Fire!

"Fire!" was the twelfth episode of the fourth season of the television series Daria. The title is often written without the exclamation mark.

Summary
The action begins with Jake accidentally setting the house 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 growing rift between Jane and Tom, and making it increasingly clear that them about Tom and Daria have a connection. Quinn temporarily winds up in the care of the police, and Jake and Helen start to enjoy a blissful, relaxed relationship with a strong sex (offscreen) life... until things go wrong again, causing them to break down into bitter recriminations again.

The scope of the relationship problem is made clear when Jane and Daria realise that, in order to be talking to Daria before he sees Jane, Tom had to have walked past Jane's room to talk to Daria. Before she leaves Jane's, Trent informs Daria that Tom is clearly interested in her and that, while nobody blames her for the situation, it's obvious she has feelings too. The final scene, with Daria staring out of the family car's side 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 romantic triangle between Daria, Tom, and Jane 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; Jane's growing issues with Tom had been turning up in other episodes as well, such as "Mart of Darkness" and "Psycho Therapy". Most reviewers have given this episode high marks, despite the fact that it leads into the most controversial episode of all, "Dye! Dye! My Darling."

Daria's Reading Material
When Tom enters Penny's room the first time, Daria is reading Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince.

When Trent talks to Daria, she's reading Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina.

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

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

This is not the first time that Jake Morgendorffer has set the stove on fire. He did so previously in "Write Where It Hurts."

The symbolism of fire in the fourth season of Daria is interesting, as a fire (requiring fire trucks to put it out) occurred in "I Loathe a Parade," the episode in which the bond between Daria and Tom becomes apparent. Further, in the episode shown immediately prior to "Fire!" ("Groped by an Angel"), Quinn Morgendorffer remarks that she "just finished a story about a family whose house caught on fire."

The opening to "Spiders" by System of a Down is heard as Jane is finishing talking to Jodie and Daria appears.

"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 indirectly contributed to a few stories (e.g., "Smoking Mirror," by TAG).

Alternate-Universe Versions of “Fire!”
MMan is possibly the only writer to have completed a fanfic in which "Fire!" is used in an alternate universe. "Without a Shower" is a wicked little AU tale making use of a plot device seen in the TV show Dallas, throwing open an entirely different Dariaverse rich with possibilities.

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," essay by Peter Guerin
 * "The Beginning of the End: Why 'Daria' is calling it quits after five seasons," essay by Peter Guerin
 * "Why Did It Come to This? A Critical Look at Daria at the Dawn of the New Millennium," essay by Brian Taylor
 * "The Other Side of The Kiss: An Examination of the Infamous 'Love Triangle'," essay by Kara Wild
 * "Improbable But Not Impossible," essay by Fayth S.
 * "Mike's Delayed Reaction Review #400 - Season Four in Review," essay by Mike Quinn
 * "Fired Up," a brief discussion of this episode's AU possibilities on the Daria Fandom Blog II.
 * "A Curious Footnote," on the DFB2
 * Daria Encyclopedia 0.0, by Roentgen: Do a search for "412" (the episode number) for specific details on the show

AU Versions of "Fire!"

 * "Without a Shower," by MMan