Love Notes for MuffyBrain and Francine take offense when Muffy bribes the judges at a science fair. They decide to get revenge by writing her a fake love note. Hilarity Ensues
Tropes for this episode include
- Batman Gambit: Muffy tells Brain and Francine, whom she suspects, that she thinks her secret admirer is Rattles and left a note in his locker. It turns out she told Rattles ahead of time about her idea, but Francine and Brain scheme to get the note out of the locker before Rattles finds it and pounds her. The plan works because Francine and Brain confess when Rattles finds them infiltrating his locker.
- Chekhov's Gun: The judges take a special interest in Francine's study on the nutrition of cafeteria food. It's revealed that she won the science fair because the project was relevant and well-researched.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: When Muffy announces that Brain deserves the science fair win, Brain admits he shouldn't have enacted the love letter plot because she isn't that bad. Then it really becomes this trope when it turns out Francine won.
- Jaywalking Will Ruin Your Life: Francine has an Imagine Spot of her and Brain being sent to jail for forging the letter.
- Locker Mail: Muffy tells Brain and Francine that she left a rejection letter in Rattles's locker, which they rush to remove before he finds it.
- Love Letter Lunacy: Brain writes a letter to Muffy from a purported secret admirer and strives to watch her try to find the boy who doesn't exist. Eventually, however, Muffy figures out it was someone in her classroom since Fern was protecting them.
- Poke the Poodle: Brain's idea of "revenge" for Muffy bribing the judges is sneaking her a fake love letter. While he goes Oh, Crap! when she says she wrote a letter to Rattles, the worst it does is worry her for a few days.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Fern is quite displeased when she realizes Francine and Brain concocted the scheme. She tells them both off and says it's not funny.
- What You Are in the Dark:
- Fern figures out Brain and Francine wrote the letter. Even so, she doesn't tell Muffy for some reason. It's implied she wanted Brain and Francine to fess up because their reasons are petty.
- Francine and Brain confess when they think that Rattles is about to pound Muffy for writing a note to him.
D.W. Blows the Whistle D.W. and her preschool classmates each receive a safety whistle from a local firefighter who goes by "Officer Safety." After she uses it to save a boy from getting hit by a car, however, D.W. lets the idea of being a safety officer go to her head. Arthur schemes to get D.W. to tone it down before a big race.
Tropes for this episode include:
- Adults Are Useless: Subverted. Muffy gets Mr. Ratburn when D.W. is stuck, and he calls the fire department who rescue D.W. successfully.
- Character Development: D.W. starts out fascinated with the concept of safety, but grows more obsessive with enforcing it for the sake of enforcing it. But after her Hypocrisy Nod, she simply reminds Arthur to buckle his helmet without fanfare, showing she's learned not every safety mistake needs a big fuss.
- Gilligan Cut: Arthur says he won't bring D.W. to the race. Cue the next scene, his parents tell him he has no choice since they're both working.
- Hypocrisy Nod: Arthur and his friends hatch a scheme to find D.W. doing something unsafe because if she was breaking her own rules, then she'd have to stop bugging everyone else. It doesn't work since she is being safe but later on at the race, that exact scenario happens. Humbled by her own mistake, D.W. then tones it down.
- Irony: What ultimately puts a halt to D.W.'s obsession with safety is when she goes so far as to climb a high tree so she can get a better view of the race and blow the whistle on anyone who makes a safety mistake.
- Riddle for the Ages: The episode ends right when the race between Arthur and Francine starts with their carts rushing at the camera, leaving it unknown who actually won.
- A Simple Plan: David and Jane both assume that as long as D.W. just doesn't "bother" Arthur at the race, it shouldn't be a problem for her to attend. They don't factor in that it's not just Arthur who's been annoyed by D.W.'s whistle-blowing, but pretty much all of his friends as well—also, Arthur doesn't want his sister at the race unless she behaves herself, and he turns his back on her while getting ready for it. Those few minutes are all D.W. needs to climb a tree and get into danger.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Everyone calls out D.W. for going overboard with her whistle:
- Jane, David and Arthur all say "D.W.!" in unison when she bugs them at night for trivial things such as reading a magazine and taking a bath.
- Later on, Arthur bluntly says that his friends don't want D.W. at the race because she's annoying everyone with her whistle. D.W. tries justifying her actions by claiming she's just enforcing what Officer Safety taught her and the other preschoolers, but Mr. and Mrs. Read explain the point of Officer Safety's lesson is to let people know when someone's about to do something that's actually dangerous—D.W., on the other hand, is just being a tattletale.
- What You Are in the Dark: After D.W. is rescued from being stuck on top of a tree, their parents come along and ask what happened. Arthur was there and could've tattled on her for what she did, given her a taste of her own medicine and made a big stink of her mistake. ...Instead, he simply tells Jane and David it was "some girl" who got caught in a tree. D.W. on her part also falls under this trope, as she could've left well enough alone. Rather, she comes clean and confesses she got caught in a tree, despite her earlier obsession with safety.
