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Clarissa is Cracked
| "Clarissa is Cracked" | |
|---|---|
  | |
| Season/Series: | 3 |
| Number in season: | 12B |
| Original Airdate: |  March 15th, 1999[citation needed] |
| Credits | |
| Written by: | Sandra Willard |
| Storyboard by: | Bulent Karabagli Marcos Da Silva |
| Episodes | |
| Previous "What Scared Sue Ellen?" |
Next "Arthur's Dummy Disaster" |
| Read transcript | |
Summary
Grandma Thora lends D.W. an antique porcelain doll for a week.
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 child and only daughter of four kids, and since toys at the time were much more expensive than in the current time period, all the toys that Thora was given until she got Clarissa were hand-me-downs from her brothers (including a makeshift fairy godmother from a potato, which she refuses). Thora's parents (David's maternal grandparents and Arthur and DW's great-grandparents) had gotten Clarissa for Thora as a birthday present when Thora turned five, and Clarissa was Thora's first real toy that was truly hers. Thora took very good care of Clarissa, and the doll has a lot of sentimental value to her.
After learning all this, DW feels guilty about how she's been treating Clarissa. David and Jane help DW by finding a doll hospital to fix Clarissa--however, the doctor of the closest doll hospital is away on vacation and won't be back until the next month. The family tries finding other doll hospitals to fix Clarissa, but they're all booked for months. DW tries fixing Clarissa with a headband, but that doesn't work either--DW soon starts worrying about how Grandma Thora will react to DW (accidentally) breaking Clarissa. Arthur helps his sister by enlisting the help of his teacher, Mr. Ratburn--Arthur and his sister explain the situation to him, and Mr. Ratburn agrees to try and fix the doll, noting that's the material used for it is actually pretty similar to the marionettes he uses in his puppet shows.
DW and her family return for Clarissa two hours after leaving her with Mr. Ratburn, but when they get there, DW gets worried that Mr. Ratburn is destroying Clarissa. However, it turns out that Clarissa is good as new and that all the commotion DW 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 DW for telling the truth and notes that it was very responsible of her to get Clarissa fixed. In the end, Thora decides to let DW keep Clarissa for herself, which DW is excited about.
Characters
Major
Minor
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.
Gallery
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References
