Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Gingerbread - S03E11 Review

GINGERBREAD
SEASON 3 EPISODE 11

Gingerbread is a very goofy episode. Not bad, exactly, but also not one of the better ones. It especially feels out of place after the weighty Amends, and is very strange in the context of the overall very serious Season 3.

We open up with Buffy patrolling in the woods; typical start to an episode. But then, curveball: her mom shows up for some moral support, saying that she wants slaying to be something that the two can share together. It already seems a little out of character for Joyce; trying to understand the slaying is one thing, but actually going out to watch? Pretty weird. Soon enough, a vamp shows up and Joyce recognizes him as someone from her bank before he gets away. Not wanting her to get hurt, Buffy tells Joyce to stay while she chases vampy down, so Joyce strolls to the park like a kid with ADD. There she finds two dead little kids, a boy and a girl, with strange occult symbols on their hands.

Buffy's mom is pretty distraught from seeing the whole thing, and Buffy promises to find the culprit, but it doesn't seem to make her feel much better. At the library the next day, Buffy vents to Giles about the deaths and shows him the symbol that was on their hands. Giles says that it's probably the work of a cult and the fact that humans could have done this freaks Buffy right out. Giles has the right idea when he says that Buffy's letting it become too personal, but she doesn't take his advice like the stubborn thing she is.

Meanwhile, at lunch, Xander is making everything super awkward around Willow and Oz. Also, Amy is hanging out with them again for some reason. I wonder if her sudden involvement means it will be a witch episode... nah. She's gotten super stereotypical gothy since Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered. Buffy soon shows up and relays the news to the group, and then Joyce shows up too. Funny how she keeps doing that. She immediately starts rambling about whoever did this being a monster, etc, etc. This is the worst aspect of the episode; Joyce is written pretty poorly in this one (I know it makes sense within the context of the episode, but still not a big fan). She then sets up a vigil for the two kids that the whole town attends.

At the vigil, we finally meet Willow's mom, and she's very detached and uncaring. You would think Willow would be pushed harder because she's so smart but nah, her mom barely notices that she exists. Giles and Joyce share some more super awkwardness remnants from Band Candy, and the Mayor gets up to speak about the crime. This is the first time Buffy and the Mayor have been in the same scene; weird that this episode marks the first time that happens. Joyce gets up to speak about the incident and rallies the adults to take back the town from violence. Later, we then see a dark room and that Willow seems to be casting some pretty nasty spell.

The next day at school, Amy and her super goth friend Michael are getting picked on by some jocks. Buffy shows up and they all scatter; this is one of the funniest instances of people being scared of her. She really commands a lot of authority in high school, or at least intimidation. Cordy shows up and taunts Buff, leaving just as soon as she came. Cordelia has kind of ceased to be relevant now; she only shows up to be annoying to the gang and hardly factors into any plot for the rest of the season. I guess that's why she leaves at the end of the season.

Looking for Willow, Buffy stumbles on some of her notebooks, and one happens to have the weird symbol of the occult on it. Before she can get an answer out of the clearly nervous Willow, the police show up to raid lockers for occult items. Willow gets in trouble for stuff in her locker, but explains to Buffy that she was just casting a protection spell for Buffy's birthday present. Oh, so she's not really evil? Shocker! Meanwhile, a ton of Giles's books are getting confiscated. Snyder comes in and says that it's the work of MOO: Mothers Opposed to the Occult. And guess who the leader of the group is? Yep, Buffy's mom herself.

We see some more of Willow and her mom, the most condescending woman in the world. Willow eventually gets grounded for the first time in her entire life. Willow gets forbidden from seeing Buffy anymore, and meanwhile Buffy's mom tells Buff that she can't hang out with Willow either. And this is where Joyce gets incredibly annoying and righteous. I can't tell if it's completely the writing or if some of it's the acting too. Maybe she was going for super annoying, but she's obnoxious and we're totally on Buffy's side all the way. After Buffy storms out, we see the two dead kids talking to Joyce.

Buffy heads to the park and meets up with Angel. They have a chat about Buffy's role in Sunnydale; Buffy wonders if she's actually doing any good and if she can ever really beat evil. Thanks to The Wish, we know that if Buffy hadn't shown up then there wouldn't really be a Sunnydale to fight for. Angel reassures her that it's important to keep fighting because there are things worth fighting for. It's a very sweet scene between the two and really reinforces their chemistry, which we haven't seen much of lately.

Buffy goes to Oz, Giles, and Xand in the library with some curious questions. What are the kids' names? No one knows, and she finds that weird. They get Willow to help via Internet (not sure how possible that was in '99, but okay) and find newspaper clippings from years ago involving the deaths of the same exact kids. They find an article dating back from the 1600s that detail the two kids as Hans(el) and Gretel. Yes, the ones from the fairy tale. Apparently they like to cause chaos and watch humans kill each other rather than do it themselves. A pretty cool idea, actually. I mean, if I were a demon, of course. Soon Michael, the gothy kid shows up saying he was attacked and that the town is holding a trial for all witches, so Buff and Giles go to talk some sense into Joyce. But MOO chloroforms them under the orders of the little kids.

At the trial, Buffy, Willow and Amy are tied to stakes and about to be burned by the mob-like townspeople. Cordy finds Giles knocked out at Buffy's house and I'm only bringing it up because it leads to a really funny line in which she questions how many times he's been knocked unconscious. Joyce lights the fire at the trial, so Amy, to escape, turns herself into a rat. This actually becomes a vital plot point like four seasons from now. Yay for continuity! Cordy and Giles bust into the room; Cordy grabs a hose and puts out the fires while Giles chants a spell to reveal the demons in their true forms. The two little kids hug and morph into this huge goblin thing; not one of the better monster designs, honestly. It charges at Buffy, who finally breaks her stake, bending over and letting the giant thing impale the demon in a great anticlimax.

Afterwards, Buffy and Willow perform the spell to reverse Amy back into a human. The only problem is that it doesn't actually work. Cue the long-running gag! Overall, this isn't really a great episode. A lot of it is just Joyce being irritating, but there are some pretty funny lines, especially from Buffy, who rarely gets the funny stuff. Other than that, pretty average to below average episode.

**