Big Brother Binky

This article is about the episode. You may be looking for the DVD.

"Big Brother Binky"
Season/Series:	11
Number in season:	10
Original Airdate:	September 7, 2007 January 2, 2008 (Part 1) January 3, 2008 (Part 2) May 21, 2008
Credits
Written by:	Stephanie Simpson
Storyboard by:	Stéfanie Gignac Elie Klimos Elise Benoit
Episodes
Previous "Spoiled Rotten!"	Next "Is That Kosher?"
Read transcript

"Big Brother Binky" is the tenth episode in the eleventh season of Arthur. It is a two-part episode.

Summary

Binky's family adopts a baby girl from China.

Plot

On a winter day in Tibet, Binky trains with Arthur about the activity of the big brother. Soon, he tests his skills on D.W., but bossy D.W. has her own rules so Arthur and Binky run off.

Big Brother Binky

Part 1:

One day at dinner, Binky's parents have a plan to adopt a baby. Binky goes into the living room to watch a wrestling match. When the show finishes, Mr. Barnes comes in the room and tells Binky that he's going to be an older brother with a baby sister from China. When Binky goes to sleep he wonders if the baby is going by herself. Mrs. Barnes says that they will be going to China to pick her up. Binky is even more excited now. He dreams of him and his sister in a wrestling match and beating the opponent.

Binky wakes up and looks in the mirror saying, "Well, big brother you'd better get ready". He then packs up, but his mom says it could be a year before they go. Binky doesn't want to wait, so his mom gives him a job to make sure they get all their paperwork in on time. As a reward of that, they all go out for Chinese food. Binky hopes that the wait won't be long, but they still have to make the baby's room. Binky wonders if there will be a new room or if he gets a bigger one, but it turns out that his parents want to make the baby sleep in his old game room, which disappoints Binky. When going through the closet, Mrs. Barnes finds an old piece of fabric to use for the Baijabei, the new quilt for Binky's sister. Binky wonders if he had one to, but Mrs. Barnes says that the quilt is part of a tradition that she didn't know about when Binky was a baby. Day after day, his friends keep giving him patches for the quilt. Soon the new room is all built. Mrs Barnes comes in the room with a photo of Mei Lin: Binky's new sister. Arthur calls Mrs Read and D.W. to see the picture. When Arthur asks when the baby can come home, Binky's mom remembers something: Travel shots. Binky hopes the baby will be worth it. While packing up the things the baby needs, they run out of room and the suitcase explodes. Binky wants to bring a butterfly net with him, but there isn't any room. Half of what the baby needs have to go in his suitcase. After packing, Binky goes to bed cranky, because he feels that he has to share too much. He has a nightmare about being small compared to the new baby. When Binky wakes up, his mom and dad are already there and ready to go to China. On the flight, a child kicks the back of Binky's seat and he turns around and shouts at her. Mrs. Barnes scolds Binky, which makes him think his mom no longer cares about him, but Mrs Barnes says she will always love him as much as she always had. Mrs. Barnes has a surprise: A quilt just for Binky. Binky is excited about meeting Mei Lin and wonders if Mei Lin feels the same.

Part 2:

The plane is about to be landing in China and Binky is excited to meet Mei Lin and wants to know if she will be at the airport. It will be at least be a few days before picking her up. Binky complains about more waiting, but Mr. Barnes tells him there will be sight seeing to distract them. When the day comes to pick up Mei Lin, Binky worries about getting the wrong baby. Mr. Barnes and Mrs. Barnes assure him that it that will not happen since the people have done this lots of times. Finally, Binky and his parents meet Mei Lin. When Mei Lin begins to cry, Binky quickly tries to stop Mei from crying, after realizing to discover that he has a special talent in stopping Mei Lin from crying. It works for a while, but doesn't work anymore when Mei-Lin meets Arthur, who eventually stops her crying. One night, Binky and his family are at a Chinese restaurant when Arthur and his family show up and Binky starts to worry that Mei-Lin would rather have Arthur for her brother. Then, Mei-Lin throws her food at Binky. Binky blows raspberries at her, with Mei-Lin doing the same thing.

Characters

• Binky Barnes
• Arthur Read
• Mr. Barnes
• Mrs. Barnes
• Mei Lin Barnes (debut)
• D.W. Read
• Jane Read
• David Read
• Kate Read
• Buster Baxter
• Brain
• George Lundgren (cameo)
• Francine Frensky (cameo)
• Alex (cameo)
• Nemo (cameo)
• Pal (cameo)
• Unknown Male Adult Dog (number 4) (cameo)
• Debi (cameo)

Trivia

• This is the last episode where Cameron Ansell voices Arthur, as well as Paul-Stuart Brown voices Brain.
  • Cameron will be back to the show for Season 16 except he will now be voicing Rafi.
• This is the last episode to be animated overseas by AKOM. Starting with Seasons 12-15, Animation Services (HK) Ltd. took over the overseas animation.
• Timeline:
  • Binky's peanut allergy from "Binky Goes Nuts" is brought up again, as he eats peanut-free egg rolls.
  • When D.W. says she is good with babies, she refers to "D.W.'s Baby," where she takes care of Kate.
  • Binky's interest in catching the red lacewing is a callback to his fascination for butterflies in "Binky Barnes, Wingman."
  • As of this episode, both of Arthur's sisters have friends who are siblings of members of the Tough Customers. It was established in "Arthur Makes Waves" that James, who is friends with D.W., is the younger brother of Molly.

Errors

• When Binky went to sing the lullaby in Mei Lin's bedroom, he entered wearing his pajamas. In the next shot, when his back is turned, he is shown wearing his regular orange shirt. When shown from the front again, he is back in his pajamas.
• When the Reads meet Binky and his family at the Chinese restaurant, one moment D.W. is standing, and in the next shot she is seated.
• When Binky is looking for the checkers set in the closet, it is there. But a few seconds later, It is there and it says "Chess."
• When Binky moves his piece to the star in the middle of the No Guessing! set, it makes the sound of a baby toy, referring to Mei-Lin.
• In the scene where Binky and his parents are on the plane, Mr. Barnes was sleeping, and his skin is dark brown.

Episode connections

• The little girl who sits behind Binky on the plane has the same character model as Hothead from "April 9th".

Production notes

• This is the last episode in which Charles Northey is the track reader.

References

• Binky's mother creates a Bai Jia Bei or "One Hundred Good Wishes Quilt."
• Binky wants to catch a red lacewing, which is actually found all over South, Southeast, and East Asia, not just China.
• The Barnes family watches an opera called "The Monkey King," a character from a 16th-century novel called "Journey to the West." There are many adaptions of the story.
• The end of Binky's nightmare when he gets eaten by his baby sister may be a reference to the Season 3 episode of the TV show Rugrats titled "Angelica's Worst Nightmare" when Angelica dreams that her baby brother eats her.

Home Video

DVD:

• Arthur: Season 11
• Big Brother Binky (DVD)

Gallery

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  Main Image

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  Mei-Lin 1

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  Title Card

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  Mei-Lin 2