Mike's Delayed Reaction Review-#412 (4-51), "Fire!"

Mike's Delayed Reaction Review-#412 (4-51), "Fire!"

Spoilers Space for #412 (If you don't want to know, then don't scroll!)

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Mike's Delayed Reaction Review-"Fire!"

MDRR #412 (4-51)

Pardon Me, While I Burst Into Flames - Now we know another thing that happens when Jake has too much caffeine - he starts fires. What I thought was most interesting about the whole thing was how they all reacted, they were all kind of panicky, except for Daria. The most enjoyable part of it for me was when Jake answered Helen's rhetorical "what were you thinking?" But the fire itself, caused enough damage to put the Morgendorffers in a hotel for two weeks, which, of course, ended up starting a bunch more figurative fires. A couple more points of interest, as far as Helen and Jake are concerned. First, they seem to be only capable of relating well on a physical level, which seems odd to me since they've been married for so long (not that couples married that long can't relate well that way, it's just that this is the only way that Helen and Jake do). Also, they seemed to really need a break from their every day lives, and their little "trip" allowed them some of that chance to get away and relax (maybe too relaxed), at least for a while.

Tom's First Fatal Mistake - That would be mentioning to Jane that Daria left him a message on his answering machine. He has to be aware of most of the things Jane is concerning their relationship (at least, he should be aware of them). A much more tactful way to ask Jane about going to that film festival would have been, "hey, I heard about this, you want to go?" He could even throw in a "maybe Daria would like to go with us" without causing too much trouble.

We Didn't Start the Fire - One of those figurative fires that were started had a whole lot to do with Daria staying at the Lane's. Jane knows that her relationship with Tom is on the rocks and, after finding out about Daria and Tom's private communications, she knew that Daria would complicate things even more. Daria even knew that she was causing some tension after Tom's second mistake (even though she "played dumb"), which we'll get to in a second, and she didn't want to stay a second night if she didn't have to. Jane obviously wanted Daria out of there also, you could see the disappointment in her face when Daria was forced to ask to stay longer. Jane was kind of caught here, she had to help Daria avoid the hell that is the fashion Club, but at the same time, she knew this could hurt her.

Tom's Second Fatal Mistake - That would be not wanting to go out for pizza after Daria decided not to accompany them. He might as well told Jane to her face that he'd rather hang out with Daria. One of Jane and Tom's biggest problems seems to be that they don't communicate very well. But the way Tom acted was very insensitive, whether he meant it to or not. At least these mistakes are showing that Tom isn't perfect.

Every Breathe You Take... - Bobby certainly seemed to "be watching" Quinn. He started out by sweet talking her and then getting her stuff. And then he showed up just about every place she was. She didn't even consider that he was stalking her until Sandi pointed it out, wither out of concern or jealousy. The oddest part to me was the crime that Bobby was committing. It seemed to be a whole lot of effort to go to for potentially no payoff. He wasn't getting the stuff he was charging and then deleting and Quinn probably would've forgotten about him about five minutes after she left the hotel.

Tom's Third and Fourth Fatal Mistakes - Here's the easy one. The third mistake was when Tom went to talk to Daria instead of Jane, whatever his reasons were. The topper, and the fourth mistake, was when he kept going on with "morgue talk" after Jane arrived to get him (of course, Daria kept going too, but she wouldn't have had the chance if Tom didn't keep it up).

I Can See Clearly Now - Trent is a little more perceptive than I could imagine, even though that "guys can tell" stuff seemed like a load of hogwash to me (because I never have a clue about any of this stuff). He got on to something that Jane had already realized, Tom is somehow interested in Daria (he wouldn't want to talk to her so much if he weren't). Trent was also right about another thing, Daria knows too, but she doesn't (or didn't) want to admit it. She reacted very defensively to Trent when he confronted her with this, but she should listen to him - whatever started isn't really her fault (unless she's hiding something that we don't know about).

There was a lot of stuff that went down in this episode, so many that I'm not too sure I can give them all justice in something as short as this review. First it is obvious that Jane feels that she and Tom are having difficulty. Why else would she be so quick to get angry at Daria for "monopolizing his time?" It definitely started way before any of the event in this episode. A series of big question arises from all of this. First, how does Tom's new found interest in Daria fit into the puzzle? Is it a cause for some of Tom and Jane's problems, or is it the result of them? Second, do we even know what kind of interest he has in Daria? Is he attracted to her romantically? Does he just want someone to talk about history or literature or whatever with him? Is she just another friend to him? The problems that pose these questions end up causing even more hardships, like the tension between Daria and Jane that was unlike any they had ever seen before, they also seemed to have less in common with each other, which troubles me because it kind of flies in the face of almost four years of shows, but I digress. If I had to try to figure out this whole mess, I'd say that Jane has suffered a bit from a case of "getting what she wished for." Tom and Daria didn't get along at first and Jane didn't like that. And now that they do get along, she still doesn't like it because it's threatening to her relationship (I'm sure she didn't expect them to get so chummy, she wouldn't have pushed Daria to try if she did). As for Tom, he seems to want to be able to combine the things he likes about Daria and Jane into one person. He wants the best of both worlds, Daria's knowledge on things that interest him and Jane's zest for life. I don't think he's trying to hurt anyone - even if that's what ends up happening. Daria has kind of gotten caught in the middle of all of this. She doesn't quite know how to deal with it because she's never been in this position before and she may also feel something for Tom as well (she seemed to enjoy talking to him, that's bound to create some feelings). The episode itself seemed to have two endings - one with Jane and Daria's last conversation and the other with Daria forlorn look out the window (which felt like it had "to be continued" written all over it). In the end this episode was just one big question mark. There is no way anyone can figure out where this is going to go, because there are so many possibilities. As long as it goes somewhere.

Grade (on this episode on its own): A-

Grade (in regards to what may happen later): Incomplete

Daria as a Whole #1, Alter-Ego of the Week - Being a fan of The Price Is Right, I can't not go with Jesse as Bob Barker standing next to the Big Wheel (I get the feeling this one was used before, though).

Copyright � 2000 Mike Quinn [All Rights Reserved]. "Daria" and all related characters are � 1997-2000 MTV Networks, Inc.

Got a question about a review? Drop me an email at: [email]

Missed a review? Check The Delayed Reaction Review Archive http://homestead.deja.com/user.mikequinn/mdrr_archive.html

Mike Quinn [email]

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I think you did a decent job IMHO. You got most of the main points and brought up some interesting stuff to consider. It'll be interesting to see what all goes down tomorrow.

Jeff M.

In article ,

Same here, good touch with the songs in the title segments.

What goes on from here? 1) Tom/Daria hook up, devstating Jane. 2) Daria declines Tom, goes to Jane, D+J's friendship still strained. 3) Daria declines Tom, goes to Jane, gets declined as well, and fades off for good. 4) Same as 3, except the three of them become good friends with each other.

Any other ideas, or one of the above.

I'm leaning to #4 eventually, but it may not come from this final ep. As for what happens next, pending what/if anything Tom says about the matter, 1 if he likes her in that way, 4 if they're just good friends.

Also in reply to an above message, you can too like The Price is Right and Daria, been a fan of the former for about 18-20 years, and I'm only 24:-) BTW, I thought that was the best alter-ego as well, scary, Mr. Quinn and I have agreed on 11 of the 12 so far, ah well....

Comments, questions, additions to the list?

We'll all find out within 24 hours...... A.J.

Or..... Jane can dump Tom's sorry butt, and Daria and Jane can live happily ever after in the land of best-friendship.

[email] wrote:

In article ,

Also, they seemed to

That was weird. They were *this* close to stoned.

True. For all his wit and humor, Tom has come across to me as kind of a blank slate. Or maybe, a little too much like Daria herself. I can see why Jane might get bored hanging around with *two* of them. (A Daria with two Janes would probably feel the same way.)

It was hogwash to me, too, and I could only tell because I recognized my own behavior in Tom's. It was only a couple of months ago that I was lovesick over a girl who was already involved with someone. (Actually I still am, but it being summer break, and all, I haven't seen her.) Still, all that cheerfully saying 'Hi!' every time Daria entered the room really hit home. "Guys can tell" meanwhile...who knows what brought that on? Maybe trent was trying to avoid letting Daria know he was eavesdropping. By and large, though, Trent's greatest moment so far, although his "Misery Chick" sequence is a close contender.

Season 4, especially the second half of it, seems to have gone out of its way to show off Jane's flaky side and its effect on her relationship. She's been just plain goofy these last few episodes, what with JaneCam, the gummi bears incident, the cheerleading, the Drugs & Stuff incient, etc. It seems to have come on pretty sudden, but maybe, if I dig out my Season 1, 2 and even 3 tapes, I'll see more evidence of it.

And before that she wanted Daria to have a boyfriend, too (although then it was Trent). The irony of it all! And then, somewhere in there she probably wanted a boyfriend for herself, and, way back when, she wanted just a *friend*. Now she's liable to lose both in one fell swoop. No wonder she's upset.

Side note: In the scene where Jane was creating her "angry" painting, anyone notice how advanced Brittany's painting looked in comparison to her previous stick-figure drawings? I'm more apt to think that the animators decided not to make her painting deliberately comical so we wouldn't be distracted from Jane, or that they just forgot to make Britt paint the way she usually does...but could Brittany have finally found an artistic side buried deep within her brain? (Wait...what do I mean, *deep*?)

It's hard to read just what Daria feels for Tom, although her look has to count for something. If she didn't have romantic feelings of some sort for Tom, she wouldn't have had too much difficulty in telling him to back down.

Thank God they didn't literally put the words up there, though. it didn't need them, for one thing, and besides that, it really would've messed up that (for lack of a less melodramatic word) spellbinding moment. That look has to be one of "Daria"s most dramatic moments. <Kevin> Plus that reflection thing was like *really* cool and stuff! </Kevin>

Ha! yes! That was *definitely* the Big Wheel, but elements of other game shows seemed to have been thrown in, too. I'm a fan, too, as odd as it seems for someone to like two shows as different as Daria and TPiR.

Michael J. Quinn said:

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What was really funny about that scene was that Daria, just woken up out of sleep and told that there was a fire, reacted with sarcasm. What was touching was the way Jake dragged her out of there.

Oh, the Helen / Quinn phone thing, and Quinn obsessing on if she was dressed right to go outside, were also good.

Helen and Jake relate well when they _play_ together, whether it's lovemaking or swimming or whatever. Usually, Helen is too busy and Jake too tense to play.

Remember, up until this episode, Jane had been telling Tom and Daria to try harder to get along together. I think that when Tom said that, it didn't even occur to him that what he was saying could be interpreted as him preferring Daria's company to Jane's.

Note: she wasn't happy when Daria asked to stay over. Especially not the second night.

It was very hard for her to even consider saying "no", though. Both because Daria's her best friend, and because of the fact that the Morgendorffers let her and Trent stay over in "Lane Miserables."

Bobby was trying to get laid. That was the whole point of giving Quinn the "complimentary suite." He wasn't aware that: 1) Quinn doesn't put out, and 2) Quinn doesn't really like any of the guys she dates. He also assumed that his computer crimes would fail to be noticed. He was, in short, optimistic and overconfident.

Yep, and yep.

He's attracted to her. We don't know if he's enough attracted to her for him to consider dumping Jane for her. It also might occur to him that Daria wouldn't go along with this sort of thing.

I don't think he's trying to hurt anyone either.

Sincerely Yours, Jordan