George Blows His Top

Summary
George is always more than happy to lend his friends whatever they need, especially Buster. But when Buster's borrowing gets out of hand, will George risk their friendship to say enough is enough?

Plot
The episode opens with D.W. digging in the backyard. A butterfly flies past and she notices it and says "ooo." The butterfly flies past Jane Read, who is laying back on a lawn chair reading the newspaper. Arthur comes to her asking if he can see "Wacky Zack, the Zombie King". Jane looks at him and she says no. Arthur tells his mom it's just a comedy, and Binky's mom took him before. Jane interrupts and tells him that it's rated PG-13 and he won't be seeing it." Arthur tries to counter. "But..." Jane says no again. Arthur then turns and looks at the camera, asking the viewers how they hate hearing the word "no" all the time. Then it moves to Mr. Ratburn's class. Binky wants to go outside, but Mr. Ratburn breathes in the air and closes the blind, turns around and says no. Binky looks down in disappointment. Next scene, Buster is in his kitchen in his condo, eyeing a pink frosted cake. He goes for the cake but his mom turns around and says no. Buster looks to the pink frosting, smiles and heads to the frosting, but his mom says no without looking. Disappointed, he walks away and grabs a cookie from a plate. His mom says no and Buster returns the cookie. Then we go to Muffy's house where Muffy's dad says no. Muffy gasps and asks him how could he do that. Muffy's dad tells her that they just don't have enough space for a hippo quite yet, then Muffy cries. Then we cut back to Arthur in his backyard saying that "Sometimes 'no' is the only thing he hears now." He walks away from the camera and trips over D.W.'s sand pail. D.W. screams "No!" Next viewers see Arthur on the ground covered in mud. D.W. is disappointed that she has to make a whole new batch of mud now. Arthur looks at the camera and tells the viewers that "that is one 'no' he wishes he had heard."

George Blows His Top

We start with Binky launching himself from a swing. Then it's George's turn. Buster gives him a start by pulling him back farther. He jumps off and ties with Buster. In class, Mr. Ratburn gives the class a pop quiz. Buster looks around and realizes that he has no pencil. He asks George with causing him to give his only pencil. He tries to use a crayon instead until time runs out. But Mr. Ratburn says he can't read the answers and that he'll have to retake the quiz after school. Buster hands back the pencil and says to George, "I owe you one." At lunch, George takes the last piece of Boston creme pie and Buster begs for it because he missed it the week before. He tries to get George to hand over the slice. He agrees, but feels gloomy when the only thing left is "pears in syrup."

He walks away sadly. At his locker, George realizes Buster had replaced his jacket. George tries it on and realizes that it's too big for him; however, Buster tells him it's supposed to be like that. In one of the pockets, there's an old dried up lollipop. George growls. While walking with Arthur, George imagines himself as a monster, angrily ripping off the jacket and burning it with his breath. When Arthur asks for the time, George angrily states, "Get your own watch!" He realizes it was just Arthur and quickly chases and apologizes to him.

At the Sugar Bowl, George tells Arthur his problem and Arthur says that George can't say yes to Buster every time he wants something; what if he wants his shoes or something? George wants to say no, but he's afraid that he might lose his nerve when he's talking to Buster, and Arthur suggests that he should practice with somebody.

Liking that idea, George goes to his room and practices with his ventriloquist dummy, Wally. But first, Wally says that to play Buster, he needs ears—so George outfits Wally with socks for ears. George wants Wally to try and convince him to give up the juice box George has. Wally plays off George's sympathies and easily gets George to give him the juice box. Then when Wally sees that it contains pineapple juice, he flings it across the room into the garbage, since he doesn't like that kind of juice. George decides to practice himself.

George sits on his porch with a tape recorder and microphone. He speaks into the microphone saying how he sometimes feels like Buster's taking advantage of him and how it makes him feel kind of mad. Then he plays the tape back and thinks he sounds whiny. Buster pulls up on his bicycle and George tries to hide the tape recorder behind him, but Buster sees it, and asks if he can see it. George hands it to Buster and Buster starts singing his "Baxter Day" song into the mike. Buster asks if he can borrow it sometime and George is about to say no, but then he agrees. Buster seems surprised that George is letting him take it—he figured he wasn't going to be loaned the equipment now... But as he loads it into his backpack Buster doesn't notice George is sad. Buster beams a big smile and rides off.

Back in his room, George imagines he'll eventually give Buster everything he has, even Wally. George stops imagining as he hears Buster at the door asking George's Mom if George is at home. George and Wally look out the window to see Buster down there, and the two of them duck down, hoping Buster hasn't seen them. They think about climbing out the window to escape, but decide that's a bad idea. George and Wally see that Buster has his backpack and figure he's here to take Wally away. George blocks the door with a chair pushed up against the handle. Buster knocks on the door because he wants to talk. George lets him in, and hands Wally to Buster, saying "try not to lose him", but Buster isn't here for Wally. Buster has just come to give George his stuff back.

Buster unpacks George's stuff and Buster plays the tape on the tape recorder for George. We hear Buster apologizing for borrowing all George's stuff, saying that he didn't know it would make George feel bad. If he had known, he wouldn't have done it. Then he says on the tape that George is a good friend. George realizes that Buster must have heard what George had recorded on the tape. Buster says he had, and that he understands. The two shake hands, and Buster asks George for a favor, but he doesn't want to borrow anything else! Buster says that in the future, George should tell him if something is bothering him; it will save a lot of time. George asks if Buster still wants to go to Muffy's to play Virtual Goose. Buster does. George says he'll meet him downstairs. Buster leaves, and George puts Wally in the closet. As he does so, Wally comments that Buster isn't such a bad guy, and wants to know if he can borrow the stuff Buster returned, like the pencil, which Wally wants to use to clean his ears out. George isn't going to make any trades right now though. He closes the door on the closet.

Major

 * George Lundgren
 * Wally
 * Buster Baxter

Minor

 * Nigel Ratburn
 * Arthur Read
 * Jane Read
 * D.W. Read
 * Binky Barnes
 * Muffy Crosswire
 * Bitzi Baxter
 * Ed Crosswire

Cameo

 * Francine Frensky
 * The Brain
 * Fern Walters
 * Jenna Morgan
 * Alex
 * Maria Pappas
 * Oliver Frensky
 * Mary
 * 3rd Grade Male Rat
 * Ramón Molina
 * Mrs. Lundgren

Mentioned

 * Mrs. Barnes

Trivia

 * When Mr. Ratburn announces a pop quiz, George groans using one of Arthur's stock groans from the early seasons, recorded by Michael Yarmush. The groan is used a second time when George can't find another pencil after lending his to Buster.
 * Moral: Don't steal something from someone and give a vague reason for your own benefits.
 * Timeline: Buster mentions Muffy downloading version 29.2 of Virtual Goose.

Cultural references

 * When George loses his temper, he changes his form into a monstrous creature, like, who transforms into the Hulk when he gets angry.

Episode connections

 * Arthur wasn't allowed to watch a PG-13 movie, just like in "Arthur Makes a Movie."
 * Buster sings a few bars of "Baxter Day" from Arthur's Perfect Christmas.

Errors

 * During the prologue, when Muffy cried, "Daddy! How could you?!" Muffy's socks were missing. But in the second and third scene, her socks came back.
 * Arthur and his mom act as if Arthur cannot go to a PG-13 movie at all, but the rating only means that a person under 13 cannot get in unless accompanied by her/his parent(s)/guardian(s).