Gingerbread (Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode)

Infobox Television episode
Title=Gingerbread


Series=Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Season=3
Episode=11
Airdate=12 January 1999
Production=3ABB11
Writer=Jane Espenson
Director=James Whitmore, Jr.
Episode list=List of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes
Prev=Amends
Next=Helpless

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

Plot synopsis

ummary

Haunted by her discovery of two murdered children, Joyce leads the town in a witch hunt.

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 is dismissive, 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 and informs Buffy that she has spread the word about the murders to all her friends and that there will be a vigil at City Hall that night.

Many concerned parents attend the vigil, including Willow's mother, and Mayor Wilkins 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 shown 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 incident, 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 in order to find any material that may be witch-related. Willow then tells Buffy that the symbol is harmless and that she was not 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--, does not 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 is not doing Sunnydale any good. The ghosts of the two children appear to Joyce and tell her she has to hurt the "bad girls." 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 does not 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 do not 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. She asks Xander and Oz what the kid's names are, and neither are able to produce an answer... in fact, the only known fact about the kids is that they were found murdered yet their pictures have been available for use in MOO's campaign. 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 girls" or as it seems, witches. They are an example that some fairy tales are true; in this case, Hansel and Gretel.

Amy, Willow, and Buffy are taken by force to City Hall where they are tied to wooden posts like a medieval 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.

Giles practices an incantation while Cordelia prepares a concoction to allow the demon to show its real self. Oz and Xander climb through the air vents in the hope of saving 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 its true, ugly form--goes for Buffy, she breaks the stake she was tied to and stakes the creature. Everyone is safe, and the demon is dead.

The next day, none of the parents remember much of anything regarding the recent events. Buffy and Willow are performing a spell in Willow's room to restore Amy, but it does not work and Buffy says, "Maybe we should get her one of those wheel thingies."

Acting

tarring

*Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers
*Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris
*Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg
*Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles
*David Boreanaz as Angel
*Seth Green as Oz
*Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase

Guest starring

*Kristine Sutherland as Joyce Summers
*Elizabeth Anne Allen as Amy Madison
*Harry Groener as Mayor Richard Wilkins
*Jordan Baker as Sheila Rosenberg
*and Armin Shimerman as Principal Snyder

Co-starring

*Lindsay Taylor as Little Girl
*Shawn Pyfrom as Little Boy
*Blake Swendson as Michael
*Grant Garrison as Roy
*Roger Morrissey as Demon
*Daniel Tamm as Mooster

Writing

Arc significance

External

* This episode carries with it a 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.

::See also: Moral panic; Witch-hunt

In-Universe

* A Slayer being burned at a stake for being a witch previously occurred in "Buffyverse" contintuity, the Righteous Slayer as appearing in the canonical "Tales of the Slayers", published 2002.
*Amy the Rat makes occasional appearances until season six, when Willow finally succeeds in changing her back.

Quotes

Cultural references

* "Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates": Angel tells Buffy, "Dike is another word for dam." Perhaps he would also have told her that the story of the heroic little Dutch boy is really a story "inside" a story, if he were aware that "Hansel and Gretel" is the story inside "Gingerbread".
* Amy chants "Let the unclean thing crawl." "The unclean thing" in a Biblical quote, referring specifically to religious idols.

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... "

In contrast, Giles characteristically recites his counterspell withalmost entirely correct German pronunciation.

* Italian title: "Le streghe di Sunnydale" ("The witches of Sunnydale")
* German title: "Hänsel und Gretel" ("Hansel and Gretel")
* Turkish title: Zencefilli Kek ("The cake with ginger")
* French title: "Intolérance" ("Intolerance")
* Japanese title: "ジンジャーブレッド" ("Jinjābureddo" - "Gingerbread")
* Spanish title: "Hansel y Gretel" ("Hansel and Gretel")

Timing

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

External links

*
*
* [http://www3.sympatico.ca/jenoff/btvs311.htm Peripheral Visions Review]
* [http://www.section31.com/guideextras.php?id=175 Section 31 Review]
* [http://tv.swingthesickle.com/ststv/Buffy_the_Vampire_Slayer/Season_3/11.review Swing the Sickle Review]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSdxKOsQM78 Youtube Music Episodic - "Gingerbread"]