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D.W. Thinks Big
Season 1 Episode 25a
It’s wedding day in Elwood City as Aunt Lucy is getting set to tie the knot. Just like in “Arthur’s Baby,” we see everyone else (except Cousin Cora of course) a bit more subdued with their enthusiasm about a big life event, while D.W. is more excited than the rest, even going as far as marrying the toaster and blender. But that excitement is not rewarded with an actual role of note in the wedding. And on top of that, Arthur, Cora and everyone else kind of rubs that in, albeit kind of subtly. Again, we see in “Big Brother Binky” that Mrs. Barnes gives Binky a role in the build-up to their trip to China–the Reads don’t do that for D.W. here.
Wedding day itself is one that nobody involved will ever forget. D.W. crashing the wedding photo was a funny moment, especially when she asks to be involved next time Aunt Lucy gets married (also, Arthur Holden as the voice of the photographer makes it funnier–sometimes if I have the episode on in the background, I think it’s Mr. Ratburn moonlighting as the photographer). During the procession, Cora doesn’t just toss the flowers at the crowd: she pelts the audience with them, which is very on brand. But also I can’t think about what threw Arthur off so much so that caused him to launch the wedding ring up and into the organ pipe–that had some serious hangtime before it went very precisely down the pipe. Grandpa Dave getting his fingers stuck in the pipes is also very on brand, but you have to hand it to D.W. for going in there with all those spiders and dust to get it. And Arthur was a very good brother in letting D.W. carry the ring once the ceremony got started again.
Everyone goes home happy–except Cora, of course. Kind of what she deserves for rubbing it in earlier, but it’s not like she was being 100% relieved of her flower girl duties. Still, D.W. got what she wanted, which was being a part of her aunt’s big day. When everyone looks back on this wedding years down the road, that is the part of it they’ll remember the most.
By Guthrie Edson
Arthur Cleans Up
Season 1 Episode 25b
The main plotline of this episode may be that Mr. Read gets Arthur involved with something, but really, it’s a commentary on the issue of climate change and keeping the Earth healthy. While the genesis of Arthur’s idea is that World’s End Park is becoming littered too much, we mustn’t forget that climate change is being made worse by corporations and politicians that are beholden to those corporations. That said, local communities can do their part in keeping the earth clean and that’s what Mr. Read challenges Arthur to do here. It’s clear that nobody had thought about the ramifications of littering in the park, so large-scale community action was needed here.
I would be unmoved at the prospect of joining something called the “Kids Clean-Up Brigade,” so it’s kind of hard to blame Arthur for not being super gung-ho about that. That said, my town has a “Village Preservation Society” which focuses on sustainability and keeping the city clean, and something along those lines sound way more appealing to join. As we see later in this season with “My Dad, the Garbage Man,” however, once Arthur gets a tour of the sanitation department from Mr. Frensky, he gets a much greater idea of what it’s all about, that sanitation is way more than just driving a garbage truck around once a week.
But the most important part of this is that it takes a village to keep it clean. Arthur couldn’t keep the park completely clean on his own, as the simulation that he saw at the sanitation department saw–he needed a team of volunteers. And also we see the consequences of so much trash getting littered on pets, as Pal almost chokes, thanks to the Tough Customers intentionally deciding to litter. Watching that in the year 2022, it totally feels like a metaphor for how large corporations’ actions of waste and abuse (and politicians’ inaction at stopping that) can literally choke people. Eventually, the rest of the crew decides to pitch in, and for their sake, hopefully this “Kids Clean-Up Brigade” will turn into something with a better name, like the aforementioned “Village
By Guthrie Edson
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