Sue Ellen's Lost DiaryOne day at the library, Sue Ellen accidentally drops her precious diary. She becomes frantic and searches, while her friends attempt to assist. They soon become curious about what she may have written about them.
Tropes for this episode include:
- Adaptational Expansion: The chapter book explains why Arthur was interested in reading the diary; he has an Imagine Spot of Sue Ellen listing all of his flaws and suggestions for improvement.
- Ambiguously Gay: Muffy briefly considers that maybe Sue Ellen's story that is private is about her. She looks enamored of the idea, of Sue Ellen being her lady-in-waiting/Knight in shining armor and doting on her.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: The Cold Open talks about this. Arthur develops telepathy and starts reading minds around the time. He finds out that D.W. is dreaming about dressing up a doll-sized version of her brother, Pal is dreaming of food, while David and Jane clearly just want Arthur to go to bed. As he mentions, you don't always want to know what people are thinking about because the answer may disappoint you.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Played for Laughs. When Arthur reads Pal's mind, he finds that his dog is dreaming about having lots of food. Arthur lampshades, "I could have guessed that."
- Damsel out of Distress: Muffy imagines herself as being a princess who's so resourceful that when her lady-in-waiting proves incompetent at playing the brave knight, it fall to her to come down and ward off the dragon with nothing but her expensive perfume.
- Everyone Has Standards: While the kids become interested in Sue Ellen's diary, they ultimately decide not to read it when Arthur finds it among a pile of toppled books. They tell Sue Ellen they know it was important to her, to not violate her privacy.
- Heel Realization: When Muffy warns Francine that Sue Ellen's diary could read that she's a bully for previously pushing her into mud (which Francine ambiguously defends that Sue Ellen tripped and fell in on her own), it leads Francine to reflect that if she keeps it up with her bully-some attitude, it might lead others to think of her as an actual bully.
- Her Code Name Was "Mary Sue": Muffy's reimagining of Sue Ellen writing a story about her has Muffy as a brave, smart princess that always has perfect hair and can take down a dragon with perfume. Binky snaps her out of it when she's blocking a bookshelf.
- Imagine Spot: Upon learning Sue Ellen is missing her diary, Francine wonders if it will contain stories of how she's nothing but a bully to her. This leads her to imagine her bullying sends Sue Ellen to therapy, where Francine's "ogre-ism" is identified as a serious reason to quarantine and isolate Francine herself from other children.
- A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read: The Cold Open has Arthur explore the concept of reading other people's minds, and it's not as fun as he imagined it would be. For starters, D.W. is thinking of dressing up a shrunken version of her brother in dolls clothes, which makes Arthur shudder. He's disappointed that all Pal can think about is food. And his parents are pretty transparent that they just want him to go to bed when he tries to read their minds. All in all, Arthur decides reading people's minds isn't all it's cracked up to be. This is meant to frame how reading a stranger's diary is just like reading their minds.
- Building on that, Sue Ellen's diary is indeed played up as a realistic form of reading somebody's mind. Upon finding her diary, her friends are hesitant to read it, as it could contain something uncomfortable (like Binky's fears that she has a crush on him) or that she doesn't think highly of them (like Francine's fears that Sue Ellen thinks she's nothing but a bully).
- Mythology Gag: In one of the picture books, Arthur mistakenly thought Sue Ellen was a secret admirer of his. At the end of this episode, she teases that she thinks he's a nice guy.
- Ship Tease:
- Binky briefly worries that Sue Ellen has written about crushing on him and that he's been oblivious. The thought freaks him out because of Girls Have Cooties.
- Sue Ellen teases Arthur that she may have written some "nice things" about him. The thought causes him to blush. In the novelization, he laughs it off, knowing she's messing with him.
- What You Are in the Dark: The kids end up with Sue Ellen's diary. They all want to open it, but no one wants to be the first. Just as they decide to open it together, they realize they can't do it and return it to Sue Ellen. They confess that it was tempting, but Arthur reassures Sue Ellen that it's still private.
Arthur's KneeArthur and Brain are building a Roman Chariot for a class project, but their design loses a necessary bike wheel. To get the part, Arthur sneaks to the dump, with D.W. tagging along because she threatened to tell their mother. Things go wrong when a stray lima bean can cuts into his knee, causing him a large amount of pain. D.W. worries that it will get worse, but doesn't know how to help when she promised not to tell.
Tropes for this episode include:
- Call-Back: Evidently this episode came after "D.W. Blows the Whistle" because D.W. references telling on herself about climbing the tree at the race. This was
Out of Order. - Comically Missing the Point: When D.W. sees that Arthur is injured, he explains that he cut his knee on an open lima bean can. D.W. says that she knew lima beans were bad for you.
- Don't Tell Mama: D.W. threatens to tell on Arthur for going to the dump. He threatens to tattle on her for tattling, and she threatens to do the same. In the end, he says that she can come, but makes her promise not to tell anyone. Later though after he gets hurt there, D.W. convinces Arthur to confess to their mother about what happened because if the cut gets worse, he could get seriously ill.
- Exact Words: Nadine told D.W. that she promised not to tell. But she can still convince Arthur to tell on himself so that he can get the help that he needs. Arthur is convinced when Brain warns him that he could get severely ill if the cut on his knee isn't properly treated.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Played for Laughs, as a means to balance out the seriousness of the mood with comic relief. In wake that Arthur's knee cut is getting worse, D.W. breaks down crying, worried that Arthur will grow gravely sick as his injury festers. ...And that means it will fall on her to do his chores!
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite the above, D.W. was genuinely worried for Arthur and convinces him to come clean about his injury not to one-up him, but for his own well-being. She even offers to keep him company while he's grounded. Arthur isn't enthusiastic, but it's the thought that counts.
- Jerkass Has a Point: When D.W. cries about how she'll be stuck doing Arthur's chores if he gets sick, the Brain concedes that her assumption has merit because Arthur's cut knee could potentially render him sick from any myriad of diseases.
- Malaproper: D.W. refers to a "tetanus booster" as a "Tetris booster".
- Reasonable Authority Figure: While Jane does ground Arthur for breaking the rules and going to the dump, she makes sure to take him to a doctor first, who explains that it was good that he came clean so that they can treat his knee properly and give him the right shots. It's also only for a day so that he can rest up his knee.
- You Are Grounded!: Jane grounds Arthur for going to the dump, for a day since he's been punished enough, and no Bionic Bunny. He finds that fair, but has to spend the day with D.W. as a result.
