Shalini’s Review - “Little Pink Book”/ “Trip to the Aquarium”

Shalini’s Review - “Little Pink Book”/ “Trip to the Aquarium” 

 

“Little Pink Book”

The episode begins with Helga throwing spitballs at Arnold in class and her playing innocent when Arnold turns to glare at her. When he turns away, she pulls out a little pink diary and writes a sickeningly sweet poem about him that would make first-year Ginny Weasley gag.

The kids head off to board the bus and while she’s waiting, Helga cuts off a bit of his hair to put in her diary. She writes a poem rhapsodizing about (who else?) using the first letter of her name for every line. BIG MISTAKE, HELGA!!!

As she gets off the bus, the diary falls onto Gerald’s pile of books- a fact that she realizes a few minutes later when she searches through her bag. Helga’s face, when she realizes this, is a sight to behold.

                                    See this? This is the face you make when your life is about to end.

Meanwhile, Gerald finds the diary and begins reading the poems aloud in front of the entire neighborhood.  Arnold and Gerald decide to find out whose diary it is by letting Abner (Arnold’s pet pig) sniff it and follow the scent. As they follow Abner out of the boarding house, they miss Helga breaking  into Arnold’s room. She is immediately distracted by the fact that she is in his room. She even smells his pillow and proclaims, “Omigosh, what is that shampoo?!!!” Then, she spots the diary on the bookshelf, but just as she reaches for it, Arnold and Gerald return and she winds up hiding in the closet. 

Arnold and Gerald try to figure it out the diary’s author by testing out various items (like hair and a retainer) against the diary’s contents. Arnold hopes that Ruth McDougal, his sixth-grade crush, wrote the poems. Hilariously, Helga growls ominously every time her name is brought up.

Ruth McDougal-how many times did Helga fantasize about punching her in the face, I wonder?

When their efforts fail to produce any conclusive results, Arnold suggests comparing the handwriting in the yearbook to the writing in the diary. Fortunately, they stop before they reach Helga’s name. Gerald leaves and Arnold gets ready for bed.

Helga makes a call to “Grubworm” (who is really Phoebe) and tells Phoebe to call her mom and tell her that she is sleeping over at Phoebe’s place. She spends the night sleeping in Arnold’s closet.

 After a conversation with Grandpa, Arnold decides that it’s flattering that someone cares so much about him. Unfortunately, this does not prevent him from reading the poems aloud for his classmates’ amusement. Just as he reaches the last page (where Helga wrote her name), Helga, in a moment of sleep-deprived brilliance, rips out the page, chews it, and uses it as spitball against Arnold. She feels triumphant about averting a near disaster and she even managed to save Arnold’s hair.

Extra Stuff: 

 Arnold’s eyes are green, according to Helga’s poem

“Name poems” are actually called acrostic poems (the more you know!)

-           Ruth looks a lot like Arnold’s mom, minus the braces

-           Helga’s codename is “Mighty Falcon” 

“Trip to the Aquarium”

Arnold and the rest of the class are on a field trip to the aquarium. While the rest of his classmates have been to the aquarium before, Arnold has not. They keep going on and on about an animal called Lockjaw, who is apparently the scariest sea monster ever.

Unfortunately, Lockjaw (a giant sea turtle) doesn’t live up to the hype. He looks tired, his shell has been graffitied, and the kids laugh and jeer at him (Harold even throws his ice cream at him). Arnold is clearly shaken by what he has seen.

Back home, Arnold confides to his grandmother about Lockjaw and she is so angry that she comes up with a plan to free Lockjaw. On their way to the aquarium, Grandma (who apparently likes codenames as much as Helga does) calls herself “Chief” and Arnold “Agent 9”. They walk right past the security guard, clean Lockjaw’s shell, and roll him out on a skateboard to the car.

 

Wheeeeeee!!!!

Once there, they push Lockjaw out into the harbor. Arnold tells his grandmother that she is the best and Grandma says that he is too (Awww!). Then Grandma proclaims that she has a hankering for turtle soup… ruining that heartwarming moment. Thanks, Grandma (sarcastic voice).

Extra Stuff:

-          Grandma’s affinity for codenames and sneaky plans makes me think she and Helga would get along perfectly.

-          The AV Club posted two articles about Hey Arnold’s debut in 1996- you can read them here and here.

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