Through the Looking Glasses

Summary
Arthur mysteriously loses his glasses and has to get new ones, but all the attention he is getting from these new hipper glasses has gone straight to his head!

Plot
At the Ice Cream Shop, Brain serves Buster, whose ears are flopped, a giant gelatin mold. Muffy asks Buster if he is sad, but he denies this and says he isn't sad. Buster then asks Muffy, whose pigtails are up in the air, why she looks so shocked, but she tells him she isn't. Then Binky comes in with a mustache, and Buster asks him if he got a haircut, but Binky denies this. Muffy then says that something seems different about him, and that he looks "strangely mature". Arthur, who is peeking behind the counter, says to the viewers, "Have you ever noticed how something different in the way someone looks can change the way you think about them?" Brain suddenly leaps over the counter having horse legs, and he makes Binky clean up the mess he made eating Buster's gelatin mold. Arthur continues, "Sometimes, people just get so hung up on appearances." It's then revealed that Arthur is wearing a ballerina tutu and legs, and he dances away down the street.

Through the Looking Glasses

One day, Arthur wakes up and notices his glasses are missing. He goes downstairs to have breakfast, and realizes that he's eating his dad's Puffy Oaty Fiber Flakes with Extra Fiber. As Arthur's dad, Mr. Read, comes in to see Arthur about to pour orange juice into his cereal, his dad promises that they'll organize a search party after breakfast. So the entire Read family searches around the house for Arthur's glasses, but nobody can find his glasses anywhere.

Arthur is forced to go to the eye doctor's. The eye doctor, Dr. Helmut, measures everything about Arthur's head, and says that it's fascinating that Arthur's head is "the exact same size as an immature honeydew melon", and he manages to find him a nice pair of glasses. But Arthur tells Dr. Helmut that the lenses are too small and he can barely see anything. He then hands them back to his mom. She likes them, but they are too expensive, because they are made of Helmutite, which can withstand the weight of a pigmy hippo. After Dr. Helmut puts them back on the shelf, Arthur sees a pair that he likes, and he tries them on. Arthur and his mom Mrs. Read decide to purchase them after the doctor promises to also throw in a musical eyeglasses case.

Later at home, in the dining room, D.W. thinks that Arthur looks like a toaster with his new glasses on, but Mr. Read defends Arthur, thinking that his son looks very intellectual. However, after showing his new glasses to Kate, she ends up crying. Arthur then puts his new glasses down, feeling a bit worried that he'll look weird to everybody.

That night, Arthur has a dream involving him walking into class and everyone laughing at him for having a funny pair of glasses stuck on his face. He is sent to clown class as a result, and when he wakes up the following morning, he decides to head to school without his glasses.

At school, however, when he answers a question wrong, he claims to have forgotten to wear them, but Mr. Ratburn has him put them on. Right away, everybody compliments Arthur's new glasses, even Binky, and Arthur realizes that his new glasses may be cool after all. Then during lunch, Buster is trying to tell Arthur a story, but he isn't listening...

Everybody begins to compliment and ask Arthur for advice. Arthur always responds with "Well, I always say...", even though he has never said it before. Eventually, Arthur makes his way to the Ice Cream Shop and sees Brain playing chess with someone else. Brain asks Arthur for advice on how to beat this man, and Arthur does manage to help Brain win. Brain then gives Arthur a free Brain Frost for the help. Buster, however, is getting increasingly upset by Arthur's sudden popularity...

Later, Buster goes to see Arthur, only to find out he's with a "patient". He sees Arthur pretending to be a therapist for George. After George tells Buster that Arthur is an amazing therapist, Buster tells Arthur that he isn't a therapist, only a kid with fancy glasses. Arthur then tells Buster that he's going to see Sue Ellen in order to give her a drawing lesson. Buster points out that Sue Ellen is a much better artist than him, but Arthur won't listen.

As he leaves, Arthur suddenly trips on the sidewalk and his glasses get split into two after a car runs over the middle of them. The following day, everybody begins to look at Arthur strangely, and when George asks what had happened to glasses, he explains that he "dropped them". Suddenly, Buster arrives into school with his new "glasses". Arthur claims they look terrible, as they're not even glasses, but rather ski goggles. But Muffy thinks that they look cool and at that least they're in one piece. Then Buster walks off, but crashes into a locker. George claims that now they both look ridiculous, and they both decide to just forget about the popularity and rid themselves of their glasses.

After getting rid of their glasses, Buster asks what they should do now, and in response, Arthur asks him to help him home, since he can't see, and the two walk away. They are not aware that Mr. Toad is riding a dog, while wearing Arthur's glasses. The episode then finishes.

Greater

 * Arthur Read
 * Buster Baxter
 * The Brain
 * Muffy Crosswire
 * Binky Barnes
 * Jane Read
 * D.W. Read
 * Pal
 * David Read
 * Nadine Flumberghast
 * Helmut
 * Nigel Ratburn
 * Fishface
 * Pickles
 * Fifi
 * Fern Walters
 * George Lundgren

Recurring

 * Hans
 * Mr. Toad
 * Anton

Background

 * Wilbur Rabbit
 * Francine Frensky
 * Sue Ellen Armstrong
 * Alex
 * Jenna Morgan
 * Bailey
 * Ramon Molina
 * Mrs. Tibble
 * Carl Manino

Trivia

 * The toad on Hans at the end is Mr. Toad.
 * This is the last episode where Lyle Lettau voices Brain.
 * This the last time the "Buster and the Magnifying Glass" title card is used in the U.S.
 * Timeline: Pal can be seen collecting a sock, suggesting this took place around the time of "The Great Sock Mystery".
 * Moral: Dont be jealous for your own benefits.

Episode connections

 * While searching for his glasses, Arthur pulls something out of his backpack that looks like D.W.'s snowball, a reference to the episodes "D.W.'s Snow Mystery" and "Return of the Snowball".

Cultural references

 * The episode title is a play on Lewis Carroll's, the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Errors

 * In the laundry room scene while Arthur and his parents are searching all around the house for the pair of glasses that he regularly wears, there are two dryers, excluding the washing machine.
 * The bow on the polka-dot dress flashes for a second when Muffy moves it.
 * When Arthur is inside Muffy's limo, his glasses are round, looking like his old glasses but silver.
 * In Arthur's nightmare, he is wearing phony eye and nose glasses. However, in the circus scene, Arthur is wearing his normal new glasses.