Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Recap/S3/E11 Gingerbread

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Buffy and Joyce find the corpses of two children bearing what seems to be marks related to witchcraft. Sunnydale's parents vow to root out witchcraft in the town. Except the children aren't entirely dead...

  • Adults Are Useless: Subverted; now that they actually take an interest, it becomes a case of Adults Are Harmful.
  • Air Vent Passageway: Subverted; Xander and Oz fit into the vents, but have no idea where they're going and only reach the rest of the cast after the demon is already dead. "We're here to rescue you..."
  • All Myths Are True
  • Animorphism: After seeing Amy turn herself into a rat, Willow and Buffy try to frighten the mob into letting them go.

Buffy: Yes! You will all be turned into vermin. And some of you will be fish! Yeah, you in the back will be fish!

Willow: Mom, I'm not acting out. I'm a witch! I-I can make pencils float. And I can summon the four elements. Okay, two, but four soon. (her mother doesn't react) A-and I'm dating a musician.
Sheila: (disgusted now) Oh, Willow!

  • As Long as It Sounds Foreign: We hear what is supposedly the testimony of the first person to encounter Hansel and Gretel (it makes sense in context). The German in it is... let's say, erratic.

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... ("I, a male female priest from vicinity them Black Forests, made to find the one bodies of the childs myselves. One became from the girlboy, the others from and girl. Thereupon my own to perform research I learned...")

Cordelia: If you're gonna hang with them, expect badness. 'Cause that's what you get when you hang with freaks and losers. Believe me, I know. That was a pointed comment about me hanging with you guys.

This is not a good town. How many of us have, have lost someone who, who just disappeared? Or, or got skinned? Or suffered neck rupture? And how many of us have been too afraid to speak out?

  • Emergency Transformation: Amy turns herself into a rat to escape the pyre. It's several years before Willow develops the skill to turn her back into a human.
  • Eureka Moment: Buffy realises the dead children had no parents, and their names have never been mentioned.
  • Evil Makeover / Paint It Black: Amy as a Red Herring.
  • Fire-Forged Friends: Co-operating to save Willow ends the awkwardness between Xander and Oz.
  • Funny Aneurysm Moment: Cordelia comments to Giles that he was going to "wake up in a coma" on account of all the head traumas he has received. At the end of season 4 of Angel, Cordelia is left in a coma; she dies after 'waking up' to give a last message for Angel from the Powers That Be.
  • Fun with Acronyms: Mothers Opposed to the Occult, or MOO.
  • Glamour Failure: Giles reveals the demon with his incantation.

Demon: Protect us! Kill the bad girls!
Buffy: You know what? Not as convincing in that outfit.

  • Gratuitous German: The newspaper article the gang looks up and the incantation by Giles.
  • Hairpin Lockpick: Giles borrows one of Cordelia's hairpins to pick a lock.
  • He Who Fights Monsters: Begins with Buffy's mom finding two young children after what looks like a magical rite. She responds by organizing the other parents in Sunnydale into an organization to go after witches (and Slayers.) The episode ends with them all trying to burn their own children at the stake.
  • Hollywood Fire: Even though the 'witches' are being burnt indoors, the room doesn't fill with smoke.
  • Hollywood Torches: But no pitchforks.
  • Instant Sedation: Joyce knocks out Buffy with chloroform.
  • Ironic Echo Cut: Buffy asking her mother to calm down after she finds the dead children. Cut to Buffy telling Giles, "Don't tell me to calm down!"
  • It Has Only Just Begun: Giles vs. Snyder.
  • It's Personal: The fact that Joyce finds the dead children makes Buffy eager to slay those responsible.
  • Malaproper

Buffy: Like that kid in the story, (gestures) the boy that stuck his finger in the duck.
Angel: Dike.
Buffy gives him a confused look. Angel smiles.
Angel: It's another word for dam.
Buffy: Oh. Okay, that story makes a lot more sense now.

Xander: Aw, man, it's Nazi Germany, and I've got Playboys in my locker!
Snyder: (smugly) This is a glorious day for principals everywhere. No pathetic whining about students' rights. Just a long row of lockers and a man with a key.

  • New Media Are Evil: Inverted when Giles has to resort to the internet because all his books have been confiscated.
  • Oh Crap: The Mayor gives Joyce a very wary look when she warns of dark forces in Sunnydale, before she lays the blame for the dead children at the feet of the witches in the town.
  • Parental Neglect: Willow's mother, to the point of not noticing a new haircut for four months.
  • Put On A Wheel-Thingy: Amy turns herself into a rat and stays that way for 3 years.
  • Right Behind Me
  • Running Gag: Giles' tendency to get a Tap on the Head is lampshaded by Cordelia.
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: Xander accidentally invokes this even though he's telling the truth.

Oz: I haven't seen you [Willow] all day. Where you been?
Xander: Not with me. No sir. Ask anyone.

    • Giles meets Joyce and both are feeling awkward after the events of "Band Candy"

Joyce: Oh, well, it's, it's not just me, but thank you. Well, it's, uh, it's been a while.
Giles: (uneasy) Right. Not since, um... Not since... Not for a while.
Sheila: There's a rumor going around, Mr. Giles.
Giles: (suddenly worried) R-rumor, about us?

Willow: She's [Willow's mother] doing that selective memory thing your mom used to be so good at.
Buffy: She forgot everything?
Willow: (ruefully) No. She remembered the part where I said I was dating a musician.

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