The Big House

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With both Morgendorffer sisters caught breaking curfew, Helen and Jake institute a family court that sees the girls grounded for a month.

The review for "Too Cute" can be read here.

Daria (Tracy Grandstaff) has always proved herself to be the more responsible of the two siblings, being asked by her mother Helen (Wendy Hoopes) time and again to watch out for sister Quinn (Hoopes.) It could be said that, through their shared punishment in this story, Helen was attempting to bond the sisters closer together, hoping that in the future the two would become more civil with one another, but it's also very telling about Helen and Jake's (Julián Rebolledo) emotionally neglectful parenting style. Daria's punishment here matches that of Quinn's, not out of necessity, but in an effort to have Daria remain a constant presence during Quinn's incarceration, likely to act as an example.

Jake has always been presented as the less authoritative parent, and here he is seen trying to take charge of the situation at hand and punish both of his daughters. As he tries to strike fear into the hearts of his teenagers, Helen can be heard in the background giving him advice, at one point telling him to sound more threatening, and, when he continues to flounder, admitting defeat and telling him that "[he] sound[s] like such a geek." It is only when Jake is appointed, by his wife, as the judge of their family court that he knows what it is to have his family listen to him and the power very quickly goes to his head. He begins barking orders and comes to believe that his position of authority here has changed how his daughters view him as a parent. It is only when Helen enables him that Jake feels he is parenting his children properly, and the moment she rescinds her support does Jake revert back to his original parenting style of deferring to his wife.

Daria and Quinn show a good understanding of each other's strengths and weaknesses here, starting from the top of the story wherein Daria is forced to ask her sister for advice on how to sneak into the house. Quinn is, in part, enabled by Daria's lack of enthusiasm and uses it to argue that late curfews should go to those who can really use them, those that are popular and pretty and have things to do, and there's a brief moment where everyone else in the room considers this, wondering if they might not agree with her, as Daria herself doesn't even care that she is grounded. As the days stretch on Quinn starts pacing the living room, stating that "the only thing more boring than reading is watching someone else read," and Daria simply smiles, taking delight in her sister's madness and refusing to acknowledge her as she knows that this will only perpetuate the fury that Quinn feels in her situation. Eventually Quinn breaks down and asks Daria for a book recommendation, only to have Daria hand her the Iliad, telling Quinn that she'll enjoy it because it's about a popular girl with lots of people fighting over her. Quinn hesitates as she takes the book from her sister, finally stating "this is a trick, isn't it?" to which Daria responds only with "yes." Later on Quinn catches Daria sneaking out of the house, vaguely threatening that she might let slip to their parents what Daria's doing, and Daria asks for this one favor. Quinn responds that "yes, [she] will do this thing [Daria] ask[s], but one day [she] may ask a favor of [her]," to which Daria exasperatedly responds that they should just forget it entirely, having, in that moment, become more than willing to allow herself to be ratted out to her parents.

The story starts with Quinn catching Daria sneaking into the house late at night, which, in itself, is already odd given what we've been shown of Daria's social life so far. While Quinn briefly questions where her sister was, the writers delve no deeper into the matter at hand, leaving her whereabouts and the company she was with in question and offering no clue as to whom she spent her night with. As she got out of the car she whispers "thank you," but it certainly can't be to her friend Jane (Hoopes) as she has no car to drive, nor is it Jane's brother Trent (Alvaro J. Gonzalez) as he drives a much different car. The car here is identical to the one in the earlier episode "Malled" wherein the Fashion Club forces a male student to drive them to the mall, though why Daria would have remained in contact with him is questionable. Quinn states that she's always out this late, but that it's strange for Daria to do the same, and she's absolutely right, as it seems that this scene was merely written in order to facilitate Helen's righteous anger at her daughters despite being out of character for the protagonist.

While Helen is often presented as being the more intelligent of the Morgendorffer parents, much more like Daria, and Jake is often more self-involved, as is Quinn, here they both seem somewhat oblivious to what's happening around them. Quinn states that she can't attend the family court because she has a date, then tries to backtrack and says that her date is with a study group, causing both Helen and Jake to allow her to leave despite the very obvious lie she just told. Both parents are shocked when they learn that their daughter had lied to them about the study group, but, as a lawyer, it's insane that Helen wouldn't be able to see through such an obvious ruse. What's more infuriating is that Quinn pleads guilty, and actually is guilty of her crime, and is allowed to leave for a date because she had made a prior engagement, whereas Daria also pleads guilty, when in actuality she is nothing but innocent, and ends up grounded for a month, not even allowed to attend a school function, Helen arguing that they "need to set boundaries." The parenting style in this house is so bizarre that it's no wonder that Daria has become so disconnected with her family.

There is something strange about Jodie's (Jessica Cydney Jackson) voice in her first scene, though later in the episode she sounds as she normally does again. Aside from Jodie, the rest of the voice acting is largely fine through the story, with Thompson differentiating between DeMartino and Kevin extremely well.

Directed by Karen Disher, this episode has a few nice touches to it, including the blink-and-you'll-miss-it shot of the family's Scrabble game that includes words such as incarcerate, captive, warden, torture, and brat, the latter assuredly being Helen's contribution. While the rumors regarding Daria's home situation escalate quickly throughout the school, it's questionable why no one would remark on Quinn's involvement, as, at least for Daria's close friends, they should be aware that the two are sisters. In theory, the intercutting of Quinn pacing the living room with her conversations on the phone should be well-presented, but the fact is that if she's not grounded from talking on the phone for hours on end, she likely isn't barred from watching television or movies, so her extreme boredom here is somewhat unfounded.

Sam Johnson and Chris Marcil team up to write this episode to varying degrees of success; while the character interactions are largely handled well, there are many aspects of the story that fall somewhat short. At the school, all of the students take a great amount of pleasure in Mr. DiMartino's (Marc Thompson) failing health, placing bets on when he will have a heart attack during the game, and it becomes a distraction because these characters we're meant to sympathize with are actively hoping to watch someone's potential death. Daria having come home late is written simply to facilitate the episode's narrative, never once giving explanation to where she had been, and it's all the more obvious in the end when Jane notes that "basically [Daria] convinced [her parents she's] too dull to be worth grounding," and it's the truth in that statement, coupled with the fact that the writers couldn't be bothered to think of a reason why Daria would be coming home late, that makes the script seem lazily written.

It will be interesting if Daria's secret life comes back into play, hopefully with an explanation of who she was with at the top of this episode, though it likely was merely a measure to facilitate the plot of this narrative.

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