PrincessBuffy16
Scooby
Gingerbread
Air Date: January 12, 1999
Writer: Jane Espenson
Director: James Whitmore, Jr.
Trivia:
- Director Jerome E. Scott is the boy led away from his locker in the opening.
- Buffy refers to the events of "Lovers Walk," when Xander and Willow were caught kissing, when she says to Xander, "You got illicit smoochies, you're gonna have to pay the price."
- Willow's parents obviously do not pay very much attention to her, as this episode made very clear. Among other things, her mom refers to Buffy as "Bunny" twice, and didn't even know that Willow had cut her hair.
- More confirmation of Buffy's reputation for being a bad-ass at school when the bully and his friends are antagonizing Michael. All Buffy has to do is show her face and they back down.
- Willow's mom, Sheila, seems to be a sociologist or something similar, based on the writings she said that she has done.
- When Joyce mentions "skinning" in her speech, she is referring to the skins that were left after the fish-men had "hatched" in "Go Fish."
- Giles's translation of the German article on the computer was accurate.
- The spell that Giles cast to lift the veil off of Hansel and Gretel is as follows:
Demons show yourselves. I
call on the powers of
Hecate, queen and
protectress of witches, to
strip away the masks. Let
evil wear an evil face...
Hecate implores you. Lift
the veil
Lift the veil.
Hide not behind
false faces.
Goofs and Gaffes:
- When the team looks up old newspaper articles about murdered children, a German text from 1649 briefly flashes on the screen. The text does not make any sense, and looks like an electronic word-by-word translation of an English original.
- During the locker search, a cop is looking through a coin purse as seen over Snyder's shoulder. A significant amount of time later, and after looking through other things, the same cop is seen looking through the same coin purse.
References:
- "The patriarchal bias of the Mister Rogers' Show" and "King Friday lording it over all the lesser puppets." A reference to the 1968-2001 PBS TV show Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Fred Rogers was the host of this children's television program aiming to teach children the important issues of life, such as being friendly, sharing, etc. Also featured an imaginary world with puppets living in a medieval-type kingdom ruled by King Friday.
- "...that twisted little homunculus." Homunculus: A little man; a dwarf; a manikin.
- "I don't know about you, but I'm going to go trade my cow in for some beans." This is the second reference to the story of "Jack and the Beanstalk"; the first was in "Surprise."
- "Using what, a dictionary and My Friend Flicka?" My Friend Flicka is a 1941 book for young adults by Mary O'Hara, about a boy and his horse.
- "It happened in Salem." The Salem witch hysteria occurred in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Over 160 men and women were accused of witchcraft; 19 were convicted and hanged, at least 5 died in jail, and one man over 80 years old was crushed to death under heavy stones for refusing to submit to a trial.
- "I worship Beelzebub." Beelzebub is the patron god of the Philistines in ancient Palestine.
- "Hansel and Gretel" is a classic fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. It is a tale about two children that get lost in the forest, find a gingerbread house, and are almost cooked in an oven to be eaten by the witch who owns the house.
Body Count:
- Mr. Sanderson, Hansel and Gretel (Demon).
Episode Information:
- 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.
Continuity:
- Buffy asks Angel, "Is Sunnydale any better than when I first came here?" No one remembers the events of "The Wish" a couple weeks previously, where the Master rose unchallenged and Sunnydale became a town under siege, because of the nature of the eponymous wish. The place may not be better than when the Slayer first got there, but it is certainly far, far better than it might have been. This, along with Joyce's belittling of Buffy's responsibilities, strengthens the season's theme of whether or not the characters are making the changes they want to.
- Joyce and Giles are awkward around each other, this apparently being their first contact since they slept together during "Band Candy".
- Amy is turned into a rat and remains a rat for 3 years.
- Magic will get Willow into trouble again in "Doppelgangland" and then rather often in the years to come.
- Cordelia tells Giles that one day he might "wake up in a coma" which she actually does in "You're Welcome".
- Cordelia asks Giles rhetorically, "How many times have you been knocked out, anyway?!" This is a reference to Giles being rendered unconcious as a plot device on a regular basis, its regularity becoming an in-joke with many fans. Although the device is given a send-up here, it is far from the last time Giles will be knocked out.
- A Slayer being burned at a stake under accusation of witchcraft previously occurred in "Buffyverse" continuity, the Righteous Slayer as appearing in the canonical Tales of the Slayers, published 2002.
- Angel and Buffy philosophically discuss why they fight, reactively defeating evil threats that never stop coming. This theme is prominent in the spin-off series Angel.
Best quotes:
- Willow: A doodle. I do doodle. You too. You do doodle too.
- Xander: Oh man, it's Nazi Germany. And, I've got Playboys in my locker.
- Giles: We need to save Buffy from Hansel and Gretel.
Cordelia: Now, let's be clear, the brain damage happened before I hit you.
- Buffy: Mom, dead people are talking to you! Do the math.
- Buffy: Like the kid in the story, the boy that stuck his finger in the duck.
Angel: Dyke... it's another word for dam.
Buffy: Oh. Okay, that story makes a lot more sense now. (when he first said dyke I was very confused!)
- Xander: Everyone expects me to mess up again, like Oz. I see how he is around me. You know, that steely gaze, that pointed silence.
Buffy: 'Cause he's usually such a chatterbox.
- Giles: Of course. It makes sense now.
Buffy: Yeah, it's all falling into place. Of course that place is nowhere near this place.
- Cordelia: I swear, one of these times, you're gonna wake up in a coma.
- Buffy: Giles, we need those books.
Giles: Believe me, I've tried to tell that to the nice man with the big gun.
