All Thumbs

Summary
When Arthur catches Buster sucking his thumb, Buster worries that Arthur will tell the entire school. Can Arthur stay mum? Or is this secret just too juicy not to share?

Plot
The episode starts with Arthur walking to the Baxter's apartment, where Bitzi notes he is right on time to pick Buster up to go see a movie. Arthur walks into Buster's room, where he is at his desk reading. The two friends head down the street for the movie. The scene pauses, and Arthur asks the audience if they ever wondered what would've happened if they arrived just one minute later to an event. The scene rewinds back to Arthur at the apartment. Bitzi points out he is 1 minute early. When Arthur gets to Buster's room this time, he catches Buster reading- and sucking his thumb!

-All Thumbs-

Arthur backs out and runs. Buster becomes worried now that Arthur knows his secret. He imagines Arthur running home to tell his family about Buster's thumb sucking, and David and Jane telling all the parents, while forbidding Arthur from hanging out with Buster again, to which Arthur puts up no fight and agrees he doesn't like Buster anymore. He sends Arthur an email saying it wasn't a big deal. Arthur reads the email, but overhears D.W. talking to one of her dolls and saying how sucking thumbs is a baby thing. Arthur has a fantasy where people think he's weird for hanging out with Buster, who openly sucks his thumb.

The next day when Arthur arrives to school, he sees Buster behind him. Arthur panics and runs into the schoo. Later at the cafeteria, Arthur and Francine sit with Muffy, Sue Ellen, Brain, and Binky, who ask why Buster didn't sit with them and instead sits with Jenna, George, and Fern Arthur decides to not tell them and act like nothing is out of the ordinary. Francine begins to pressure him and ask if anything happened between them, which Arthur denies, Buster tries to overhear, since he thinks Arthur will tell everyone, but causes a scene after falling out of his seat. In Mr. Ratburn's class, Buster notices Francine and Arthur passing notes, with Francine trying to get information out of Arthur.

After school, Buster begins to bike home, with Arthur trying to get away from Francine, who is still pressuring him to talk. Buster thinks Arthur has told everyone, and imagines himself leaving Elwood City to start a new life. He comes across an employment agency to try and get a job with a partial third grade education. However, the front clerk gets a call from Arthur, and quickly points Buster out as a thumb sucker (with Buster having a wrinkled thumb), the daydream ends as Arthur catches up to Buster, with Francine and Muffy hiding behind a fence to listen. Buster thinks Arthur has blabbed and asks why he's been avoiding him. Arthur flat out asks why Buster still sucks his thumb at his age, to which Buster says he has tried to stop, but it is a hard habit to break, and only does it in private. Buster catches Muffy and Francine listening, and still thinks Arthur has told. Muffy had arrived late, so she is confused as to what happened. Francine surprisingly does not tell her and goes to catch up with Buster. She tells him she has something for him-a liquid to put on one's thumb to make it taste bad. Francine reveals that she also used to suck her thumb, but hasn't in a while thanks to the liquid.

Buster goes over to Arthur's house and apologizes for jumping to conclusions and accusing him of blabbing. Arthur apologizes for over-reacting and avoiding him. Buster realizes he hasn't sucked his thumb ever since Arthur caught him doing it the previous day. The two friends make up and are once again best friends

Characters

 * Arthur Read
 * Buster Baxter
 * Francine Frensky
 * Muffy Crosswire
 * Binky Barnes
 * The Brain
 * Sue Ellen Armstrong
 * George Lundgren
 * Fern Walters
 * Maria Pappas
 * Jane Read
 * D.W. Read
 * David Read
 * Prunella Deegan (background)
 * Molly MacDonald (background)
 * Rattles (background)
 * Ladonna Compson (background)
 * Rafi (background)

Trivia

 * This episode is noteworthy because it contains the only scene in the English version of the series in which Maria's voice can be heard. During an imaginary scene where she discovers that Buster sucks his thumb, she can be heard gasping.

Episode connections

 * Two other episodes have a very similar plot to this episode. In "Night Fright", Binky does not want Arthur to tell anyone else that he uses a night light, and in "I Wanna Hold Your Hand", Binky tries to get George not to tell anyone about his holding his mom's hand.
 * Arthur's new Bionic Bunny digital watch looks like the one that Bionic Bunny himself had in "Molina's Mulligan".

Errors

 * During George's report, when the classroom is seen from a bird's-eye view, the 9 Story Entertainment logo can be seen in a white bar at the top of the screen.

Production notes

 * On the title card, Dietrich Smith's name is misspelled as 'Dietrick Smith'.

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