Daria has writer's block while trying to come up with a realistic story for English class.
This episode provides examples of:
- And There Was Much Rejoicing: Daria's story about Kevin leaving Brittany at the altar to run off with Jane has Brittany cheering in joy.
Mr. DeMartino: Ah, Brittany. Please accept my condolences on the UNFORTUNATE way the biggest day of your LIFE has turned out.
Brittany: ...YES!
- Armor-Piercing Question:
Daria: I can do honest. I look around me, I describe what I see.
Helen: How about describing what you'd like to see, honestly?
- Babies Ever After: In Daria's story, Quinn had four kids from Jamie. Averted with Daria herself, who is married and childless.
- Bait-and-Switch: After hag!Helen sounds offended by knight!Jake offering her a check, she immediately asks for two forms of ID.
- Brick Joke: One of Daria's failed stories has a spoof of The Graduate with Jane and Kevin eloping. At the end of the episode, Daria tells Jane that she managed to move Helen to tears with her last story, Jane asks if she can read it too, to which Daria replies that no, but she can have the tale where she and Kevin get married, to Jane's shock.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Daria pretty much obliterates Helen after Helen tries to imply Quinn would handle a challenge better.
Helen: All you have to do is get off your tuchus and do it! When Quinn has a challenge-
Daria: Quinn? All her challenges involve coordinating her shoes' color to go with her date's eyes.
Helen: Daria what I mean is-
Daria: Quinn will never have this type of challenge. It involves thinking. You make me tell you what's wrong, in-between calls, and then you bring up Quinn? Don't you know me at all?
- Crack Pairing: Invoked in-universe where Daria's first story features Kevin and Brittany's wedding, only for Kevin to run off with Jane while Brittany cheers in relief.
- Distant Future: Daria's final story is a Imagine Spot of how the family will end up in the future: Daria becomes a successful columnist and college teacher, Jake and Helen have retired and are more happy and relaxed, and Quinn has a lot of kids with Jamie (the one of the Three J's she always gets his name wrong). After sharing all their successes, and how Daria's perception of her family has matured as well, they decide to start a new family tradition of playing card games together. Helen is so moved by this that she breaks down in happy tears and hugs Daria.
- Eats Babies: Played with in Daria's medieval fantasy stories where Helen, and later Jodie, are hags who demand payment with "the tender liver of a newborn babe."
Jake: I, um, was in a rush will you take a check?
- Lethal Chef: Jake attempts to recreate something called "Kitchen Sink Stew" they served at his military academy. A single sampling of his recreation leaves him clutching his throat and screaming in agony, before he starts exclaiming how his tongue is apparently black. Helen is further repulsed after it's left out on the stove for a few days, and Jake's later heard shouting the stove's on fire because of the stew.
- Misplaced Retribution: Daria's anger-fueled piece after blowing up at Helen focuses on attacking Quinn instead of Helen, culminating in Quinn driven to tears for being unable to match Daria's "perfection" and ending with the following:
Daria: We should at least tell her about that eight lane highway they built outside the house in the middle of the night.
Jake: Hmm, you could be right.
(Daria and her parents cringe at the sound of tires screeching)
Helen: That can't be good.
(Followed by the sounds of cars crashing into one another)
Quinn: Owww! GOD!
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: A self-inflicted instance from Helen, after her initial attempt to help leads Daria to storm off.
- Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Helen's attempt to help Daria gets derailed the moment she implies Quinn would do a better job with her challenges.
- Parental Favoritism: Following Helen's botched attempt at helping, Daria vents by writing a short piece where her parents are mellow, laid back, and tell Quinn they wish she was more like Daria.
- Parents as People: Helen royally screws up trying to talk to Daria. When she tries to right things, she tells Daria that there's no instructions on how to be a parent, and she really is just trying to help.
- Shout-Out: Many of the drafts Daria wrote during the assignment turned into spoofs of other books.
- Stepford Snarker: As put by Helen, Daria uses sarcasm to gloss over everything without letting people actually know what it is she truly wants in the world.
- Tender Tears: Daria's story about the future of their family moved her mother to tears.
- Tranquil Fury: You can feel the ice in Daria's voice as she informs Helen that comparing her problems with writing to one of the trivial issues Quinn deals with was a dick move.
- Why Couldn't You Be Different?: Daria's story following her argument with Helen involves Quinn being called out by their parents for having no depth. It leads to Quinn breaking down over how she can't be like Daria no matter how much she supposedly wants it, then runs off in tears over what Daria's "perfection" has done to her.
- Write What You Know: In-universe. Most of Daria's first drafts turned out to be spoofs of books she had read.
- Helen finally gives Daria very useful advice: Instead of thinking about what to write, she can just write what she wants for herself. The final product is a Distant Future of the Morgendorffer Family where everyone is happy and fulfilled with their lives.
- Write Who You Know: In-universe. When Daria told Mr. O'Neill that she had already read all the books, he makes a special assignment for her, where she had to write a short story and use friends or family as characters. Later he adds the condition of inserting a card game in the story.
- Writer's Block: Mr. O'Neill's assignment actually challenges Daria and makes her face creative block for the first time.
