For what age: 9+
How many episodes in 4 season: 13 episodes
Mrs. Bennett has the class get into pairs for a budgeting project. Daria, angry at Jane for spending so much time with Tom, pairs up with Jodie instead; meanwhile Jane pairs up with Brittany. Daria and Jodie try to start their own business, but have trouble getting a loan from a bank because of their age and possibly Jodie's race. Jodie gets mad at Daria when she is criticized for using her father's clout in order to succeed. Meanwhile, Jane and Brittany try to purchase a car, but the car salesman seems much more interested in getting a date with Brittany.
Mr. O'Neill arranges a wilderness survival camping trip for the class, in order to experience firsthand the man-against-nature element of ''The Call of the Wild''. And experience it they do, what with Quinn's admirers electing to carry her bags instead of the food and supplies; Ms. Li ignoring student safety in order to get publicity from the trip; and a nasty blizzard that traps everyone in a cabin. Meanwhile, Helen and Jake stay in another cabin in the woods, hoping that their time alone will increase their level of intimacy and communication. They have trouble communicating until an injured and near-frozen Mr. DeMartino intrudes on them.
Kevin crashes his new motorcycle, injuring his knee. Temporarily unable to play football for the team (thereby also having to break up with Brittany), he can do nothing but feel sorry for himself, and the team goes on a massive losing streak that destroys the reputation of the school and the town. Taking a cue from Tom, Daria suggests that Kevin lecture to children about the dangers of motorcycles--which helps rebuild Kevin's self esteem, but does nothing for the team (whose replacement quarterback is a dangerous psycho). Kevin must make a decision: continue lecturing, or help the team out.
When members of the football team get suspiciously perfect scores on Mr. DeMartino's history test, he suspects that one of them stole the answers--specifically Kevin, who was on academic probation at the time. Mr. DeMartino threatens to fail the whole class unless the guilty party confesses, and Daria later makes sarcastic jokes about hugging Kevin for ruining her otherwise perfect academic record. At home, Daria has a dream that Kevin was huged, and although numerous people have a motive, Daria is considered the chief suspect. She enlists the relatively useless help of ''Upchuck's Angels''--seen here as the Fashion Club with voluminous hair--to prove her own innocence. This episode manages to poke fun at numerous '70s action shows, including Hawaii Five-0, The Fugitive, and, of course, Charlie's Angels (duh!).
Mr. O'Neill has his students each try something they are sure to fail at, so that they can achieve personal growth. Daria attempts to have her parents ground Quinn so that she can't attend a fashion expo; Jane tries to dress fashionably conformist in an attempt to fit in; Kevin tries to be a bad athlete; Brittany tries to be unpopular by constantly talking about social issues; Jodie tries to talk her parents into letting her kick back during the summer; and Mack tries to teach Kevin about the 3 branches of government. Though Daria, Jodie and Mack fail in their tasks (and therefore succeed in the assignment), the other three unexpectedly succeed in their attempts. Kevin gets kicked off the football team after losing a game, and Brittany alienates the cheerleading squad, who try to replace her with Jane. Since nobody's life changed for the better thanks to their attempts, Mr. O'Neill feels he has failed as a teacher--until Daria and Jane convince him that by doing so, he has succeeded in
Daria goes to the drugstore to buy toilet paper, not knowing that the Lawndale High Homecoming Parade is going on that day. By the time she gets out of the store, the street is crowded and she has a hard time getting home. She runs into Tad Gupty (the boy she babysat in Pinch Sitter), who has lost his parents. Reluctantly, she decides to help Tad out, and while they search for his parents, they run into Tom, who has been waiting for Jane at the wrong drugstore. Daria still resents Tom for all the time Jane has been spending with him, but she heads with him to the other drugstore to find Jane. During the course of the day, as Daria and Tom spend some time together, they find that they actually sort of like each other.
Daria accompanies Jake to a businessmen's convention, while Quinn invites the Fashion Club for a sleepover party. At the convention, Daria and Jake have trouble finding much common ground, and Jake tries to suck up to an egotistical restaurant tycoon who wants to take him ballooning--something that, given Jake's fear of heights, could prove very dangerous. At the sleepover party, the girls give Helen a makeover while she asks them advice about dealing with Jake. During the course of the night, Quinn and Sandi can barely hide the intense dislike they feel towards each other.
As an assignment from her law firm to determine if she has the makings of a partner, Helen takes the family to a therapy spa. The psychologists there evaluate them, and it is revealed that Daria is the only one of the four who is truly well rounded, despite her use of sarcasm to push people away. Helen, meanwhile, finds that she is a ruthless, win-at-all-costs shark who puts her career before everything else, including her family. Naturally, this gets her the promotion. Jane sets up ''Jane Cam'', a website that broadcasts her fairly mundane activities in her room. This does not go over well with Tom, who unwittingly shakes his ass for the entire world to see.
A labyrinthine discount-bulk-warehouse superstore serves as the destination for several characters. Jane goes there to buy Gummi Bears (for art supply purposes) after Tom ate hers. Daria accompanies her to buy new shoelaces, because Quinn stole the ones from her boot to repair a bag. Trent and Jesse go there to buy a headlamp and scented candles, respectively, and Tom accompanies them so he can find Jane and make up with her after their argument. (Walking with the two musicians, their half-brained purchase ideas drive him nearly up the wall.) The Fashion Club goes to the warehouse store to buy sunscreen and various other beauty needs, and, of course, their incredibly high standards prevent them from making any actual purchases. The free-sample cheese logs at the store become quite popular-an obsession, in fact, for hungry Mr. DeMartino, whose food budget is incredibly tight, and for Mrs. Johansen (a 300-pound hypoglycemic woman who is a recurring character). Kevin's dad, Doug, is holdi
When Jake's car doesn't start when he's supposed to pick up Quinn and the Fashion Club from the mall, the girls reluctantly take the bus, winding up in a creepy neighborhood and having to walk the rest of the way. Meanwhile, a worried Jake has Trent pick him up in his barely-operating vehicle, and they (along with Daria and Jane) search for Quinn and her friends. This storyline frames three ghost stories set during different decades, with the cast playing roles accordingly. ''The Rattling Girl of Lawndale'', told by Stacy, is about a girl in the 1960s (Sandi) that, in an attempt to become the most popular girl at Lawndale High by getting rid of the fat in her eyelids, became anorexic. At the school dance, she showed up so bony that when she danced, she made an annoying rattling sound and everyone laughed at her. Humiliated, she ran off, disappeared, and took her revenge by making the eyelids of all the girls at school puffy, causing the girls to become unpopular. The rattling of her bone
Quinn begins to take an interest in guardian angels, and after narrowly avoiding getting crushed by a chandelier; she becomes convinced that she has a guardian angel looking out for her. She then avoids the salad dressing that gives her friends food poisoning, thus deepening her belief. Daria looks at Quinn's behavior with skepticism and amusement. Jane, however, suspects that Daria's attitude toward it is fear that Quinn may be right, since everything seems to turn out okay for people like Quinn no matter how idiotic they behave. Brittany's father throws a huge party for his daughter for getting a C-minus average, and she invites everyone at school, even getting Mystik Spiral to perform. It is here that Quinn's good luck streak ends, after she spills juice on her new jeans and then shatters Brittany's gift (an expensive crystal bullhorn) by sitting on the mixing board controls, causing the amplifier feedback to go at full blast. Quinn feels depressed and disillusioned about her guardi
After Jake accidentally causes a kitchen fire, the family goes to stay in a hotel for a couple of weeks while the damaged areas are repainted. At the hotel, Helen and Jake find themselves relaxing to the point of being oblivious to what's around them. Quinn is courted by Bobby, a handsome bellhop who offers her various luxuries for free, claiming that his uncle owns the hotel. After he asks her out, Sandi (ever the eager backstabber) tries to convince Quinn that Bobby is a stalker. Quinn dismisses Sandi's suspicions as paranoia, but it is later revealed that Bobby lied about his uncle being the hotel manager. He had planned to pay for the luxuries by hacking into the hotel's computer and deleting the charges, and Quinn is horrified that she almost went out with a... ''computer geek'.' Meanwhile, Daria goes to stay with Jane for the duration. While there, she and Tom start bonding over intellectual topics that go right over Jane's head, and Jane becomes jealous. Daria tries to convince Ja
Jane plans to dye her hair to resemble tiger stripes, and to do it she enlists the help of Daria, who is reluctant for fear she will screw it up. While Daria is applying dye, Jane asks her why she has been spending so much time with Tom, a topic that Daria finds uncomfortable. Afterward, the dye job looks horrible, and Jane accuses Daria of deliberately screwing it up. With some prodding from Trent, Jane realizes she has been acting a bit paranoid, and after she dyes her hair back to normal she apologizes to Daria, who once again insists that she is not trying to steal Tom. Afterward, Tom and Daria have a talk where he says that the problems he and Jane are having are not caused by her, and she says she is not interested in him and doesn't want to stab Jane in the back. Then they passionately kiss. Racked with guilt, Daria confesses about it to Jane, who storms off angrily. Jane breaks up with Tom, though it becomes an amicable breakup as Jane realizes Tom and Daria make a better coupl
