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"Helga Sleepwalks" is an episode in the Hey Arnold! TV Series.
Synopsis[]
After eating one too many pork rinds before bed, Helga sleepwalks, acting out her dreams of confessing her love to Arnold.
Plot[]
During school, Mr. Simmons gives a lecture about the importance of a balanced diet, as well as the effects that different foods have on a person’s physical and mental well-being. Meanwhile, Helga admires Arnold and longs to tell him about her feelings, but resolves to keep her love for him a secret.
Later, Helga notices Arnold looking out his window while passing Sunset Arms. Helga wishes she had the strength to walk up and reveal her feelings towards him, and fantasizes about taking an abandoned guitar and serenading him with a flamenco song at his front door. The fantasy continues, with Helga confidently admitting her love and obsession for Arnold while imagining that he’s watching her from a balcony, similar to Romeo and Juliet.
Helga’s fantasy is interrupted by Brainy, and she proceeds to smack him with her guitar. Helga arrives at home to discover that her mom left all their groceries on the roof of the car and drove away, meaning they have no food. Miriam offers Helga her dad’s pork rinds, much to Helga’s dismay. Helga quickly warms up to the pork rinds, however, and munches on them by the handful. Helga finds a pork rind that's shaped like Arnold’s head, and presses it on her heart before falling asleep.
Later, Helga seems to wake up in a zombie-like state. She sticks her hands out in front of her and begins sleepwalking, marching out of her house in a trance. Helga obtains a bouquet of flowers and knocks on Arnold’s front door, absent-mindedly holding the bouquet in front of her. Grandpa answers and mistakes Helga for a door-to-door religious salesperson and declines to donate, slamming the door in her face. The slam causes Helga to wake up as she jumps into a bush. Arnold opens the door, barely missing her. Helga sees the bouquet and freaks out, realizing that she just acted out her daydream from earlier via sleepwalking. She resolves to never sleepwalk again in order to keep her feelings for Arnold a secret.
Helga moves all of her furniture in front of her door to block herself from leaving if she starts sleepwalking again. She eats another pork rind and goes to sleep. Later in the evening, Helga begins sleepwalking and moves all the furniture out of the way. She sleepwalks onto a bus and heads back to Arnold’s house. Arriving at Sunset Arms, Helga hops into the kitchen window.
In the morning, Grandma mistakes Helga for her old friend Eleanor Roosevelt, and drops a stack of pancakes on the table, waking Helga up. She notices a plate of eggs and bacon made into the shape of Arnold’s head, and jumps out the window with the plate, barely avoiding Arnold. Helga is horrified that she went into Arnold’s house and wonders if she said anything revealing. A desperate Helga decides to stop sleeping entirely.
Back in school, Mr. Simmons is giving a lesson about the effects of junk food on the human body. Helga is frantically writing notes on her paper, causing Phoebe to be concerned. Helga admits she’s wired on coffee. Later that night, she falls asleep while eating pork rinds in spite of the coffee in her system. Eventually, Helga slips into a trance and starts sleepwalking once again, waking up in Arnold’s shower with an impatient Ernie and Mr. Hyunh waiting for their turn. She grabs a robe and sprints out of the house, bumping into Arnold on her way down the stairs.
Helga tells Phoebe about her sleepwalking episodes, and Phoebe asks where she’s been going. Helga hints that if she can’t stop sleepwalking, she might end up revealing her biggest secret. Phoebe understands and offers to sleep in front of Helga’s door so she’ll be woken up if she sleepwalks again. Phoebe offers her a carrot as a bedtime snack, but Helga declines and finishes off the bag of pork rinds.
Later in the night, Helga falls back into a trance and sleepwalks out her window to evade Phoebe. She lands on a trash can outside which wakes Phoebe up. Phoebe runs after Helga, slipping on the bag of pork rinds. She reads the back label and discovers that the snack has been the source of Helga’s sleepwalking all along.
Phoebe begins chasing her friend down the block. Helga throws Phoebe off her trail by ducking into a sandwich store for a sub. As she gets closer to Arnold’s house, Phoebe takes a shortcut to intercept her. Helga begins climbing up Arnold’s fire escape to his window, and begins admitting her feelings for him. Helga gets all the way to the top next to Arnold’s window and admits that she loves him before Phoebe yanks her to the lower level of the fire escape. Helga falls on top of Phoebe and wakes up.
Phoebe tells Helga that she revealed her love for Arnold while sleepwalking. Helga believes the cat is now out of the bag, since Arnold was seemingly next to his window the whole time. Much to Helga’s relief, the silhouette of Arnold’s head turns out to be a coincidentally shaped plant, and the real Arnold peers out his window and sees the two girls. He explains that he was woken up by a crash, and Helga realizes he didn’t hear her confession. Helga plays the event off as her and Phoebe going on a walk, and Arnold shuts his windows and goes back to sleep.
Phoebe reveals that side effects from the pork rinds were making Helga sleepwalk, and Helga is happy to be cured. Helga tells Phoebe to forget that ever happened, as Phoebe playfully claims that she’s forgetting.