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Line 4: \|originalairdate=March 10, 1997 \|specialguestvoices= \|writtenby=[[Anne D. Bernstein]] \|directedby=[[Karen Disher]] }} '''“The Invitation”''' was the second episode of the first season of <i>Daria</i>. In this episode, Daria and Jane are invited to a cheerleader's party. Hilarity ensues. ==Plot Summary== When Daria helps Brittany with an assignment in art class, Brittany thanks her by inviting her -- "just this once" -- to her upcoming party. (Of course, it's a back-handed compliment, as Daria was only invited because Brittany promised "not to invite any more really attractive girls.") Daria doesn't want to go, but is eventually persuaded by two people: Jane, who sees it as an opportunity to get some really great sketches; and Quinn, who's deathly afraid that Daria will do something to embarrass her (which, naturally, proves to be the biggest incentive of all). After turning down Helen and Jake's offer to drive them to the party, Quinn gets a ride with Joey, Jeffy, and Jamie -- three members of the football team who have become Quinn's biggest admirers (read: slaves to her every whim) -- while Daria and Jane get a ride with Jane's musician brother, Trent, on whom the normally stoic Daria appears to have more than a passing interest. Unfortunately, Jane only has a brief opportunity to kid her about it before arriving at the gate house for Crewe Neck, the gated community where Brittany lives. Daria's on the guest list, but Jane is not; however, they're able to slip past the guard when Jane distracts him with some of her "life drawing" sketches. The party itself is your typical teenage bash: music, munchies, and making out in the laundry room. While Daria and Jane are given a tour of the house by Upchuck (who only got invited because he dissected Brittany's frog in science class), Quinn is waited on hand and foot by Joey, Jeffy, and Jamie, but immediately goes into hiding once she sees Daria and Jane arrive. Daria, however, is not about to let her off the hook that easily; besides, she figures, torturing Quinn is the only fun she's likely to have at the party. Quinn finally bribes Daria to leave her alone when she starts telling embarrassing stories to Joey, Jeffy, and Jamie. Satisfied, Daria tracks down Jane (who had slipped off to the make-out room with a boy she had met) and both leave the party, just one step ahead of both party crashers and the cops (who were called by a neighbor upset about the noise). As the party ends, Upchuck drives up and gives Daria, Jane, and Quinn (who was left rideless when Joey, Jeffy, and Jamie beat each other up) a ride home. During the art class they have together at [[Lawndale High School]], [[Daria Morgendorffer\|Daria]] helps [[Brittany Taylor\|Brittany]] understand one-point perspective. Brittany wishes to repay Daria for her help and invites her to a party at her house. Daria talks about it with [[Jane Lane\|Jane]] and even though Daria is reluctant they both decide to go. [[Quinn Morgendorffer\|Quinn]] is horrified that Daria is going to a party she will be attending, and tries to convince their parents to forbid Daria from going. However, [[Helen Morgendorffer\|Helen]] and [[Jake Morgendorffer\|Jake]] are thrilled Daria is going and that both sisters have an opportunity to bond. Helen asks Daria to keep an eye on Quinn. Daria and Jane are dropped off at Brittany's house by [[Trent Lane\|Trent]]. Jane bribes her way in by leaving her sketch book (containing "life studies") with the gate guard, and then convinces Brittany to invite her in by promising to help her in geometry ("Lots of circles, squares and triangles"). There they meet [[Charles "Upchuck" Ruttheimer III]], who offers to lead them on a tour of the house. Meanwhile, Quinn is waited on by [[The Three Js]] (to varying degrees of success), popular-obsessed students (including [[Sandi Griffin\|Sandi]], [[Tiffany Blum-Deckler\|Tiffany]] and [[the Popular Girl]]) discuss the assumed popularity of nearby students, and Brittany shows the house to [[Mack Mackenzie\|Mack]] and [[Jodie Landon\|Jodie]]. Later that evening, two young men try to interact with Daria and Jane using some corny pick-up lines, which do not impress Daria. Jane is receptive to the boys (if not their pickup lines) and disappears with one (whom she refers to as Bobby Bighead) for a while. Left to her own devices, Daria embarrasses Quinn by associating with her and telling the Three J's some embarrassing (and possibly false) stories about Quinn's childhood. Quinn, fed up with her, bribes Daria to leave her alone and go home. Despite Daria's stories and Quinn's decision not to choose a boyfriend right then, the Three J's continue to fawn over Quinn, even going so far as start a fight over her, to Quinn's delight. Meanwhile, the guard at the front gate is so enthralled with Jane's sketch book that he leaves his post to find her, allowing some gatecrashers to enter unabated. Eventually, an angry neighbor appears with the police and ends the party. Around that time, Daria and Jane, having already decided to leave, take advantage of the guard's absence to pretend to be the new community gatekeepers, and ask personal questions, along with trivia, to the residents as proof of identity. Daria and Jane are later joined are joined by Quinn, who no longer has a ride home as all three J's have knocked each other out and the police have ended the party. Otherwise stranded at Brittany's, they accept Upchuck's offer to drive them home. ==First appearances== This episode is the first to show many of the number of supporting characters: [[Claire Defoe\|Ms. Defoe]], Trent, Mack, Jodie, Upchuck, Joey, Jeffy, and Jamie. It also debuts characteristics, attitudes or catch phrases that would later become recurring traits. These include: * The [[Three Js]] and their slaving and competing over Quinn, and nobody remembering Jamie's real name * Mack having to put up with being called "Mack Daddy" by [[Kevin Thompson]] * Trent's lazy attitude and rock star aspirations * Upchuck's "feisty" persona * Jane revealing that she is not shy around boys * Daria doing Quinn's homework for money * The first inklings of Daria's crush on Trent Lane * Sandi and Tiffany being interested in popularity (more than other students) and left bemused by Daria's lack of fashion ==The script== Bernstein uploaded the shooting script (see Links) and in that: * The acts come in different places - originally meant to go after the dinner scene and after the party crashers arrive. * Daria is deliberately speeding up at the start when behind Quinn, to intentionally freak her out. * Ms. Defoe and the Three J's get descriptions ("three nearly identical jockboys"), which the main characters do not. Upchuck, who Bernstein has said she created, gets a description just like them ("the least popular person at the party, besides Daria and Jane... due to his large ears, bad haircut, and the fact that he is really quite annoying") - this indicates Bernstein created the J's and Defoe too. * When Jane describes Trent practicising the opening to ''Come As You Are'', a cut line has her say "he's almost got it". * There are two gags cut from the dinner scene. After Quinn and Daria jointly rebel at their parents picking them up from parties, a cut gag: "Daria and Quinn look at each other, and are terribly embarrassed by their identical reaction. They pull away from each other in disgust." After Helen steers Daria into going: "Daria and Helen smile (daggers) at each other. Jake looks from one to the other, then nervously goes back to his meal. They keep smiling. Head down, his eyes shift between them one more time." * "People are milling about in limited animation." * Tiffany goes unnamed: she's simply called "Popular Girl Two". ==Errors== Sandi is told about Quinn's popularity status, which she would already know because Quinn joined the Fashion Club last episode. ==Trivia== The theme of popularity marks its first entrance here, which becomes a key element in later episodes and a huge quantity of Fanfiction. Daria's social status is confirmed by both Brittany and Tori Jericho as not popular, while "not so ''un''popular that you couldn't come to my party". Tori says Quinn "was new and cute, so she became, like, popular overnight". Daria has actually ''been'' to parties in the [[Beavis and Butt-head (comics)\|''Beavis and Butt-head'' comics]] on [[Beavis and Butt-head issue 16\|two]] [[Activity Page: Science X-Periments#Trivia\|occassions]] and [[Beavis and Butt-head issue 10\|one was held at her house]]. She didn't seem happy in either case - her dislike of parties comes from experience. Jane's plan to claim she's Tiffany ("there's bound to be one") is undone when there's ''three'' Tiffany's invited. "[[Cafe Disaffecto]]" reveals there are, indeed, three Tiff's in one of Quinn's classes! The background character nicknamed [[Shaggy]] appears herein and in one startling sequence is shown to be in two different places at the same time, leading to speculation that he has paranormal powers. This is one of several early episodes where Tiffany talks at a normal rate, as opposed to the slow rate of speech which would become characteristic of the character. In this early episode, Stacy is ''not'' part of Sandi's group but seems to be hanging out with other people. Was she not fully in Sandi's sphere of influence yet? Sandi can be seen dancing up a storm on her own, without a care in the world. Upchuck says the family den "was inspired by the novels of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Blixen Isak Dinesen]", which (considering her most famous book was ''Out of Africa'') is him being snarky about those fake tigers. Upchuck is a lot less pervy in this episode than he'll become. An episode of ''Family Guy'' has a shoutout to this episode, as Joe Swanson replicates the first part of Daria's interaction with Bobby Bighead (before running off crying "''You're mean!''") Trent is curiously seen amongst the gatecrashers. ==Fanfiction Stories== This episode has been covered multiple times in fanfic, almost as often as [[Esteemsters]], due to the appearance of all the above characters. First off, there are [[ficlet]]s featuring plots such as everyone smoking pot and getting busted by police and other random happenings. Secondly, more and more AU fanfics have started with serious canon divergences before "[[Esteemsters]]", and have gone on to tell alternate-universe versions of this episode. Other stories that use the episode plot are: * [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/385529/1/Beyond_Between "Beyond Between,"] by [[Medea42]] (AU) * [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1712211/1/DARIAS_LANE_Excerpt_01_Party_me_Hardly "Daria's Lane: Party Me Hardly,"] by [[Ace Trax]] (AU) * [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4497145/1/The_Brotherhood_of_the_Traveling_Pants "The Brotherhood of the Traveling Pants,"] by [[Medea42]] * [[John]] by [[Richard Lobinske]], giving Daria and John their first taste of the temptations they face. * [[Esteem Roller]], by [[legendeld]]: Daria, Jane and Quinn all attend the party * [[The Invitation revised]] by [[Wouter]] which shows what happened in the make out room with Jane and [[Bobby Bighead]] * [http://www.thepaperpusher.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=463545#p463545 Invite of the Geek] by [[cfardell Brenorenz29]] ==Transcript== [[The Invitation/transcript\|Transcript]] originally from [[Outpost Daria]] ==External Links== * [https://sites.google.com/site/dariatranscripts/102-the-invitation Transcript] at Daria Transcripts * [https://sites.google.com/site/dariatranscripts/102-the-invitation Transcript] at [[Daria Transcripts]] ~~{{succession box \| title="The Invitation," Season 1, Episode 2 \| before=[[Esteemsters]] (101) \| after=[[College Bored]] \| year=(102)}}~~ * [http://web.archive.org/web/20110519151748/http://outpost-daria.com/fanfic/ep102_the_invitation.html Episode novelization] at [[Outpost Daria]] (via Wayback Machine), by [[Martin J. Pollard]] * [http://www.the-wildone.com/dvdaria/anneinterview.html January 2006 interview with Anne D. Bernstein on DVDaria], the author of "The Invitation" briefly discusses the episode * [http://www.buzzdome.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/daria-invitation.pdf Shooting script of episode] at Anne Bernstein's website (PDF format) * [http://dariaphans.blogspot.com/2007/03/power-of-giri-review-of-invitation.html “‘The Power of ‘Giri’: A Review of 'The Invitation’”] by [[CINCGREEN]] at the [[Daria Fandom Blog]], March 10, 2007 * [https://archiveofourown.org/works/17623430/chapters/41550290#workskin Episode Analysis] by [[WellTemperedClavier]] {{succession box \| title=[[List of Daria Episodes\|Daria Episodes]]<br/>"The Invitation," Season 1, Episode 2 \| before=[[Esteemsters]] (101) \| after=[[College Bored]] \| year=(102)}} [[Category:Episodes\|Invitation,The]]