| This article is about the episode. You may be looking for the book. |
| "Go to Your Room, D.W." | |
| Season/Series: | 2 |
|---|---|
| Number in season: | 4B |
| Original airdate: |  October 23, 1997[1] November 27, 1997[2] January 29, 2002[3] |
| Credits | |
| Written by: | Kathy Waugh |
| Storyboard by: | Alex Szewczuk |
| Episodes | |
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Next "Arthur's Underwear" |
| Read transcript |
"Go to Your Room, D.W." is the second half of the fourth episode in the second season of Arthur. It was later adapted into the book D.W., Go to Your Room!.
Summary
Sent upstairs for threatening to pinch Kate, D.W. spends the time reliving her miserable childhood, wondering why no one seems to understand her, and planning a getaway.
Plot
D.W. does not get along well with Kate, whom she claims keeps trying to take her toys, when they're supposed to be sharing them. When Kate won't give D.W. one of her toys back, D.W. tries to take the toy away from Kate by force and threatens to pinch her. For doing this, Jane sends D.W. upstairs as punishment.
D.W. is surprised that her actions actually have consequences and thinks that her parents only love Arthur and Kate. She is also angry that they would ever try to punish her. Her imaginary friend, Nadine, says that the punishment is only for a little while, but D.W. simply blames Kate for it. Just then, Jane enters the room, and D.W. thinks that she can come out of her room, only for Jane to explain that D.W.'s punishment has just started and that when her 10 minutes are up, she can come downstairs. Unconvinced, D.W. makes excuses of not accepting the punishment by complaining about her hunger and being forgotten. D.W. then clings onto Jane's leg, annoying Jane. Jane then sets the clock for 10 minutes, but D.W. talks back by crying and melting down in her pillow saying that she isn't loved. Jane, however, ignores this because what D.W. is whining about in her pillow is not even true as D.W. instantly stops sobbing once Jane is out of earshot. As Jane leaves the room, Nadine appears again, saying that the punishment is really for 10 minutes only. While impatiently waiting for the clock to change, she thinks that time has stopped, and imagines everything as having been frozen into place. Although worried for a while, she suddenly cheers out of the blue as she runs around the house, and takes advantage of the moment to steal Arthur's cookie and give Pal to the Tibbles, unaware that it's all just in her imagination. When D.W. says "You booby-faced baloney-heads!" to the Tibbles, David snaps her out of her bizarre behavior, saying "WHAT are you doing?" to her. D.W. tries to explain that the clock has stopped (even though it's working), but David does not want to hear about it and she is sent back up stairs, much to her frustration. D.W. dramatically exaggerates, and even tells Nadine about all the horrible things that have happened to her such as Arthur getting a cold and how D.W. had to stay up all night and take care of him, fulfilling his selfish requests to make him feel better.
She also "recalls" when she could not attend her Aunt Lucy's wedding because Jane made her stay home and work like a slave, and then she told her that they liked Kate better than her. Angry at these make-believe "sob stories", D.W. thinks of ways to evacuate her home and to Grandma Thora's home by calling a cab. (even though none of these things never have happened to her)
D.W. leaves her room again to beg Jane to end her punishment, but to no avail. She then thinks of how Thora would defend D.W. and have her folks punish Arthur instead (even though Arthur is generally good, more mature and well-behaved, and that D.W. is not allowed to cross the street by herself). She tosses a suitcase in order to sneak out the window by climbing down the drainpipe of her house, only to remember how gravity works while finding out it is way too far away for her. D.W. leaves her room for the fourth time in 10 minutes to find the Reads playing happily without her. D.W. is forced to babysit Kate for the rest of her punishment (which is how the events all started in the first place), and blames her for her attitude and punishment, which D.W. managed to spend entirely outside of her room.
Kate starts cuddling up to D.W. but D.W. recollects how Kate made the day difficult for her, such as causing their mom to notice that D.W. tried to steal a doll from the store, falling asleep while D.W. tried to finish a pony ride in the store forcing her to leave immediately, or stealing her dolls (the only backstory that was true).
However, Nadine points out to D.W. that Kate does not mean to do those things because she is just a baby. Then Kate starts hugging D.W. and gives D.W. her rattle. As she does this, D.W. realizes that she has been a mean sister, and apologizes to Kate for her bad behavior. Just then, Jane enters the girls' room to see how both Kate and D.W. got along with each other. D.W. asks if their mother loved Kate more than her, to which Jane replies that she loves them both very much. They all hugged and reconciled.
While they hug, the clock beeps, meaning that D.W.'s punishment is up (though D.W. was actually in her room for only approximately five minutes). Jane asks D.W. if she is ready to come downstairs, but she proceeds to going back to playing "Lifeboat," where she saves her dolls from being eaten by sharks, and Jane says "Suit yourself". When dinner arrives, Kate is asleep, but D.W. does not want to leave her room, having too much fun with her dolls, and instead, wants to stay five more minutes.
Characters
Major
Minor
Mentioned
Trivia
- In this episode, D.W. imagines enjoying Grandma Thora's cookies, while in "The Half-Baked Sale," she does not like her cookies since the latter has poor cooking skills.
- D.W.'s time out is from 4:30 to 4:40, which is 10 minutes long. Since D.W. is at a young age, she has an inability to read, thus, she misinterprets the minutes as "hours" as most kids her age cannot tell time.
- The estimated time would be that D.W. has received 20 minutes in her room, after the title card finishes, her mom comes in the room and tells her 10 minutes more, so she may have had previous 10 minutes long before that, and her punishment ends at 4:40, so it's possible that she got sent to her room at 4:20.
- D.W. states that Grandma Thora would defend her, but that is not necessarily true, because in "Arthur's Chicken Pox," Thora got disappointed with D.W. for faking having Chicken pox just to get an oatmeal bath and juice, and reprimanded her for doing so.
- Morals:
- Don't favor someone else over your family for your own benefits.
- Don't overreact to get other people in trouble for your own personal benefit.
- Don't fight with your siblings, babies included, over your things you need to share with others.
- Don't blame others for your own actions and mistakes.
- Always be nice and respectful to your siblings, especially those who are younger than you.
- When your parents hold you accountable for your actions, it is actually out of love, instead of being mean.
- Actions have consequences.
Episode connections
- D.W. overreacts to her younger sibling breaking something, and for most of the episode does not understand what she did wrong. This idea would be revisit again in "Arthur's Big Hit" when Arthur hits D.W. for breaking his model plane after being told not to touch it.
- This episode mentions the events of "D.W. Thinks Big." D.W. thinks she did not attend the wedding in this episode. She is apparently making up stories on what would have happened if she did not get her own way.
- D.W. immediately thinks of running away to Grandma Thora's house, the way she did in "D.W.'s Baby". This time around, however, her parents have enforced a rule that she can't cross the street by herself; it's implied her running away the first time led them to enforce this.
Cultural references
- D.W. sweeping the fireplace while her family goes to a wedding likely refers to Cinderella.
- The cab company in D.W.'s fantasy is likely a reference to the television sitcom Taxi.
Errors
- D.W. refers to Lucy as her cousin, but Lucy is actually her aunt. However, she did correctly refer to her as her aunt when sulkingly claiming that her mom only appreciates other family members.
- When D.W shouts at the Tibbles and pulls a face at them, she was smiling with her tongue out, but when it cuts to reveal that it was all a dream back at the read house, her mouth is wide open, still with the tongue out.
- When D.W. says "It's no good, Nadine", the clock says 4:30.
- D.W. tries to hide a Princess Sneeze-and-Wet doll in the cart. D.W. already has this doll in the earlier episode "D.W. the Copycat."
- It is possible that this episode takes place before that one.
- When D.W. fusses with Kate over her doll at the beginning, the voice given to Kate when she whines is unique, instead of her usual stock baby sound effects.
- In the wedding flashback, the family took the catering van, not the station wagon. In the same flashback, Grandma Thora went to the wedding, but in reality, she didn't, because Lucy is Jane's sister and those two women are daughters of Grandpa Dave. Also, Arthur wore a teal tuxedo, not his blue suit. Like Arthur, David also wore a teal tuxedo to the wedding. However in the flashback, David wears his usual salmon coloured suit that he normally wears whenever he and the rest of the Read family have special occasions.
- However, what happens in the wedding flashback is obviously not true as Nadine said to D.W. once the wedding flashback came to a stop "But, you went to the wedding, D.W."
- All of the mistakes mentioned above could be justified as the flashback was a very exaggerated fantasy imagined by D.W.
- Towards the end of the episode, after D.W.'s punishment comes to a stop, the ripple effect is used as the scene changes, despite not transitioning to a fantasy or flashback.
Differences from the Book
- In the original edition, the entire sequence where D.W. runs away from home was removed from the book. (which was likely to make it more moralic) In the revised 2012 edition, parts of this scene were added alongside several other parts that were new and previously missing.
- Nadine Flumberghast is completely absent from the story.
- At the beginning of the book, D.W. was playing with blocks instead of dolls.
- In the book, when D.W. threatens to pinch Kate, Kate cries in the book, but not in the episode.
Gallery
Home Video
DVD:
References