Daria

"It Happened One Nut" is one of those episodes that capitalizes on the great character development that has been in the works for the best three years and takes it a step further by putting three of those characters in their first after-school jobs. And who doesn't remember their first job: how awful it was, how humiliating you felt working there, and how you realized for the first time that the "real world" was going to be a lot more like high school than you thought. Daria and Kevin end up working in a mall nutstand wearing ridiculous uniforms and working for a manager that is never actually at the store. Kevin once again proves him ineptitude at all things in life by not even being able to figure out which nuts are which despite the fact that all of the bins are clearly labeled. Daria, of course, ends up doing most of the work to compensate for him, but her lack of smiling don't make the manager happy. By the time Jane figures out a way to get Daria out of the job by involving Daria's mother, Daria has already been seen by most of the school in her uniform (including her crush, Trent) and has had to bail Kevin out of more dumb situations than she'd care to count. Through all of this there is the great "B" story of Quinn at her first job at the mall's pet store, where she manages to lose a canary and a boa constrictor within her first few days. Of course, she has her trio of boy-toys roped into finding the boa, but she still won't be able to pay for the modeling photos she get the job for in the first place with all of the pets she has to pay for.



"It Happened One Nut" is a great episode to watch for some laughs with your favorite characters, but in true TV fashion, everything goes back to the status quo in the end. I would have liked to see Daria in some other part-time jobs throughout the seasons, but I guess the writers said all they felt they had to say on the subject.