"Waiting to Go" | |
Season/Series: | 7 |
---|---|
Number in season: | 4b |
Original Airdate: | October 11, 2002[1] January 15, 2003[2] |
Credits | |
Written by: | Glen Berger |
Storyboard by: | Robert Yap |
Episodes | |
Previous "To Tibble the Truth" |
Next "Elwood City Turns 100!" |
Read transcript |
"Waiting to Go" is the second half of the fourth episode in the seventh season of Arthur.
Summary[]
Binky and Brain have a collision on the soccer field that severely strains their friendship, then find themselves stuck in the school parking lot together after everyone else's rides have come and gone.
Plot[]
The episode begins with Brain showing his high-tech watch to Arthur during a soccer game. When Binky is about to score a goal, Brain runs into him by accident, as Brain was looking at his watch. The watch breaks and Binky and Brain are angry at each other.
The soccer game ends, and the kids are being picked up by their parents. Ed Crosswire offers Binky and Brain a ride, but Brain states that he's fine and his mom is coming. Binky claims that his mom is picking him up and taking him to the movies. They argue over who can wait longer, and Ed drives away. Binky then asks Brain what time it is, which upsets Brain.
Binky starts getting worried, as he and Brain have been waiting for a long time. He is afraid that his parents have forgot about him. Binky imagines his parents deciding to not pick him up, selling his stuff, going on a cruise, and forgetting his name.
Brain tells Binky that their mothers are probably just stuck in traffic. Binky asks "On a Sunday?" Brain goes on to explain that something might be causing the traffic, such as an ostrich or a wormhole. He imagines that, a bunch of years in the future, their parents will finally arrive after being stuck in the wormhole. Binky dismisses that as impossible, but Brain replies that they must examine every possibility.
Binky thinks that their parents will feel guilty from being late and they could take advantage of it. He imagines his parents giving him just a birthday cake with no presents after he had 13 birthday parties this year alone, but Binky reminds them how long he waited for them to pick him up and threatens to tell the local newspaper. They agree to buy him a bunch of presents and ice cream. The imagination ends and Binky says the longer that he and Brain wait, the more guilt their parents will get. Brain agrees to this plan, and Binky claims that he was held back not because he wasn't smart, but so he could give tips to the third graders. They both lie down.
Binky comments that "without TV, waiting is really boring." Brain would rather have a book, but they don't have a book either. Brain suggests that they watch the clouds, and starts naming them scientifically. Binky tells Brain that's he's cloud-watching wrong, and points out a cloud and asks Brain what it looks like. Binky thinks it looks like a stickless cotton swab, and Brain says that it looks like an amoeba. They argue over this, and Brain eventually agrees that the cloud is a swab.
Binky and Brain are playing tic-tac-toe with sticks and rocks, but they get bored. Binky asks Brain what an amoeba is. Binky then gets the idea to rearrange the rocks and sticks to spell out "HELP". Brain tells him that writing a message would only help if they were trying to signal a plane, not a car. Binky spots a pair of cleats, and realizes that somebody will come back for those, and "they're saved".
Brain and Binky get hungry, and Brain has a bag of carrots for lunch. Binky responds, "Your mom works in an ice cream parlor and all she packs are carrots?" Binky takes out some peanut butter crackers and Brain takes out some juice boxes, which they agree to share. They apologize for fighting, and Brain decides to ration his food and drink. Binky consumes it all at once. Binky tackles Brain and steals his juice, and Brain argues that the fight wasn't fair because Binky is bigger than he is. Binky tells Brain about a wrestler who is small but always wins because his moves are good, and then he teaches Brain a wrestling move.
Brain sees his peanut butter crackers being eaten by a dog. He gets the idea to attach a rescue note to its collar, so he and Binky chase after it. A car pulls up, and it's revealed to be Arthur, Buster, and Mrs. Baxter. Arthur picks up the cleats that were left behind, and Buster questions the word Binky wrote using rocks, which is revealed to be "KELP." Brain and Binky come back from chasing the dog, only to see the car drive away.
Binky and Brain give up and lie down. Brain says "Binky, we're going to die!" Just then, Brain's and Binky's moms appear and apologize for being fifteen minutes late. They are carpooling together. The episode finishes with Binky telling his mom about wormholes and Brain tells his mom that he doesn't want to go to the bookstore and instead go home so he can watch "World of Wrestling."
Characters[]
Major[]
Minor,[]
Cameo[]
- Bitzi Baxter
- Trevor
- 3rd Grade Male Dog (Number 2)
- Fern Walters
- 3rd Grade Male Rat (Number 2)
- Mighty Mountain Player
- 3rd Grade Male Aardvark
- Sam Scarborough
Trivia[]
Episode connections[]
- Both Trevor and Mr. Crosswire are present at the soccer match with whistles around their necks. It is not certain which of them was coach at the time.
- This is the second time Binky has broken someone else's watch. The first time was in "Meek for a Week," when Binky broke Francine's watch that Muffy gave to her.
- Binky refers to Brain as “you youngsters”. In “Brain’s Shocking Secret”, it was revealed that they are the same age.
- The dog on the soccer field also appears in "Friday the 13th."
- Binky eats peanut butter crackers; he would later develop an allergy to peanuts.
- The plot of this episode is similar to the plot of Locked in the Library, because this episode involves two people who are in a fight getting stuck with each other. This happened in Locked in the Library, but with Arthur and Francine, and it was in the library.
- This is the second episode to sound almost exactly like another episode. For this episode, the title is really close to Waiting for Snow, which is a future episode in the series. The other pair of episodes that sound alike are To Beat or Not to Beat, and To Eat or Not to Eat.
Cultural references[]
- The title is a reference to the Samuel Beckett play Waiting for Godot. Other references to Waiting for Godot in the series include Mr. Ratburn's pet fish Vladimir and Estragon and the title of "Waiting for Snow."
- There also seem to be similarities between the episode and play: For instance, both have two male characters waiting together for people and wondering if they will arrive.
- Early in the play, Vladimir offers Estragon a carrot, to which he asks if there is anything else to eat. Vladimir offers him turnips, to which he decides on the carrots. This scene is recreated with Brain and Binky in "Waiting to Go".
- Brain and Binky lying down and thinking they're going to die mirrors the end of the play, when Vladimir and Estragon decide to commit suicide.
- Pozzo owns an important watch. While Brain ends up with his watch broken, Pozzo is merely unable to find his.
- On Brain's watch, Albert Einstein stands in front of the Brandenburg Gate and refers to the Theory of relativity.
- The letters "PBs" on the Peanut Butter Crackers wrapper could be referencing PBS.
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Gallery[]
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References[]