Just Desserts
When he hears how Grandma Thora is coming to babysit, Arthur binges on candy to avoid having to eat her cooking. But when it turns out David left dinner and wedding cake, Arthur eats too much and has nightmares inspired by the Brothers Grimm.
- Acid Reflux Nightmare: After Arthur eats too much and nods off while Grandma Thora reads fairy tales to D.W., he has a series of fairy tale-themed nightmares.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The giant in Arthur’s nightmare manifests as a giant made of every food Arthur has ever eaten.
- Balloon Belly: Arthur gets three progressively bigger ones. The first is when he has a full plate of turkey dinner left by David after having already had a bunch of candy. The second is when he pushes further to have two slices of wedding cake, enough that it pushes out of his shirt. The third is in his dreams when he imagines eating Thora in her cake form, and it's far more exaggerated since it's a dream.
- Big Eater: Arthur eats a large stash of candy, a full turkey dinner, and two large slices of wedding cake.
- Continuity Nod: Grandma Thora’s poor cooking skills come up again, as Arthur’s overeating comes around because he figured he needed to feed himself lest he have to eat her cooking.
- Dramatic Irony: As they enter the house too late, DW and Buster don’t realize that Thora basically forced herself into Arthur’s stomach, but instead think he ate her out of malice.
- Family-Unfriendly Death: Witch Ratburn gets shoved into her own oven by the Tibble Dwarves and can be heard wailing as she's cooked alive. Later, Buster of all people prepares to inflict this on Arthur by cutting him open with an axe when he's mistaken for a grandma eating wolf. Of course, Arthur wakes up before it gets worse.
- Gory Discretion Shot: Arthur's first dream ends when Buster, the lumberjack, prepares to use his axe to cut Arthur open to get Thora out of his stomach.
- Hoist by Their Own Petard: The witch, just like in the classic story, gets shoved into her own oven to be cooked alive by the Tibbles/Dwarfs.
- Laser-Guided Karma: DW claims Arthur gets this for being in pain after eating two slices of wedding cake, but she's just being her usual cranky self since Arthur didn't actually do anything wrong.
- Lethal Chef: Thora’s cooking once again. David is implied to have left a full dinner to spare his kids from her usual dishes.
- Noodle Incident: In Arthur's first dream DW gets dragged away by the Tibble dwarves to be their queen. She shows up at Grandma's house (after Arthur has eaten Cake!Thora) to complain about all the work the Tibbles put her through, but it's never explained how she escaped them.
- Poor Communication Kills: Arthur helped himself to a giant stash of candy because he anticipated his grandmother would be cooking, and he wanted to avoid her brand of cooking. Later, it turns out their father cooked dinner ahead of time and left them samples of the very wedding cake he wanted. If only Arthur had consulted with his dad the nature of his plans, he would've avoided a tummy ache for all his troubles.
- Spanner in the Works: Arthur's plan to subsist off a dinner of candy backfires when he learns that David left a full course dinner for them, implied to be so they don't have to eat Thora's bad cooking.
- To Serve Man: The witch, cast with Mr. Ratburn, attempts to fatten up Arthur and D.W. to eat them.
- Unexplained Recovery: Arthur's first dream ends on a grim note with Buster about to eviscerate him for supposedly eating Thora. His next dream follows the first with DW berating him for "eating Grandma" and no explanation for why he's not overstuffed or threatened by Buster. Justified as it's a messed up food dream.
- Verbal Backspace: DW celebrates when she learns David left food for them, but quickly backtracks when seeing Thora’s upset reaction.
The Big Dig
Grandpa Dave is visiting, but Arthur and DW quickly get tired of him due to his not being as energetic as he used to be. Dave thinks up a pirate story to inspire the kids again, but they take it too seriously.
- Armor-Piercing Response: When Grandpa Dave sheepishly comes clean to the kids he made up the pirate story in order to get the kids invested, D.W.'s response is a practically tearful "You lied, Grandpa Dave, you lied!" For how she words it, Grandpa Dave is pretty stung by how she's right: although it was with good intentions to earn their love and respect, he's betrayed their trust.
- Continuity Nod: In “Grandpa Dave’s Old Country Farm”, it was mentioned how he’s not as young as he once was and needs more help just maintaining his property. This comes into play here since Dave spends most of his visit sleeping, dominates the living room since he can’t make the stairs, and generally bores his grandchildren.
- Easily-Overheard Conversation: Justified since the kids figured he was still asleep like he’d been for virtually two weeks, but Dave listens to them badmouthing him from outside the kitchen.
- Enemy Mine: Enemy might be too strong a word, but Arthur and DW are both weary of Dave’s visit and at the end of the episode, DW even agrees to watch Bionic Bunny with her brother just so they can both spite Dave for lying to them.
- Foreshadowing:
- Arthur and DW both have wildly different ideas on how Dave is going to entertain them while staying with them; Arthur thinks he’s going to wrestle alligators and go on adventures with him, while DW thinks he’s going to give her piggyback rides for hours on end. Both extremely over the top fantasies can quickly tip off a viewer that Dave isn’t going to be doing anything remotely that exciting.
- Anyone can quickly put together that Dave’s story about their pirate ancestor was a lie since pirates never pillaged candy. The treasure supposedly being in front of the treehouse is also a good sign it’s a fake since even though Elwood City is a stand-in for Boston, it’s not really a place pirates would’ve buried treasure at.
- Gone Horribly Right:
- In Dave’s story, their pirate ancestor was so good at plundering that his ship was starting to sink due to being too weighed down.
- Dave’s attempt to get his grandkids re-invested in him works all too well since they take the story so seriously they launch their own investigation.
- Liar Revealed: Dave gets caught when Arthur and DW go and find the burial site of the supposed treasure and has to confess.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: D.W. normally doesn't like Bionic Bunny (and still doesn't) but nonetheless supports Arthur to watch it in order to spite their grandpa, indicating she and Arthur are really angry at their grandfather for the lie.
- Rebuilt Pedestal: Although the kids are still angry at him for the lie, Grandpa Dave makes it up to them by sharing a true story about an ancestor who survived a storm in a small boat, and their compass was the only souvenir of their experience. This time, Arthur and D.W. are truly invested, to the point the latter actually turns off the television.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Dave’s age is catching up to him even more than in “Grandpa Dave’s Old Country Farm”. He spends most of his visit to his daughter’s house sleeping, can’t make it up the stairs, and can’t even go a game of checkers without falling asleep. Jane is also seen taking him to a doctor’s appointment.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: Throughout the episode, Grandpa Dave has tried playing checkers with his grandchildren, even though he keeps falling asleep. Later, while telling a true story about an ancestor, he mentions that one of the activities they used to do was play checkers, implying that this is a tradition in honor of that ancestor's memory.
- Tempting Fate: The cold open is about Arthur and DW imagining all the fun and wild adventures they'll get to have with their grandfather Dave, and how they can't wait for him to visit. Unfortunately, after the title card, the next scene shows Dave sleeping in the living room's futon, while his grandkids complain how he's no fun, what with sleeping virtually all the time and taking up the living room.
