Great Buffyverse Rewatch of 2015: Gingerbread

[gillo]

This should have been posted on Friday, but RL got in the way. My apologies - we should be back to the twice-weekly schedule again next time.

So, now we have an episode about the power of fairy-tales, of mass hysteria, bullying and rubbish parental choices.

Comments

[velvetwhip]

It's another one of those episodes that seems better than it is the first time you view it and then falls apart with the application of thought, I'm afraid.

Gabrielle

[gillo]

Yes, I fear it isn't wholly coherent on rewatching. Some very good Espenson lines, though.

[velvetwhip]

I wondered about Angel's curious absence from rescuing Buffy and Oz and Xander's chummy teamwork even the first time I saw it.

Gabrielle

[gillo]

Angel really should have been there for the burning at least - Faith too, for that matter. They could have skipped some of the silly symbol stuff and included them (or at least Angel, as he was a regular, though Faith, only a recurring character, would have needed extra pay I suppose.)

[gillo]

I can remember a terrible thing in Orkney, when several families actually had children taken from them and sent hundreds of miles away to mainland Scotland. That was in 1991. Meanwhile, it seems, various celebrities and politicians were abusing children at leisure.

If you don't mind, I'm adding you to my flist - we do seem to come across each other quite a bit. Hope that's OK?

[gillo]

I suppose it's the sort of thing that surfaces once in a while.

We've been in this fandom since the days when there were far too many people to friend them all - we have a lot of friends in common!

[slaymesoftly]

You know, this is one of those episodes that I barely remembered until the pictures. I'd forgotten the dead children, but I did remember the over-reacting parents and the attempted burning at the stake. A bit curious how Buffy was so easily subdued, but maybe I've forgotten something (like her being knocked unconscious for a significant period of time?). I think, aside from ratting Amy (did it happen that early?) it was pretty non-essential for the seasonal arc.

[slaymesoftly]

*nods* Figured that must be it.

[gillo]

Her mother seems to have clamped chloroform or the like to her face, and Buffy suddenly didn't have the Slayer strength to resist.

[readerjane]

I wish there were less amnesia in eps like this. At other times, we see the kids deal with what it's like to be taken over, body-switched, doppelgangered. But I wish Joyce had really had to confront that too, both here and in Bad Eggs.

[gillo]

Only the core Scoobies seem to remember very much. Joyce has a very patchy memory. It would have been interesting to see how she came to terms with things she had done or tried to do. To be fair, she's better than the vast majority of parents in 90s shows.

[gillo]

Yes, considering how important parenting is as a theme in the show, it's a pity we didn't see more examples. An interfering and annoyed parent of a Potential might have improved S7, for example.