This episode exists on two versions: a two-part version and a full 47-minute version. TV Networks that air Hey Arnold! in half-hour slots show this episode in two parts; however, other networks that air the series in hour slots (or run marathons) show the full episode.
In the two-part version of this episode, part two begins with Phil giving a recap of part one.
Arnold's birthday is commonly agreed to be on October 7th, the date the first episode "Downtown as Fruits" aired in 1996. Miles and Stella left on October 5th, two days before his birthday. This suggests that they disappeared two days before Arnold's second birthday, as Arnold was still a little boy when they left and that they celebrated his 1st birthday in Hillwood.
This episode slightly retcons/changes a few parts of previous episodes:
In "Arnold's Hat", the blue hat given to Arnold indoors in his crib, but this episode shows Arnold's parents giving him the hat outdoors. (This could be explained by Arnold imagining the scenario, as he likely wouldn't remember such an early memory.)
In "Parents Day", Stella wore a green shirt instead of the green tank top she wears in this episode and had a more ovular head. Both she and Miles also wore different clothes when Eduardo came to them at the park asking for help.
Storyboards from this episode show a deleted sequence: an exchange between Miles and Eduardo that's extremely similar to the exchanges between Arnold and Gerald, Miles and Stella unearthing an artifact, and Eduardo eating hot soup.
Volcán Turriable, the volcano that erupts on Miles and Stella's way to the hospital, has a similar name to a real-life volcano in Costa Rica.
Grandpa doesn't know the meaning of Stella's name. It’s the Latin and Italian word for star. It’s the feminine version of the male Greek name Stelios, a name used to honor St. Stylianos, an orthodox saint.
When Stella gives Arnold his name, she says "It was my dad's name", which reveals that his maternal grandfather had died before he was born. This also confirms that Phil and Gertrude are Arnold's paternal grandparents.
When Arnold is guessing the reason Stella was feeling ill, he wrongly guesses that she caught the sleeping sickness. Ironically, it's revealed in Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie that the reason Stella and Miles never returned is that they caught the sleeping sickness. Arnold was right, but about the wrong mystery.
Baby Harold is the only one of the babies who had their voice actor reprise them (the audio itself was reused from "Helga on the Couch").
This is one of the only episodes to use production music (and not music composed by Jim Lang). One of Dick DeBenedictis' (a composer best known for his action/horror production music) production tracks "The Shock" was used when the cable car breaks down and another track called "Nervous Tension 3" was played when the volcano started erupting.
Innuendo:
When Phil was reading the page that was written and talked about after the wedding - the scene where Miles and Stella were simply smiling at each other - he immediately closed book swiftly after reading "oh there was the..." and made excuses for Arnold to briefly leave the room so Phil could get rid of that page. It is apparent that this scene explained that Miles and Stella were about to have sex, and Phil did not want to read this sort of adult material to Arnold as he was too young to know these sorts of things yet.
When Miles and Stella find Abner as a piglet, Stella assumes Abner is a female and decides to name him Isabella. However, Miles quickly decides to name him Abner which would imply Miles found out Abner's true gender after glancing at his privates.
Baby Arnold's toy bus has his last name "Shortman" on the front of the toy.
The Republic of San Lorenzo is a reference to the Kurt Vonnegut novel Cat's Cradle.
Stella wears a tank top similar to what Lara Croft wears in the video game Tomb Raider.
Miles "hates spiders" much the way Indiana Jones "hates snakes".
The "lucky numbers" on Grandpa's fortune cookie are 13, 13, and 666. 13 is infamous for being an unlucky number, and 666 is the Number of the Beast.
Miles telling Stella not to look at the Corazón is a reference to the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark, when Indiana Jones says not to look at the Ark of the Covenant.
In the scene where Miles and Stella save a group of people on a cable car, Miles screams "Stella" in a reference to A Streetcar Named Desire.
The "sleeping sickness" to which the Green-Eyed People fall victim to may be a reference to the real-life American trypanomyasis (chagas disease) which is caused by parasitic infection by the protozoan species Trypanosoma cruzi and transmitted by the tsetse fly and kissing bug.
Grandma references the 1971 Allman Brothers song "Ramblin' Man" when she says that she thought Arnold "was born in the back seat of a Greyhound bus rollin' down Highway 41."
In some scenes, Baby Arnold wears a light blue shirt and diaper, which is the same attire as Tommy Pickles from Rugrats.
Continuity[]
The ride Stinky mentions at the beginning of the episode was seen in the episode "Roller Coaster".
Airing[]
Despite this being the last episode of the original series on production and chronological order, it was aired in the U.S. before four other episodes of Season 5, creating a continuity error in the American broadcast.
This episode first aired in Belgium's Ketnet on April 2002, then it aired in Canada's YTV on June 27, 2002, and it was later aired in Latin America in September 2002. Unlike the U.S., these countries aired this as the true final episode of the series.
Production Notes[]
Although this two-part episode aired in 2002, they were actually produced in 2001 according to the credits. They were also the final episodes to be made in 2001.
