SPOILER SPACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . All right, I hope this is enough.
Well, what can I say. Wait a minute, I do think I know... this episode definitely makes up for last week's stinker!
Although this episode wasn't as funny as the better lot of funny episodes, the development and plot were deep and interesting. Not much at all failed here. The credit of this episode goes to writer Peggy Nicoll, who everyone thinks stinks but really does not. In fact, I think that she better than any of the other writers on the Daria staff understands the way the show is going and the whole flow of it in general, even over Glenn Eichler, standard-setting extraordinare. (By the way, where has _he_ been this season? Seems like he has followed in the steps of Susie Lewis and left the show, if not for Partner's Complaint) Anyhow, I think she did a great job this episode, and looking back, the perfect replacement story editor and co-writer for the movie. This was the way I was hoping the show would go... putting the ultimate pressure of Daria and Jane's best friendship care of Tom.
The actual fire, of course, was truely a minor device for setting up the whole episode. Interesting at best, but not important (I think the title more implies to the raging of emotions going on between our favorite animated television characters.)
The best parts of this episode were naturally the Tom-Jane and Jane-Daria conflict sequences, but also Trent and Daria's private conversation. Anger flying everywhere in this episode, a true emotion... and it is refreshing. It's nice to see Jodie there as an important part of the story instead of her [pseudo-]usual background appearance. Kind of interesting to find that Mack and Jodie are hardly close. And it's sort of nice to see Mack "being from another planet" (hey, you CAN have some immature fun in high school; you're only young once, yada yada yada).
Also, it seems that hormones are the only thing that can relax Helen and Jake, and for that matter probably keep them together. They do love each other, but I think they're really to much for each other outside "relaxation mode." Soon as the phone call from the detective arrives about Quinn, they're back to their usual, stressed selves. Speaking of Quinn, doesn't it seem like she says "The place with..." a lot? Really though, it seems like she can't decide whether to be shallow or to grow up a little. It's lucky that Daria understands her, or there might have been some genuine hate in the works by this time. And it was almost nice to see that she had been obsessed over and was getting a little scared over it (though Sandi was clearly just jealous) until she was upset because Bobby was quote unquote a "computer geek."
Finally, Daria. At the end of the episode, after talking with Trent, I think she does realize that she truely does have feelings for Tom, though kept buried by her conscience and her respect and love for her friend, and now that they have shown doesn't know how to deal with it. Which makes us wonder, considering before she came to this realization she told Jane she could never hurt her. And the way I see it, Jane means more to her than probably her family and she can see that she is already poking the needle at the skin (geez, what a crappy metaphor). It will be interesting to see how exactly this will be resolved, and how Tom stands in this situation. I have a feeling this will be resolved in the next episode, however. Seems like the movie will be sort of a filler episode.... maybe a chance to see how Quinn and Sandi will resolve things while Daria is at that camp. Oh, and I think now I can truely respect the character if Trent. He is understanding when it comes to implrtant things, and in his own little twisted way, wise.
Fire! sets up conflict and leaves a huge cliffhanger and is probably the best episode of the season and perhaps the series. A relief after last week's schlock... I'm giving it an A.
Now let's all get down on our knees and beg MTV for season 6!
--Adam