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 a giant jello mold and Muffy asks Buster if he is sad, but he denies this and says he is fine, then asked Muffy why she looks so shocked, but she tells him she isn't. Then Binky comes in and he has a mustache! Arthur peeks at everyone as Brain suddenly leaps over the counter having horse legs! As Arthur then walks away he's revealed to have a ballerina tutu and legs and dances away.

Through the Looking Glasses Arthur wakes up and notices his glasses are missing. He goes to breakfast and realizes that he's eating his dad's yucky cereal. As their dad comes in to see Arthur about to pour orange juice onto his cereal, their dad promises they'll all look after breakfast. So the entire Read family searches, but it's no use, nobody can find Arthur's glasses anywhere!

Arthur is forced to go to the eye doctor's and a strange doctor measures everything about Arthur's head and manages to find him a nice pair of glasses. But Arthur tells him the lenses are too small and he hands them back to his mom. She likes them, but they are too expensive, so the doctor puts them away. Arthur then sees a pair he likes and tries them on. He likes them and they decide to purchase them after the doctor promises to also throw in a musical case.

At home Arthur is being mocked by D.W., but his parents think he looks nice and smart. However, Kate ends up crying and Arthur puts the glasses down, a bit worried now that he'll look weird to everybody. He then has a dream involving him walking into class and having a funny pair of glasses on his face, stuck! 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. 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 them, 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 comment, 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 Sugar Bowl and sees Brain playing chess with someone else and asks Arthur for advice on how to beat this man. Arthur does manage to help Brain win, and then Brain gives Arthur a free Brain Frost for the help. Buster is getting increasingly upset by Arthur's sudden popularity...

Later, Buster goes on to see Arthur, only to see he's with a "patient" and sees Arthur pretending to be a therapist. Then Arthur 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 and his glasses get smashed! The following day, everybody begins to look at Arthur strangely and he explains that he "dropped them". Suddenly, Buster arrives into school with his new "glasses". Arthur claims they look terrible, and they're not even glasses but ski goggles. But Muffy thinks they look cool and at least they're in one piece. Then Buster walks off, crashing into a locker in response. George claims they both look ridiculous and they both decide to just forget about the popularity and rid themselves of their glasses.

Buster asks what they should do now and Arthur asks him to help him home since he can't see and the two young boys walk away. They are not aware that Mr. Toad is riding a dog, while wearing Arthur's glasses! The episode then ends...

Major

 * Arthur Read
 * Buster Baxter

Minor

 * 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
 * Hans
 * Mr. Toad
 * Anton

Cameo

 * 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.

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.

Episode Connections

 * Pal can be seen collecting a sock, suggesting this took place during "The Great Sock Mystery".
 * 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.