"Gingerbread" - More Than a Yummy Cookie

Much like The Turn of the Screw, “Gingerbread” obfuscates the line between the normative and the supernatural. On one hand there is the potential murder of two children with a police investigation, and on the other hand there is the Hansel and Gretel fairytale enacted by a demon. The ambiguity of this dichotomy is unsettling in its own right, however the effect of this grayness on the characters in the episode is arguably more frightening. For, in keeping with the typical Buffy trajectory, Buffy kills the demon at the end of the episode clarifying the initial discrepancy between the worldly and paranormal hypotheses. However, the crazed collective consciousness performed by MOO still lingers as a real potential threat that could come about at any time. The fact that the viewers recognize this mob mentality as a persistent human danger once the supernatural framework dissolves makes this episode effectively gothic.

Nonetheless, it is interesting how the supernatural schema of this episode enables all the characters to forgive and forget MOO’s actions. To a certain extent, this response is understandable, after all Hansel and Gretel had the citizens of Sunnydale under a magical trance. However, this stupor is nearly identical in force to the illusions created by real charismatic leaders. As a result, the episode gives the impression that such magic is not really needed to incite collective consciousness against supernatural practitioners or minority groups. After all, the Salem Witch Trials and the Holocaust provide historical evidence for this intimation.

Still, collective consciousness is not always bad in nature. For instance, the Civil Rights movement exemplifies positive action performed by a large group of people to achieve constructive goals of equality. Thus, this episode guides the conversation about actual worldly fears beyond the threat of negative mob mentality to the general issue of how society manifests its desire for “justice”. From the content of “Gingerbread,” viewers are forced to consider if there is an alternative to playing the blame-game in order to feel self-righteous. The problem then becomes society’s initial antiquated response to injustice, which Joyce expresses at the town meeting, “I say we start by finding the people who did this and making them pay.” Thus, “Gingerbread” incites a conversation about the expression of society’s longing for justice by identifying the flaws in its current manifestation through supernatural circumstances.