Two Minutes

"Two Minutes"
Main image Title card
Season/Series:	18
Number in season:	7a
Original Airdate:	June 1, 2015 March 9, 2015 February 20, 2015
Credits
Written by:	Ken Scarborough
Storyboard by:	Gerry Capelle
Episodes
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Read transcript

"Two Minutes" is the first half of the seventh episode in the eighteenth season of Arthur.

Summary

Power shifts in the Tibble household when the twins find out Tommy is two minutes older than Timmy. Frustrated in his new role, Timmy enlists the help of an expert older brother tamer: D.W.!

Plot

In the introduction, Mrs. Read makes Arthur stop playing a computer game and go to bed. Arthur imagines being in charge and sending his parents to bed, only to be bossed about by D.W. in turn. He concludes that it is a good thing younger people are not in charge — especially Tibbles.

Two Minutes

Arthur is asked to babysit the Tibbles. He is self-confident, because of how he tamed them with a scary story the last time, but D.W. is skeptical.

The Tibbles turn out to be as unmanageable as ever and ruin one of Arthur's books. During lunch, they argue about who is older. They ask their grandma, who looks at their birth certificates and reveals that Tommy is older by two minutes. Tommy immediately starts bossing Timmy about, and starts by making Timmy take his nap.

Back at the Read house, Arthur tells D.W. how Tommy acted like a grown-up and kept Timmy in check. He believes that there will be no more problems with the Tibbles. D.W., however, is still skeptical.

At the Tibbles' house, Tommy tells Timmy that he is too old for Mary Moo Cow, but he also cannot watch Super Action Team until he is two minutes older. He makes Timmy wait outside the room for two minutes, and when Timmy goes back in, he realizes the show is over and that Tommy tricked him.

Having had enough of being the younger one, Timmy desperately goes to Grandma. Unfortunately, she tells him that everything will stay the same, which causes Timmy to scream.

After Mrs. Tibble has told him that Tommy will always be older, Timmy goes to D.W. He tells her that he is running away, but she promises to teach him how to deal with an older brother.

The next morning, Timmy tells Tommy that he is too old for his favorite breakfast cereal and makes him eat Prunes 'N' Millet Husks. He also takes the training wheels off Tommy's bike, causing him to fall. During swimming lessons, he tells Tommy to jump off the 3 meters springboard.

Timmy phones D.W. to tell her that Tommy no longer talks about being older. D.W. tells him to proceed to phase two.

Later, Tommy calls for Timmy, telling him that their grandma says it is lunchtime, but he finds Timmy outside the house wearing a diaper and Tommy's neckerchief. When Tommy tries to stop him, Lucy's mom tells him to be nice to his baby brother, while Lucy mistakes Timmy for Tommy. Tommy tries to tell them that he is Tommy as they leave. Timmy says his diaper needs to be changed. Embarrassed, Tommy yells for his grandma.

Later, Arthur goes to babysit, confident that it will be the easiest job ever. Instead, he is immediately knocked down by the twins playing soccer. Mrs. Tibble tells Arthur that Tommy asked her to fib and say that the twins are exactly the same age. Tommy tells Arthur that being an older brother is horrible and goes back to playing ball. Arthur screams loudly. D.W. hears him and remarks that Tommy learned his lesson, and adds that she likes happy endings.

Characters

Major

• D.W. Read
• Timmy and Tommy Tibble

Minor

• Lucy
• Lucy's mother
• Arthur Read
• Jane Read
• David Read
• Kate Read
• Mrs. Tibble

Cameo

• Maryann
• Amanda Hulser
• Ms. Albright
• Liam
• Mike
• Edwin

Trivia

Episode connections

• In the introduction, Arthur plays Cranky Bees, which first appeared in "Muffy Takes the Wheel."
• Tommy being two minutes older than Timmy was a recurring theme in "Whistling in the Wind."
• Arthur mentions how he tamed the Tibbles by telling them a scary story in "Arthur Babysits" from the first season.
• The characters seen on "Super Action Team" are similar to The Terrific Turbo-Trooper Toy T-Bot Team from "Attack of the Turbo Tibbles."
• The moral of the story of this episode is similar to the episode “Whistling in the Wind”. Both of these episodes involve Timmy feeling like Tommy is better than him in some way, but in the end in both episodes, everything gets resolved.

Errors

• The Tibbles have training wheels on their bikes, but in "D.W. Rides Again," they did not need them.
  • It is possible the events of this episode predate "D.W. Rides Again".
• The pool has two diving boards, despite the water going up to Ms. Albright's knees. One could easily get injured from diving into such shallow water.

Production notes

• This episode's existence was known on IMDb since October 2013 at latest.
• This episode was first announced in May 2014 when a fan sent and email to 9 Story Media Group, asking for season 18 episode titles, and received 4 of them.
• The names seen in the credits sequence of the action show the Tibbles watch are all those of actual Arthur staff members. Not all of the names also appear in the end credits of this episode, however.

Home video

DVD

• Brothers and Sisters

Gallery