Prunella Packs It In

Summary
Prunella is worried about college and decides to take numerous extra classes to become more "well-rounded." The work load and additional stress soon take their toll on her.

Plot
The episode begins in an imaginary sequence where Prunella (as Griselda the Fearless) is seeking a magic chalice within a dark castle. However, she accidentally awakens the Three-Headed Dog of Dugenkirk, and it gives chase. Griselda runs up a spiral staircase and reaches a large door and bangs on it, calling out to Lady Discord to let her in.

Rubella opens the door and the scene flashes back to reality, revealing that Prunella is playing pretend in a costume and the Three-Headed Dog is actually a small dog plushie. Prunella is still role-playing, but Rubella tells her off as she is studying for an exam. Rubella becomes annoyed when Prunella disregards the importance of the test, and explains that it is the college exam before telling her to keep quiet and closing the door. Prunella picks up the dog plushie and leaves.

TITLE CARD

Prunella enters the Ice Cream Shoppe and finds Brain and Muffy. She asks Muffy if she wants to play with her, but she declines as she has tap class. Brain emphasizes the importance of both the exam results and school grades in getting considered for college admission, which concerns Prunella. Muffy reassures her that she should get admitted into at least one of the many colleges out there. That evening, Prunella dreams about graduating from clown college with everyone laughing at her. The next day Prunella goes to the library and is about to checkout a large stack of textbooks. Muffy arrives with Bailey and clarifies that Prunella try to be well-rounded, meaning that she should participate in a variety of extracurricular activities. Prunella then leaves without checking out the textbooks.

Back at the Deegan's house, Prunella is in her room choosing classes to take at the Elwood City Cultural Center. Marina is there with her and advises that she should sign up for classes that match her interests. However, there are no classes in fortune-telling, and so she initially signs up for kendo, useful Czech, and cheese-making.

Prunella leaves kendo class when she discovers that they will not be using swords for another 5 weeks. She runs into Bailey, who is taking a baking class, and is directed to the Czech class. She opens the door to find that there is only one other student, and promptly leaves.

At the park, Prunella tells Marina that cheese-making made her feel nauseated, and that she had replaced those classes with three new ones. Marina suggests that she do volunteer work instead, like her dad who volunteers at the Elwood City Wildlife Center. Prunella likens to the idea and leaves to go to SCUBA class.

Out on a sidewalk, Prunella is wearing a bird costume and is selling bumper stickers for donations to save the pied-billed grebes. However, none of the passersby are interested. Prunella is then attacked by a bird as she is retrieving a plastic water bottle she threw in the trash.

At school, Mr. Ratburn wakes Prunella as she was asleep on her locker. He asks if she would like to decorate the sets for the upcoming school play, as she did a wonderful job last year. Prunella declines, explaining that she cannot fit it into her schedule. Mr. Ratburn tells her that there is still time to think it over should she change her mind.

Back home, Prunella reviews her schedule and sees that she has twenty minutes free, so she decides to use this time to take a nap. She dreams that she is carrying a very large amount of stuff for her activities and runs into her former instructors, who try to give her more things to carry. She flees to the cultural center to find that everyone is taking the college exam. Rubella hands her a copy, saying that she had better do well on it since she failed at all of her extracurricular activities. As she gets stuck on the first question, Dean Pickles reassures her that the clown college will always have a spot for her. As she screams in denial, Prunella wakes up the next morning to find that she had slept through yesterday's appointments.

At the Sugar Bowl, Prunella tells Marina that she has dropped out of all of her extracurricular courses and is resigned to settle for clown college. Marina reminds her that now she has time again to do things she's interested in and offers to play. Prunella remembers something, so she postpones the play date and leaves.

At school, Prunella is helping to paint the sets for the school play. Mr. Ratburn praises her work, reassuring her that set design is a well respected profession and that she still has plenty of time to prepare for college. Muffy attempts to invalidate this assertion as her father comes to pick her up, asking him to support that painting sets is just a hobby and will not get someone admitted to college. Mr. Crosswire states that he actually never went to college and thus would not know. Prunella retorts with Muffy's original advice, reassuring Muffy that she should be accepted into at least one college out there. The episode finishes with Muffy storming off and Prunella enthusiastically instructing Binky, Fern, George and Sue Ellen on painting the sets.

Major

 * Prunella Deegan
 * Muffy Crosswire

Minor

 * Three-Headed Dog of Doogenkirk
 * Rubella Deegan
 * Brain
 * Fishface (as Dean Pickles)
 * Bailey
 * Marina Datillo
 * Nigel Ratburn
 * Ed Crosswire

Background

 * Wanda Deegan
 * Paige Turner
 * James MacDonald
 * Emily
 * Czech student
 * Czech teacher
 * Nancy
 * Otis
 * Helen
 * Fern Walters
 * George Lundgren
 * Binky Barnes
 * Sue Ellen Armstrong

Trivia

 * Arthur doesn't appear in this episode.

Cultural references

 * Unlike the green-tailed grebe, the is a real bird. However, it is not endangered, as the episode implies.

Animation errors

 * After Mr. Ratburn says "You did such a wonderful job last year", the background behind him shifts to the right for a split second before the camera changes to Prunella.

Production notes

 * Closed captions of the TVOKids broadcast give Prunella's name as "Prunella Neville" during Dean Pickles's dialogue, though the audio gives the correct name of "Prunella Deegan". PBS closed captions do not contain this error.

Home Video
DVD:
 * Arthur: Season 11
 * Germophobia (DVD)