Go to Your Room, D.W.

"Go to Your Room, D.W."
Season/Series:	2
Number in season:	4B
Original Airdate:	October 23, 1997
Credits
Written by:	Kathy Waugh
Storyboard by:	Alex Szewczuk
Episodes
Previous "Arthur Makes a Movie"	Next "Arthur's Underwear"
Read transcript

"Go to Your Room, D.W." is the second half of the fourth episode in the second season of Arthur. It was later adapted into the book D.W., Go to Your Room!.

Summary

Sent to her room for an excruciatingly long ten minutes, D.W. spends the time reliving her tragic childhood, wondering why no one seems to understand her, and planning an escape.

Plot

D.W. doesn't get along well with Kate as Kate keeps trying to take her toys, and is sent to her room a ten-minute time out as a punishment after threatening to pinch Kate when she would not give one of her toys back and for trying to take the toy away from Kate by force.

She thinks that her parents only love Arthur and Kate and is angry that they would ever try to punish her. While waiting for the clock to change, she thinks that time has stopped, and imagines everything as having been frozen into place as she runs around the house, unaware that it's all just in her imagination (while D.W. is running around).

Her father snaps her out of her bizarre behavior and is sent back up to her room. D.W. then tells her imaginary friend Nadine about all the horrible things that have happened to her (even though these things never have happened to her) such as Arthur getting a cold and how D.W. had to stay up all night and take care of him, fulfilling his selfish requests to avoid him telling their mom on her.

She also "recalls" when she couldn't attend her Aunt Lucy's wedding because her mom made her stay home and work like a slave, and then she told her that they liked Kate better than her. Angry at these false recollections she thinks of ways to run away from home, such as running away to Grandma Thora's by calling a cab.

She then thinks of how Thora would defend D.W. and have her folks punish Arthur instead. She tries to run away by climbing down the drain pipe of her house, only to find it is way too far away for her. D.W. is forced to babysit Kate for the rest of her punishment, and blames her for her punishment.

Kate starts cuddling up to D.W. but D.W. recollects how Kate made the day difficult for her, such as causing their mom to notice that D.W. tried to steal a doll from the store, falling asleep while D.W. tried to finish a pony ride in the store, or stealing her dolls.

However, Nadine points out to D.W. that Kate doesn't mean to do those things because she's just a baby. Then Kate starts hugging D.W. and gives D.W. her rattle. This makes D.W. realizes that she has been a horrible sister, and it was her who was being bad, not Kate. She has been pretty mean to her lately, and apologizes for her behavior.

D.W.'s punishment is finally over and Jane asks if she is ready to come downstairs, but she proceeds to play "Lifeboat", where she saves her dolls from being eaten by sharks. Jane says "suit yourself". When dinner finally comes a while later, Kate is asleep, but D.W. doesn't want to leave her room, having too much fun with her dolls and instead wants to stay five more minutes.

Characters

• Jane Read
• Kate Read
• D.W. Read
• Nadine Flumberghast
• Arthur Read
• Pal
• David Read
• Thora Read
• Bionic Bunny
• Timmy and Tommy Tibble

Trivia

• D.W. states that Grandma Thora would defend her, but that is not necessarily true, because in "Arthur's Chicken Pox," Thora got disappointed with D.W. for faking having Chicken pox just to get an oatmeal bath and juice, and reprimanded her for doing so.
• In this episode, D.W. imagines enjoying Grandma Thora's cookies, but in "The Half-Baked Sale," she doesn't like her cookies due to the latter's poor cooking skills. It’s entirely possible that her grandma would have storebought cookies, however.
• The estimated time would be that D.W. has received 20 minutes in her room, after the title card finishes, her mom comes in the room and tells her 10 minutes more, so she may have had previous 10 minutes long before that, and her punishment ends at 4:40, so it's possible that she got sent to her room at 4:20.
• D.W.'s time out punishment is from 4:30 to 4:40, which is 10 minutes long. Due to her inability to read at a young age, she misinterprets the minutes as "hours" and most kids her age can't tell time.
• Karma: D.W. wanted to pinch Kate, so she got sent to her room.
• Moral:
  • Don't favor someone over someone else for your own benefits.
  • Dont overreact to get other people in trouble for your own personal benefit.

Differences between the book and the episode

• In the original edition, the entire sequence where D.W. runs away from home was removed from the book. (which was likely to make it more moralic) In the revised 2012 edition, parts of this scene were added alongside several other parts that were new and previously missing.
• Nadine is completely absent from the story.

Errors

• D.W. refers to Lucy as her cousin, but Lucy is actually her aunt. However, she did correctly refer to her as her aunt when sulking claiming that her mom only appreciates other family members.
• D.W. tries to steal a Princess Sneeze-and-Wet doll. D.W. already has this doll in the earlier episode "D.W. the Copycat."
  • It is possible that this episode takes place before that one.
• When D.W. fusses with Kate over her doll at the beginning, the voice given to Kate as she whines clearly isn't hers, and actually sounds older.

Cultural references

• In D.W.'s imagination, Jane sounds like the wicked stepmother from Cinderella.

Episode connections

• This episode mentions the events of "D.W. Thinks Big" and "Arthur's Chicken Pox." D.W. thinks she did not attend the wedding in this episode. She is apparently making up stories on what would have happened if she didn't have her way.
• The plot is somewhat similar to “Arthur’s Big Hit”. Arthur and D.W. overreacts to someone breaking something, and for most of the episode does not understand what they did wrong.

Home Video

DVD:

• Arthur: The Complete Series 2
• D.W.'s Blankie
• Arthur Makes a Movie (2014)