This episode is very important to me because it pretty much saved me from an unknown fate when, like Mary Jo, I was mugged. Out of the blue, I remembered what Mary Jo had done off the top of my head and yelled it out, causing the attackers to run away. It may not always work out that way, but I'm sure any mugger will be stunned enough to be momentarily distracted. That's the real power of good TV, to help people in serious situations like this, and anybody, male or female, can benefit from the lessons taught here.
Poor Mary Jo though becomes frightened when confronted by the self defense class mugger, and her freezing is another important lesson. Of course, acting it out is different than being confronted by reality, so it takes her being confronted again out of the blue out in the open to wake her up as to what she needs to do. This story would be continued later on so this a good introduction to a future episode that after this one was fortunately was not forgotten by the Thomasons in their writing.
Poor Mary Jo though becomes frightened when confronted by the self defense class mugger, and her freezing is another important lesson. Of course, acting it out is different than being confronted by reality, so it takes her being confronted again out of the blue out in the open to wake her up as to what she needs to do. This story would be continued later on so this a good introduction to a future episode that after this one was fortunately was not forgotten by the Thomasons in their writing.
