Two weeks into the offseason since Season 11 ended with “Vampire Disco Death Dance” and look what decided to come back? The character discussions on the Wagstaff students. Now, if anyone is new to the page, back in January, while waiting for the new episodes to come in (shame that we had to wait for February for the second half of the season to take place), I’ve done somewhat of a collection of character discussions regarding the students of Wagstaff, something that’s been in the works since 2019, of course, laptop died at the start of 2020 and was supposed to either go get it repaired or get a new one until the pandemic happened and everything on a pause. And I know that I would’ve done that, mostly because everyone had been locked down in their homes with nothing to do, but...had to wait until the time is right and January of this year was it. Started off with Courtney, and later Susmita, Kaylee, Darryl, and Alex. With Alex being the last character to talk about before the new episodes returned and also that winter storm that fucked me over.
But other than that, after an almost four-month pause, it’s back. We back. Something to pass the time during the summer offseason until the show returns for the Fall. Which is a good thing because once we get to the likes of Rudy, Zeke, Jimmy Jr, Tammy, Jocelyn, and the twins...it was somewhat good timing because those guys appeared in almost every episode since their respective debuts in the early seasons. Sure, Courtney and Darryl also fit in that bill with Courtney somehow getting more screen time and more appearances as the show progresses, I’m not updating the past posts because this is before the events of both “Y Tu Tina Tambien” and “Fingers-loose” where Courtney got a non-speaking cameo in one episode and then a speaking role in another, whereas Darryl, he gets two non-speaking roles in those two episodes with the casting director and crew members don’t want to do with the mountain of issues now continue to fill up more and more as each day passes by. But let’s get down to the nitty-gritty here in the discussion series and begin with where we left off, if you haven’t checked my Twitter account for updates, the title should give it away, it’s none other than Arnold Evans.
Arnold's Personality
So Arnold Evans...he’s an interesting fellow on the show. Made his debut in the best possible time on the show that happened to be the finale for Season 9. You know that season. The season where almost 80% of the episodes are focused on the Belcher kids and their shit. And if there’s one thing to describe Arnold as a character, and NO, he is NOT a mini version of Darryl, because otherwise, you’ll probably be branded as a possible racist. But with Arnold, there are some interesting feats about him that made him an interesting character to be introduced, despite that once you get to later on in the show, mostly in Seasons 10 and 11, where he becomes more succumb to the background with little to no lines.
Found out that he’s intelligent. You’d think that it’s not a surprising trait because you have other characters who are intelligent in their own right, case in point, people like Darryl, Susmita, and Henry as prime examples. But Arnold is different because unlike those three and possibly others, the motherfucker skipped a grade. He’s so smart that he skipped the third grade and attends Louise’s fourth-grade class at only 8 years old. He’s only 8 and he’s smarter than a second and third grader enough to be paired up with the big boys and girls that are the fourth graders. Though that may or may not explain why Arnold doesn’t like being called “small” regarding his height and age, despite being in the fourth grade. Noting Louise finishing his sentence from the scene in “Yes Without My Zeke” where Arnold make his grand introduction and took some offense in her calling him small, which he doesn’t like anyone who used that word onto him when being called to sneak him, Louise, Tina, Gene, Jimmy Jr, and Zeke into Wagstaff to clean up Zeke’s mess in wet paper from the ceiling and bail Zeke out from being sent to another school. And while he is small to each and every fourth-grader, though smaller than the likes of Louise, Rudy, and Darryl, the three shortest people in the Belcher kids’ group, there are some advantages with him in that episode.
Him being smart is one thing on the list. But he is also skillful as shown that he likes to wear his karate uniform all day around, not just in helping the kids out in sneaking into the school in Season 9 as a one-time thing, but all year round and doesn’t treat it like it’s some sort of phase where he could be bored with it in a matter of time. He is an orange belt. He’s like a level three in the ranks (I don’t know anything about karate, so anyone who took the course, feel free to correct me in the comments below), and despite that he is small in height and age, he could possibly pummel you to the ground. I mean hell, while sneaking the ladder to the classroom when noting on making sure that they don’t get caught by Branca, the kid comes with literally snapping his neck. More on that in his history and appearance section of the post.
Not to mention, when trying to distract Frond from being found out as he opens the school’s ceiling by popping the tiles like a pinata, he has a pretty good throw when he volunteered to throw the staple that Zeke took and threw it that far. So far that it bought the kids time for them to escape, that and also Branca coming in and scolding Frond for what he is doing. But still, it's a pretty good throw to the point where he could possibly take the quarterback position if he were to take up football. And also have a broken piece of wood that he chopped in half that was he preparing to put in Tina’s time capsule in “Fast Time Capsules in Wagstaff School” before putting it into Tammy’s, but other than that, what we know about Arnold’s personality is that he’s smart enough to receive an upgrade by being sent to the fourth-grade class and also known in kicking ass.
Arnold's Relationships and History
So when we get towards his history on the show and his relationships...the history is there, though his debut episode in Season 9 did have Arnold to have somewhat of a major to moderate role during the whole task to clean up Zeke’s mess. Whereas Season 10 with “A Fish Called Tina” where you have him getting a speaking role, it’s just not by a lot, but once you get towards “Poops!... I Didn’t Do It Again” and beyond towards Season 11 with “Fast Time Capsules at Wagstaff School”, he gets to demoted to the background. Much a grin to Henry and Susmita throughout Seasons 9 and 11 after their episodes where they got some speaking time. Though Jocelyn earlier in the show’s history would be the prime example of that before getting a lot of speaking time once we get to Season 4 into Season 5.
Though relationship-wise, that’s where it becomes somewhat sketchy when it comes to who Arnold has the most interaction with. I mean, this isn’t like with Kaylee or Susmita or Alex because their relationships seemed somewhat limited. I mean, Susmita only has two people with who she interacted the most with Tina and Henry. Alex has two as well with Gene and Courtney...three, maybe four, five-ish because he’s in the Belcher kids group and also helped out in sneaking him and Gene back to the Papasian household. Kaylee, that’s mostly with Zeke and Rudy, though that’s mostly due to her switching mentors and also became a part of the Thinkgineers. Not counting out Louise following “Prank You For Being a Friend” and also felt bad for her in having issues in making friends of her own. Though Tina...yeah, that was not Tina’s proudest moment in her life. But Arnold...not saying that he too is in that bubble of trouble making friends. It just that who does he even interact with the most?
You could Louise because they’re in the same class, but doesn’t look like it to be the case in some instances, mostly with Arnold not having any speaking lines. You could also Jimmy Jr because of the whole mentorship thing in “A Fish Called Tina” and also that he is one of the people who helped him to make sure that Zeke doesn’t get in trouble in “Yes Without My Zeke”. So...it looks like, and hopefully, this will be the only time to do this again, rather than doing the whole recap and breakdown with a character’s relationship that ties in with each episode they’re in, I might as well do his history on the show, i.e. his appearances from Seasons 9-11, much a grin to Courtney’s when started the series back in January. So might as well be a recap but it’s going to be all on Arnold and Arnold only.
In “Yes Without My Zeke” when the kids decided to help Zeke out in getting rid of the wet toilet paper attached to the ceilings, even though Tina was against the notion of cleaning up Zeke’s mess because if Zeke gets sent away to another school would result in having Jimmy Jr all to herself but has to tag along because...well...plot. Originally, Louise was going to have Pocket-Sized Rudy to do the work to get them sneak into the school on a Saturday, except that due to poor timing, they didn’t get him because he had to be out of town with his parents. Thus, the second option on the list on someone who is small in size the form of Arnold Evans. In which later on in the first act, he agrees to tag along when talking to Louise on the phone, of course, he has some demands in order to join the operation. Two to be exact in him wearing his karate uniform and for Louise to call him “sensei”. The karate uniform is what Louise has to agree with to get Arnold to join the mission, but refuses to call him that title. So I guess that’s enough for him to help the Belcher kids, Jimmy Jr, and Zeke to clean up the mess. Mentioned in the first act of the episode.
Once we get to the second, we get his introduction as the kids prepare to open the window for his arrival, and in time too once he enters the school grounds. Stating his height being a use for them to slide through the window and him opening the doors to let the big kids in. Of course, doesn’t like being called “small” by Louise and took some offense into that despite being an 8-year-old fourth-grader and shown off his skills other than being the smallest in the group for the episode, hence, him showing off his skills to the group which will be used later on in the episode. But other than that, he did slip into the window thanks to Zeke picking and dropping into the school. And you could say that he may be underutilized when it comes to him being useful during the whole clean-up, and also Tina acting like a gank in not wanting to be a part of the clean-up efforts and to make sure that Zeke gets sent away, Arnold has to tag along because according to him...he has to because it’s the karate code that you have to help out, even if you end up being underutilized throughout the entire episode.
Though there are some key moments regarding the little guy despite just being there during the clean-up process. I mean, when Louise, Tina, Gene, Jimmy Jr, and Zeke slip and fell by the waxed floor by Mr. Branca while waxing the whole school on a Saturday, you have Arnold being the only one who kept his balance when everyone else slipped. I mean, normally, anyone could’ve slipped and fall, of course, there was no sign on standby regarding a wet floor to warn anyone who is walking by, but knowing that it’s on a Saturday, the sign would not be present. So the kids didn’t even notice about the waxed floor that resulted in them falling onto the ground, except for Arnold who kept his balance and followed along in taking their shoes off to make sure they don’t fall again and get caught by Branca. Of course, would also add insult to injury following finding out that Jimmy Jr forgot to take the ladder and took the broom instead.
Which lead to a very interesting scene because once the kids got the ladder from the storage closet with Louise stopping them over at the intersection of the hallway and noticed Branca still waxing the floors with her coming up with a plan to sneak through without getting caught like they’re playing a dangerous game of frogger. But Arnold on the other hand have another idea and I said that in my review of the episode back in 2019 when that scene came into play. Louise plans out their way to sneak past Branca like it’s a game of red light, green light as he’s waxing the floor. Arnold on the other hand...
Snap the janitor’s neck. His idea for them to get to the classroom without getting caught by Branca is to have him sneak up at the custodian and snap his neck in cold blood. Louise wants to make a peaceful and to make sure they don’t get caught, though surprised that Tina, who’s been acting like a gank throughout the episode, would’ve downright sabotaged the whole thing but didn’t, by turning this into a dangerous game of red light, green light. But Arnold’s idea to not get caught is pretty much him saying, “I’ll fucking murder you in your sleep,” in body language. And although Louise would love that and to be honest, y’all kinda missed that side of Louise where she’d be okay with hiding a body, but that’s not how we roll in the later seasons and decided to reign Arnold in by not follow that option and not wanting to make things even worse as they make their way to the classroom to resume taking the wet toilet paper off of the ceiling.
Of course, once that is done with every last piece of paper falls off from the ceiling, you have Frond noticing that something is up despite the doors being locked, but fearing that they’re about to be caught and them being caught would send Zeke away, but Tina won’t let that slide and decided to give up her ambition to send the guy away by helping him out, along with everyone, including Arnold, to the top of the school and crawl their way out. Of course, knowing that Arnold is 8-year-old, despite that he is intelligent enough to skip a grade, he still has his innocence like questioning how Tina knows about the crawl space in the ceiling, not knowing that she used that to get a front-row seat to the boys' locker room. Which...Arnold doesn’t need to know why Tina knows about the space inside the school ceiling as he and the others head up to the crawl space and takes the ladder to hide the evidence...except that they left the broom as well, giving Frond some arsenal and turning their escape into a dangerous game of cat and mouse. Of course, it looks like the kids may have some leverage, by that I mean they got their opportunity for them to not get caught. And that’s where Arnold comes in to show off his skills to prove that he is useful.
That would be Zeke giving Arnold the stapler that he and Jimmy Jr took and use it as a throwing star, a shuriken mind you, and throws it like a goddamn football and impressed everyone, but also gave buy them time which resulted in Frond heading over to the spot where the stapler was thrown, thinking that they’re over at the general area, which resulted in Branca coming in and scolded Frond. Which gave the kids an opportunity for them to escape from the school and bailed Zeke out from being sent to another school. And even though “Yes Without My Zeke” was...well, more of a kids episode, almost feels like a Tina-centric episode because Tina did save Zeke the trouble and made Jimmy Jr happy in keeping the guy...even though she has been acting like a gank throughout the day over wanting Zeke out of Jimmy Jr’s life. Still surprised that no one fucking called her out on that. But regardless, despite he’s somewhat been underutilized during the whole mission, he has some moments to prove that is useful other than just having him tag along because of his height as he did buy the others some time for them to escape and got along with them following what happened with the clean-up. So at least he’s on good terms with the Belcher kids and their friends.
Especially Jimmy Jr in Arnold’s next episode in “A Fish Called Tina” where they got paired up for the big fish/little fish mentorship and if you could sprinkle in some continuity into that episode following “Yes Without My Zeke”, that would improve their little friendship even more since Arnold was one of the people who helped out in bailing Zeke from being sent away. That may not be the case, but at least the episode has them together when being paired up and seemed to be close as one of the groups they have quality time...unless you are Tina and Kaylee (mostly Tina) in that episode.
Of course, knowing that episode with Arnold and Jimmy Jr bonding during the week of the mentorship, I really can imagine the Jimmy Jr fans out there and trying to tell the masses regarding certain scenes with those two and say to the masses, “See! Jimmy Jr isn’t a bad guy. He got along with other people and didn’t paint him as the “jerk” as some of y’all were painted.” I swear, I feel like the Jimmy Jr fans out there, the stans you might say, might as well be treated like a goddamn cult. The drinking of the Kool-Aid is there regarding him and pretend what happened in some scenes prior to this episode (or the season) didn’t happen. But other than that, Arnold and Jimmy Jr seem to be really close during the whole mentorship thing for the whole week. But sadly, that was the last time we ever get a speaking role in the show, for a while. I know that “Fast Time Capsules in Wagstaff School” was the recent episode to have Arnold appeared and that considered a speaking role, but that’s only one scene and that’s about it with the guy.
Once we get to the next episode in “Poops!... I Didn’t Do It Again”, where gets shafted into the background as the fourth-grade class is ready for their overnight class trip to spend the night over at the aquarium as he and the others get their quizzes back though ended up not being one of the lucky ones who get to feed the sharks as Louise gets to be the one who takes the mantle, of course, she had to get something out of her system if y’all already watched the episode. But other than that, just there in the background. Either in the classroom when receiving the quiz or in Louise’s nightmare regarding her being on the toilet or on the night of the trip where they were given the introduction to the tour and such. And...when Louise told her class that she pooped in the public bathroom and got rid of that fear...take a look at Arnold’s reaction. Take a look at his reaction to the revelation.
Everyone seemed surprised over Louise’s little news regarding her conquering her fear of using the public bathroom, but take a look at Arnold. No response or shock value whatsoever. Honestly, I think this is the best kind of acting that I’ve ever seen on the show coming from a pint-sized fourth-grader. Like I get the innocence is still, much a grin to questioning how Tina knows about the crawl space inside the ceiling for them to use to make their escape, but wow. Okay, no response to Louise’s little announcement of her using the public bathroom after facing her fear. Ironic that the episode aired in the middle of the pandemic and let’s face it, public bathrooms are NOT the cleanest place to take a dump, next to porta-potties. It’s definitely porta-potties. So that’s pretty much Arnold’s performance in “Poops!... I Didn’t Do It Again” where he gets put in a non-speaking background cameo during the whole trip and also no reaction and acting innocent over Louise’s announcement of her using the toilet.
Of course, there’s nothing to say about his next and most recent appearance in “Fast Time Capsules in Little Tina” where he is about to donate his broken wood board that he chopped in half into the time capsule but knowing that it’s Tina, approved by Frond, wanting to make sure that everything is perfect...a little too perfect in her liking and was about to put it into the school approved capsule...only for Tammy to open one up for herself that grabbed both Arnold and every student in Wagstaff to put their stuff into there, just for her to get back at Tina for not putting a piece of cosmetic into the bin and also the classic Tina shade onto Tammy. But other than that, that’s pretty much for the little guy in his appearances. Didn’t even appear in either “Y Tu Tina Tambien” or “Fingers-loose” and those episodes have cameos from every student out there. Though he is small in size, so the crew might as well turn it into a hard game of Where’s Waldo?
But other than that, that’ll do it for Arnold Evans in the discussion piece of the Wagstaff students discussion series. Apparently glad that it’s back for the offseason and something to do to keep the page alive during the next three months. Well, of course, there’s Comic-Con at Home next month, but still, something to keep this train rolling. Twitter is the place to go to find out who is up next up as soon as the discussion is posted. Speaking of which, follow me over at Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram for updates and other stuff including behind-the-scenes stuff and of course, the Battle of the Week Voting Tournament as we enter the summer months and the push for the playoffs going underway. And y’all should know the drill by now...
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