Buffy the Vampire Slayer · Season 3
“Gingerbread” · Season 3
In this episode: Buffy Summers (5), Xander Harris (3), Willow Rosenberg (3), Rupert Giles (2), Oz (2), Cordelia Chase (1), Angel (1), Amy Madison (1)
Oh my God!
Kids?
Why was your mom there?
More bad, she picked last night, of all nights, for a surprise bonding visit.
God, your mom would actually take the time to do that with you? [Buffy looks at her] That really wasn't the point of the story, was it?
You're upset, I hear you ...
No, Ma, hear this! I'm a rebel! I'm having a rebellion!
Oh, Willow, honey, you don't need to act out like this to prove your specialness!
Mom, I'm not acting out, I'm a witch! I can make pencils float! And I can summon the four elements! Okay, two, but four soon. And I'm dating a musician!
Oh, Willow.
I worship Beelzebub. I do his biddings! Do you see any goats around? No! 'Cause I sacrificed them!
Willow, please...
All bow before Satan!
I'm not listening to this.
Prince of Night, I summon you! Come fill me with your black, naughty evil!
[Angel finds Buffy during patrol.]
Hey. How are you?
I'm all right. I think I'm better than you right now. [indicates playground shrine] I heard about this. People are talking. People are even talking to me.
It's strange. People die in Sunnydale all the time. I've never seen anything like this.
They were children. Innocent. It makes a difference.
And Mr. Sanderson from the bank had it coming? My mom said some things to me about being the Slayer. That it's fruitless. No fruit for Buffy.
She's wrong.
Is she? Is Sunnydale any better than when I first came here? Okay, so I battle evil. But I don't really win. The bad just keeps coming back... and getting stronger. Like the kid in the story, the boy that stuck his finger in the duck.
Dike. [Buffy looks at him.] It's another word for dam.
Oh. Okay, that story makes a lot more sense now.
Buffy, you know there's still things I'm trying to figure out. There's a lot I don't understand. But I do know it's important to keep fighting. I learned that from you.
But we never...
We never win.
Not completely.
Never will. That's not why we fight. We do it because there's things worth fighting for.
Uh, wait, wait a minute. Uh... Uh, there is a fringe theory held by a few folklorists that some regional stories have actual, um, very literal antecedents.
And in some language that's English?
Fairy tales are real?
Hans and Gre... Hansel and Gretel?
Wait. Hansel and Gretel? Breadcrumbs, ovens, gingerbread house?
Of course! Well, it makes sense now.
Yeah, it's all falling into place. Of course that place is nowhere near this place.
Some demons thrive by fostering hatred and, and, uh, persecution amongst the mortal animals. Not by, not by destroying men, but by watching men destroy each other. Now, they feed us our darkest fear and turn peaceful communities into vigilantes.
Hansel and Gretel run home to tell everyone about the mean old witch.
And then she and probably dozens of others are persecuted by a righteous mob. It's happened all throughout history. It happened in Salem, not surprisingly.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm still spinning on this whole fairy tales are real thing.
So what do we do?
I don't know about you, but I'm gonna go trade my cow in for some beans ... [silence] No one else is seeing the funny here.
I came by to tell Buffy to stop all of this craziness and found you all unconscious ... again. How many times have you been knocked out, anyway? I swear, one of these times, you're gonna wake up in a coma.
Wake up in a c... ? Oh, never mind. We need to save Buffy from Hansel and Gretel.
Now, let's be clear. The brain damage happened before I hit you.
Hey. Is Willow around?
How can I convince you people that it's over? You assume because I am here, she is here. That I somehow mysteriously know where she is.
[points] Those her books?
Yeah, she's in the bathroom. [Buffy nods] But the fact that I know that doesn't change that I have a genuine complaint here. Look, I'm getting sick of the judgement. The innuendos. Is a man not innocent until proven guilty?
You are guilty. You got illicit smoochies. Gonna have to pay the price.
But I'm talking about the future guilt. Look, everyone expects me to mess up again. Like Oz. I see how he is around me. You know, that steely gaze, that pointed silence.
'Cause he's usually such a chatterbox.
No but it's different now. It's more a verbal non-verbal. He speaks volumes with his eyes.
Your mom doesn't mind us doing this in the house?
She doesn't know.
Business as usual?
Yeah, sort of. She's doing that selective memory thing your mom used to be so good at.
She forgot everything?
No. She remembered the part where I said I was dating a musician. Oz has to come for dinner next week. So, that's sort of like taking an interest.
Okay, should we try this again?
Let's do it. I think we got the mix of herbs right this time.
Okay. Ready?
Diana, Hecate, I hereby license thee to depart. Goddess of creatures great and small, I conjure thee to withdraw.
[Silence.]
Maybe we should get her one of those wheel thingies.
These quotes come from Wikiquote's Buffy the Vampire Slayer pages and are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
