Buffy the Vampire Slayer 3x11 "Gingerbread" Full Reaction

That voice in your other ear saying, "Yes, Liam. DO buy ALL the episodes of Buffy. You NEED them. You know you do.", yeah that was me. ;D

Katherine Thoreson

This episode is my guilty pleasure since it has so many great lines, even if it's one of the weaker ones in s3. Trivia: 1.) When the camera pans out of Willow and Amy's coven, first revealing the symbol they were gathered around, the faint laugh of Kakistos can be heard in the background. It's the laugh he uttered after telling Buffy she needed a bigger stake in "Faith, Hope & Trick". 2.) Amy and Willow have something in common in this exchange cut due to length: Amy: "Oh, God, and Mr. Nyman that thing he does with his face..." Willow: "The thing with the face! When he makes a point, the - I always think he's going to sneeze!" Amy: "I thought I was the only one who saw it." 3.) MOO (Mothers Opposed to the Occult), which Joyce Summers founded, was probably a reference to MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving). 4.) his 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. 5.) The Californian town of Torrance, where much of Buffy was filmed, was one of the areas affected by the 'Satanic Panic' child abuse hysteria of the early 80s.

I really like the concept of Hansel and Gretel being about drumming up panic and righteous anger against "witches." Who were some of the most easily targeted members of society, as they were often influential or unmarried or "rebellious" women. Now I'm thinking of all the other folk tails where a witch is the villain, and how in a lot of ways they used fear to control people like in this episode. A lot of the iconography of the witch (black hat, broom, cauldron, ugly) come directly from older women making a living brewing beer or practicing medicine, things that benefit the community, but they were specifically targeted for doing so (like how Buffy and Willow use the supernatural to save Sunnydale/the world constantly).

KT