'Gingerbread' is a Jane Espenson episode
with a split story credit between her and a writer who never received another credit on the show.
I guess fittingly then, I’ve had a very mixed experience with it.
On my first runthrough of the series I found the episode so tedious,
I never watched it again over multiple screenings of the show
…until...this...time.
Buffy is out on patrol
and Joyce adorably shows up for snacks as though
her daughter is working her first job behind the counter at a Krispy Kreme.
Look at the big grin on her face.
She very maternally cheers Buffy on while Buffy fights a vampire
and then discovers the bodies of children at the playground.
You can see her shock set in as the extreme danger of Buffy’s profession becomes apparent to her.
Buffy brings the symbol from the hand of one of the children to Giles
who suggests that the killer might not be supernatural.
“Someone with a soul did this?!?”
Xander and Oz end up next to each other in the lunch line for nearly the best bit of dialogue in the episode.
“So a burrito.”
“This is a burrito.”
“Damn straight.”
As ever, Oz reacts with inhuman empathy we should all aspire to.
His expression, instead of showing frustration with Xander
over Xander’s shame having to constantly remind them all of what happened,
instead reflects a boundless empathy and, I think, forgiveness.
Amy is spontaneously back for the first time
since 'Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered'
and Joyce surprises the gang in the lunchroom.
Joyce is clearly verklempt over what she saw and determined to take action around it.
She says she has called everyone she knows.
The number of people that show up to City Hall would seem to indicate that
Joyce is much more socially mobile than her quiet home life would previously have indicated.
Willow’s inattentive mother makes an appearance at the vigil,
along with Giles.
And this is the first time
Buffy and the Mayor appear onscreen in the same space together.
Joyce takes the podium after the Mayor and brings up a question
that you’d think would be on everyone’s mind in a town as violent as Sunnydale.
"How many of us have-have lost someone who-who just disappeared?"
"Or...or got skinned?"
"Or suffered neck rupture?"
"It belongs to the monsters and-and the witches and the Slayers.”
Interesting how she lumps Slayers in with that bunch?
Somewhere in town, a witch’s ceremony is occurring
with Amy, a friend and Willow at the helm.
The camera pulls back and reveals the symbol from the child’s hand on the floor in front of them.
At school, Joyce’s vigilanteism
...vigilantism?
...is filtering through the town badly
as a gaggle of jock straps attack a differently dressed boy in school.
I absolutely love how Buffy’s appearance in front of them causes them all to back away in fear.
Those small hints at how her power and goodness have developed a reputation at school are always a joy to behold.
Buffy discovers the symbol in Willow’s notebook.
The cops show up at school to execute a locker search
and Willow gets caught with witch paraphernalia in hers.
There’s a very strong metaphorical parallel here to a locker search for drugs
and Willow being caught with some.
They even go so far as to confiscate Giles' books.
Snyder strolls confidently into the library quoting from 'Apocalypse Now'.
“I love the smell of desperate librarian in the morning.”
Snyder says this is all due to Buffy’s Mom starting a group called Mothers Opposed to the Occult
or
"MOO!"
“He’ll get most of them back."
"MOO just wants to weed out the offensive material.”
Aaaand this is where the episode starts to lose me.
Joyce’s shift from vigilantism
...vigil, vig-ahh...
to censorship and control is an unmotivated one.
I’d been with this plotline so far
but Joyce is WELL aware of Buffy's role in the town, as well as Giles in her life.
At this point, I was already sensing a magic cookie explanation for this one
as there isn't one in character.
We can certainly head canon our own excuse for why her character would do this
but that isn’t directly reflected in the plot itself.
It’s frustrating, and annoying,
and smacks heavily of the 'Not Now, Kiddo' trope from 'Ted'.
Though Joyce does pose the significant question for the episode.
"I mean, you patrol, you slay."
“Evil pops up."
"You undo it."
"A-a-and that's great!"
"But IS Sunnydale getting any better."
Keep that in mind for a moment.
Buffy storms off
and the camera pulls back revealing the two magic cookies
-I mean, dead children,
who are clearly influencing Joyce in some fashion to continue her MOO patrols.
"MOO!"
Buffy goes for a walk and runs into Angel.
They embrace in a comforting and intimate matter.
The way I read this is Angel’s suicidal tendencies
from the previous episode
have caused Buffy to backpedal on her
“we can’t spend any more time together” stance.
She really is his only connection to the world
and right now
his only strength to stay in it.
It makes sense to me.
Is it healthy?
Uhhhhh...
Angel tries to console her and Buffy says..
“People die in Sunnydale all the time."
"I’ve never seen anything like this.”
"They were children."
"Innocent."
"NOOOOOOO!"
"OH NOOOOOOO!"
[Innocent screams]
Joyce’s words from earlier are still clearly bothering Buffy.
Do things in Sunnydale get any better with Buffy here?
Do they, the characters, have any tactile proof that Sunnydale is better off because of her.
And in a moment I really love,
Angel provides her the reason to go and get the rock.
“I do know it’s important to keep fighting."
"I learned that from you.”
Buffy and the Gang realize they don’t even know who the two dead kids are or who they’re related to.
They discover the deaths of these two children have been tearing communities apart for hundreds of years at regular intervals.
Giles drops an important detail to how the Buffyverse works in that
...fairy tales are real.
The children are Hansel and Gretel,
the manifestation of a demon that feeds on the paranoia and inner turmoil of a community.
Buffy tells Joyce who chloroforms her and takes down Giles.
[Giles being chloroform sounds]
Mothers Opposed to the Occult,
"MOO!"
...tie Willow, Amy and Buffy up with the intent to put them to death.
Cordelia wakes Giles up from his stupor.
“How many times have you been knocked out anyway?”
[knockout montage music]
“I swear one of these times you’re going to wake up in a coma.”
“Wake up in a...”
"OH, nevermind."
Amy’s fear becomes anger and she tries to use the rat spell
she used on Buffy in 'Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered',
but it appears that because she can’t get (to) her arms up
...the spell fires on her instead.
Giles and Cordelia burst in and reveal the children as the demon they are.
Buffy yanks her stake up
...and impales the demon on it
and Xander and Oz, now bonded in their mutual attempt to save everyone, fall from the vent.
“We’re here to save you.”
And the episode ends with Buffy and Willow trying to restore Amy to her full Amynessness
“Maybe we should get her one of those wheel thingies.”
Happily, I enjoyed this episode CONSIDERABLY more than I did the first time through the series.
'Gingerbread' along with 'The Wish', and 'Amends' function as a sort of Absurdist trilogy,
guiding us through each of Albert Camus' approaches
to the problem of a meaningless universe,
and our insatiable need for meaning as human beings.
In 'The Wish', we saw The Leap of Faith.
"We fight."
"We die."
"Wishing doesn't change that."
“I have to believe in a better world.”
In 'Amends', Angel tried to quell his inner demons through suicide.
“Buffy, please."
" Just this once...
"...let me be strong.”
And in 'Gingerbread', Buffy is faced with the possibility that her Slaying,
that mantle which gives her life purpose and definition,
might not have the effect on the world she thought.
"But IS Sunnydale getting any better?"
"Are they running out of vampires?”
Certainly they are not 'running out of vampires'.
We the viewers know by virtue of ‘The Wish’
that the world is better off with Buffy in it,
...but not solved.
At best she is a counterforce against entropy,
all things turning into chaos.
In a metaphorical sense, her quest for intrinsic meaning then, is not bearing fruit.
The universe persists as it is.
So what choice does she have then?
Let MOO take over?
"MOO!"
Give up her role.
Become an object in the universe.
Here, Angel reflects back for her the light she shared with him in 'Amends'.
“I do know it’s important to keep fighting.
"I learned that from you.”
“But we never.."
"We never win.”
“Not completely.”
“We never will."
"That’s not why we fight."
"We do it because there are things worth fighting for.”
Embracing the meaningless universe as it is,
and continuing the search for meaning regardless.
One thing I noticed in this episode is a SLIGHTLY jarring departure
from the way the show is usually shot.
Where normally episodes are brilliantly lit,
the lighting here is much more ambient and natural.
With long shadows on faces
and many more handheld shots which gave scenes an almost documentary style.
I kinda dig it,
even though this is the only episode I can think of that really looks like this.
As much as I found things to enjoy on this run-through,
I still think 'Gingerbread' has some major problems.
Especially in comparison to the elegantly plotted ‘The Wish,’
or the compelling drama in 'Amends'.
I think the main issue with this episode is its top heavy plot.
Besides the convoluted monster-of-the-week
that requires a fair amount of exposition,
there are a number of narrative threads that get started and dropped in this episode alone.
Willow’s Mom,
who they make so immediately reprehensible
and difficult to identify with
that it’s no big loss this is her only episode.
Joyce’s advocacy.
MOO.
"MOO!"
In some ways, I wonder if this plot shouldn’t have been a season arc unto itself?
The idea of adults in Sunnydale awakening to the supernatural around them
and becoming a dystopian society to control the underverse
could have unfolded slowly
and with many interesting ramifications.
But regardless, when character’s actions spring from the necessity of the plot
rather than the necessity of their character,
you’ve got a problem.
As is often the case when Joyce is heavily included in a story.
Another frustration is that, as entertaining as the individual episodes in this season are,
the season arc is unfolding unbelievably slowly.
I got very excited when I saw the Mayor make an appearance and then immediately disappointed he didn’t stick around.
We’re on Episode 11 and the ostensible Big Bad of the series,
has received nearly zero development at this point.
And one of the most fascinating characters in the first three seasons in Faith,
has had barely anything to do at this point.
Still, frustrations aside, this episode is MUCH better than I’d previously given it credit for.
I like how it represents a complete thought
from Angel starting 'Nausea' by Sarte in 'Lovers Walk',
to now.
There’s some fun interplay between the Gang
and I like seeing that Angel has internalized the things Buffy said to him at the end of 'Amends'.
And even if you do call this one a hump to get over,
it’s pretty much a greased slide from here to the end of the season.
In the next couple of episodes, things are about to get
really,
...really good.
"MOO!"