Mom and Dad Have A Great Big Fight
D.W. and Arthur go to their parents to settle one of their arguments. David and Jane, while behind schedule preparing for a busy dinner, provide their usual answer and try to focus on cooking. Then they start arguing over milk being spilled, and Arthur and D.W. overhear.
Tropes for this episode
- Abusive Parents: In D.W.'s Imagine Spot, her parents are nasty to Arthur by forcing him to play a board game with his sister and getting mad at him for not smiling at D.W.
- Audience Monologue: Nadine starts the episode with one, about the milk spilling from the counter.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Nadine talks to the audience a lot about what has happened in this episode.
- Dads Can't Cook: Inverted; during Arthur and D.W.'s Imagine Spot where David has left the family, it's Jane who can't cook, since she cheerfully announces that there won't be any breakfast.
- Dissonant Serenity: The Imagine Spot scenarios that show David and Jane divorced have both parents oddly cheerful about it, which makes the bombs they drop all the more awful.
- Hollywood Tone-Deaf: Arthur in the last Imagine Spot sings a terrible lullaby to D.W., Kate and Pal, who howls.
- Imagine Spot: Several emerge in quick succession:
- D.W. thinks her parents should have yelled at Arthur (wearing giant shoes and speaking in a Simpleton Voice) to make him play Confuse the Goose with her.
- D.W. worries that their parents will be so angry at one another that they never talk to each other again, to the point they make their kids pass on whatever they want to say to each other.
- Arthur and D.W. picture their parents moving out of the house, first their mother being happy but not making breakfast, and their dad cooking for them but lacking a car.
- When D.W. suggests maybe they would get split up with their parents, Arthur imagines David taking D.W. and Pal away.
- Arthur pictures being stuck in an Oliver Twist style orphanage.
- D.W. suggests that she and Arthur could take care of each other, and they imagine running a cottage by themselves a la "Snowwhite and the Seven Dwarves" style, only Arthur can't cook or sing D.W. to bed.
- It's All My Fault: After trying to blame Arthur for the fight, D.W. says worriedly that she wished for their parents to be different and now they are. Arthur reassures her by saying they'll go and talk to their mom and dad as a family, and that it's not her fault.
- Pun: When Arthur as Oliver Twist asks for "some 'ore," meaning some "more," the orphanage head gives him an oar.
- Reality Warper: Nadine has some shades of this, being apparently able to pause and rewind reality for the sake of telling the story.
- Self-Serving Memory: D.W.'s preferred memory of her and Arthur's argument earlier in the episode shows their parents fawning over her and demanding that Arthur play with his "perfect, lovely, adorable sister", while depicting Arthur as much more stupid than he actually is and with bigger feet.
- Skewed Priorities:
- D.W.'s first Imagine Spot is her parents saying that her happiness is more important than Arthur's homework.
- Arthur says living without David would be awful because Jane can't cook for them. But living without Jane would mean that they have no car. Which is obviously not true, and besides which there are a lot of other reasons why.
- In another Imagine Spot of D.W.'s, she imagines that she has to keep running back and forth between them to deliver messages because they're not speaking to each other. Her concern with this?D.W.: Every conversation will take twice as long! We'll only get half as much done in our lives!
- Shout-Out: Arthur worries that he and D.W. might become orphans similar to Oliver Twist, which cues an Imagine Spot with Arthur as Oliver delivering the famous "Please sir, I want some more" line.
- Spoof Aesop: Nadine says that the moral of the story is "Don't put your milk close to the edge, because somebody is going to knock it over."
- Stating the Simple Solution: Arthur asks D.W. why Nadine couldn't play Confuse the Goose with her. D.W. explains that it's because she and Nadine tie all the time.
- Unreliable Expositor: When she recounts the yelling that she heard, D.W. couldn't overhear what started the argument, and neither she nor Arthur can hear from upstairs.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Arthur refers to Oliver Twist when he and D.W. discuss the worst-case scenario: if neither of their parents want them and would make them orphans. Only he and D.W. aren't in a nineteenth century novel.
D.W.'s Perfect Wish
It's D.W.'s fifth birthday, and she's worried she's no longer a kid. Arthur cheers her up by reminding her of all the great things she did.
Tropes for this episode include:
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: D.W. hugs Arthur after they talk about the great things she did.
- Be Careful What You Wish For:
- Invoked. D.W. worries that she'll waste her wish, until Grandma Thora says that she wished on her birthday for all of her grandchildren's wishes to come true.
- Arthur wants to get to eating D.W.'s cake. Then he ends up smashing his face into it by accident.
- Birthday Hater: Subverted. D.W. isn't happy on her birthday, but Arthur cheers her up, and she makes a wish that makes her laugh.
- Clip Show: Arthur's flashbacks feature footage from previous episodes.
- Comically Missing the Point: This is D.W.'s initial reaction to Arthur's attempts to get her to see how meaningful her life's been. He tries to cheer her up by getting her to see not every four-year-old has the honor of seeing a live deer up close, overcoming their fear of fire drills, or getting stitches for a torn lip. To this, D.W. downplays it to a comical degree:D.W.: (Soberly) These are the golden years of my childhood? A buck, a fire drill, and a fat lip?
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: D.W. fretting that she's turning older and will never be four again has a resemblance to a grown person having a mid-life crisis and worrying about never being young again. The entirety of the episode is about Arthur trying to help her see she has lived a worthwhile life.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Downplayed. Although D.W. did show appreciation towards Arthur for helping her realize she's made the most of being four-years-old, it's implied she rewards that kindness by wishing for Arthur to get a face full of cake.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Arthur knows something's got his sister down when D.W. not only hasn't said a peep about her encroaching fifth birthday, but also lashes out when it's so much as mentioned.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: D.W. still blames Arthur for her missing snowball even though there's no proof.
- Recap Episode: This episode covers some earlier events from Seasons 1, 2, and 3.
- Unreliable Expositor: D.W. corrects Arthur when he mentions her "doing flips" on the balance beam. In fact, she was wobbling on it and almost got hurt because she was too little for it.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: D.W. worries that she's wasted the fourth year of her life, and worries her fifth year will be just as meaningless. To this, Arthur brings up some meaningful memories of all the things not just any four-year-old would experience, like meeting Mr. Rogers, meeting the President, and saving a wedding ring. At the end of the day, D.W. sums up her gratitude towards Arthur for invoking this trope:D.W.: (Hugs Arthur)Arthur: What's this for?D.W.: Because you made me remember how great I am.
