Murder, She Snored

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“Murder, She Snored”
Daria episode
Episode no.	Season 2 Episode 43 (404)
Written by	Peggy Nicoll
Directed by	Guy Moore
Original airdate	March 17, 2000
Episode chronology
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"A Tree Grows in Lawndale"	"The F-Word"

Murder She Snored is the fourth episode of the fourth season of Daria.

[edit] Plot Summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Mr. DeMartino is handing back tests, and notices that Kevin and nearly the entire football team (except for Mack) got A+'s. Convinced that Kevin and the team cheated after finding that the answers to the test were stolen, Mr. DeMartino threatens that if the guilty party doesn't come forward he'll fail everyone.

That night, Daria falls asleep and the next day she and Jane find Kevin's dead body, which was clubed, poisoned, strangled, and had an arrow sticking out of it, in her strangely oversized locker. Ms. Li says that Daria is the number one suspect in Kevin's murder, remembering that Daria and Jane made a joke about killing Kevin the day before.

After getting the good cop/bad cop routine from Mr. DeMartino and Mr. O'Neill, Daria accidentally gives her father the idea of becoming a detective to help solve Kevin's murder. At Jane's house, she learns that someone, possibly a one-armed man, killed Trent... until he wakes up from his nap. Daria realizes that she has only one way to go in this, so she hires Upchuck's Angels (Quinn, Sandi, and Stacy). However they prove to be useless when all they do is complain about how fat Kevin's chalk outline looks and pose.

At Kevin's funeral, Daria and Jane question Mack and Brittany. Brittany is only worried about finding a date for Saturday, and Mack feels relieved that Kevin's dead since all Kevin did was call him Mack Daddy, a name he hates with a passion.

Back at school, Daria goes through her locker and finds a pink gun, which Jane stated that she'd probably find some incriminating piece of evidence that Ms. Li would jump all over. At that point, as if on cue, Ms. Li walks in with Helen and Jake dressed as two police officers. They plan to have her executed via electric chair. But Daria manages to reveal the killer or killers identity by making up a story about a time-activated paint she put on her locker the day of Kevin's death. Jane, Brittany, Mack, and Mr. DeMartino all check their hands, and Daria states that only the guilty party would've checked their hands. Jane poisoned Kevin with cyanide because he threatened the 84 she got on the history test. Mack hit him in the head with a golf club because he wouldn't stop calling him Mack Daddy. Brittany shot an arrow in his chest because she wanted him dead. Then Ms. Barch came in, kicked him, and said "it's gonna be a good day." Then Mr. DeMartino found him on the floor and in a fit of anger strangled him and stuffed his body in Daria's locker. But that still doesn't stop Ms. Li from having Daria executed.

At that point, Daria wakes up from her dream, created from car insurances commercials and bad detective shows. At school, Mr. DeMartino says that he won't fail everyone, but that he still holds in suspicion everyone in the class. At that point, Kevin walks in wearing the old arrow-through-the-head gag and Mr. DeMartino starts to strangle him.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Trivia

The beginning of Daria's dream mimicks the opening of Murder, She Wrote, as does the title.
At one point, Daria is seen driving the same car as Columbo.
Upchuck's Angels are a parody of Charlie's Angels. In fact, Tiffany walks in at one point asking if she can be a new Angel and Sandi says "you're not even supposed to be here until Quinn leaves over creative differences", poking fun at the fact that the three original Angels were replaced during the series with new actors.
When Jake becomes a detective, he acts like Det. Jacques Clouseau from The Pink Panther.
At Kevin's funeral, Daria and Jane are dressed as Thomas Magnum and Higgins respectivly from Magnum P.I..
When Jane shows Daria Trent's "dead body", she picks up a wooden arm next to him and says "I can't help but think that a one-armed man is somehow involved." This part is a parody of The Fugitive.
At one point, Daria is shown riding a horse through Times Square in a scene parodying McCloud.
At Kevin's funeral, the three J's each check to see if Kevin is really dead by sneezing on him, checking to see if he's breathing, and sticking a pin in his chest. This scene parodies Charade.