It's Valentine's Day and Arnold has finally managed to score a date with Ruth MacDougall. Helga meanwhile has hatched a plan to get a date with Arnold by intercepting his pen pal's letter and telling him "she" will be in town that night.
With two dates on the same night, Arnold finds himself in a romantic dilemma.
Arnold's Valentine contains examples of:
- Age-Inappropriate Dress: Ruth shows up for dinner wearing a short red cocktail dress and fishnet stockings. She's 11 years old.
- Bad Hair Day: Helga mistakenly assumes that French girls have a particular hairstyle, so she goes to the nearest salon with a French-sounding name and asks for whatever's trending. The salon in question is for poodles, so Helga walks out with an ugly perm.
- Bittersweet Ending: Arnold's date with Ruth ended up showing how out of sync they were and Cecile blows Helga's cover, but luckily Arnold doesn't recognize Helga and ends up taking a liking to her. Also, Gerald scores a date with Arnold's penpal.
- French Cuisine Is Haughty: Arnold embarasses himself by trying to order a hamburger before settling for steak tartare. Helga orders an especially exotic dish to keep up appearances, only to find out too late that what she's eating contains cow brains and eggs.
- Hypocritical Humor: When Helga finds out Arnold was two-timing her with Ruth, she chews him out for his dishonesty. She's still pretending to be Cecile.
- I Ate WHAT?!: After finding out she ate cow brains and eggs, Helga immediately bolts to the bathroom to throw up.
- Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Helga absolutely cannot affect a French accent. She also struggles to pronounce several French words.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Helga's Cecile getup looks nothing like the real Cecile. When Arnold presents a photograph for proof, she tears it up and talks fast to keep him from asking further questions.
- Rule of Symbolism: Helga's hair reflects her disposition. She's her usual surly self when it's in her standard pigtails. After getting an ill-advised perm she becomes a Bad Liar. When the perm unravels, Helga drops both facades and is at her most sincere.
