Helen gets forced to assist Rita in Erin's divorce, reviving the neverending feud between the sisters and affecting everyone in the Morgendorffer household.
Meanwhile, Stacy finally finds a dress that Sandi can’t nitpick on her, but things get complicated when Tiffany appears wearing the same outfit.
This episode provides examples of:
- Accidental Misnaming: This gem of an exchange:Sandi: Well, if I can't say Sandi Griffin's Dracula, why does Brad Stoker get to call it Brad Stoker's Dracula?Quinn: Um, I think that's Bram Stoker...Sandi: I don't.Quinn: Perhaps not. But anyway, he gets to say it because he made the story up.Sandi: (scoffs) Quinn, Dracula is an internationally known celebrity vampire. Made the story up...
- Adults Are Useless: In the end, Daria and Quinn are the ones who solve the whole conflict, since Helen and Rita were the eye of the storm, Jake fled and Amy got involved instead of solving anything.
- All Take and No Give: Amy puts it best regarding the treatment she and Helen have received from their mom. When Rita claims the reason Mother Barksdale favors her so much is because Rita keeps in touch with her, Amy asks why she and Helen should be expected to do that when she's never supported them or shown an interest in their lives.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: This episode presents a continuation of the Barksdale's family issues. Erin's marriage fell apart shortly after the wedding, and apparently she signed a prenup where she had to give him half her money. Helen's mother forces her to assist Rita with Erin's divorce, despite Erin sending Rita instead and Helen trying to tell them that she doesn't take divorces. And this time Helen, Rita and Amy get into a big fight.
- Blame Game: What it boils down to with Helen, Rita, and Amy.
- Rita is accused of being their mom's favorite and getting whatever she wanted from their parents, making Helen and Amy become neglected and expected to keep in touch with their mom when the relationship would be All Take and No Give.
- Helen is accused of being an egotistical perfectionist who made Rita and Amy look lazy with all her grades and awards, and then had the gall to demand encouragement and praise to do more work.
- Amy is accused of being selfish and using the arguing between Helen and Rita as an excuse to not do anything for the family so she could do whatever she wanted when they were kids.
- Both Sides Have a Point: Helen, Rita and Amy are more focused on making themselves the slighted party against the other two, and never stop to realize all three of them were neglected to at least some degree and should be aiming their anger at their mom for causing this situation in the first place.
- Calling the Old Man Out: An indirect example, as Daria and Quinn choose to mimic the arguing between their mom and aunts instead of flat out telling them to stop.Daria: Gee Rita, are you ever going to get a real job? Why should I Helen, when you won't pay attention to mother? And you Amy, who asked you?Quinn: Yeah! You had a dance floor at your wedding!Daria: You're a show-off and a know-it-all!Quinn: You just hide in your room like a kermit!Daria: Mom likes you better!Quinn: That's because I call her better!
- Character Development: This whole drama makes Quinn realize that she needs to repair her relationship with Daria. Both make a deal to never end up like their mom and aunts.
- Cordon Bleugh Chef: Jake started doing recipes from a "Civil War" cookbook.Quinn: What is that?
Jake: It's from my new Civil War cookbook.
Daria: "Civil War cookbook." So you're serving us amputated leg?
Quinn: Eww!!
Jake: No! It's corned pork and cabbage.
Quinn: EWW!!! - Continuity Nod: Erin getting divorced is brought up in “The Story of D”.
- Deconstruction: Of the Big, Screwed-Up Family trope being Played for Laughs. The relationship between Helen and her sisters is shown to be so dysfunctional it's practically toxic. Jake would rather spend a week hiding out of the house than get involved, and Quinn is horrified at the idea of her relationship with Daria becoming just like the one between their mom and aunts.
- Despair Event Horizon: Quinn was slowly inching towards this due to seeing how badly Helen's relationship with her sisters turned out and fears the same thing will happen to her and Daria.
- Didn't Think This Through: Sandi seriously thought a debate would be the best way to settle who keeps the dress, when the debaters are Stacy and Tiffany.
- Divorce Is Temporary: Erin and Brian reconciled in the middle of the episode offscreen because grandma paid both Erin and Brian's vacations to Switzerland.
- Dresses the Same: The subplot involved Stacy and Tiffany accidentally buying the same dress and the Fashion Club discussing who deserved to keep it, since they couldn’t have the exact same outfit.
- Entitled Bastard: Rita demands that Helen manage Erin and Brian's divorce just because they're family and accuses Helen of not caring when Helen tries to explain that she's not trained in handling matrimonial law. Even when Helen suggests a junior associate at her firm that does know divorce proceedings better than she does, Rita gets offended as though Helen's treating them like a burden.
- Euphemism Buster: Helen gets a week off from her law firm because Eric was going to take a break. The family immediately know what she really meant.Helen: Erik is... uhm... "exhausted" and is taking 28 days to, uh, "recuperate". All that espresso he was drinking really wore him down.
Jake: "Espresso"?
Daria: To say nothing of those "prescription amphetamine doughnuts".
Helen: Daria!
Quinn: So he's on detox again?
Helen: Quinn!!
Jake: Oh, right! "Espresso". - The Ghost: Once again, Mother Barksdale doesn't show up despite her more or less being the catalyst of the entire situation.
- The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Quinn and Daria realize that the drama between their mother and aunts could repeat between them if they didn't do something to fix it.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Before Erin arrives to the house, Jake announces that he made a big jug of Martini, not for Erin but for himself in case Rita shows up. Turns out Rita is the one there instead of Erin. In response, Jake starts chugging the entire pitcher.
- Innocently Insensitive: None of the Barksdale sisters seem to realize that all three of them were neglected in at least some capacity, and instead of recognizing this they only made things worse by accusing the other of exploiting the situation for their benefit. To clarify:
- Rita's relentlessly accused of being their mom's favorite daughter. Because Helen was an overachiever and Amy did nothing, Rita grew dependent on her mom's favoritism because she felt she needed to get something worthwhile out of her family life.
- Helen's accused of being a self-obsessed workaholic demanding praise for everything she does. Helen's implied to have only become like this because it was the only way she could get anyone in her family to notice her.
- Amy's accused of being an apathetic slacker who martyred herself on being ignored so she could do whatever she wanted. Amy makes it clear since she was already being ignored while their mother doted on Rita and Helen tried to get people to notice her accomplishments, she would've rather done her own thing then get sucked into such toxic family chemistry.
- Insane Troll Logic: The episode opens with Quinn relating an F Sandi got on a lit assignment. Apparently, her argument that "all writing is plagiarism because you're using words that already exist" didn't sway Mr. O'Neill.Daria: Maybe she shouldn't have titled her story Sandi Griffin's Dracula.
- It's All About Me: All three sisters accuse each other of doing this. Rita's supposedly a spoiled brat who got all of their mom's attention and shamelessly flaunted it, Helen was a self-absorbed workaholic who demanded praise for everything she did, and Amy was a selfish bum who did whatever the hell she wanted instead of supporting her family.
- Jerkass Realization:
- The three sisters realize how petty they were because Daria and Quinn mimicked their whole fight.
- Quinn seeing her mother act this way with Rita and Amy makes her realize how awfully she's treated Daria over the years and becomes extremely distressed at their relationship turning out the same way when they become adults.
- Karma Houdini: Mother Barksdale is indirectly shown to be the reason why her daughters are constantly fighting with each other due to her emotional abuse and neglect, but whereas Helen and her sisters need to learn a lesson about letting go their mom faces no such consequences.
- Lazy Bum: Rita and Helen's view of Amy, thinking she used their arguing as an excuse to avoid familial responsibility to do whatever she wanted.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Helen and Rita are both pretty horrified with themselves when they see Daria and Quinn mimicking their arguing.
- Never My Fault: Rita defends the fact she doesn't work by saying she's busy raising Erin, despite Erin being 24 years old and living her own life.
- Not So Above It All: Daria calls Amy to try solve her sisters' conflict. Instead Amy ends up adding more fuel to the fire. It only serves to strengthen the comparisons between Amy and Daria by showing they're both capable of sinking down to someone else's level.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
- Daria starts to worry about Quinn when she suggests twice that they should watch Gone with the Wind together AND gives her a compliment. Although at first Daria assumes Quinn wants something from her.
- Tom has this reaction after realizing that Daria wasn’t joking when she told him that she and Quinn were going to watch Gone with the Wind.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: Among a list of Rita's supposed crimes against Helen is that Rita got a $4,000 lighted dance floor for her first wedding.
- Parental Favoritism: Helen's mother kept comparing all of her daughters.
- She favored Rita and Erin by paying for their weddings. Helen could barely afford her own wedding, while Rita got a lighted dance floor for her first wedding and all of Erin's wedding and honeymoon were paid by her too.
- Whenever is convenient, Helen is praised as the hard worker between the three sisters.
- The constant shift between Rita and Helen made Amy lock herself out and make snide remarks at them.
- Playing the Family Card: Helen gets forced into helping with Erin's divorce by Rita and Mother Barksdale, especially Rita, accusing Helen of not caring about them as her family.
- Properly Paranoid: Amy made it clear in the past she tried to distance herself from Helen and Rita's arguing, and sure enough the moment she gets involved she's accused of Playing the Victim Card when they were kids so she could do whatever she wanted.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Jake spends most of the episode out of the house because he doesn't want to see Rita in person and get involved in her feud with Helen.
- Sibling Rivalry: Lampshaded immediately by Daria.
- Stepford Smiler: When Daria tells Tom about everything that happened with her mother's family, Tom mentions that in his family they tend to pretend problems don't exist.Tom: Wow. Growing up in our repressed household is so boring next to this stuff. We always have to pretend problems don't exist. Gets pretty inconvenient when there're odors involved.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Jake is well aware that Helen being involved in anything regarding her sisters is not going to end well, and he breaks down in tears when Helen takes on Erin's divorce. Later on, Jake makes an entire pitcher of martinis to steel himself if Rita calls, but when she shows up in person at the house he immediately chugs the whole thing.
- Understanding Boyfriend: Despite the fact that Daria had been ignoring Tom during the time Rita was at home, she later apologized to him, realizing that Erin's divorce involuntarily gave her insecurities about relationships in general. Tom never got mad at her.
