The Teachings of Don Jake

_***½

Jake takes the family on a weekend camping trip in an effort to ease his blood-pressure when the stresses of work and family grow too numerous.

The review for "Road Worrier" can be read here.

Helen (Wendy Hoopes) and Jake (Julián Rebolledo) have shown in the past that, when given the opportunity, they can unwind with ease, though their interactions with their daughters tend to keep their stress levels somewhat higher than they otherwise might be. Given the fact that Helen and Jake so rarely take the chance to spend time with Daria (Tracy Grandstaff) and Quinn (Hoopes,) it stands to reason that they may, in fact, be the problem, but when removed from their usual setting there remains hope that they might finally come together.

Best described as uptight and controlling, it makes absolute sense that Helen would grab hold of an opportunity to unwind from the grind of her daily life, and while she often would be hard-pressed to do so for her own sake, having her use her husband's stress as an excuse is perfectly in-character. Helen explains to her family that they've left civilization behind, camping with no way to contact the outside world, being unable to access phones or e-mail, and calling the freedom from technology a luxury that they so rarely are privy to, and, in part, she truly believes what she's saying. Helen's work has kept her so focused on the world outside of her home, outside of herself, that she has few opportunities to truly connect with her family and with who she is outside of her job, and it must be a great relief to her not to have to check in with her bosses or deal with clients. Knowing what work-related stress can do to someone, Helen ensures that Jake will be able to overcome his issues and keep his sanity intact, and the fact that she manages to untether herself from her work is actually very impressive to daughter Daria. Helen even unwinds to the point that, in telling a campfire story about a gentleman vampire, she seems to forget that her children are present, making her tale progressively steamier until finally coming to her senses and realizing how inappropriate it is given the audience. Helen is not a woman who does something halfway, which Daria realizes as the rest of her family falls prey to poisonous berries leaving them stranded in the middle of nowhere; Daria also realizes that Helen would never leave her clients in the lurch, no matter how important a vacation might be to her husband's sanity, and this hypocrisy leads to Daria finding Helen's cell phone and later to the family's safe return home.

Throughout the story Jake details his issues with his father, talking about how nothing he ever did was good enough for his dad and wondering why he couldn't just love Jake for who he was. Jake's parental frustration later manifests in the form of awkward campfire stories about camping with his father, describing the torment that Jake was put through due to his dad's alcohol abuse. Convinced that his strained relationship with his father is what has held him back for so long, Jake eventually takes a hiking path with a very clear warning sign on it in an effort to become the person he never did, to turn himself into someone that takes risks and can impress his family with his bravery. As Helen explains to Quinn, "everywhere [Quinn] look[s she] see[s] doors opening, and everywhere [Jake] looks he sees doors closing,"and it goes a long way to explaining the neuroses that made Jake who he is now. Before he had appeared as another caricature of a person designed to showcase the insanity that had molded Daria into who she is, but he appears now as a fully developed character, and the flaws in his personality, his determination to please his family, seem much more genuine in light of these revelations.

Jane (Hoopes) states that she'd much rather go camping with Daria's family than attend the Lane family reunion, at which neither of her parents will be in attendance. Jane elaborates stating that their branch of the family is only ever invited because they're the black sheep of the Lane clan, and hating them gives the rest of the Lanes something to talk about. It's questionable why the Lanes would even bother inviting a group of people they visibly dislike to the reunion, but worse yet is why Jane and Trent (Alvaro J. Gonzalez) would go when their parents aren't even around to force them to. Were there at least one relative that either Jane or Trent enjoyed visiting it would seem much more genuine, but the fact that they hate being there, and the Lanes hate having them, makes it far more likely that Jane and Trent would simply skip the festivity altogether and lie to their parents about having gone in the first place.

The Lane family reunion itself is shown only in brief snippets with no real purpose beyond explaining why Jane and Trent are so disconnected from their extended family. The reunion serves only to give Jane a story within this episode, but it really should have been excised in favor of more of a focus on the Morgendorffer camping trip, as so little attention was given to the reunion that, beyond arriving and departing, nothing much actually happened.

Rebodello is finally given an opportunity to flesh out Jake as a character, and he shows his range as Jake dwells on his past with his father and later starts hallucinating as the berries take effect. This story is very much about Jake, and Rebodello's work in this episode goes a long way to making Jake a sympathetic and very real character, breaking away from the wacky stereotype that he was falling into and helping the viewer understand what might have attracted Helen to him in the first place. While Hoopes' work as Quinn is somewhat screechy at the top of the episode, she, too, shows the quality of her voice acting as the youngest Morgendorffer worries about her family's safety, hitting the right emotions and proving that Quinn's not as self-involved as she presents herself.

Director Karen Disher adds in a flashback to Helen and Jake's youth as hippies, contrasting very nicely with the business-driven people they've become, showing just how far they've come from who they once were and how far they need to go back in order to find the rest and relaxation they so desire. The inter cutting between the Morgendorffer's campfire tales with the Lane family reunion help to show the similarities between Daria and Jane's plights, proving that, even apart, their stories often gel with one another. A good and fairly subtle touch to the episode is the dilating of Helen, Quinn, and Jake's eyes as the poisonous berries take effect, giving a visual clue as to when the family has gone off their rockers and warning the audience of the danger in which Daria was about to find herself.

Glen Eichler provides a simple story in order to deliver a series of commentaries on who his characters are, beginning with Jake's work-related stresses causing a blood vessel in his eye to burst, and running from there by having Helen force the rest of the family on a weekend-long camping trip. The differences between the stories that Quinn and Daria tell around the campfire are very telling about where they are personally, as Quinn relates a series of fairy tales, judging the fashion choices within them, while Daria tells gruesome stories that actually make the others physically ill. Quinn's stories are designed to allow her to mock others to make herself feel better, while Daria's stories are done in an effort to make herself feel better by having those around her feeling progressively uncomfortable, and while neither sister really wants to participate, it is Quinn who is making some kind of effort to enjoy herself by bringing her interests into the situation while Daria is simply content to wallow in her misery.

It seemed, however briefly, that Daria and Quinn were connecting with one another in a way that they haven't had a chance to before, perhaps hinting at a more solid bond between the two in the future. As for Jake, his issues with his father are very clearly laid out here, and it would be a shame if his father never appeared as a proper character within one of the stories in order to give them a chance to work through their problems.

The review for "the Misery Chick" can be read here.