Gingerbread (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

"Gingerbread (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)"

"Gingerbread" is Episode 11 of Season 3 of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. See also List of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes.

Plot synopsis

Summary

Joyce Summers joins her daughter on a nightly patrol and discovers the bodies of two dead children. After Giles concludes that the children were killed as part of a cult sacrifice, Joyce organizes a group of parents dedicated to ridding Sunnydale of witches and other evil-doers. Their first act is to tie Buffy, Willow, and Amy to stakes and set them on fire, along with as many of Giles' occult books as they could get their hands on. Giles and Cordelia rescue the girls by revealing that the dead children are actually a demon that feeds on communal fear. Unfortunately, they arrive too late to stop Amy from turning herself into a rat to escape the angry mob.

Expanded overview

While on the nightly patrol, Buffy not only encounters a vampire, but her Mother looking for some quality time and a chance to "share" in the slaying experience. As Buffy kills the vampire, Joyce discovers the bodies of two children, dead in the park. The police arrive and after some questioning Buffy and Joyce are free to leave. Joyce is really disturbed by this.

At school the next day, Buffy confronts Giles about the situation, explaining that the situation is not one that should go unpunished. She draws him a symbol which was found on the hands of the two children. He says it's probably occult related and Buffy wigs, not quite believing that a human being could do this. Willow and Amy sit with Xander and Oz--who exchange a few awkward words--at lunch. Buffy joins them and fills them in on the murders. Joyce shows up at school informs Buffy that she has spread the word about the murders to all her friends and that there will be Vigil at City Hall that night.

Many concerned parents attend the Vigil, including the Willow's mother, and the Mayor who says a few words before handing the mic over to Mrs. Summers. She gives a speech about how Sunnydale has got to take back their city from the monsters, and witches, and Slayers. Later, Michael, Amy and Willow--three witches--are show performing a spell in a circle that surrounds the symbol Buffy found on the children's hands. Michael is shoved up against his locker the next day by another student who threatens both him and Amy. Buffy makes a brief appearance and the big tough guys go running. Cordelia, having witnessed the whole incidence comments to Buffy about involving oneself with losers. Buffy goes to Willow, who has a book Giles needs for researching the symbol.

However, when she finds the book, Buffy also finds the witch symbol in one of Willow's notebooks. Before Willow can explain, a search of all the school lockers begins to find any material that may be witch related. Willow then tells Buffy that the symbol is harmless and that she wasn't doing anything wrong, just making a protection spell for Buffy's upcoming birthday. Amy and Willow are taken to Principal Snyder's office for questioning. Also, all of Giles' books are confiscated by the police which leaves the Slayer and Watcher without their resources.

Buffy goes home where she finds out her mom, the new founder of a group MOO--Mothers Opposed to the Occult--doesn't want Buffy to see Willow anymore and is the one responsible for the locker searches. The two argue and then Buffy leaves for a pointless patrol, insulted by her mother who claims her Slaying isn't doing Sunnydale any good. The ghosts of the two children appear to Joyce and tell her she has to hurt the "bad people." Willow goes home where her mother calmly tells her she's grounded. Willow flips out, unable to control her anger towards the fact that her mother doesn't believe that she's a witch.

Buffy meets up with Angel at the park and they talk. He convinces her to keep fighting and to not give up. He also unintentionally gives her the idea that they don't know anything about the two kids. Buffy heads back to the library to find Giles yelling at a computer while Xander and Oz were unable to retrieve any books from City Hall. After hooking up with Willow over the net, the Scooby Gang find out that the two children died hundreds of years ago. They return every fifty years to persuade a town to kill the "bad people" or as it seems, witches. They are an example that fairy tales are true: Hansel and Grettle.

Amy, Willow and Buffy are taken by force to City Hall where they are tied to wooden posts in a real, Salem-like witch burning. Just when Buffy wakes up, her mother lights books on fire, sentencing the three girls to death by burning at the stake. Amy, however manages to cast her famous "rat" spell and scurries away, avoiding death. Cordelia finds Giles unconscious at the Summer's home, wakes him and they go in search of saving everyone. Xander and Oz find Willow's room in shambles where her mother and many others took her.

Giles practicing an incantation while Cordelia prepares a concoction to allow the demon to show it's real self. Oz and Xander climb through the air vents in search of saving the their friends. Giles and Cordelia break into the room which is now partially on fire with parents watching, and Cordelia uses a fire hose to put the fire out. As the demon--now in it's true, ugly form--goes for Buffy but she breaks the stake she was tied to and stakes the creature. Everyone is safe, and the demon is dead.

The next day, all the parents don't remember much of anything regarding the recent events. Buffy and Willow are performing a spell in Willow's room to restore Amy, but it doesn't work and Buffy asks, "Maybe we should get her one of those wheel thingys."

Writing and acting

This episode carries with it an obvious moral warning against the dangers of mob mentality, as well as the prejudice held in some small communities (despite Sunnydale's ever-expanding borders) towards alternative lifestyles and belief systems. In the same vein, it explores the easy excitability of people living in Sunnydale (and by extension, over the Hellmouth), especially when 'civilians', such as Joyce Summers, are exposed firsthand to the aftermath of supernatural violence or danger.

Production details

Translations

The German text about the first reported sighting of the two children really is German, but full of mistakes. It reads:

ich, eine Geistlicher von nahe die Schwarz Wälder, tat finden das körper von das kinder meine selbst. eine wurde von die junge, die anderen von und mädchen. darauf meine eigene erforschen ich lernte

Literally translated, this would read:

I, a cleric from the near the Black Forests, did find the bodies of the children myself. One was of the boy, the other of and [sic] girl. Upon my own research I learned...

German viewers have noticed other weaknesses in this translation (see talk).

Continuity

Arc significance

• Amy the Rat would make occasional appearances until season six, when Willow finally succeeds in changing her back.

• The episode is a social commentary about censorship in public schools and bigotry against alternative lifestyles.

Timing

• Stories that take place around the same time in the Buffyverse:

External links

• Buffyology Episode Page (links to full transcript)

Reviews

• Peripheral Visions Review
• Section 31 Review
• Swing the Sickle Review