| This article is about the episode. You may be looking for the book. |
| "Sue Ellen's Lost Diary" | |
| Season/Series: | 2 |
|---|---|
| Number in season: | 14a |
| Original airdate: |  April 9, 1998[1] September 10, 1998[2] February 12, 2002[3] |
| Credits | |
| Written by: | Peter K. Hirsch |
| Storyboard by: | Ivan Tankushev |
| Episodes | |
| Previous "Arthur the Unfunny" |
Next "Arthur's Knee" |
| Read transcript |
"Sue Ellen's Lost Diary" is the first half of the fourteenth episode in the second season of Arthur. It was later adapted into the book Arthur and the Lost Diary.
Summary[]
While helping Sue Ellen look for her missing journal, her friends start to wonder what exactly is in it.
Plot[]
In the introduction, Arthur imagines what it would be like to look into people's minds. He tries it on his family and sees D.W. playing with a doll-sized Arthur and Pal thinking of food. When he tries it on his parents, they notice him and think of him going to bed. Arthur concludes that it is better to not know what people are thinking.
Sue Ellen loses her diary in the library. She blames Francine of taking it, but Francine is in fact reading a joke book.
Francine tells Muffy that Sue Ellen seemed really upset, and Muffy wonders if Sue Ellen wrote about Francine in her diary. Francine is curious and asks what Sue Ellen would write about her. Muffy suggests Sue Ellen might have written about the terrible things Francine has done to her, like the time she pushed her in the mud. A flashback shows Sue Ellen falling into the mud, and Francine runs away laughing. This makes Sue Ellen really upset, and she gets out her diary and writes, "Day 162. Francine is getting meaner and meaner. I think it's time I got her some help." The flashback ends, and Francine denies pushing Sue Ellen, claiming she tripped. Muffy understands and assumes Sue Ellen might still think Francine did it on purpose. Francine then has a weird and disturbing thought. In it, Sue Ellen is seen chatting with Dr. Zimmer, a professional in child behavior. To her surprise, the doctor diagnoses Francine with "acute ogreism", a disease illustrated by uncontrollable cruelty and he shows her projection of a tall girl bullying smaller children at the playground, including shoving one into the mud, which also solidifies the diagnosis. Sue Ellen's surprised reaction mirrors Francine's own disbelief. Dr. Zimmer's grim conclusion is that there is no treatment for Francine's disease, and he proposes she needs to be separated from other children. In the imagination, Francine is isolated in a hospital, playing cards with two nurses and unable to play with her friends in the playroom due to her supposed contagious ogreism. She urges that she isn't that mean, but the grown-ups don't believe her. Back in reality, Francine informs Muffy that she doesn't have ogreism. Muffy reminds her that they didn't know for sure if she's in the diary, and Francine must discover the truth.
Muffy offers to help Sue Ellen search and tries to coax her into revealing the diary's contents. Sue Ellen starts telling her that she is writing a story about a princess, but then she realizes what Muffy is up to. Muffy imagines a story in which she is a princess who saves a town from a dragon by spraying it with perfume. Sue Ellen is her lady-in-waiting.
Muffy tells Binky about the diary and he says that he saw it on a library cart. They look for the cart, but it is gone. Binky imagines that Sue Ellen has written about being in love with him, and that he has been oblivious to her affections towards him.
Francine, Muffy and Binky search together when Arthur comes with the diary which he found. Arthur is initially against reading it, but struggles with his curiosity. All four put their hands on the diary, but nobody can make up their mind to open it.
They end up returning the diary to Sue Ellen, who tells them that she will write about having the best friends in the world. Sue Ellen is glad and relieved that nobody read her diary. Binky holds the door open for her, Muffy offers to help with Sue Ellen's story and Francine is especially nice. Sue Ellen does not understand why and asks Arthur whether they really did not read the diary. Arthur confirms it and Sue Ellen confesses that she wrote some nice things about him, causing him to blush.
Characters[]
Major[]
Minor[]
Cameo[]
- Patrick (4th grader)
- Prunella Deegan
- Maria Pappas
- George Lundgren
- Rattles
- Jenna Morgan
- Fern Walters
- Molly MacDonald
- Paul Jacobs
- Beulah McInnerny
- 3rd Grade Male Dog
- Billy
Trivia[]
- Moral: Always value privacy of other's people diaries, as they may have written things that are not meant to be shared towards others.
- At the end of the 2000 rerun intro on PBS Kids before this episode, Arthur's crashing sound changes to a big splash of water.
- Sue Ellen is implied to have a crush on Arthur, while Binky is implied to have a crush on Sue Ellen.
- In Arthur's Really Rockin' Music Mix, Sue Ellen claims she can't sing but in this episode she was singing perfectly.
Episode connections[]
- Sue Ellen's comment at the end, "I said some pretty nice things about you!" is a reference to Arthur's original crush on her in the books.
- This crush is also based on how Marc Brown based Sue Ellen on his first girlfriend and Arthur on himself.
- During Muffy's fantasy, she plays as Princess Millicenta who wears a blue princess dress and long curly hair. After the dragon comes into the castle, Millicenta began to wear her blue princess hat. After the knight is stuck in the castle door, Millicent's hat is gone. When Millicenta comes out of her castle, she wears a single braid, but still wearing a princess dress. However, in "Arthur's New Friend" and "Arthur's Perfect Christmas," Muffy stills wears a princess dress and a princess hat, but double braids just like in her original appearance.
- The events of this episode were mentioned in "The Best Day Ever" as Sue Ellen's best day.
- Sue Ellen's diary is a major plot point in "April 9th."
Cultural references[]
- In Muffy's fantasy, Millicenta's castle looks like the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
- Millicenta using her hair to descend the tower may refer to Rapunzel, though Rapunzel does not use her own hair to climb in the original fairy tale.
- Sue Ellen's love song is based on "Cielito Lindo."
Errors[]
- When Francine is about to explain what Sue Ellen meant about ogre-ism to Muffy, she turns to Muffy in one scene, then again in the next.
- When Sue Ellen closes the locker that Binky struggled to open, she doesn't close it all the way, but the locker sounds as if it did.
- At the end of the episode, Sue Ellen and Arthur are outside talking, but when Arthur blushes after Sue Ellen leaves on her bike, he is suddenly inside the library.
Home Video[]
DVD[]
Gallery[]
References[]