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"Arthur's Cousin Catastrophe"
Season/Series: 1
Number in season: 9b
Original Airdate: United States October 17, 1996[1]
Canada January 16, 1997[2]
Credits
Written by: Terence Taylor
Storyboard by: Jean Charles Fink
Episodes
Previous
"Arthur Babysits"
Next
"Arthur's Birthday"
Read transcript

"Arthur's Cousin Catastrophe" is the second half of the ninth episode in the first season of Arthur.

Summary

Arthur does his best to avoid his annoying cousin, Mo, at a family reunion.

Plot

Arthur's family is getting ready to host their annual family reunion. Just then, Arthur's Aunt Loretta, Uncle Bud, and three cousins: Monique (who usually goes by the name of "Mo"), Ricky, and Loretta's daughter arrive at the front door.

Loretta says that Mo has a surprise for Arthur and then Arthur has flashbacks to past reunions: When Arthur was 5 years old, Mo started the trouble by putting him on a lawn sprinkler; when Arthur was 6 years old, Mo practiced her judo moves on him; and when Arthur was 7 years old, Mo dressed him up as a baby by putting a bonnet on his head, a pacifier in his mouth, and a cloth diaper with a pin over his pants, and placing him in a stroller, causing everyone to start laughing in front of him.

Arthur then screams and starts to run away from Mo. Outside, Arthur hides in a tree to get away from Mo, until DW comes in suddenly, startling Arthur. Arthur claims Mo is ruining his life. As Arthur gets down from the tree, Cousin George tries to show Arthur a comic book called Spider Guy, but Arthur starts running away because he thinks Mo is approaching him.

As Jane is grilling, Loretta walks over to the grill and shows Jane the Flip'omatic, a three-headed spatula. As Loretta is demonstrating the Flip'omatic, she puts the three blades underneath the hamburgers, and then flips them. The hamburgers fly high into the air and land on Mr. Haney.

While Jane and Loretta are still grilling, David announces a sack race. Just then, he spots Arthur, who is still trying to hide from Mo, and asks very loudly through his megaphone if Arthur wants to join the sack race. Arthur starts stammering excuses about why he can't, but then he spots Mo approaching, so he grabs a sack and begins hopping extremely fast. Arthur ends up winning the race, leaving Uncle Bud marveling at how fast Arthur is "for a little fella," and Ricky angry about losing. Ricky then throws a fit by throwing his cap off of his head and stomping on it while still in the sack.

Jane and Loretta continue lowering the notch of the Flip'omatic to get the hamburgers done. Then, everyone starts eating dinner. Grandma Thora and her son-in-law, Arthur's Uncle Sean, are having a conversation with her mother.

They start having an egg race, and Arthur's great-grandmother wins the race. After that, they play charades, but Uncle Sean picks an obscure book nobody else knows. Then, David dresses as a clown and tells everyone it is time to play a game of musical shoes, but everyone is tired. A thunderstorm arrives, and it starts to rain hard, so everyone runs to get back inside.

At night, Mo starts playing the piano, revealing that this was her surprise for Arthur, and that she had taken up playing the instrument because she saw Arthur doing so; Arthur tutors her a little in the basics of playing the piano. Mo then admits she had been looking for Arthur so she could show him her skills with the piano; when Arthur says he thought she wanted to decorate him like a Christmas tree, or send him into space, Mo replies, "You? You're my favorite relative!" and then adds the only reason she comes to these "dumb" reunions is so she can play with him. Arthur replies that he's glad it's just the piano this time.

They start playing a jazzy tune together, which attracts all of their relatives into the living room and they dance along. Uncle Bud mentions that despite the weather, this has been a great reunion. Then we see the outside of Arthur's house but then we scroll up and see that's it's no longer raining and we see a full white moon in the sky and then the picture fades.

Characters

Major

Minor

Cameo

Trivia

  • Kate Read can be seen next to the table when Arthur views a wide angle of the yard through his binoculars. She is absent throughout the rest of the episode.
  • Arthur's Bionic Bunny binoculars has a special "DANGER" detector that goes off if spying on a person he has had a negative influence on or if someone appears out of nowhere.
  • The Read Family Reunion takes place in the month of July.
  • Arthur saying "hi" to the people arriving at the Family Reunion was recycled from Arthur saying "hi" in the title card "Arthur Underwater."
  • The Read Family Reunion has supposedly been going on for at least three years.

Cultural references

Storyline analysis

  • In the flashback of the reunion where Mo dresses Arthur as a baby from one year prior, Arthur's wearing glasses. However, he started wearing glasses in "Arthur's Eyes" during his second grade school year and the current family reunion is meant to take place in the summertime shortly before Arthur goes back to school and begins his third grade school year.
  • Since Pal is present at this reunion, this further indicates that "Arthur's Pet Business" and "Arthur's New Puppy" take place prior to the end of second grade.

Errors

  • In the flashback where Mo dresses Arthur up as a baby, the diaper disappears in the later shot as the scene ends.
  • When Arthur and Mo play the piano together, some of Arthur's fingers go through the keys.
  • When Arthur goes to the freezer he gets buried in snow, but in the next shot, all of the snow on him is gone.

Home video

VHS

DVD:


Gallery

Main article: Arthur's Cousin Catastrophe/Gallery

References


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