Cafe Disaffecto

“Cafe Disaffecto” was the fourth episode of the first season of Daria. The title is sometimes written as "Café Disaffecto," but the accent mark over the e was not present in the episode title on the show.

Plot Summary
A computer is stolen from "alt.lawndale.com", the student cybercafe in Lawndale. English teacher Timothy O'Neill mentions this in class for discussion, as a break from Romeo and Juliet. Kevin fails at expressing his feelings on the theft and vandalism, after first denying having anything to do with it. Jodie feels angry about the robbery, though she admits the cafe served a limited clientele. Daria mocks the teacher's statement about being cut off from the "virtual community", stating sitting in a room staring at a computer screen and not talking to anybody for hours doesn't constitute a community. Misunderstanding Daria's comments, O'Neill decides to reopen the establishment as a more traditional coffeehouse.

Later that day, at Schloss Morgendorffer, Daria, Helen and Jake talk about extracurricular activities. Helen insists that Daria do something besides school, so that she can include it in future college applications. She ends up convincing Daria to look for an activity by threatening to send her to Music Camp (an activity Daria detests). This despite both Daria's (and, proving no help to Helen, Jake's) opinion that colleges care more about affording tuition than extracurriculars. Daria ends up volunteering for the coffeehouse, choosing to raise funds instead of performing on stage. She convinces Jane to join her by finding a reason she would accept (namely, the chance to see inside houses and make fun of people's tastes).

Other students are also involved in fundraising: Kevin and Brittany try to sell wrapping paper, magazine subscriptions, CD's/cassettes, and flower seeds to Anthony DeMartino, who refuses to buy anything on the general principal that he does not want to contribute to another place for students to sloth. Quinn uses her feminine wiles to convince/ manipulate a guy named Danny into buying long-distance phone cards.

Daria and Jane sell chocolate bars door-to-door. Their first client is Mrs. Johansen, an obese woman who is short of breath and faints while talking to them. When Mrs. Johansen insinuates that she is forbidden to eat chocolate by her doctor, Daria refuses selling her any bars, despite the woman's pleas to buy their whole supply. Back at school, Mrs Li reprimands the two students for not having sold anything and having refused to sell to a willing client, despite Daria's explanation of her medical condition. Fortunately for them, the lack of money from the aborted chocolate sale is compensated by the huge success Quinn has in selling phone cards.

Daria, however, still has no credit for the coffee house opening, so she agrees to read at opening night. After considering and passing over several of her old stories, she decides to write a new one.

The opening night comes, and the coffee house (called Café Lawndale) has several performers: A male rock musician sings some lines before destroying his own guitar on stage; Brittany and Kevin attempt to do Romeo and Juliet's balcony scene; Andrea reads some lines of her poetry. Finally, Daria reads her new story, a spy thriller presenting the female secret agent Melody Powers. The originally disinterested audience slowly warms up to Daria's story and bursts in applause and cheers at its concluding.

The following day, at breakfast, Jake reads in the newspaper the side effect to the success of Daria's story: some Lawndale Lions had formed an anti-communist rally and had attempted to stone the Russian embassy (despite the lack of one in Lawndale), causing the closing of the Café Lawndale.

The episode concludes with the robbery of Café Lawndale that night.

“Cafe Disaffecto” and Fanfic
Throughout Kara Wild's Driven Wild Universe series, Cafe Lawndale undergoes several changes. In "The Tie That Chokes," it returns to being a student coffee house, with the added presence of armed security. In "Erin the Head," Cafe Lawndale has closed altogether and has been turned into a new "happening" venue called the Metreonopolis. Finally, in "Into the Fire," we learn that the Metreonopolis was shut down and turned into the more tasteful, sedate Café Brunoli, which caters to older clientèle. In each case, with the exception of the last one, disaster befell the café, just as it did in "Cafe Disaffecto."

In "Can I Just Have The Coffee?" Daria is convinced for different reasons to read a story at the coffee house, with John Lane egging on the near-rioting football players.

In "Esteem Roller", by Legendeld, Quinn receites a poem with a accompaniment by fellow skatters, and Daria reads a story she had written (with some spy themes, as in the canon version). Both get a good response from the audience.

Trivia
This is the first canon appearance of Melody Powers. This fictional-character-within-the-series would get a strong backing and response by the fandom.

The original name of the student coffee house, alt.lawndale.com, was later used as the name of a Daria fandom website that claimed to be the third unofficial Daria site created. The site is no longer maintained or updated.