Binky Rules
Someone is graffitiing "Binky Rules" all over the school, and Binky insists that it wasn't him. While Arthur convinces Binky to hire Buster, Francine insists that Fern can solve the case. Binky asks the two detectives to work together.
Tropes for this episode include:
- Chekhov's Gag: It's a Running Gag that the new song keeps playing on the radio, only for it to be turned off before anyone can learn what the band's name is. Buster and Fern find out that the band is named Binky and the graffiti was their promotion.
- Clear My Name: Binky asks Fern and Buster to prove he wasn't doing any of the graffiti art with his name. They end up finding out it was promotion for a new band.
- Continuity Nod: Arthur mentions about the time Buster help clear his name on the missing quarters and Francine calls back to when Fern help find her bracelet at the slumber party Fern's mother organized.
- Ear Worm: The new song on the radio keeps playing. Fern even mentions that it's distracting.
- Evil Twin: Buster says that Binky must have one that is framing him. Binky is quite taken with the idea and keeps referencing it.
- Girls vs. Boys Plot: This was somewhat the conflict in the episode as Buster and Fern want to show which gender can solve the mystery.
- Hope Spot: Buster and Fern take some of the paint to a hardware store to see who they sold it to. However, the owner never saw the color, let alone sold it.
- Not Me This Time: Binky knows that he hasn't done any graffiti. In fact, he doesn't even know how to do it.
- Red Herring:
- Fern assumes that Binky's soccer skills are the reason that he's being framed. She thinks that a rival soccer team wants to ensure he doesn't play. Mr. Morris confirms he saw no soccer teams skulking around the school.
- The kids find that the paint looks like it comes from the local hardware store. The owner confirms that he doesn't sell that brand, much to their disappointment.
- Shout-Out: Fern's narration during the teaser is a shot-for-shot recreation of the opening to Masterpiece: Mystery! as it was in the mid-90s.
- Wham Shot: Fern and Buster show up with the Binky truck, revealing that it's the name of the new band.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Fern acts like Encyclopedia Brown when talking to Mr. Morris and reviewing the case about all the facts. Buster in the meantime talks like a private eye from a noir story while interrogating everyone. It turns out neither of these methods work for catching a graffiti artist; they come across the answer when Buster hears the Ear Worm song playing over the radio, making it a stroke of luck. Amateur detectives have low odds against them solving an actual mystery.
Meet Binky
Binky the band is doing their first concert at Elwood City. Arthur is excited, only to get terrible tickets that ensure he won't get a good view. As his friends scheme to meet the band in person, Arthur finds out he may have the solution: his dad's catering company.
Tropes for this episode include:
- Adaptational Expansion: The Brain does not appear in this episode, but does appear in the novelization.
- Apology Gift: Binky reveals the band gave him two great tickets as an apology for getting him in trouble. He invites Arthur to sit with him since he heard Arthur got bad tickets.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: All of Arthur's friends wanted to meet Binky in person. They find out that the band isn't real, and instead is composed of holograms. Needless to say, as Francine puts it, it's best to not know anything about celebrities.
- Bittersweet Ending: Arthur and his friends find out that Binky isn't real, but they renew their bond over the shared knowledge. He says he prefers having real friends over fake ones.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- The kids mentioning that maybe the band will hire their parents. Rather than do an interview with Buster's mom, however, they hire Mr. Read's catering company and offered to show his son who Binky is.
- Binky's two apology tickets. Arthur ends up sitting with him and his friends after "meeting" the band. He finds this more acceptable than hanging out with holograms.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: When Mr. Read and Arthur arrive backstage at the concert, Svern says Binky "will be set up in 15 minutes."
- Hypocritical Humor: Binky's manager Svern is concerned about their name being overused by merchandise, before telling an aide that he wants 200,000 Binky wheelbarrows in stores by tomorrow.
- Imagine Spot: Quite a few pop up over the episode.
- The kids think about if their parents would work with Binky. Buster has the most logical one, that maybe his mom would interview them; Bitsy shuts this down in real life because it's not her line of news. Francine thinks that she would find the band's bracelet in the trash; Oliver laughs at her. Arthur makes a face as he imagines his mom doing taxes for Binky.
- Francine and Buster tease Arthur that with his bad tickets, if he were invited onstage, the concert would be over by the time he makes it to row 1. Arthur imagines running for three years to the point where his friends are in sixth grade.
- When Arthur thinks about meeting Binky the band, he thinks he would rescue them from a car accident and go sledding with them. In the variant with his friends, the band snobbishly says they won't all fit in the limo and leaves Arthur behind. The one with Binky his friend meeting Binky the band leads to them taking Binky instead.
- Irony: The kids discuss that maybe their parents would work with "Binky" the band. Arthur nixes the idea when he has an Imagine Spot about his mother doing taxes for them, since Jane would likely find out they owed more from royalties. He finds out that his dad's catering company was hired to feed "Binky" and allow him to bring his family to see the concert.
- Right on Queue: By the time Arthur gets in line for tickets, the line extends all the way to farmland outside town.
- Sequel Episode: This episode follows up from the previous episode as the band "Binky" shows up in Elwood city.
- That Syncing Feeling: A variant; the band glitches when the sound engineer demonstrates it for the kids. He finds out that Arthur mistook the computer being used as a trash can. The mess is cleaned up, and the concert goes on as planned.
- Ticket-Line Campout: Some people, who are purchasing tickets of the Binky concert, started pitching up tents while waiting in line.
- Virtual Celebrity: It's revealed that none of the members of Binky are real people, since they're actually just holograms.
- Wanting Is Better Than Having: The kids discuss this at the end of the episode. Not knowing who Binky really was made it much more fun to speculate about seeing and meeting them. Francine says this is why it's better to not learn anything about celebrities.
- Wham Shot: The band members glitch when Arthur tries to shake their hands. This leads to the crew revealing the band is made of holograms.
- What You Are in the Dark: Arthur at first hides that he can meet Binky in person from his friends. Then he realizes that it wouldn't be fun without his friends, and decides to invite them backstage.
- Who's on First?: The Cold Open features Binky thinking that Arthur is talking about him and not the band.
