Fire!

"Fire!" was the twelfth episode of the fourth season of the television series Daria.

Summary
The action in this episode begins with Jake's setting the family home on fire, forcing the family to temporarily move to a hotel. In the course of this episode, Sandi Griffin becomes jealous (and suspicious) of the attention heaped upon Quinn by a bellboy, Daria temporarily moves in with Jane (thus exacerbating the emerging conflict between them about Tom Sloane's and Daria's increasingly obvious connection), Quinn temporarily winds up in the care of the police, and Jake and Helen have a lot of sex (offstage, thank God) to get around the fact that they no other meaningful communication with each other. The final scene, with Daria staring out of the family car's rear window as she mulls over her feelings about Tom, is potent and evocative.

This is one of the few episodes that actually leads somewhere, setting up the coming triangle in "Dye! Dye! My Darling." Every other conflict and issue in the story is resolved except for the growing attraction between Daria and Tom, and Jane's recognition of the same, all of which was first seen in "I Loathe a Parade" and expanded upon here.

Trivia
The title of this episode is one of the trademark phrases that Beavis often used in Beavis and Butt-head, from which Daria was derived.

The episode “Fire!” is available on the DVD of Is It Fall Yet?

"Fire!" and Fanfic
The events in "Fire!" are rarely mentioned in fanfic except in passing, despite the fact that it directly leads into "Dye! Dye! My Darling." However, certain elements of the episode, such as Penny Lane's room and its contents, have had some indirect effect on a few stories.

On “Fire!” the Episode

 * "Fire!" transcript on Outpost Daria
 * "Fire!" summary and review on Outpost Daria
 * "Fire!" summary on Sick, Sad World (website)
 * "Fire!" review on Sick, Sad World (website)
 * "Fire!" annotations on Sick, Sad World (website)
 * "Fire!" summary and more on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
 * "Fire!" summary on Fandango.com
 * "Fire!" summary and more on the Big Cartoon Database
 * "Fire!" summary and more on RetroJunk.com
 * "Fire!" summary on TV.com
 * "American Animation's Finest Hour: Why 'Fire!' and 'Dye! Dye! My Darling' Have Reached a High-Water Mark for U.S. Cartoons," a review by Peter Guerin
 * "The Beginning of the End: Why 'Daria' is calling it quits after five seasons," by Peter Guerin
 * "Why Did It Come to This? A Critical Look at Daria at the Dawn of the New Millennium," by Brian Taylor (author)
 * "Improbable But Not Impossible," by Fayths
 * "Mike's Delayed Reaction Review #400 - Season Four in Review," by Mike Quinn

Alternate-Universe Versions of “Fire!”

 * "Without a Shower," by MMan: a wicked little AU tale making use of a plot device seen in the TV show Dallas.