Mary Anne Saves The Day
It’s Mary Anne’s time for the spotlight in episode 4 of The Baby Sitters Club. Aware that she’s not as cool as the other girls in the group, Mary Anne spends most of her free time with Mimi knitting. Afterward she heads to the club but one of her biggest weaknesses happens to be how difficult it is for her to say no. Unfortunately she has trouble speaking to her Father Richard about the situation given he’s not the easiest to talk to. Unfortunately when she tries to he misinterprets what she tells him and calls out the girls as bullies. This causes her to be excluded from the group until Dawn, a new girl who’s arrived from LA, sits with her at lunch. They immediately hit it off though and their newfound friendship only further accentuates the issues brewing within the BSC. The next day, Mary-Anne heads to an all-girl retreat with Dawn but one of her other fears – public speaking – causes her to panic and rush off. Dawn follows her though and the duo talk through her fears. Not long after, Mary Anne heads to her babysitting job but Bailey starts burning up with a temperature while they’re playing. Mary Anne uses her initiative though and rushes to hospital. After an altercation with the doctors outside the room, Richard arrives and sees his daughter exert her confidence and he immediately sees her in a different light. In the car, Mary Anne and her Father open up for the first time and it’s a really heartwarming moment. After this incident, and what happened in the hospital, the girls at the BSC are overwhelmed by how much Mary Anne’s changed and invite her back into the club with open arms. As the episode closes out, Mary Anne finally embraces her own individuality. Inviting Dawn over for dinner, it turns out her Mother and Richard used to date in high school, which is where the episode ends.
The Review Write-Up
With a shifting perspective to Mary Anne this time around, The Baby-Sitters Club delivers another decent episode as we see the relationship between Mary Anne and Richard develop and the two are finally able to talk and open up. The individual character arcs in general have been decent and the heartwarming way this father/daughter finally connect in the car is definitely one of the highlights of the series so far. This blending of comedy and more heartwarming moments is partly the reason why The Baby-Sitters Club has been such an enjoyable watch so far.
