Thomas Jefferson, philosopher, inventor, President, and keeper of one saucy journal. The Declaration of In My Pants, tonight, on Sick, Sad World

Jane does a painting called The Lady or The Tiger that she's very proud of, and plans to do a big unveiling at the school, and wants Daria to help her.
Helen is really stressed out about a major case she's got going on at work, and has been working eighteen hour days.
Daria tries to back out of helping Jane because she knows she'll do a bad job, but Jane forces her to try and dye her hair in a striped pattern (to match her painting). While Daria's working on her hair, Jane accuses her of trying to steal Tom. Daria gets really upset at the accusation, even after Jane sort-of tries to withdraw it. When it turns out that Daria did make a mess of the dye job, Jane gets really angry and jealous and throws Daria out.
Trent takes Jane off to get some black dye to fix her hair, and has a nice talk with her in the car that calms her down some.
Daria spends the next day trying to talk to Jane, but she won't answer the door or the phone and she skips school. Daria finally calls Helen to talk, but she turns out to be very busy (and angry and loud in the background) so Daria finally calls Tom instead to see if he knows if Jane is all right. Tom isn't really sure, and Daria says she's going to go try to talk to Jane again.
Jane finally answers the door, and she and Daria have a talk about Tom. Jane confesses her jealousy (after more accusations) and Daria states that there's nothing going on between her and Tom after Jane calms down enough to realize that Daria wouldn't try to hurt her.
When Daria gets home, Tom is waiting outsider her house in his car (the Fashion Club is having a blush comparison inside) and gets Daria to sit down to talk. Daria gets mad at him for messing everything up. Then Tom says that he and Jane were bored with one another, and these things happen, and it has nothing to do with Daria. After a little arguing, they end up kissing -- twice.
Daria feels so bad about it that when Helen isn't at home she even tries to get some advice from Quinn. Unfortunately, it's what you'd expect from Quinn (ie. useless), so Daria just goes to school, where she confesses to Jane that she kissed Tom. There's a big scene in the middle of the hall, and Jane runs off.
Jane goes over to Tom's house and shouts at him for a while while he accepts all the blame for the whole thing. They end up having a more peaceful talk in the backyard, where Jane alternately insults and defends Daria to Tom.
Daria finally goes and talks to her mother at work, and Helen takes the time out to go talk with her over lunch (or dinner; not sure about the time). After a bad start, Helen gives Daria some realistic advice that helps her out some.
Trent and Jane have another talk, which cheers up Jane enough that she has Trent take her over to Daria's for yet another talk.
Jane tells Daria that she and Tom broke up, but not over Daria, and that it's okay for Daria to go out with him. Daria doesn't believe her, but they really can't do much to patch things up right now other than declare a truce.
At the very end of the episode, Daria is ceiling-watching in her room when the phone rings and no one else answers it. She finally answers, and it's Tom.

"Sorry, can't stay for breakfast. Must get my files together for the seven a.m. I'm sorry, but this is the biggest case I've ever had! Oh. It's five in the morning. Why would anyone be up? Now who am I talking to?" -- Helen ("Dye! Dye! My Darling")

"Does this mean you'll be ordering the pizza with entrails?" -- Daria ("Dye! Dye! My Darling")

Daria: I bet for twenty bucks and a bag of doughnuts that girl behind the counter would come over to your house and help you with this.
Jane: You know Daria, not everyone in the world conducts themselves by the same ruthlessly mercenary principles as you and your family.
Daria: That's why I threw in the donuts. To give the deal a personal touch.

Jane: Look Daria, this is the kind of activity that teen girls do together to cement their friendship. Don't you want to cement our friendship?
Daria: I'd probably do better with actual cement.

"Let's see, this is very complicated. Identify and isolate a target tress, immobilize, and initiate application." -- Jane ("Dye! Dye! My Darling")

Jane: Oh, come on, it's just hair.
Daria: That's what Samson said.

Daria: You're accusing me of having some kind of designs on your boyfriend, and you tell me "don't worry about it?"
Jane: Hair... Ow!
Daria: Sorry.

Jane: I'm telling you, she wanted to screw up my hair. Anyone with the least bit of painting experience couldn't possible do that bad a job by accident.
Trent: I didn't know she paints.
Jane: Huh? Oh... she doesn't.
Trent: Oh. Then why she'd think she could do your hair?
Jane: Well, she didn't. Actually, I kind of made her.
Trent: Why'd you do that?

Jodie: She had some big surprise she was going to unveil today. She kept talking about the lady or the tiger.
Daria: Um, the tiger turned out to be more of a penguin with eczema.

Daria: Can you picture me making out with anyone? Ever?
Jane: (pause) Can I stop short of your wedding night?

"Why? Why? Because I moved to this town and I knew immediately that I'd be a total outcast, and in the one moment of good luck I've had in my entire life I met another outcast who I could really be friends with, and not feel completely alone, and then you came along and screwed the whole thing up." -- Daria ("Dye! Dye! My Darling")

Jane: What am I going to do? Tag along on your dates? Forget it, that's too weird for me.
Tom: Yeah. I don't know why we expected her to do it.

Daria: Now I don't know what's going on, I have nobody to talk to about it, and that's why I came to you.
Helen: Oh.
Daria: I didn't mean it that way.

Jane: So how come every five minutes I feel like I'm gonna throw up?
Trent: I don't know. You haven't been eating out of the refrigerator again, have you?

Daria: So. What happens now?
Jane: I was hoping you knew.
Daria: Are we still friends?
Jane: (shrugs)
Daria: Are we?
Jane: Yeah. We're the kind of friends that can't stand the sight of each other.
Daria: Temporarily, right?
Jane: I hope so, Daria.

Wraith's Ramblings:
A good drama, but with almost no humor. Good as a season ending, and a setup for the movie.
Also see my Rambling of 11-17-00.