10-26-00

Hail,

Although I'm still a bit unsure about Daria's actions, "Pierce Me" was a pretty decent episode. The scenes between Trent and Jane were great, as was the teasing of the shipper faction. I'm sure the look at Trent's character was greatly pleasing to a large number of fans, but it was interesting anyway
The mother-daughter fashion show was a bit of a tossed-in subplot. I'm not sure why, but it does seem that there's a writing guideline of "one main story, one sub-story per episode; no more no less", and we've got some rather odd subplots from it. Having recently held a bridal expo, I guess it's not beyond question that Ms. Li would have a fashion show, but it's a wonder the parents in Lawndale let her get away with this stuff. Quinn's interaction with Helen was pretty good this episode, especially at the end of the episode before Quinn gets what's coming to her.

But, back to Daria herself. For the most part there wasn't much too far out of her normal actions, but there were a couple things. That little daydream waiting for Trent to call back seemed pretty pointless, except as the tie-in for Daria's idea on what Trent should give Jane. Daria shaking so badly that Axle had to tell her to stop was rather odd, as we haven't seen anything else in the entire series to indicate that she was as much of a "pain wimp" as shown in this episode. This, unfortunately, seemed to be there just for an excuse to have Daria and Trent holding hands (amazing how quickly she recovered from her discomfort from meeting Monique).
It's been almost a year in show-time, and Daria, who's usually very honest with herself, still hasn't realized that she and Trent would not go well together (and yes, I knew this before fourth season). They're just too different, and the length which with this gets dragged out is rather, well, sad. This episode would have been better placed much closer to "Road Worrier."

Still, all in all, it's better than most of this season. I haven't seen a second-season episode yet that would fit in the "best" list, but at least this one has a Daria Classic ending.

Wraith