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"The Last Day"
Season/Series: 19 (US)
Number in season: 10[1]
Original Airdate: United States May 23, 2016[1]
United Kingdom June 24, 2015 (part 1)[2] June 25, 2015 (part 2)[3]
Credits
Written by: Peter K. Hirsch
Storyboard by: Jeremy O'Neill
Rick Marshall
Episodes
Previous
"Besties"
Next
"Buster's Second Chance"
Read transcript

"The Last Day" is the tenth episode in the nineteenth season of Arthur. It is a two-part episode.

Summary[]

It is a time of change at Lakewood Elementary. Arthur and Buster are going into fourth grade and will do anything to get the cool new teacher, MC (voiced by guest star B.J. Novak). Meanwhile, D.W. and Bud prepare to enter kindergarten and Muffy and Francine contemplate how spending the summer away from each other will affect their friendship.

Plot[]

One week before the start of summer vacation, Buster discovers a cheese sandwich from the first day of third grade in his pocket and he and his friends reminisce. Arthur and Buster remember how afraid they were of Mr. Ratburn, while Muffy remembers almost bribing Mr. Haney so that she and Francine could be in the same class.

The Last Day

Mrs. Read picks up D.W. from her last day of preschool. She tells D.W. that kindergarten will be harder, causing D.W. to get worried.

That afternoon, D.W. plays with Bud, who is worried because he keeps getting M-N-L-O-P wrong. They decide to practice being big kids by watching their older siblings.

Meanwhile, Arthur and Buster sit in the ice-cream shop and wonder who their fourth-grade teacher will be. A young man named Mike "MC" Cramp walks in and introduces himself as a new fourth-grade teacher. Since he is cool and knows the Bionic Bunny motto, the boys hope they will be in his class.

Muffy tells Francine that she wants to go to a very fancy summer camp named Elysium instead of going to Camp Meadowcroak. Francine checks out the website and finds it much too posh for her taste.

Bud and D.W. spy on Ladonna and Arthur and combine their findings in a song about how to be a big kid.

At school, MC impresses the third-graders with some wise-sounding advice. Arthur and Buster ask Mr. Ratburn to put in a good word for them, but he tells them that Mr. Haney assigns the teachers.

Muffy tells Francine that her dad has offered to pay for both of them. Francine feels awkward.

Part 2

Francine has a dream in which she is at Camp Elysium and gets attacked by her lobster dinner.

At school, MC impresses the boys (except Brain) with a metaphor about students soaking up knowledge like mashed potatoes soak up gravy.

Arthur and Buster meet at the Read house to make a poster for MC, showing him how much they have learned. Both are surprised just how much they remember from their lessons with Mr. Ratburn. Meanwhile, Bud and D.W. pretend to do homework and complain about their teacher.

Francine shows Muffy photographs of their last stay at Camp Meadowcroak and eventually confesses that she does not want to go to Camp Elysium. Muffy is offended and tells Francine to leave.

On the second to last day, Mr. Ratburn gives a moving speech about how he enjoyed teaching Arthur's class. Arthur and Buster feel guilty.

During lunch, the boys see MC giving the girls the same mashed potatoes metaphor he gave them. They are surprised to find that they will miss Mr. Ratburn. Buster has an idea about the poster.

That afternoon, Arthur composes some music and D.W. offers to take out the trash for him. The trash spills on the lawn, causing her to cry, because she is not ready for kindergarten. Her mom gives her cookies and tells her to just be herself. D.W. is relieved and tells Bud on the phone. For the first time, he gets L-M-N-O-P right.

Muffy visits Francine and offers to go to Camp Meadowcroak with her. Instead, Francine tells her to go to Camp Elysium, but write everyday on a blog just for the two of them.

On the last day, the third-graders give Mr. Ratburn the poster and sing a song about how much they owe to him. Mr. Ratburn is visibly moved. MC comes in and Mr. Ratburn announces that MC will teach the next third grade while Mr. Ratburn will move on to fourth grade. Arthur and Buster hope they will get him.

Characters[]

Cameo[]

Mentioned[]

Songs[]

Trivia[]

  • Buster hopes to get Mr. Ratburn next year, but instead, he is in Mrs. Grimslid's fourth grade class, along with Sue Ellen, George and Maria Pappas, as revealed in "Arthur's First Day."
  • Mr. Ratburn will become a fourth grade teacher the next school year. In the book Arthur's Teacher Trouble he mentioned he was going to become a kindergarten teacher the next year (and would ostensibly be D.W.'s teacher), but this part was not kept when the story was adapted into a TV episode.
  • Lobster is not kosher. Since Francine is Jewish, this fact could have added to her anxieties about going to Camp Elysium. In her dream sequence, she tells the lobster, "I don't even want to eat you."
  • This episode is dedicated to the memory of Greg Kramer, the voice actor of Nemo who passed away in April 2013.
  • Although the Arthur series does have some continuity, primarily in the form of references to past episodes, the students in Mr. Ratburn's class are not seen in the fourth grade in subsequent episodes, nor is D.W. seen in kindergarten. The only exception to this is the one-hour special, "Arthur's First Day."

Episode connections[]

Cultural references[]

Errors[]

  • In the flashback scene when Mr. Haney posts the upcoming class list, Alex is not on the list. (Ladonna is also not on the list because she moved to Elwood City during the school year.)
  • Arthursear
    When the kids talk with MC in the yard in front of the school, Arthur's ear is momentarily drawn incorrectly.

Gallery[]

Main article: The Last Day/Gallery

References[]


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