The Cave

"The Cave" is the second half of the 4th episode of season 5 of the animated children's series Arthur. It originally aired on September 25th, 2000. It was written by Joseph Purdy and the storyboards were done by Nick Vallinakis and Zoran Vanjaka.

Summary
Arthur and his classmates take a field trip to some caves in Palisades Park. Arthur's afraid of going into the caves, but once inside, he's not the one that's spooked the most. He uses what his dad told him before at home and he gets everyone out of the cave calmly.

Plot
Opening

The opening begins with an armadillo in a cave as Arthur comes by and begins to talk of how people dealt with being submitted to the darkness over the course of years. In the 19th century, someone came up with a light bulb. Arthur suggests a name, to which the man then quickly leaves. Arthur then begins to discuss how useful it is, then yells when D.W. turns out the lights.

Episode Arthur and his classmates are preparing for a field trip to some caves in Palisades Park after making replicas of caves for homework. Discussing mostly bats, and other creatures that live in there. He reminds them of the replicas and that they are due tomorrow. During class, Francine teases Arthur of being scared of going inside a cave, which annoys him. Mr. Ratburn explains what Spelunking is, to which most of the students are looking forward to and he claims the caves will seem less frightening the more they study them. He then reminds them of their homework before class ends.

Upon learning this from him at home, D.W. tries to make Arthur admit to being scared going into the caves, even going so far by trying to pull scary tricks on him, though Arthur isn't actually moved by them at all, much to D.W.'s anger. Trying to make him feel better, his dad tells them a story about the basement he was afraid to go into as a child. But to solve this, he would whistle a comforting tune in over to help him conquer this fear.

After a bad nightmare of being trapped inside a cave, Arthur is more hesitant and seems frightened. In class Mr. Ratburn overlooks the replicas one by one. Brain then shows him and the others how much work he put into his own replica when it lights up! Muffy then asks if Bats give people rabies, but both Brain and Mr. Ratburn deny this. He then scolds Francine and tells her it's perfectly natural to be frightened at first.

At home, D.W. Keeps trying to scare Arthur but it's no use! He just won't budge in the least and he tells her good night and heads to bed. Which ends up with him having yet another dream with bats, this time being D.W. and Francine. He is soon awoken by his mom...

When the day of the field trip comes, he's noticeably not the only frightened student or member there. But Arthur is determined to get through this to prove he's not a chicken and they keep exploring. They spot a swarm of bats sleeping, and Mr. Ratburn and Francine start to panic after some time, which ends up scaring the bats after Muffy points them out. After some time, and some reassurance from Brain, Francine and Mr. Ratburn slowly calm down. While Arthur and the other kids, as well as their tour guide, remain calm.

In order to help the tour guide to get Mr. Ratburn and Francine out of the cave calmly, Arthur suggests whistling a familiar tune, to which everyone does so. After Arthur and his classmates get out of the cave calmly, Mr. Ratburn apologizes to everyone for his panic attack, thanking the guide for helping him and Francine out of the cave, as well as thanking Arthur for his helpful 'whistling' tip.

Francine, on the other hand, refuses to admit that she was that scared, though Binky proves this wrong by having taken two pictures of Francine and Mr. Ratburn being scared while seeing the bats, as well as pulling a trick on Francine to make her believe that she's getting attacked by a bat, leaving Arthur and the others to laugh at her for falling suck a silly trick. Annoyed, Francine chases after Binky, swearing that he'll be sorry for taking those pictures.