Besties

Summary
Buster and Ladonna bond over a memorable trip to the movies, prompting Arthur to suspect Ladonna has taken his place as Buster's best buddy.

Plot
Arthur begins the episode by talking about how "it's easy to know when something is the best." He and Buster give examples, such as the best dog (Pal), Buster's favorite item in his food cabinet, and their favorite episode of The Bionic Bunny Show. Arthur then asks if you can have more than one best friend, and Buster walks away, offended.

Besties

Buster and Ladonna invite Arthur to see Mr. Meerkat's Merry Misadventure, but he has to clean the garage. While at the theater, Buster and Ladonna say that going to the movies would be more fun with Arthur was there. The popcorn popper at the theater blows up, causing popcorn to scatter everywhere, and a dog begins eating the popcorn. Buster and Ladonna laugh at this event.

At The Sugar Bowl, Ladonna and Buster tell Arthur about the event at the movies. At school, Ladonna brings Buster some popcorn, and they laugh. Buster tells Arthur, "You just had to be there."

During lunch, Buster and Ladonna continue to joke about the popcorn. Arthur, however, doesn't find it funny because he wasn't there. While he goes to throw away some garbage, Sue Ellen tells him that this is how "losing your best friend" starts. She tells Arthur about how, before she came to Lakewood, her best friend was Marilyn Labatsky. Sue Ellen and Marilyn later met Sybil Whitcraft, whom they both befriended. However, one day, Sue Ellen was sick and couldn't attend macramé class. After that day, she had been "replaced."

Arthur brings Buster a pie and acts creepily nice to him, even showing him an old photo album. At school, during lunch time, Buster tells Ladonna about the pie and how Arthur even reorganized his [Buster's] locker. Ladonna says that maybe Arthur was just genuinely being nice. When Arthur asks Ladonna and Buster what they're talking about, they quickly run off.

That night, Arthur has a dream where Ladonna and Buster sing him a song about how he's been replaced and Buster isn't his best friend anymore.

The day after, Arthur tells Ladonna that Buster she was "kinda pushy." At school, Ladonna is mad at Buster, and Arthur says that she's probably "just cranky" and proceeds to say that Ladonna said something mean about him. Arthur then invites Buster to go to the zoo and see the new monkey exhibit.

At the zoo, Buster meets Ladonna, and in the middle of an argument, they realize that neither of them actually said anything mean. Arthur apologizes and admits that he didn't want to be replaced. A monkey then steals a visitor's camera and takes a bunch of pictures. Arthur, Buster, and Ladonna tell the story about the monkey to Francine and Muffy, with Arthur saying, "I guess you just had to be there."

Major

 * Arthur Read
 * Buster Baxter
 * Ladonna Compson

Minor

 * Sue Ellen Armstrong
 * Marilyn Labatsky
 * Sybil Whitcraft

Cameo

 * Pal
 * Bionic Bunny
 * The Brain
 * Binky Barnes
 * George Lundgren
 * Francine Frensky
 * Muffy Crosswire
 * Liam
 * Alberto Molina
 * Vicita Molina
 * Nigel Ratburn
 * Sparky
 * Chip Crosswire
 * Catherine Frensky
 * Jenna Morgan
 * Maria Pappas
 * Fern Walters
 * Slink
 * Prunella Deegan
 * Bill
 * Madison Compson

Mentioned

 * David Read

Songs

 * New Best Friend

Trivia

 * Catherine and Chip can be seen together at The Sugar Bowl.
 * Ladonna mentions the Pythagorean theorem.

Episode connections

 * Arthur shows Buster photos of events from other episodes:
 * At Wonder World ("D.W.'s Imaginary Friend")
 * At the beach ("D.W. All Wet" or "Buster Baxter & the Letter from the Sea")
 * Meeting at age 4 ("Team Trouble," "The Ballad of Buster Baxter," and "Buster's Second Chance")

Errors

 * When Buster says, "100% me," and looks at Arthur, his left eyebrow disappears.