Clarissa is Cracked

"Clarissa is Cracked"
Season/Series:	3
Number in season:	12B
Original Airdate:	December 29, 1998 March 15, 1999
Credits
Written by:	Sandra Willard
Storyboard by:	Bulent Karabagli Marcos Da Silva
Episodes
Previous "What Scared Sue Ellen?"	Next "Arthur's Dummy Disaster"
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"Clarissa is Cracked" is the second half of the twelfth episode in the third season of Arthur.

Summary

Grandma Thora lends D.W. an antique porcelain doll for a week, but D.W. accidentally makes a mess of the doll.

Plot

The episode begins with D.W. at Grandma Thora's house. D.W. likes Clarissa, the porcelain doll Thora keeps in her cabinet. D.W. asks if she can borrow it and Grandma Thora says she can. D.W. does not take good care of the doll, getting it covered in mud.

On the day D.W. is supposed to return Clarissa, she is jumping on the bed, causing Clarissa to fall and her right eye being broken off. Her parents discover the broken and muddy doll and get mad at D.W. At first, D.W. think they can just get a new one, but Jane said Clarissa is old. D.W. also began to think Grandma Thora won't mind that it broke, until David said the fact that Clarissa is old, doesn't make it okay to break it because it is very special to Grandma Thora.

David and Jane bring out an old photo album that has various pictures from Thora's childhood--as it turns out, Thora grew up as the youngest and only daughter of four kids, and Thora's parents had gotten Clarissa for her as a birthday present when she turned 5. Up until Thora received Clarissa, all the toys she ever had were hand-me-downs from her rambunctious but well-meaning older brothers. Thora took very good care of Clarissa, and the doll has a lot of sentimental value to her.

After learning all this, D.W. feels guilty about how she's been treating Clarissa. Jane takes D.W. to the local doll hospital to have Clarissa fixed, but the "doctor" that runs it is on vacation and won't be back until next month. The family tries finding other doll hospitals to fix Clarissa, but they're all booked for months. D.W. tries fixing Clarissa with a headband, but that doesn't work either—D.W. soon starts worrying about how Grandma Thora will react to D.W. breaking Clarissa. Arthur and his sister end up enlisting the help of Mr. Ratburn, who agrees to fix the doll after the kids explain the situation to him (noting that the material used for Clarissa is pretty similar to the marionettes he uses in his puppet shows).

D.W. and her family return for Clarissa two hours after leaving her with Mr. Ratburn, but when they get there, D.W. gets worried that Mr. Ratburn is destroying Clarissa. However, it turns out that Clarissa is good as new and that all the commotion D.W. heard was just Mr. Ratburn making a bookshelf.

Later that evening, Grandma Thora goes to the Read house to get the doll back from D.W. Grandma Thora thinks that D.W. took good care of the doll, but D.W. can't handle the guilt of not telling the truth, so she tells Thora that she broke the doll and got it fixed. Rather than get mad at her granddaughter, Thora explains that she's broken Clarissa many times over the years, but always managed to get her fixed. Thora's proud of D.W. for telling the truth and notes that it was very responsible of her to get Clarissa fixed. In the end, Thora decides to let D.W. keep Clarissa for herself, which D.W. is excited about.

Characters

Major

• D.W. Read
• Thora Read
• Arthur Read

Minor

• Jane Read
• David Read
• Nigel Ratburn

Trivia

Errors

• When Clarissa is repaired, she appears as if she had never been damaged before, and Grandma Thora even comes out that Clarissa was damaged many times even before D.W. damaged the doll. This is considered a plot hole, because in reality cracks cannot be retracted and would require the use of gelatin-like applications to mask the cracks.

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References