The Cave

Summary
Arthur is looking forward to a class trip to a cave, although he is just a little concerned about how dark it will be in there.

Plot
The opening begins with an aardvark 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 invented the light bulb, and that person was Thomas Edison. 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.

The Cave

Arthur and his classmates are preparing for a field trip to some caves in Palisades Park after making replicas of caves for homework. Mr. Ratburn discusses mostly bats, and other creatures that live in there. He reminds them of the replicas, and that they're 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 a little bit in order 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. Mr. Ratburn 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, as he just won't budge. He turns the tables by taunting her before going to bed, leaving D.W. really upset.

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 is not scared, 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. Binky takes pictures of Mr. Ratburn and Francine while they're panicking.

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 in getting Mr. Ratburn and Francine out of the cave calmly, Arthur (acting on his father's advice) 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 and thanks 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 when she falls for such a silly trick and confirms this when Muffy adds that Francine is a messiest big mouth. Francine's chases after Binky, saying that he'll be sorry for taking those pictures.

Characters

 * Arthur Read
 * Buster Baxter
 * Francine Frensky
 * The Brain
 * Binky Barnes
 * Muffy Crosswire
 * Nigel Ratburn
 * D.W. Read
 * Jane Read
 * David Read
 * Thomas Edison
 * Jenna Morgan (cameo)
 * Fern Walters (cameo)
 * Sue Ellen Armstrong (cameo)
 * George Lundgren (cameo)
 * Maria Pappas (cameo)
 * Alex (cameo)

Trivia
The Hawaiian island of Kauai has both a number of caves and a wild chicken population, making Binky's drawing of "cave chickens" in "The Cave" entirely feasible in Real Life.
 * The caveman at the beginning is the same from "D.W. Tale Spins".
 * Moral: Making fun of people is rude, don't do it for your own benefits.
 * Karma: Francine made fun of Arthur, so she got afraid.

Episode connections

 * Francine makes fun of Arthur in this episode, similar to her making fun of him in Arthur's Tooth.

Errors

 * When Binky showing the photos, Brain's skin has wrong color.
 * Just as everyone begins walking to the cave, Francine is suddenly missing, but then she's seen again with everyone.

Cultural references

 * The name,, is a real-life borough in Bergen County, New Jersey.