Hey Arnold! - "Helga's Love Potion"

To love, or not to love, that is the question for Helga G. Pataki in our next review. I know it's super bowl night, but I'm more focused on this, okay? This episode was directed by Dan Povenmire with storyboards done by Dan and Sherm Cohen, the storyboard supervisor for SpongeBob.

Helga gets tired of her love for Arnold making her feel mad and mixed up all the time. After considering it, she goes in to a "gypsies" store, asking her for a potion that will make her fall out of love. Out of her sight, the gypsy gives her a "potion" that would erase Helga's feelings  After drinking that "potion." Upon waking, Helga feels unusually bland. Know how I know? Because she acts more like a civilized person more than a bully with a passion for love. She moves quietly about the day, not responding to any aggression. This doesn't feel like her at all if you ask me. Can she get out of this blandness? Well, just watch and yourself.

This is a pretty weird episode, but in a good way. It has a lot of good laughs, for example, Brainy beating the heck out of himself since Helga was under the "spell." And I say all of this with air-quotes because the twist is that the potion is actually grape juice, boy did Helga get ripped off by a con person? Probably the weirdest part of the episode is that by the time Helga drinks the "potion," she goes through a extremely upside-down dream sequence! Which has her breaking the locket, her sinking into ice cream, and landing flat onto her bed, and it's not mentioned again! It's definitely a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment! Also, this is one of the few episodes where Helga uses the word "crap." I wonder why they got away with that in a cartoon like this. If I didn't know better, Francesca Marie Smith probably ad-libbed that line unscripted without Nickelodeon even noticing, either that, or she just says that by herself whenever she gets frustrated in real life, but that's just me.

So, the moral of the story is never trust a gypsy who want your money, second, don't drink any sort of love potion made out of grape juice, otherwise, you'll end up having weird dream sequences. Also, you can't escape your obsession no matter what you do. You are who you are and you can't change that. And Helga had to learn that out the hard way.

Overall, this episode is pretty weird, but funny, and good, funny and good. Yep, those are the three words I can describe this episode, folks.