Ruth McDougal

Ruth McDougalHey Arnold! character
Production information
First appearance	"The Little Pink Book"
Last appearance	Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie
Background information
Full name	Ruth P. McDougal
Species	Human
Age	11-12 13 (The Jungle Movie)
Citizenship	Unknown
Relatives	Unknown
Pets	None
Allies	Unnamed boy
Enemies	Unknown

Ruth P. McDougal is a sixth grade 11-12 year old student at P.S. 118 on Hey Arnold! She was Arnold's crush and the target of Helga's jealousy in the show's first season, but Ruth never seemed to notice that Arnold even existed.

Biography

Ruth from the episode "Operation: Ruthless"

Ruth is a sixth grade girl. She appears to have a tall lanky frame and is pubescent. Her feet seem quite large. She wears a light blue sweater with a pearl necklace. Her skirt is plaid, and she wears saddle shoes. She has a semi-football shaped head and brown hair shoulder length hair styled in two long hanging pigtails in the back of her head. She wears two pearl studded earrings. Her most distinguishing feature is her smile (she has braces).

Relationship with Arnold

Arnold spends a lot of time trying to come up with ways to get closer to Ruth. Although Ruth did not know much of Arnold's existence throughout the show, however in the episode "Operation Ruthless", she did indeed express some interest towards Arnold by smiling at him when they are both on the Go-Karts, as well as in "Snow" when she smiled at Arnold after he scores a goal in ice hockey.

In "Arnold's Valentine", Arnold finally does get to spend time with Ruth by secretly giving her a Valentine and setting up a blind date with her at a restaurant. The only problem is that his French pen pal, Cecile (or rather, Helga poorly disguised as Cecile), is meeting him the same night. Arnold has to juggle back and forth between Ruth and Cecile (the restaurants are right across the street from each other). Ruth treats Arnold like a nobody throughout the episode, and eventually falls for a busboy instead and leaves with him. Arnold realizes that he didn't really know much about Ruth and lets his crush get the best of him. He realizes that Ruth wasn’t who he thought she was and that they were never meant for each other.

Ruth became less prominent after the second season, likely due to Arnold having gotten over his crush on her, but made a few cameo appearances every now and then like being shown in awe at Arnold's geek party in "Cool Party". She makes an appearance in "Hey Harold!" where she is hit on by Sid at Rhonda's party. By the third season, she was replaced by Lila Sawyer as Arnold's crush and Helga's envy. At the end of the episode "Love and Cheese", Ruth is seen with a boy leaving the cheese festival. She looks back and sees Arnold with Lila and smiles seeing that he found another girl.

Trivia

• Ruth is shown walking with Helga, Phoebe, Rhonda, Nadine and Sheena in the title sequence, even into the 5th season, after she disappears from the show. It is also odd because she never hangs with the main girls of the show.
• Ruth is sort of like a female doppelganger of Arnold. She has a football shaped head, the same shaped eyes, a blue shirt with a plaid skirt (like Arnolds plaid undershirt resembles a skirt.). Her hair dangles down in two tufts on both sides of her head, likes Arnold's does when it's slicked back.
• Sid may in fact also have a crush on Ruth, as he is the one who get's placed with her in the Tunnel of Love Ride in "Operation: Ruthless". He says his well known saying when messing with girls "So, nice night huh?" and put's his arm around her. He again flirts with her at the punch bowl at Rhonda's party in "Hey Harold!", saying his pickup line once again, while she looks irritated at him and eventually walks away.
• Even though Arnold likes her, the rest of the characters (minus Gerald and Sid) don't know about her (or the fact that she even exists) and they seem indifferent towards her, but she is despised by Helga (due to the fact that she was Arnold's crush).
• In the Valentine's Day episode. Arnold tells Gerald how Ruth gave up her own seat on the bus. For a woman who was carrying a watermelon.
• It's unknown if she and the waiter from "Arnold's Valentine" are still dating, but it's presumed that they broke up when Ruth was shown in "Hey Harold" and "Rhonda's Party" without him.
• In "Love and Cheese" she is briefly seen in the cafeteria as one of the people staring at Helga for laughing very loud in front of everyone. Also later on in the episode near the end when Arnold and Lila are heading out of the cheese festival she is seen walking in front of them. When Arnold asks if Lila likes him likes him she stares at them briefly then turns around. However Arnold and Lila pay no attention to her.
• Ruth, in some episodes, appears to have blue eyes. She was the only character in the show to have visible colored eyes.
• In the Hungarian dub Ruth's name was changed to Roze in some episodes because the word "rút" means ugly in Hungarian.
• When Ruth is seen laughing in The Jungle Movie, she no longer has her signature braces, meaning she had gotten them off at some point before the events of the movie.

Appearances

Early characters designs for Ruth

• "The Little Pink Book"
• "Heat"
• "Snow"
• "Operation: Ruthless"
• "False Alarm"
• "Magic Show"
• "Arnold's Christmas"
• "Helga's Boyfriend"
• "Arnold's Valentine"
• "What's Opera, Arnold?"
• "Curly Snaps"
• "Hey Harold!"
• "Cool Party"
• "Helga's Parrot" (seen in picture)
• "Love and Cheese"
• "Harold Vs. Patty"
• Hey Arnold! The Jungle Movie

Gallery

External links

• Hey Arnold! Wiki: Ruth McDougal

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