Binky Barnes, Wingman

Summary
During Bug Week, Binky becomes obsessed with catching a particular big blue butterfly.

Plot
The show begins with Arthur playing football with Binky in front of his house. He says that everyone has a favorite pastime, and that reading is his. All of a sudden, we hear the sound of a truck backing up; Binky calls “Hey, Arthur, your delivery’s here” and a truckload of books is dumped onto the lawn. Then Arthur remarks that sometimes, a person’s favorite things can get out of hand; the scene then shows how Buster is obsessed with eating; he eats what he calls the “ultimate chocolate sundae” but gets a big stomach-ache as a result. When the scene switches to Brain, Arthur says that the Brain is obsessed with science; he tells his parents that he can’t go to bed now, because he’s on the verge of discovering a new galaxy with his telescope.

Arthur then wonders what Binky’s favorite pastime is; when he asks Binky, Binky says he doesn’t know, and then gets hit on the nose by the soccer ball.

Binky Barnes, Wingman

After the title card, Francine rans and tells everyone that Bug Week is here until a Giant Ladybug on a truck passes by, then in while Buster is listening to music he then sees a picture of a bee right through the school window and Arthur was walking through the hall and sees a Dragonfly pulled by Mr. Ratburn which means Bug Week is here. in Class, Mr. Ratburn shows tell a slideshow all about the annual event and tells the class them a presentation on the bug or bug like creature of any choice and takes off the bug mask after turning on the light. Arthur’s presentation was on spiders; Muffy was doing one on Honeybees, Buster was doing one on Termites and Brain’s presentation on the bug happens to be a millipede in which Binky couldn’t think of a good bug project to choose from.

In class, Muffy tells them on her Honeybee project and thinks what would royal jelly wouldn’t be without peanut butter which makes the whole class sigh. Then George present his bug report on the stinkbug; however, the log he showed them made everyone disgusted by the odor coming from it. Mr. Ratburn then asked if he brought enough clothespins for the entire class. However, George admits that he didn’t. So, Mr. Ratburn tells the class to leave in an orderly fashion, and everyone escapes from the smell.

Sue Ellen was doing her report on the Praying Mantis and does her karate moves until Binky showed up. then she ask if he found a bug for his report; then she suggest Butterflies but Binky thinks there for girls and soon enough he seen one and went to the library to learn all about butterflies and somehow covers the book between a comic book. Binky begin to hunt for some butterflies for his project while using a net and starts to catch the first one from the bushes to the stream and finally caught one, then another one and another one until he sees a very rare blue one and then he tries to catch it, but then it got away. meanwhile Muffy and Francine are demonstrating on some ants while figuring out which food they like the most either it’s watermelon or lunch meat sandwiches until Binky showed up chasing the blue butterfly and wonders which way did he go and points them that way. Sue Ellen went to the Treehouse that next day to see if Binky was there, and Arthur and Buster in there costumes tells her that he’s out hunting butterflies and wants to collect everyone he sees, especially a big blue one since he’s been catching for days.

during class, Binky sees that butterfly out of the window and then Buster demonstrates his bug report on Termites while using a log since it took a long time for them to come out and Mr. Ratburn tells him to wrap it up and then Francine gives out her report about Mosquitoes and everyone clap at it until the bell rang and Binky heard the word “Fun” and went back on his search for the big blue butterfly. Sue Ellen arrives at Binky’s house and sees a tent in his backyard, then he tells her not to let them out and shows her his neat collection and realized how great it is to have a cool hobby before and owes all out to Sue Ellen and tells him they can’t last in this tent for long and he knows it’s all for one day, and she knows that he’ll set them all free after he finishes his project and he is going to tell her he that there going to move in a bigger tent and went on to his hunt again since his collection is not without big blue and he was ready for this. after leaving the tent, Sue Ellen warns Binky that he is going to hurt that butterfly and hunt him down like Captain Ahab from “Moby Dick” while showing him an Illustration from the book she was carrying since he’s not like him from the novel and notice what she has created.

at the Sugar Bowl, Brain was counting down how many legs on in a millipede when he was up to 556 and Sue Ellen interrupts him about Binky catching that blue butterfly and starts back all over again. then Arthur showed up in his spider costume and tells them that Buster got mad and quit playing as the fly and Sue Ellen tells him if he ever gotten a chance to talk to Binky, but he tells her he was too busy hunting down that butterfly and he was just like Captain Ahab hunting down Moby Dick as Sue Ellen she said as well. Binky still continues hunting down that Big Blue Butterfly while in a boat at the lake, then George set the stinkbugs free until Binky shows up and ask where he could find it and points out only a moth until it showed up. just then Sue Ellen was walking and Binky ran over and told her that he has finally catch “big blue” at last and he told her that they are going to the Elwood City Museum of Science and offer there collection to them and she came along with him.

at the Museum, Binky tells Sue Ellen he knows one place to put all his butterflies to live until he was shocked that some of them we’re not moving and instead they we’re all framed up and notice one titled ‘Apatura Blue’ and he then ran off from the museum in fear. back in his tent Binky would soon wonder if he lets go of Big Blue, he’ll fail, as he worked really hard on his project. So, he decides to put all of the butterflies in a box to bring for school.

In Mr. Ratburn’s class, Arthur begins to tell his bug report about the spider eating the fly; Baby Kate is playing the part and everyone laughs at it and thinks how cute it is since Arthur’s Mom was there. Then Mr. Ratburn tells Binky that he’s the last to do his report; Binky wonders if they could go outside for it, and Mr. Ratburn accepts it.

Outside of the playground, everyone gather around when Binky tells them about his bug report about his butterfly collection and this was the best way to see it, just as he opens out the lid and frees out all of the butterflies and everyone was amazed at it and he also let Big Blue go as well. Mr. Ratburn tells him that was very impressive and writes a A for his presentation. However, he then says he also expects the “written” portion of Binky’s report. Binky then says he knew he forgot something. When he looks up on his ear, there is Big Blue; Binky smiles, and the episode ends.

Major

 * Binky Barnes
 * Sue Ellen Armstrong
 * Nigel Ratburn

Minor

 * Arthur Read
 * Buster Baxter
 * Francine Frensky
 * Muffy Crosswire
 * The Brain
 * George Lundgren
 * Kate Read
 * Molly MacDonald

Cameo

 * Jane Read
 * Francis Haney
 * Ms. Tingley
 * Mr. Marco
 * Mrs. Fink
 * Leah MacGrady
 * Jenna Morgan
 * Fern Walters
 * Alex
 * Maria Pappas
 * Miss Sweetwater
 * Coach Grimslid
 * Coach Bumpus
 * 3rd Grade Male Dog
 * 3rd Grade Male Rat
 * 3rd Grade Female Aardvark
 * Beulah McInnerny
 * 3rd Grade Male Rabbit
 * Kyle
 * Amanda Hulser
 * Maryann
 * Liam
 * Lucy
 * Edwin
 * James MacDonald
 * Brian
 * Luke

Trivia

 * Binky releases his butterfly collection at the end of this episode, although he is shown to have an interest in butterflies again in later episodes.

Cultural references

 * Arthur references  when he says that Binky and the butterfly are like and Moby Dick.

Errors

 * At the beginning of the episode, Buster sees a large poster of a bee being carried past the window of the room of the school he is in. Yet when he looks out the window, the poster appears to be going into the school in the opposite direction. Additionally, when we just see the bee poster through the window, it appears much longer than when we see it being carried through the front entrance.
 * Once the poster is carried through the main door, it appears as if Mr. Haney and Miss Tingley (the two carriers) actually come into the music room immediately after entering, when they actually should have ended up in the hallway.

Production notes

 * The events of this story were retold in the song "Fly, Butterfly, Fly!," Track 7 of the album Arthur's Really Rockin' Music Mix.