Welcome to Rewatching Buffy, the part of the blog where I rewatch Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Each Tuesday evening, you’re invited to join me as I attempt to rediscover what made me love this show 20 years ago.

Gingerbread

• Buffy is out on patrol. And Joyce decides to show up.
• Slaying is a big part of Buffy’s life and Joyce wants to understand it better.
• That’s a mistake.
• A vampire attacks, but Joyce is a distraction for Buffy, so it gets away.
• Buffy gives chase and slays, while Joyce discovers two dead children on a playground.
• The dead girl has a strange symbol drawn on her hand.
• I’m sure that will be important at some point.
• The playground becomes a crime scene. You don’t usually see this much fuss over a double homicide in Sunnydale.
• Joyce doesn’t have confidence in Buffy’s abilities as the Slayer to make the situation better.
• Buffy is on a mission to find and destroy whatever killed these kids. Mostly because her mom is involved.
• She shows Giles the symbol on the kids’ hands. He recognizes it as something that would be used in some kind of ritual.
• Buffy is disturbed at the possibility that people could have committed these murders and not some kind of monster.
• Things are still weird between Xander and Oz, but they’re getting there.
• Oh, and Amy is hanging out with the gang at lunch. This must be a witchcraft episode.
• And then Joyce shows up at school. Why?
• Buffy shares with Joyce that it could be occult related. That leads her directly to witches.
• Yep, it’s a witch hunt episode.
• Joyce is setting up a vigil at city hall. The mayor is on board.
• That can’t be a good thing.
• Most of the town shows up for the vigil. Even Willow’s mother, whom we’ve never seen before, shows up.
• Things are still weird between Giles and Joyce… ever since the Band Candy incident… hmm…
• The mayor gives a heartfelt speech about how Sunnydale is a good town before turning it over to Joyce.
• She takes this opportunity to say Sunnydale is not a good town. That they need to take the town back from the monsters, the witches, and the Slayers…
• Meanwhile, Willow, Amy, and some emo dude wearing black lipstick are performing a spell together. And they’re sitting around a giant version of the symbol from the kids’ hands.
• That can’t be a good thing.
• At school, emo dude is getting beat up by some jock. They stop when Buffy arrives.
• She has quite the reputation at school. Interesting.
• Buffy stumbles on Willow’s notebook, in which she has doodled the symbol.
• Willow explains that the symbol is part of a protection spell that she was doing for Buffy’s upcoming birthday.
• The police have arrived and are going through lockers looking for occult paraphernalia.
• Amy and Willow are taken to Snyder’s office.
• But the fascism doesn’t stop there. The library gets raided, too.
• After an argument with Buffy, Joyce sees the dead children. They’re talking to her. Encouraging her to keep up her witch hunt.
• Angel finds Buffy on patrol and they talk about why they continue the fight. When Angel mentions the kids’ parents, Buffy realizes they really don’t know anything about the dead kids.
• Everyone seems to know all about the kids’ deaths. No one has brought up anything about their lives.
• The gang, including Willow on lock down, search the internet and find that every 50 years, these same two kids show up dead in different places.
• Turns out, these kids were the start of the legend of Hansel & Gretel.
• Willow’s mom bursts in and shuts Willow’s computer down and, rather ominously, states that she now believes she’s involved in witchcraft and it’s time to let her go.
• Then she locks her in her bedroom.
• Emo dude shows up at the library, severely beaten. Amy’s been taken.
• Willow is about to be taken.
• Joyce takes down Buffy and Giles, too.
• Before Buffy passes out from the chloroform, she sees the dead kids giving Joyce instructions.
• The mob from town is ready to burn the three girls at the stake on a pile of Giles’ books.
• Cordelia happens to find Giles unconscious at Buffy’s house and wakes him.
• She’s noticed how often Giles gets knocked out.
• Xander and Oz show up at city hall and confront some of the mob. “Just so we’re clear, you guys know you’re nuts, right?”
• Amy turns herself into a rat to get out of dying by fire.
• But Buffy and Willow are still about to burn. While the kids complain that the grown-ups promised to kill the bad girls.
• Giles and Cordelia work on an incantation that should make the demons appear in their true form.
• Cordelia pulls out the fire hose and Giles makes Hansel & Gretel turn into one ginormous demon.
• Buffy, still tied to her stake, manages to bend at the waist and drive her stake through the monster.
• Willow tries to turn Amy back to human. Doesn’t work.
• Looks like Willow has a pet rat.
• Body count: Vampires – 1; Demons – 1 (or 2 if you count both Hansel & Gretel)