This Year's Model

“This Year's Model” was the sixth episode of the first season of Daria.

Plot
Ms. Li is positively beside herself when she announces that Claude and Romonica, two talent scouts from the Amazon Modeling Agency, are to visit Lawndale High to look for potential models. Daria objects, naturally, pointing out the drawbacks of dropping out of school to pursue a career that's essentially over at age 25, but is paid no heed by Ms. Li (who's receiving a "small fee" for the school's cooperation). She can't even convince Jodie, who thinks it's perfectly fine since it's voluntary, and there's no way she'll convince Brittany, who believes that her dream is about to be fulfilled. When Claude and Romonica arrive, they take an interest in Brittany (and her, ah, "assets"), but immediately lock onto Jane and Daria. Jane immediately alienates them with a nasty caricature, and Daria blows them off with her usual sarcasm. Helen and Jake share Daria's concerns, a position that's put to the test when Quinn announces that she's been accepted into the class. Against her better judgment, and with a little coaxing by phone from Romonica, Helen allows Quinn to attend the open class, but that's it... then she's astonished when Daria easily agrees to keep an eye on her (which, of course, is for her own purposes: she senses "the total humiliation of Quinn" to be imminent). At the class, Claude and Romonica instruct the girls and the guys in rudimentary modelling moves, while Daria and Jane console a devastated Brittany (who wasn't accepted into the class). Things swiftly spiral out of control, however, when the girls are instructed to start rubbing the guys' chests, an action that Quinn refuses to take part in. When Ms. Li wanders into the auditorium to check up on things, she immediately shuts down the class as soon as she sees what is happening. The next day, Ms. Li gathers the students into the auditorium to announce the winner of the modelling contract. As she's about to announce the winner, a group of mercenaries marches into the auditorium, and the group's leader, General Buck Conroy, starts his recruitment speech. When Ms. Li objects, Conroy explains that she was the one who invited both him and the news media. Ms. Li is humiliated -- thanks to Daria, who was actually the one that called Conroy and the media -- and Quinn is devastated when she discovers that Kevin, of all people, has won the modelling contract.