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fardell24b · 7 months

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Spider Quinn 01: Quinn and the Spider

Spider Quinn

Let’s do this one more time. My name is Quinn Morgendorffer and for the past several years, I have been the one and only SpiderGirl. But let’s start at the beginning…

01 Quinn and the Spider

It was an ordinary day at Lawndale High. Quinn Morgendorffer certainly thought so as she headed to her science class.

“Good morning, Class,” Ms. Janet Barch said. “The field trip is today. I hope you have given your permission slips to the office. This field trip will cover much information on Genetics and Entomology, so be sure to take notes. There will be a test next week. Oscorp is one of the leading companies in biotechnology today. Too bad it’s lead by a MAN!”

Everyone in the class was familiar with Barch’s opinion of men, so they didn’t asks questions about that.

They were soon on their way.

“Have you heard about Brooke’s latest surgery, Quinn?” Sandi Griffin asked.

“I have, Sandi,” Quinn replied. ‘Ew!’ She didn’t want to think about it.

“I haven’t, Sandi,” Stacy Rowe answered.

“Wha-at?” Tiffany Blum-Deckler asked.

Sandi sighed.

“What do you think this field trip is about?” Quinn asked, trying to change the topic. ‘Something about genes?’

Sandi glared at Quinn. “Qui-inn! That is a question I would expect from the mouth of that girl who lives with you!”

“No, she would already know, Sandi!” Quinn pointed out. She didn’t like to be reminded of Daria by Sandi!

Stacy gave a nervous look.

“I give you that, but you don’t need to know, Quinn,” Sandi said.

“I hope we don’t have to wear those ugly safety goggles,” Stacy said. “Ugh!”

“Would those make me look fat?” Tiffany asked.

Quinn sighed.

“Back to Brooke,” Sandi said.

“Let’s not,” Stacy said.

Sandi glared at Stacy.

“Eep!”

“We are talking about Brooke,” Sandi said.

“She’s suddenly so weird,” Tiffany added.

“I wouldn’t know,” Quinn said. “I haven’t seen her around.”

Sandi sighed.

The bus soon arrived at the destination. Ms. Barch supervised the class as they disembarked. “Make a straight line as we wait for our guide.” She grumbled as the thoughts of her ex husband came to her mind yet again. ‘I hope it’s not a male!’

‘How likely is that?’ Quinn wondered.

A guide soon approached. “Welcome to the Oscorp Lawndale Genetics Laboratory,” she said.

Ms. Barch gave a quick smile before they followed her inside.

After going through other rooms, the class entered a room filled with cages containing spiders.

“One project is the addition of genes from multiple species to create a hybrid,” the guide explained.

Quinn noticed that one cage was empty. She wasn’t the only one.

“One of them is missing,” Joey Black said.

“The researchers are probably working on it,” the guide said.

In fact, the spider had escaped! It was spinning a web near one of the air vents. A sudden gust dislodged it from the web!

It fell on Quinn’s shoulder! She noticed it. “Ew!” She tried to brush it off. But it bit her. “Ugh!” She squashed it. She then went pale and her vision went blurry.

“Quinn, are you OK?” Stacy asked.

“Dizzy!” Quinn said, before stumbling.

Sandi saw Quinn stumble after Stacy asked if she was OK. “Ms. Barch! Quinn isn’t feeling well.”

“Wha-at?” Tiffany asked.

Sandi saw that the bite site was swelling.

“What’s wrong?” Ms. Barch asked.

“Quinn’s not well!” Stacy answered.

“There was this spider,” Quinn explained.

Ms. Barch looked at Quinn.

“Class, we’re going back to school.”

Nurse Chase turned to Quinn. “Here’s some antivenom.”

She injected it into Quinn’s arm.

“Good thing, you have it.”

“There are spiders that Pavlov misses. But you still need to go home for the rest of the day.”

“Thanks,” Quinn said.

Helen was home early.

“Mom?” Quinn asked as she came inside.

“I was concerned when I received the call,” Helen responded.

“I’m feeling a little better.”

“Go up to your room and rest.”

Quinn didn’t argue.

Quinn entered her room in a daze. She looked at herself in the mirrors. “Gosh! I look pale!” She flopped onto her bed. She was asleep before she hit the sheets. She began to dream.

In the living room, her father was fretting. “Quinn was bitten by a spider! On no! We should take her to the hospital!”

“Jake! The school nurse gave her antivenom,” his wife, Helen said reassuringly. “She would have sent her to the hospital if she had concerns. We’ll see how she is in the morning.”

“The morning?”

“Yes.”

Quinn’s sister, Daria was in her room, on the phone with her friend Jane Lane. “…. So now, Quinn is recovering in her room,” she said.

“I suppose whatever date she was going on was cancelled,” Jane said.

“No doubt.”

“You’re going to be easy on her?”

“Not a chance,” Daria answered. “She will be back to her usual self tomorrow.”

“Or maybe she’ll be more insufferable.”

“Is there a word for insufferabler?”

Later that night after her parents and Daria had gone asleep, Quinn stirred, but remained asleep. However, she then started sleepwalking. She got out of bed and went downstairs.

She grabbed some food from the fridge and ate it. She headed back upstairs and to bed.

She awoke after sunrise. “I feel better, but something’s weird… What is it?” She went over to her mirrors. Something was off about her appearance. She found that her abdominal muscles are more defined. “What’s going on with me? Is this a nightmare?”

She decided to try to go back to sleep.

She awoke again and looked at the time. “Breakfast!”

She slipped at the top of the stairs. She summersaulted and then landed on her feet. “What just happened?” she asked herself. She wasn’t sure.

Helen was preparing breakfast when Quinn entered the kitchen. “How are you this morning, Quinn?”

“I feel a lot better.”

“We were worried.”

“You mean, Daddy was,” Quinn responded.

“Yes.”

Daria then entered the kitchen. “Oh. You’re up and about,” she said.

“I feel a lot better,” Quinn said again.

“I didn’t expect otherwise,” Daria said.

Quinn met Sandi and Stacy at a door as she arrived at the school. “Are you feeling better, Quinn?”

“I do,” Quinn responded.

Sandi gave a dubious look. “There’s like, a Fashion Club meeting this afternoon.”

“That’s fine,” Quinn responded. “I’m a lot better.”

Sandi gave another dubious look. “Good,” she said.

Later, in between classes, Quinn saw Brooke Peterson approaching.

“I see you were sent home yesterday,” Brooke said.

“So what?” Quinn asked.

“Something happened, didn’t it?” Brooke asked.

“Something,” Quinn murmured.

Brooke then tried to attack Quinn. Some sort of tingle caused Quinn to move out of the way. Brooke tried again, but she missed!

“Uh!” Brooke said. She swung again, hitting another locker. “Stay still!”

Quinn moved out of the way again.

Brooke then leapt at her.

Quinn jumped, quite high, right over Brooke!

Quinn was confused, something was definitely happening to her. She ran.

Quinn ended up on the roof. ‘What is happening to me?’ she wondered. ‘Was it that spider?’

She suddenly realised that she needed to get to class. She grabbed the doorknob. Her hand than somehow stuck to it. “Oh no!” she said as she panicked. The knob then came off in her hand. “Oh no!” Then a web came out of her wrist! “Ew!”

She was shocked and sat down. ‘What has happened to me so far?’ she wondered.

She sorted through the memories from earlier in the day. That her muscles were more defined. That there was some sort of danger sense that allowed her to avoid being hit by Brooke. That she was sticking to things. And that a web had come out of her wrist. She thought more on this before looking at her watch. “Yikes!”

Quinn ran late into History.

“You’re late, Ms. Morgendorffer!” Mr. DeMartino said.

“Sorry, something came up,” Quinn said.

“That’s alright, Ms. Morgendorffer. Just don’t do it again!”

The rest of the day went by without further incidents.

“See you at the meeting,” Sandi said they left the school.

‘I didn’t forget the meeting, Sandi!’ Quinn groused to herself as she walked away from the school.

She headed downtown. ‘This is a good time to test what I can do now.’

She looked at her right wrist. “What can I do with these webs?” She looked at a nearby building and remembered seeing a spider spinning it’s web.

“Right!”

She produced a web but it didn’t get far.

“Again!” she said with determination.

The second web came out faster and hit somewhere higher on the building.

She then jumped high, but came down on the ground.

‘I’ll try again.’

She ran and shot a web. This time she swung up at an angle. But she still slammed into a wall.

“Ugh!” she said as she fell down the wall. But not far. She found she was sticking to it. “Oh!”

‘I’m sticking to the wall! Can I climb down? Or up?”

She moved down the wall to the ground. “Even more like a spider! Ew! But can I climb up?”

She then climbed up.

She got to the eave. “Time to try swinging again,” she said as she looked at it. She produced webbing again, and swung.

This time she ended up on the roof. “That worked!”

She walked to the edge of the roof, and shot another web.

Soon she was going from rooftop to rooftop through Lawndale’s downtown. But she soon came to the edge of the downtown, where it and the suburbia met. ‘This is going to be more difficult,’ she thought as she looked over the sprawl towards home.

She swung to the ground.

As she went towards home, she wondered if she could swing from trees. There was only one way to find out.

She shot out webbing and it connected to a branch. She smiled and swung. She found that it worked, but not as well as in the built up area.

Ten minutes later, she swung up onto the roof of her house. She looked back in the direction she had just come. ‘I wonder what the future has in store.’

#anthony demartino #daria #daria morgendorffer #fanfic #helen morgendorffer #jake morgendorffer #jane lane #janet barch #quinn morgendorffer #sandi griffin #spider man #stacy rowe #tiffany blum-deckler

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popculturebuffet · 2 years

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Daria Tom Arc Retrospective Part 1: “I Kissed Your Boyfriend”, a look at Jane’s Addition, I Loathe a Parade, Fire!, Dye! Dye! My Darling! and some assorted Tom Bits

Hello all you happy people and welcome to my look at a true classic of animation.. and the arc that continues to divide anyone whose seen it to this day.. and where I came into the franchise over 12 years ago. It’s an arc i’ve wanted to talk about since I started this blog, paticuarlly the movie Is It Fall Yet? and this year I finally had the room in the summer for it. So i’ts time to talk about some heartbreakingly brilliant television and a fandom breakingly contriversal kiss along with the greatest multi media project of all time, the glory of jake morgendorfer, parade floats that sadly don’t include daffy duck’s faviorite mode of transportation, cyber stalking played off as wacky comedy because late 2000′s, and one of the most crushing half hours of tv ever penned. Join me won’t you?

This is Just Where I Came In

So before we can talk about Daria we have to talk about why this arc in paticular means a lot to me. See back in the late 2000′s I got into Daria in a very late 2000′s way: Via a fansite and reviews on said site. See back then it wasn’t exactly easy to find shows that weren’t avaliable through legit means online and the show had yet to be released in full on dvd. So instead of finding it via watching episodes, I found out about the show via tv tropes, then glommed onto the historic Daria Touchstone Outpost Daria. While the site sadly went down in 2013 a rebirthed version with all the old content is avaliable RIGHT HERE. Worth a look.

So naturally when I was able to actually find some of the show on dvd I exploded with glee. At my local FYE I found the dvd for the film “Is it Fall Yet?”. It’d also be where I later got the dvd for “Is it College Yet?” the series finale movie we’ll be taking a look at sometime in the future. So it was through “Fire!” that I was introduced to this great toon and the following masterwork of an ep, Dye Dye My Darling! and the stellar movie.. with the terrible Allison plot we’ll get to next time that has aged like fine cheese hit with a croquet mallet into a flock of seagulls.

It’s a show near and dear to my heart that despite having ended twenty years ago, still feels incredibly relevant. But for those of you reading this who have no idea what Daria is..

Here’s a quick refresher to catch us up to where our story begins

Surviving Stupidity on Sarcasm (And Pizza)

Created by Glenn Eichler and Susan Lewis, Daria is the story of Daria Morgendorfer, who began her life as a supporting character on beavis and butthead, serving as a sarcastic foil to the two loveable dipshits for most of the shows run.

So naturally with the show coming to a close soon, MTV wanted to cash in and to get that sweet sweet female demographic, so they approached Eichler , B and B’s series editor to make a pilot, they bought it and Mike Judge agreed as long as Beavis and Butthead were kept out of it which MTV agreed to.. then planned to jam them in there should the show not be a hit.

Thankfully that didn’t happen as Daria quickly became a hit and for good reason as Glenn clearly got how to make a good spinoff: He kept Beavis and Butthead’s social satire but wisely reframed it in a new package to fit a diffrnet protaganist: instead of two idiots constantly stumbling into adults who were way too trusting and tolerant of their BS and showing just how ludcrious society is that way, Daria instead followed a character who very well knows everything sucks and will gladly snark about it and is instead often forced into said nonsense by school, parents or bribed into it. It also takes a diffrent approach to the supporting cast: while many of them are foils to daria like b and b’s cast are to them, their strong enough to support their own subplots which sometimes are the best part of an episode> It’s a show that rightfully gets how to make adult comedy: it’s in the characters and setups and while you can go places kids show can’t, you use those well instead of just screaming I’M AN ADULT LOOK AT ALL THE SEX I CAN WRITE. It’s why the show holds up so well despite being late 90′s/early 2000′s as hell:it’s clever, hilaroius and well characterized and it’s worth your time if you haven’t seen it.

As for what the shows about, it follows Daria and her family: workaholic lawyer Helen who tries to push her daughter out of her shell with predicable results, equally workaholic deeply traumtized manchild Jake who is a geninely loving father who also happens to scream dammit a lot and is geninely frustrated at the world, and Quinn, Daria’s sister who dosen’t want anyone to know that fact and is her opposite: while daria is intellegent and is a outsider by choice Quinn only wants to fit in, go on dates, and wear cute clothes.

The family moves to Lawndale where Daria thankfully finds a fellow bastion of snark in a sea of idiots: Jane Lane. Jane like daria is deatached, loves horror movies and mocking th eworld around her, but is a diffrent type of outcast, a painter who is a bit more socially savy and is a bit more willing to get out in the world than daria.

The two spend their days dealing with the high school hurricane around them: Greedy, selfish asshole and average school Principal Li, constantly stressed out teacher Mr. DiMartino who ACCENTS every OTHER world WITH rage FOR valid REASONS given the IDIOTS he has to PUT UP WITH, Mr. O’Neil, Daria’s overly optmistic teacher who unlike her previous overly optmistic teacher is oddly selfish, out of it and tries badly to reach his students positivley despite ti working never times. Their class includes Kevin, the kind and personable but completely braindead QB , as he’ll tell you, Brittany, his cheerleader girlfriend whose also kind and also kind of stupid, Upchuck, a sleazy nerd no one tolerates, Jody, a bright young overachiver, one of the only black kids in the class , and someone whose both popular but also bright and aware of things, and thus is one of Daria’s only real friends outside of Jane, her boyfriend Mack who isn’t given that much promience given his va’s keep switching. We also have the Fashion Club, Quinn’s friends which consist of Alpha Bitch and Rival Sandi, loveable anxiety ball Stacy and spacy moron Tiffani, as well as Joey, Jeffy or Jamey, three interchangable boy band rejects who go out with Quinn reguarly and do her bidding.

Finally we have Trent, Jane’s brother and one of the best characters in the show, a spacy moron who fronts the band Mistik Spiral (their thinking of changing the name), is constantly late to rehersal, talks slow and drawn out, sleeps a lot and is still the only one in Jane’s large family she can actually count on.

Trent is important to this as up to our first episode here today, he was Daria’s crush, something she regretted as while he’s a cool indie guy, she constantly is nervous and embarassed around him and incidents like getting a rash because of her crush and getting a piercing because he said he’d like it really bother her. Thankfully despite being a legal adult it’s fiarly clear Trent isn’t intrested, but does see Daria as anothe rsister, likely not saying as much in the first three seasons as he dosen’t want to hurt her feelings. This started to fall apart with the episode Lane Miserables, where Daria imagines a future with Trent and realizes they just arne’t compatable. Granted the crush resurfaces at the end but it was clear the cracks in the crush fantasy were starting to form... and this is where they crumble.. and where Daria’s first actual love intrest comes in. After avoiding thrusting our main character into romance for most of the series the creators decided she needed to date, but realized Daria wouldn’t really seek a guy out. He’d have to be someone she knows.. so they made it intresting by making said guy START as Jane’s boyfriend first. And fans were not pleased. Which I get with The Daria and Jane shippers; the two have great chemistry and thus our story begins...

Jane’s Addition

It’s project time again and this time Mr. O’Neil is trying to reach the kids which for once dosen’t end in tears specifically his, but is an actually GOOD idea: A multimedia project. Naturally Daria and Jane partner up: Jane’s grades need a liver transplant and Daria dosen’t like interacting with anyone else so it works.

So to encourage Daria’s crush on trent for whatever reason, torment, bordeom, a love of statutory, Jane suggests dragging him into this and the two go to Mystik Spiral perform. They naturally sing a song with the chorus “Hey mr normal, it was you!”

Jane ends up meeting Tom, a rich kid who nonetheless has the right amount of sarcastic wit and the late 2003 look to charm her. Though we won’t see said sarcastic wit for a bit as the episode frames him well: At first we don’t get to really KNOW tom, we just see him looking at Jane sideways party on tilt, and they end up going off together. We see him from Daria’s perspective: as this guy on her perphriy whose invading her comfy life: hanging with her best friend, snarking at everything and having one person she can count on to always be there. The show’s explored Daria being Janeless in the past: Season 2′s See Jane Run had Jane become part of the track team and Daria struggle at her best friend being gone a lot. But that was a one off thing.. this... is more permant and Daria reacts with hostility and bailing. She DOES get trent to agree to the project, but she goes home right after and when Tom shows up the next day when she goes to talk to Jane, she leaves again and we find out Jane ends up being busy most of the week: Jane gets her part done.. but days after Daria got her script done and everything ready. Trent of course is nowhere having anything because it was a terrible idea to include him. I mean he is the best, but he’s also Trent. The fact he’s survived this long is a minor miracle.

So the two have a night as usual planned, with Tom busy with his friends we never meet and i’m convicned don’t actually exist. Case in point he shows up to Pizza and Daria is pissy about it despite him trying to be nice. Granted tom’s reaction to her sarcasm is to storm off after a while, and while he’s right to call Daria out, leaving.. isn’t going to fix this. Neither of them are being at all mature but it’s Daria who gets all the blame.

Naturally Jane calls Daria on it the next day, and to the shows credit Daria ISN’T being at all resonable. It also shows off something I like about the show especially as it goes on: Daria.. isn’t infallible. She’s often right in her criticsim of the world.. but the show often takes time to poke holes in how far sarcastically holding everything but maybe one person at arms length is going to get her. Just up to this point in the series we’ve had the various trent episodes show us she’ suspetable to a hopeless crush on someone too old and too irresponsible for her as any teen who isn’t ace, Monster had her ALMOST crush Quinn with a documentary before realizing just how much harm that would do her sister and that it was a step too far, Write Where It Hurts shows her being so cyncial even in her writing makes it hard to actually write at times, and by being more hopefull.. she writes something wonderful: a calm happy future for her and her family, and the Misery Chick has daria and jane wishing someone dead sarcastically.. actually happen and her dour front making it seem like she isn’t phased to Jane. She is and simply dosen’t want to treat the guy like a hero as he was indeed an asshole and even if it was sad he died, he still shoudln’t be glorified just because he’ sa corpse. Daria being a three dimensional character allowed to make mistakes while still being one step ahead of most people in her life is what makes the show for me. It disects her edgy, late 90��s cynisim while still acknoleding she has a point at times.

As for this situation, Daria is sympathetic as she is wrong: You get where she’s coming from especially given her speech later in Dye Dye My Darling!

“Because I moved to this town and I immediately knew i’d be a total outcast, and in the one moment of good luck in my entire life I met another outcast I could be friends with and not feel completely alone, and then you came along and screwed the whole thing up!”

She tries to push tom out of things.. because she NEEDS Jane. She’s her support system, the one person who truly gets her in the whole world. Her parents love her, but often struggle to understand her, and Quinn is... Quinn. Her only other friends are Jodi who while someone who she truly respects is isn’t really on her wavelength being someone who fits in more and tries harder and somehow Brittany and Kevin, who are more loose aquantices with one braincell between them. And of course Quinn is Quinn, so no sisterly help. They all care about her, but only Jane GETS her and dosen’t judge her for being herself. The only times Jane ever calls out daria is when daria really has stepped out of line. So it’s understandable that when someone else shows up that takes up all Jane’s time and leaves Daria basically alone, she lashes out at him. It’s understandable.

What it’s not.. is fair. Jane should be able to have boyfriends and since her and Daria sadly aren’t happening , at least until any revivials, Daria simply needs to adjust to this new reality. And ultimately the only thing that gets her to confront it.. is said reality pulling up to her. Tom pulls up in his old junker, a bit of rebellion against his parents as we’ll find out and has an honest talk with Daria. Daria feels she’s being replaced.. and Tom makes it clear no she is’nt. Jane talks about her all the time, and she’s still important to her. But Tom makes the same point I did: Daria can’t and really shoudln’t stop this and a point I did’nt: he’s not the bad guy. He’s just a guy and a charming one too: he’s cyncial like our heroes, and is kind enough to make this effort because he WANTS this relationshp to work and to be with jane means beign welcomed by her only friend.

And so Daria does. Granted this only lasts the end of the episode.. but when Tom shows up... she welcomes him. Granted Jane isn’t happy they have in jokes, but she is happy their getting along. This... won’t last long.

As for the project, our heroes do pass with the wonderful lifecycle of a high school student, which is truly hilarious.. as is frankly most dialogue in this episode, but as a reviewer I gotta gloss over that. It maps it to the stages of grief with anger just being them getting some dialouge from poor Mr. DiMartino and acceptance being college acceptance. The other videos are also a treat, from Brittnay and Kevin’s crudely drawn hilariously half assed video on school spirit and the utter glory that is Upchuck’s assignment that makes me want to worship him as some sort of god before slapping myself upon remembering it’s upchuck.

youtube

All in all the episode is excellent and deftly sets up the story arc. And Tom wouldn’t go away either: he’s in a good chunk of season 4 to the point I did watch most of his apperances, though I remembered his apperances in a tree grows in lawndale and psycho therapy well enough I didn’t have to. While i’ll only be focusing on the four biggest eps in depth, I’d be remiss if I didn’t cover

Some Assorted Tom Bits

Partners Compliant starts the season off with Daria back on not being really happy about Tom, though she accepts it it dosen’t mean she’s on board with him in her life and it leads to Daria and Jane having diffrent partners, Jane being stuck with Brittany and Daria partnering with Jodi and learning a lesson from it about her own hubris. Honestly I could and shoudl do a Jodi article. She’s the best.

A Tree Grows in Lawndale has Tom save the day by suggesting Kevin become a motivational speaker. I love that my job is writing sentences like that.

Psycho Therapy has one of Tom’s best apperances as Jane sets up a 24 hour web cam as an art experiment and dosen’t tell him. So he shakes it for the camera unaware he’s being tapped and understandably pissed when he finds out as his girlfriend you know, didn’t tell him. Gee I can’t imagine why they have relationship issues later. The punchline is also great as Tom calms down.. till he starts getting fanmail.. from inmates.

Finally we have Mart of Darkness, where tom accidently eats some Gummi bears Jane had sorted for a project. So Jane goes to get some from the new big box store while tom goes to do the same and ends up saddled with Jesse and Trent. It’s one of the few times Tom gets to do something besides be a love intrest and it is great. Sure it’s jane adjacent, he’s going there to make up for his mistake, but it’s fun seeing someone else have to play only sane man with these two doofuses and Tom is a lot less patient with them. It also underlines the issues that are forming in their relationships: Jane is into her art and tends to fly off at tom for it, and while Tom is understanding he really dosen’t fit in her world at times. Granted these last two take place after our next ep

I Loathe a Parade

This ep starts simply enough; Jake is out of TP, Helen and Quinn have left, so it’s up to Daria to get him some in 15 minutes for a bribe. Which would be an easy enough task... if it wasn’t also the homecoming parade, something I relate to as not only is said parade right down the street next to my house, but I live next to mainstreet, where the local fair happens once a year and thus makes traffic, even if I can’t drive I stil lhave to get places, and walking around a living nightmare. So Daria having to naviigate similar nightmares speaks to me.

She runs into Jane whose taking Photos for her own amusment and trying to find tom. Naturally all the usual players are here and ‘tis part of why I spotlighted them, the other being they all have their own plots in the movie: Kevin is on the homecoming float with some.. pagent girl, I don’t know, which pisses brittany off, not helped by Kevin’s skeezy behavior in one of his less sympathetic apperances.. I mean he’s not creepy but he does end up putting his hand on her butt without presumibly asking and you know WHILE HIS GIRLFRIEND IS DIRECTLY BEHIND THEM., Mrs Li is trying to prevent a lawsuit, Quinn has a float with the fashion club who balk at one point when the parade stops and Upchuck of course has a bachelor’s club car with two dolls in the back and hits on our heroine. We also get a nice tiny subplot with Jodi and Mack, as Jodie and Mack are elected homecoming king and queen.. and both are ENTIRELY and annoingly aware it’s a stunt by the school to try and prove how woke they are. I do like how the show tackles racial issues with Jodie while not making it her entire character: there’s more to her than being black but her race and how it effects her isn’t ignored either. And the solution is heartwarming: Jodie almost gets off.. but notices a young black girl waving at her and gets back on. It’s geninely sweet.

The main bulk though is Daria trying to navigate this madhouse and instead finding Tad Gupty, a kid she babysitted/deprogrammed in season 1 whose lost. It also shows Daria’s character: She may be annoyed by the inconvience and lost of bribe but she dosen’t take it out on Tad and does her best to find either his parents or an officer. She may be cynical, detached and constantly done with this shit... but when an innocent kid needs her, she helps.

She ends up finding Tom who was at the wrong drugstore and teams up with Daria both out of the kindness of his heart and to find Jane. The two end up bonding as they’ve read similar books, have similar natures and Tom shows his own nature, a bit more outgoing than either of his girlfriends, and a bit more proactive, deciding to get on a float to look and taking tad with him, wtih Daria getting on once the child begs her not to leave him.

Said float ends up being the Fashion Clubs and they just so happened to be looking for someone to make over. Daria has to blackmail quinn to get out of it and while our dynamic duo can’t find the gupty’s, they do manage to loose Tad once they get back to ground. Things only get worse when they run into lawndale’s obnoxious mascot, some dope in a lion costume who won’t leave Daria the hell alone till Tom gets him to step off and later overheats, with daria pulling the mask off to reveal Mr. O’Neil. And he woudl’ve gotten away with it too if it weren’t for thos meddling kids. Soon after the guptys show off as it turns out Tad found his parents who are greatful and Daria gives a rare genuine smile and talks with Tom a bit, the two really hitting it off.. almost a bit TOO well. Jane naturally shows up and both look at each other as they seperate.. with both clearly conflicted about what they both now realize they might feel. It does feel a bit fast on that part, but otherwise I loathe a parade is a solid episode. Also if you were curious the Brittany subplot ends with her getting mad and storming off and the parade ending in disaster, while Upchuck gets beaten up by the police. So at least Daria gets that, even if her dad dosen’t get TP for his bunghole.

Fire!

And now we’ve come to the hard part of this. And not in terms of quality: unlike the last time I spotlighted a tom with my Tom Lucitor retrospective, the episodes here are excellent and the breakdown of a relationship well handled versus

But it dosen’t make it easier to watch. Honestly it reminds me of a late season episode of Tuca and Bertie: there’s still a joke or two here or there but the pressure that’s built up all season is about to explode, but isn’t QUITE there yet. It dosen’t help that the comedy b-plot meant to help ease said tension is not really funny but instead deeply disturbing.

The episode follows the morgendorfers as the inevtible happens: Jake nearly burns the house down trying to make himself some warm milk. Look I love the guy but the fact it took four seasons for the house to nearly burn down is a miracle, as is the fact he didn’t pour gasoline on the fire to put it out.

Helen is pissed about this but thankfully Jake’s connections from work get them a nice hotel. And while Helen and Jake get to be happy and relax, for once, Daria is stuck in hell aka other people aka her sister. Ten minutes with her is all it takes for Daria to pack up and head for Janes and all it takes for Quinn to not squeal is Daria almost talking to her friends on the phone.

So getting this terrible b-plot out of the way a bellhop at the hotel romances quinn, giving her complemntary stuff and Quinn loves a boy whose attractive and gives her stuff. Sandy brings up the idea he’s a creepy stalker.. and turns out to be right hence why this isn’t all that entertaning. If you don’t know the twist it’s just a stretch of quinn and the fashion club, who I do find entertaining but just don’t get anything funny to do in this subplot, and the “Joke” that a guy was stalking her is just.. creeepy. The actual joke that Quinn is more upset the guy was a computer geek than you know STALKING HER is kind of funny but this was obviously written in an age when stalking was taken way less seriously and it shows.

Thus the main plot is that much more tense: See when Daria calls Jane and Tom are having issues: their just not really meshing, something that was hinted at earlier but now painfully comes to the fore: While Tom clearly dosen’t mind the splatterfests jane enjoys, his attempt to have them see an art house film goes nowhere. Tom just has some diffrent intrests.. ones Daria shares as she recommends the film, and the fact the two are talking irks Jane.

It dosen’t get better as Jane procedes to get passive agressive as heck, telling Daria she could contact Jane thorugh tom which is a rather red flag and then working on her art rather than enjoying that her friend is here, passive agressively working the drill. She only gets angrier when Tom shows up but since Jane’s busy he goes to talk to Daria, and they talk.. for hours about litreature and stuff. Look if you want to know how many times an x-man died or about the red planet Arakko, i’m your guy. I’m not into classic literature so outside of knowing about the Prince, the book Daria was reading, i’m out of my element here. Jane gets pissy again. And Tom and Daria DO have genuine chemistry. While jane and tom had some i’ts clear the two ar ejust way more comfortable than Jane and Tom were and click better: their both bookworms, they both have overacheving families, and their both outsiders just for being themselves, tom for not wanting to over endulge in his riches and Daria for being well. .Daria. As much as the fandom HATES this paring.. I think it works to a degree. The two do work together. How it happened is more questionable, and there are issues with Tom’s character i’ll get into, but you can see why Daria likes this guy once she lets him in.. and why Jane is loosing her shit

Daria eventually confronts her, it being her turn and Jane reveals she’s jealous, that it’s been hard with Tom and Daria makes it harder by things being so .. easy with the two of them... and concedes it’s not their fault. But while Daria dosen’t THINK she has feelings for her best friends boyfriend, Trent points out Tom.. probably does “guys can tell when guys are into a girl”.... which is macho bs in how he phrases it but as oblivious as Trent can be I DO think when it comes to relationships he knows what he’s talking about. He has an on and off one and in these episodes is a geninely good friend and council to both girls. And he can play the guitar pretty well and as we’ll see in the movie can write a REALLY good song on occasion, so he has some talent he just dosen’t have drive or common sense.

So the episode ends with Daria’s angry parents picking her up, and Daria starring whistful. Anjd now we’re going from it boiling up.. to boiling over... but first I nearly forgot to mention Stacey had a cowboy hat this episode. It’s both early 2000′s as hell, I also saw them on sex and the city on occasin, and delightful. To the pain!

Dye! Dye! My Darling!

So we’ve come to this. The kiss that made a fanbase go nuts, changed the show forever for a second time and is still divisive to this day. We’ve also come to the second best episode of Daria, the only one topping it in my eyes being the final episode (Not the finale, that’d be the movie), Boxing Daria. It’s painful, tense and amazingly acted and animated. Despite the shows stylized animation not being one for heavy expression, the expressoins here and the acting, esecpailly from Tracy Grandstaff, is phenominal.

So we open with Jane at the Zoo starring at a tiger

Turns out she’s planning to paint tiger stripes in her hair, the lady or the tiger, and wants Daria to do it. And this is where the deep episode long discomfort starts. Unlike last time there’s no attempts at levity via wacky cyber stalking. There’s no real break. It’s just one long slow motion sprial of pain. This is a bojack penultimate episode level of emotional agony.. and i’ts just as quality.

See Jane wants Daria to dye her hair and while Daria tries to quip her way through it she also repeadtly tries to back out, pointing out she has no idea what she’s doing, she dosen’t want to do this and Jane being passive agressive any time daria DOSEN’T want to help. It boils over in the actual application as Jane accuses Daria of trying to steal tom passive agressively.. then when Daria, SHOCKINGLY botches the job because she has no idea what she’s doing and said repeadtly she didn’t think she could do this, just outright accuses her and throws her out, not going to school the next day.

And then.. it happens. Cue the proper music

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Tom pulls up wanting to talk things over, and Daria gets in the car while the audience, both those watching this for the first time and those of us who know all too well what’s about to happen scream no at the screen like Tom’s a slasher in a horror film and Daria is his unsuspecting victim.

The two talk, with Tom at his wits end with Jane, and Daria giving the rant from above, mad that some guy has driven a wedge between her and her friend, while Tom rightly points out he just went out with a girl, though she was cool and it didn’t work out. The two agree they aren’t attracted to each other, huff off with a fine.. .and then...

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It’s an incredibly well done moment: from Tom impuslively deciding to kiss her from it being clear she reciporcates.. to the second kiss where both fully let it sink in how fucked this is. And the reason this works so well, especially when certain other shows have tried and failed at a plot like this is the show never once forgets how fucked up this is: Ther’es clear passion there but the second that’s over just pure guilt, pain and shellshock.l And tom’s “I liked it too” and daria’s rare, impassioned dammits just undersell it: He liked it.. but his tone shows just how bad the timing was while Daria is pissed off in a way we rarely see her and runs out afraid. And she can’t get anyone to help: Quinn just dimisses out of hand she’d do the same and Helen is busy with work. In the end all Daria has going in to telling jane is pure guilt

The scene where she tells her.. is also just pure hurt. Daria looks miserable, guilty, and broken, and it’s clear from minute one she’s going to tell her friend.. it’s just a question of how and when Jane finally notices how upset she is we get one of the best deliveres in the series “I kissed your boyfriend, I kissed tom”. Daria makes no justifactions, no excuses.. and compared to other cheating storylines tha’ts why I like it. It makes the lead sympathetic, daria really is confused by these emotion.. but it dosen’t undercut what she did and neither did she. Daria destroyed her friendship and knows it and all she can painfully do is cry “I’m sorry, i’m sorry” at jane and then run off.

The resulting confrontation with Tom is no less painful with Jane opening up with a “Hi.. go to hell” before lighting hitting tom who more than deserves it and once her anger subsides a little she ends her rant with “How could you! How could she!” and tom admits it was an accident.. but it was wrong.

The two then have a more emotional breakup on the swings, with Tom admitting things weren’t working and Jane forced to admit it to, and Jane making it clear she’s intending to end her friendship with Daria. And again to his credit tom points out both how much they need each other and how Janes anger at being possible third wheel is hypcoritical given she asked the same of her. It’s not exactly the same but points for effort

The ending is still soul crushing though: Daria and Jane talk and while Daria both apologizes and has no intention of dating tom it’s clear their friendship is on life support at best as Jane leaves.. and Daria gets a call from tom. It’s painful and while the ending music isn’t bad, the origianl ed music which I looke dup after hearing about it on tv tropes... god

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God I love cake and this.. just perfectly accentuates the ep.

This ep is damn near perfect, painful and an excellent cliffhanger.. and sadly where we leave off for a few weeks. But prepare because in two weeks we look at the followup, what this was building toward as we as the question “Is it Fall Yet?”. Hope I see you there, thanks for reading, follow me for more and considering joining my patreon campaign

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#daria #mtv #dye dye my darling #daria morgendorffer #jane lane #tom sloane #quinn morgendorffer #jake morgendorffer #glenn eichler

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