Eugene Eugene! - Blog Posts

Hey Arnold Headcanon, Lila’s Mother

I know Craig himself said Lila’s mom “most likely died”, but that’s the thing, most likely. The way he said it made it seem like he wasn’t completely sold on that story idea. It’s as if he might change it in the future.

This is where my headcanon comes in, what if Lila’s mom never died in the first place, what if it’s somebody we already saw.

What if Lila’s mother is actually Betty from the episode “Eugene, Eugene!”?

Think about it, they look eerily similar when Betty was a child besides the hair color. Betty could have been in love with Mr. Leichliter, but somewhere along the line she started fearing that being with him wouldn’t keep her safe financially, so she settles down with Mr. Sawyer because at least she knew that she wouldn’t have to worry of the possibility of living with a starving artist (Kind of similar to the storyline of “State Fair” the book, not the musical). She grew unhappy with her life and decided that she couldn’t take the life as a farmer’s wife anymore and decided to live the life she never had while attempting to find her true love. Mr. Sawyer heartbroken lies to Lila by telling her that Betty died because that was easier than telling her that they weren’t good enough for her.

Is this most likely not true? Definitely so! It’s fun to speculate and make things more complex than Lila’s mother died from “off-camera” disease anyway. This also makes a nice parallel with Lila on how her and Betty both deal with their romantic relationships.

I had this idea when I first saw the girl, but I really didn’t think much of it until I was trying to think of a name for Lila’s mom. I was going for names that sounded similar to Becky due to the name of Tom Sawyer’s name of his main love interest. I thought Betty Thatcher was a good choice until I saw that there was a character already named that, which was this exact character. So everything just clicked. Now I need to find a new headcanon name for Lila’s mom in case I start preferring the dead mom thing over this. I’m thinking either Betsy or Bessie.

BTW my headcanon name for Lila’s dad is Tim.