LogFAQs > #969925452

#76: Helga On The Couch
https://i.imgur.com/86ydEPz.png

Show: Hey Arnold!
Original airdate: December 4, 1999

"Okay, so you hear my anger, so I get angry. I already told you that I've got a lame mom, a blowhard dad and a perfect sister. So they make me mad. Big deal!"

What happens when a cartoon character who needs therapy actually... gets therapy? Helga On The Couch is a brilliant, poignant, and sorely needed episode of Hey Arnold! for so many reasons, and it remains one of the most profoundly brilliant cartoon episodes ever written. After Helga punches Brainy one too many times, she's recommended for counseling by the child psychologist Dr. Bliss, and what follows is a thorough examination of one of the greatest Nicktoon characters ever created, as we finally get to see the girl open up to an adult she can trust. The flashbacks to Helga's early childhood of neglect and subtle abuse are heartbreaking, and the explanation for why Helga feels the way she does about Arnold (he's the first boy who was ever nice to her) makes perfect sense considering just how awful her early childhood really was. I love the character of Dr. Bliss and how she's able to get Helga to open up to her, her promise that she'll never reveal what Helga tells her, and just being the person that this troubled young girl truly needs. I absolutely headcanon that Helga continued going to Dr. Bliss all throughout her teenage years and that it helped her to become a much more well-adjusted person despite her parents' abuse, and I feel like later Helga moments, especially what we see of her in The Jungle Movie are a direct result of this continued therapy. I wish more cartoons would do episodes like this, because as we've already seen, there are lots of characters out there who could definitely use some therapy.