As you have undoubtedly guessed, today is the 10th anniversary of the airing of “Malled,” the fifth episode of Daria. For anyone actively following the show back in 1997, it was the fifth week in a row that MTV had aired what was (ostensibly) a brand new, thirty-minute cartoon in the tradition of The Maxx, Aeon Flux, Beavis and Butt-head, and Liquid Television — cartoons which were more adult and more thought-provoking than cartoons which had been seen on American TV in the past.

“Malled” was the first episode written by Neena Beber, an aspiring writer who had been writing for television as early as 1989. Beber would later become a playwright and screenwriter. With “Malled,” she would provide the missing piece of the puzzle which brought Daria (the character) from an interesting comedic idea to a full-fledged character, the type that has inspired numerous works of fan fiction and an on-line fandom that has somehow endured for longer than the show was on the air.

Recounting the plot is worthwhile, if only as a guidepost from where one can map the progress of the characters on their five-year journey. The episode starts at the Morgendorffer home, where Quinn provides a bit of unnecessary exposition (I get the impression that there was some padding here).

Quinn is going on at the dinner table about the brand new super-cool Mall of the Millennium, a massive shopping mall about a hundred miles away from Lawndale. Quinn wants to go to the mall, but is told that she’d have to bring up her grades before the family springs for a trip.

Some time later, Lawndale High’s economics teacher, Mrs. Bennett, is looking for someone in class to illustrate how supply might create demand. As no one raises their hands, Mrs. Bennett is forced to call upon Daria, who laconically replies that the mall would be such an example.

This inspires Mrs. Bennett to propose a field trip to the Mall of the Millennium, which wins the entire class over (they want to avoid a pop quiz), except for Daria and Jane. They’re easily outvoted by the class, and Daria goes so far as to claim a skin condition to avoid going.

The next scene finds the economics class on the way to the mall, including Daria and Jane. The school bus seems to hit every pothole, but it doesn’t sway Kevin and Brittany from an impromptu make-out session, or Upchuck from hitting on Daria and Jane with his father’s credit card and his suggestion that they model bikinis.

The cauldron of Brittany’s and Kevin’s passion has undoubtedly provoked an unpleasant physical reaction from Daria (across a wide spectrum) and Daria finds herself physically ill, possibly from motion sickness, but probably from a wafting mixture of pheromones and cheap perfume. By the time the class actually reaches the mall and gets on the bus to take them from the parking lot to the massive facility, Daria is throwing up.

While the class looks around and is entranced by the odd-sounding specialty stores, Mrs. Bennett reminds them of the importance of the meeting they are about to attend — until she comes across a Fuzzy Wuzzy Wee Bits score, which sells the particular type of collectible that she adores. Somehow, the class makes it to the meeting on time with mall executives, who seem more interested in what the kids are interested in buying.

Jodie dopes out quickly that the class is being used as a focus group, and Daria convinces Jane to turn on a light switch that reveals the faces peeking in behind a wall-length two-way mirror. The class rebels, and Daria believes that “there is a principle involved.” However, the class is easily pacified by discount coupons to specialty stores, and even Jane picks up a coupon and is prepared to cash in.

Mrs. Bennett, however, is determined to make the visit an actual learning experience, even if the assignments given don’t provide much in the way of opportunity. Daria and Jane are assigned to monitor traffic at the food court.

Jane: Traffic patterns at the food concessions.
Daria: Hmm, I’ve noticed a pattern. People walk in looking hungry.
Jane: And leave, stuffing their faces.
Daria: Assignment completed.

However, Daria and Jane encounter an unexpected surprise while waiting in line to stuff their own faces ... Quinn! It appears that the Fashion Club has skipped school and gotten a ride to the mall from an admirer (who has become a real fifth wheel). Quinn had suggested a makeover project as a way for the Fashion Club to do good ... and from behind and at a distance, Daria and Jane looked like perfect candidates.

Quinn has no one to blame but herself. Daria knows that Quinn would be in big trouble if their parents found out about Quinn skipping school for a 100-mile mall trip, and Daria cashes in big-time. Quinn will have to do Daria’s work around the house for an entire month, and provide Daria and Jane with a ride back home from Quinn’s admirer/slave. Satisfied, Daria and Jane go to cash their coupons before departing.

Unfortunately, they have little luck. Jane hopes for a new pair of scissors from “Scissor Wizard,” but finds out that it’s a trendy hair salon. Instead of getting her hair cut like a celebrity, Jane ends up with a used can of mousse and her coupon redeemed in cash (they did sort of hassle the hairstylist).

The two go to cash in Daria’s coupon at the “Doo-Dads” shop, and it appears from first observation that the shop is filled with those hard-to-define items that end up “re-gifted.” Unfortunately, Daria is the 10,000th customer and, as a reward, is subjected to a humiliating song and a supply of Doo-Dads.

When we return to the Morgendorffer home, Quinn is about a couple of weeks into her chore detail. As a reward to both Quinn and Daria, Helen and Jake decide to treat their daughters to a trip ... to the Mall of the Millennium! Neither Daria nor Quinn is exactly thrilled, and our last image is the full-sized poster at the Doo-Dads store, which shows an uncomfortable-looking Daria being feted by the store staff.

Once again, we have Daria (and Jane, apparently) compelled to do something she doesn’t want to do. This has been a continuous theme in Season One Daria episodes, and should be no surprise.

In earlier episodes, we had Daria forced to sit in a self-esteem class, or to go to a party that she didn’t want to go to, or to go to a college that she didn’t want to go to, or to work in a coffeehouse when the principal denied her extracurricular credit.

In all of those cases, the theme was that Daria basically was forced to be around people she didn’t want to be with. It’s a common theme in human relations — most of us are forced to spend time with annoying family, or friends, or co-workers, and we wish we could be as sarcastic and witty as Daria or had some devastating way of conveying this annoyance.

This time, however, we have Daria standing on a principle. There’s no reason that Daria couldn’t go along with the crowd and get out of economics class. She probably finds it as boring as her other classes, and why not take a trip to the mall instead of take a pop quiz?

The reason Daria doesn’t want to go, however, has nothing to do with watching Kevin and Brittany make out in the front of the bus for two hours. We learn — although Beber doesn’t make it explicit — that Daria hates malls. She hates the mall culture, and wants nothing to do with the very concept of a mega-mall, finding its very existence offensive.

Undoubtedly, part of Daria’s hatred comes from the fact that Quinn enjoys going to the mall and enjoys shopping — we remember Daria being dragged to the mall in “Esteemsters,” to watch her mother shop as a reward. And if Quinn likes going to malls, then Daria probably doesn’t. But it's Jodie that manages to put it in words:

I have a question. Do you think our demographic can really be addressed by middle-aged middle managers telling us what’s
fun to buy?

The reader can conclude, although the show never states it explicitly, that Daria hates the entire culture of mindless purchasing that the mall represents, and hates that “middle-aged managers” manipulate young people into buying useless crap. As a matter of fact, that’s what Daria calls it. Her assessment of the Doo-Dads store is spot-on: “Who would buy such crappy, useless junk?”

No one goes to a mall to buy something like, say, a personalized talking astrolabe. (Borrowing from “’Tis the Fifteenth Season,” an episode of The Simpsons.) But I think that all of us who have been to a mall have run into high-end stores, like the one in The Simpsons, and low-end stores that sell “doo-dads” (the very name suggests something ill-defined).

Malls serve a purpose, but much of that purpose is to convince people to buy stuff that they don’t really want, don’t really need, and can’t really afford. And Daria really hates that. Therefore, it’s a fitting end to the episode that Daria wins armloads of this useless crap.

Daria can’t get away from this stuff even if she wants to. (I suspect that Doo-Dads is the source of the cheese model in her room.) And no one else in the world can get away from it, either — if you don’t want it, they’ll give it to you.

She doesn’t hate it enough that she makes too big a deal of it — her distaste is so great that she tries to feign illness to avoid going — but she goes, having little but contempt for the place. And when she believes that the other students like Jodie feel the same way, you can imagine her being a bit surprised when their ill-feeling can be bought off with some cheap coupons.

Daria’s no crusader — far from it. People can go to the mall if they want. But for the first time, we have Daria expressing a dislike for something, and that dislike stems from a deeply held principle.

When we see that Daria is a true cynic — “a failed idealist” — it completes an essential part of her character. She’s smart, she’s witty, she’s sarcastic, she clashes with the artificial standards set by popular people — and there are things that she not only doesn’t like, but has reasons for not liking.

Writing from 2007, I find a lot of fanfiction that doesn’t explore Daria’s deeply held beliefs, whatever deeply held beliefs you might wish to assign to her. A lot of earlier fanfiction told stories like this; a lot of more recent fanfiction does not. I think that fanfiction writers should return to this side of Daria and ask, “What does Daria believe in, and why?”

There is one weakness to the episode — the fact that Jane tags along with Daria, giving the impression that Jane’s sole reason for existence was to hang around with Daria and share witticisms. Jane doesn’t want to go to the mall, either, and we really don’t get a clue why. She gives a flippant answer to Mrs. Bennett:

I second Daria. The mall is a dangerous influence on today’s
teens, and the fluorescent lights give you seizures.

We can only conclude that the reason Jane doesn’t want to go is that she just wants to do whatever Daria is doing — which is no reason at all, turning her into a follower of Daria. A good-looking, artistically-hip follower, but a follower nonetheless.

Upon hindsight, one can assign reasons. Perhaps the mall is an affront in some way to her artistic sensibilities — which I find hard to believe, as Jane can take artistic interest even in “junk culture.” Andy Warhol would have loved going to the mall. Maybe she’s worried that it would be a dull day at the mall if Daria stayed behind at school.

My wife provided much better reasons. Most likely, Jane doesn’t want to go to the mall because it’s a place where one makes impulse purchases, and Jane doesn’t have any money to buy doo-dads and useless crap.

Furthermore, malls just aren’t where Jane shops. She shops on Dega Street, or at thrift stores, or pulls clothes from the ’40s out of old trunks in the attic. There’s not a mall on Earth — not even the “second or third largest mall on Earth” — that can cater to Jane’s unique fashion sense.

All in all, however, if you look hard, you get a glimpse of the “inner Daria” in “Malled,” the Daria that believes things strongly. When “Arts ’n’ Crass” comes along, we’ll find out just how far Daria will go if her beliefs are trampled.

And although “Arts ’n’ Crass” belongs on a pedestal of its own, the foundation stone of that episode is “Malled,” the first episode that implied that Daria doesn’t act like a hard-to-get-along-with ass just because she thinks it’s funny.

Random thoughts:

• This is the first appearance of Mrs. Bennett, a sadly underused character. Then again, only so many characters can take the stage.

• This is also the second time Daria’s big mouth inspired a teacher to add misery to her life. She unwittingly gives Mrs. Bennett the idea to take the class to the Mall of the Millennium, and she also gave Mr. O’Neill a wide-open door to plan a coffeehouse with just one snarky comment.

• Jodie can be a very smart manipulator. Despite her portrayal as a student council drone, we learn that Jodie knows how to work the system — it is she who puts on an act that convinces the mall executives to hand out the coupons.

• If you look really close on the Mall of the Millennium shuttle bus, you can find not only Rock-’n’-Roll Randy, but Lauren Gupty. I tell you, Rock-’n’-Roll Randy really gets around with the ladies! “Rock-’n’-roll forever!!!”

• Kevin and Brittany making out ... in the bus ... in the front of the bus. No comment.

• Upchuck is registering high on the meter of odiousness, going so far as to touch Brittany, in an unknown but inappropriate way. Maybe he just thinks he’s being bold.

• I’ve finally figured out why Kevin wears his football uniform, complete with shoulder pads and protective wear, as his default costume. It’s because Brittany hits him in the chest at least twice, and goes so far as to step on his foot! Kevin is being cluelessly obnoxious in this episode, and it’s the only way Brittany can get him to shut up, but I suspect that he gets hit a lot by Brittany. Maybe violence just runs in Brittany’s family. I hope he wears his cup.

• “Perky ... a little bouncy ... not too bouncy!” Is Brittany talking about what I think she’s talking about in front of that full length mirror, or am I just reading too much into that?

• The first appearance of the Fashion Club foursome — Sandi, Quinn, Stacy, and Tiffany, together at last. The voice actors for Stacy and Tiffany are still finding the characters, who don’t quite sound the way they should be. It is also noteworthy in that we learn that Quinn has a group of contemporaries with whom she shares common ground.

However, I’m most surprised by Sandi. Her eyes are drawn wide-open and expressive, and not the mean little beady-eyes we see in later episodes. She smiles. Quinn and Sandi exchange genuine compliments with each other, and the typical bitchiness accompanying future Fashion Club meetings is completely absent. I’ll go into more detail as to why this was doomed not to last in later essays.

• In the end, the Fashion Club is all jammed into the back seat — Quinn has to work the kinks out of her legs later — while Daria rides up front, happy as a clam with Guy. A funny little moment.

Labels: Beber, Essays, Malled