research on Ancient Rome to make the story historically accurate. Prunella and Brain call Arthur and Francine respectively out for this.
- Muffy, Binky and Sue Ellen were assigned Egypt. To demonstrate while Binky is reciting, Sue Ellen wraps him in toilet paper to simulate mummies. While the trio is arguing about where they're hanging out in angry whispers, Sue Ellen completely wraps Binky by accident and he falls over. Sue Ellen seems unsure how she did that.
- Equal-Opportunity Evil: For some reason, in Arthur's comic one of the gladiator skeletons is female. When she loses her head, she speaks in a high-pitched voice.
- Foreshadowing: Brain is in the background when Arthur reads Francine's comic page on Rome. He later tells Francine her comic isn't historically accurate so she can't use it for the project.
- Her Code Name Was "Mary Sue":
- Arthur's story has himself as a hero in Rome that outwits skeletons with gumballs and leads the group. Francine and Buster's counterparts contribute nothing apart from screaming and gasps.
- Francine's page has an entire page of her kicking Arthur and Buster's butts in every event of the "Roman" Olympics.
- Here We Go Again!: The episode ends with Arthur, Buster and Francine arguing once again, this time about where they should hang out after school.
- Hidden Depths: Arthur's comic did interest Francine; she was reading it all through the last panel and asked if the cliffhanger was where it ended. He has decent drawing gesture for the action sequences. It did have good pacing, if not accuracy. She laters admits, when they're trying to salvage their project, that she liked it a lot and it's a shame they can't use it for their report.
- Left Hanging: In-universe, Arthur's page ends with a sea monster trapping the heroes, as the Binky villain runs off with the scroll. Francine lampshades this, asking if that's where that ends. Arthur says blithely he expected her to finish the second page. She didn't.
- Losing Your Head: One skeleton gladiator loses her head when her partner pulls it too hard while dislodging it. She's still able to run and scream.
- Never Say "Die": Averted with Binky's report on Egyptian mummies, where he uses such terms three times in the same sentence!
- No-Nonsense Nemesis: Binky as a rogue Roman in Arthur's comic. He runs off with the scroll on a boat, leaving skeleton gladiators to buy time. Then he makes it past a sea monster and shouts the others are doomed when the monster goes for them.
- Skewed Priorities: Francine asks Brain for feedback on her page...while they're playing baseball with herself as the hitter and Brain was the catcher. She ends up striking out twice while hearing his Brutal Honesty that she can't use the page she drew because the Olympics never took place in Rome and the Romans actually banned them.
- Smart Ball: When they're all arguing about whose page should be taken as the main idea, Buster says they should ask other people for feedback. It ends up telling them they're off the track and need to start over.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Arthur has a dream where he has money to pay a local for a tour in Ancient Rome. He uses it to write the first page. Prunella points out he didn't do research, so it's useless for a report. Rome didn't have sea monsters, skeletons, or a single scroll for Roman law.
- Brain refutes Francine's idea to do the Olympics. He (
incorrectly) says the Romans banned it in 194 BC so it wasn't a part of society.
- Tap on the Head: Arthur's alarm clock falls on him, causing him to have a dream where he ends up in Ancient Rome. He's none the worst for wear when it rings, waking him up.
