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'''“The Misery Chick”''' was the thirteenth and last episode of the first season of <i>Daria</i> . It first aired on MTV on July 21, 1997. ▼''For other uses of "The Misery Chick", see [[The Misery Chick (disambiguation)]].''
==Plot==
▲'''“The Misery Chick”''' was the thirteenth and last episode of the first season of <i>Daria</i>. It first aired on MTV on July 21, 1997.
Lawndale High is being honored by a visit from alumnus Tommy Sherman, who's being honored for his football prowess by the dedication of a new goalpost in his name. Kevin, naturally, is deep in the throes of hero worship, but Daria and Jane are less than impressed, particularly when Jane explains why they're naming a goalpost after him (seems that he insisted on running the touchdowns himself, but he got so wrapped up in waving to the crowd that he'd hit the goalpost). When Tommy arrives, he actually manages to lower Daria's opinion of him by proving himself to be an egotistical and misogynistic jerk. After hitting on Brittany and insulting Kevin and Mack, Daria can stand it no longer and tells the guy off, and in turn, Tommy accuses Daria of being one of those "misery chicks" that's always depressed about everything. Daria blows his comments off, but is still angry that the jerk is going to be treated like a hero for the rest of his life. Jane jokes that maybe he won't actually live that long... words that become prophetic when the new goalpost falls on him and kills him. Not unexpectedly, this event sends the whole school into mourning, but what Daria doesn't expect is the attention she's suddenly receiving, as first Kevin, then Brittany, then Mr. O'Neill, and finally Quinn comes to her for advice on dealing with this tragedy, because after all, she's "the misery chick." What's even stranger, though, is that Jane is doing everything she can to avoid talking to Daria, thereby depriving her of an outlet for her frustrations about the reputation she's been given. Daria finally goes over to Jane's house to ask her what's going on, and after a somewhat reassuring talk with Trent, she corners Jane in her bedroom and demands an explanation. Jane admits that she was disturbed about how her little joke came true, which is making her feel somehow responsible for his death. Daria then vents about how people assume that she's miserable all the time, when the truth is that she's just not like them. She "makes people think," Jane tells her, which is why Jane didn't want to talk to her: she didn't want to think about it. After talking things out, they're able to agree on three things: Jane wasn't responsible, Daria isn't a "misery chick," and Tommy Sherman was a major-league jerk (but he still shouldn't have died). Unfortunately, Daria can't shake her reputation that easily, as she finds out when Sandi asks her for advice on dealing with her depression over her cat eating her makeup and getting sick. Daria decides that if she can't shake her reputation, she should profit from it, and charges Sandi $10 for some useless advice. Afterwards, Daria feels bad about making $10 off of Sandi's suffering... because she should have charged her $20.
"The Misery Chick" was written by [[Glenn Eichler]].
==Summary==
Former Lawndale High football star [[Tommy Sherman]], a student who had attended school three years previously, is returning to have a goal post named in his honor. [[Daria Morgendorffer|Daria]] is told of the his athletics exploits, including his tendency to score touchdowns by himself, his habit of crashing into goalposts while waving at the crowd and his induced coma from which he had awaken up to win the state championship years before. This description prompts sarcastic remarks about the student and his expected future life, both to [[Jane Lane|Jane]] and to [[Jodie Landon|Jodie]], the latter of whom is angry she has to write an introductory speech for Sherman.
However, Tommy Sherman is shown to be a very unpleasant person, strutting through the school halls, bluntly propositioning [[Brittany Taylor|Brittany]] and insulting [[Kevin Thompson|Kevin]] and [[Mack Mackenzie|Mack]] shortly after arriving in Lawndale High.
Daria, who witnesses this behavior, is fed up and verbally belittles Tommy when the later makes some nasty remarks to her and Jane as Daria was just asking him to move (he was leaning on her locker). Tommy, however, doesn’t get mad at the verbal barb and makes one of his own, pointing out HE’S a winner who’s going to be honored, whereas Daria is just a depressed whiner girl, nicknaming her ‘misery chick’. After the exchanged insults, he sets out to the football field for the ceremony. As Daria expresses her disdain about a jerk like him being seen as a hero for the rest of his life and Jane casually remarking that "Maybe he won't live that long." , Tommy is crushed by the falling goalpost.
[[File:Tommy died.JPG|thumb|250px|left|"Err, what did just happen?"]]
The next days are filled with reactions to his death. Mrs. Li address a student’s assembly, praising Sherman, as with an inconsolable Kevin cries all throughout the ceremony. Daria, on the other hand, Daria finds herself the object of much unwanted attention from other students and even a teacher. They feel either sad or anxious by the situation and consider Daria to be a candidate to understand death related subjects, since she is a thinking person. Despite her unease with her role and label of misery chick, Daria consoles Kevin, Brittany, [[Timothy O'Neill|O’Neill]] and even [[Quinn Morgendorffer|Quinn]]. At the same time, Daria finds herself being avoided by Jane.
Finally fed up with her friend’s absences, she goes meet her at the [[Casa Lane|Lanes]]. After a brief conversation with [[Trent Lane|Trent]], where he reveals Tommy and he had been classmates but hadn’t had much contact, Daria confronts Jane in her room. After an awkward beginning, Daria expresses her frustration: that people keep assuming she's miserable and therefore knows what to do, when she ''isn't'' miserable, just not like the others. Jane explains the reason the others were coming to her was that they were searching for ways to deal with Sherman and to stop thinking about life and death, thinking Daria would be the best to approach; when they say she's miserable, they mean "you think" and they want to know how to cope with having to think things they don't want to.
Jane admits she had been avoiding Daria because she didn’t want to remember that her comment might had caused the football player’s death, a notion Daria quickly dismisses, and the two clear the air on all the sore points: that Jane doesn't think Daria's a misery chick, and that Daria knows Tommy Sherman shouldn't have died but that he also wasn't a nice person. Afterwards, Jane admits she told Trent to say to anyone that visits that she was out running. "What a surprise, he forgot." "He didn't," replies Daria.
Soon everything is back to normal in Lawndale high, though Daria gets to lay things down when asked a question about Tennyson's "better to have loved and lost" quote, as she says realising that life is both good ''and'' painful is being realistic, not miserable, and recognises pain is better than feeling nothing. Despite all this, Daria is still approached a few days later. This time by [[Sandi Griffin|Sandi]], whose cat [[Fluffy]] is ill. However, Daria is now ready, demanding a cash payment in advance of delivering blunt, though effective, advice.
[[File:Collosal_jerk.GIF|thumb|250px|right|Daria and Jane in "The Misery Chick". Daria's coloring is far different from her usual looks.]]
==Trivia==
*In ''[[The Daria Diaries]]'', Sherman is mistakenly called Tommy ''Sheridan''.
*The later episode "[[A Tree Grows in Lawndale]]" shows a memorial tree for Tommy.
*Daria's comments on Tennyson provide a contrast with later episodes, which make it clear Daria has traditionally disengaged from the rest of the world rather than deal with it; in "[[Psycho Therapy]]", she even admits she's aware of why she does this. This, however, was before she moved to Lawndale and met Jane, someone Daria has called her first friend. In "[[Is It Fall Yet?]]", she'll withdraw again during a bust-up with Jane (following [[The Kiss]]) but find herself trying to convince a young boy, [[Link]], to not completely disengage.
* Daria's appearence color-wise in the episode was much paler than how she usually appears in the show.
* The Nostalgia Critic [http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/specials/32657-dougs-favorite-tv-shows held up this episode] as an example of ''Daria'' handling issues that teenagers would have to go through, comparing it to a real-life death of a disliked student at his school. He praised the episode for accurately how teenagers would be confused about how they should feel.
==“The Misery Chick” and Fanfic==
This events of this episode, or alternate versions thereof, have been used in multiple fanfics, including:
* [[John Lane]] story, [[Killing a Legend]] by [[Richard Lobinske]].
* [[Misery's End]], by [[Richard Lobinske]] (briefly).
* [[Deus Jane]], by [[The Angst Guy]]
* [http://theangstguy.com/fanfics/antisocial.htm The Antisocial Climber], by [[The Angst Guy]]
* [http://theangstguy.com/fanfics/lifebitparts.htm A Life of Bit Parts], by [[The Angst Guy]]
* [[The Misery Chicks]], by [[NightGoblyn]]
* [[God Save The Esteem]] fanfic [http://thepaperpusher.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=31116 "Misery, Clicked"] by [[Charles RB]]
* [http://thepaperpusher.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=31060 "Whatever happened to Tommy Sherman?"] by [[Chris Tucker]]
==External Links==
* [https://sites.google.com/site/dariatranscripts/113-the-misery-chick Episode Transcript] at Daria Transcripts
{{succession box | title=[[List of Daria episodes|Daria Episodes]]<br/>"The Misery Chick," Season 1, Episode 13 | before=[[The Teachings of Don Jake]] (112) | after=[[Arts 'N Crass]] | year=(113)}}
[[Category:Episodes|Misery Chick,The]]
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