Goin' It Arlone

**Goin' It Arlone** is the seventeenth episode in Season 1 of *I ♥ Arlo*.

## Synopsis

With everyone working hard to get Seaside by the Seashore looking spiffy, Arlo elects to go the extra mile and fix up the old Ferris Wheel.

## Plot

At Seaside by the Seashore, the final preparations for the Uncondemning party are well underway, and everyone is doing their part to get the town ready with Marcellus shouting orders. Thao shows up at Arlo's doorstep to give him yet another daily care package from Edmée, which turn out to be swamp tools. Arlo is confused, but Bertie calls him away to help the others. He leads his friends in an upbeat song-and-dance number as they work to make the boardwalk perfect; at the end of the song, everyone but Arlo faints tiredly. Elena comes over to check up on the work and congratulates Arlo on finishing everything in record time, but Arlo lets her know there's still one thing that has to be fixed — the Ol' Bessie wheel, which he promised earlier to surprise Ansel with. Elena is reluctant however, as Ol' Bessie was built back when the Seasiders thought it was good to construct things out of newspaper and asbestos. Nevertheless, Arlo is determined to get the wheel fixed before the following morning when Ansel comes, but his friends are tired from all the work they did all day. Bertie tells him the surprise will have to wait and Elena sees how beat he feels, and sends him home to get rest.

Late that night, Arlo cannot bring himself to sleep and talks to Jeromio about his worries for not being able to surprise him. Upon misinterpreting his croaks, Arlo decides he should fix the wheel himself despite his exhaustion and everyone's complaints, and remembering the swamp tools Edmée sent him which he can use to fix the rivets. After sneaking past the sleep-talking Bertie, Arlo reaches Ol' Bessie where he imagines what would happen once he surprises Ansel before a falling gondola snaps him into action.

Entering the wheel's master control shed, Arlo is greeted by the ride's former operator who now lives in the corn dog stand. He hands Arlo the instruction manual for the wheel, but warns him the repair won't be easy and he has to take a three-week safety course since no one has repaired the wheel alone. Skimming through the manual, Arlo doesn't think it looks complicated but the operator bails out on him when he looks up. He spends the entire night fixing Ol' Bessie until it's in full condition by morning; when he tests it, the wheel works perfectly for a few seconds until the rivets come undone due to poor reconstruction, causing the wheel to break off its hatches and roll down the boardwalk, damaging the buildings it passes in return.

The destruction wakes up Bertie, Alia, Furlecia, Tony and Marcellus, who witness all the damage and quip everything for the Uncondemning has been "recondemned". They find Arlo breaking down under the boardwalk, who tearfully apologizes for ruining everything and vows to stay alone and let everyone else go back to whatever's left of their lives, and should Ansel come, tell him he's sorry for ruining his surprise. Sure enough, Ansel arrives and frees his son as he tells him about the disaster and he ruined everything. Ansel does not mind as no one was hurt, and the only casualty would be his bank accounts, but no one has ever planned a surprise for him his whole life, and is happy for what Arlo tried to do. Arlo apologizes for not listening to his friends and vows there's still time to set things right as long as they help him. Arlo then realizes he still has a lot of care packages he didn't open, and decides to take a break and see what other useful things Edmée sent him.

In his room, Arlo lugs through various packages until he comes to one in particular which just contains a note. It turns out to be the distress letter Edmée sent him earlier: In the note, Edmée warns Arlo she's being followed but should be safe for now. She adds the next package will tell him what he has to know and warns him not to trust anyone. Realizing Edmée is in trouble, Arlo runs to the door where Thao appears, expecting the follow-up package, but all Thao has is a scratch-and-sniff underwear shaped postcard for Marcellus. Since Edmée never misses a package, Arlo comes to the conclusion whoever is following her might have stolen it.

Arlo goes to the living room where Bertie is meditating and tells her to stop whatever she's doing and clear her head, which she has already done. When she asks what's up with him, Arlo replies, "We've got a package to find."

## Cast

* Michael J. Woodard as Arlo Beauregard
* Mary Lambert as Bertie
* Jonathan Van Ness as Furlecia
* Haley Tju as Alia
* Brett Gelman as Marcellus
* Tony Hale as Teeny Tiny Tony
* Vincent Rodriguez III as Ansel
* Annie Potts as Edmée
* Fred Tatasciore as Jeromio/Grant/Dust Ghost
* Jessica Williams as Elena
* Cathy Vu as Thao

## Trivia

* Arlo's sigh when he is suffering from a lack of sleep is reused from the movie just before the "Beyond These Walls" sequence. It will be used again in "The Uncondemning".
* Arlo gets the distress letter Edmée sent him in "Jeromio, Jeromio".
* The Ol' Bessie wheel is finally getting fixed, as Arlo promised Ansel in "A Memory of Pizza".

## Errors

* Annie Potts was listed in the credits as Edmée, but she did not appear in the episode, aside from mentions.