Brigitte Fitzgerald

Brigitte Fitzgerald is a central character featured in the Ginger Snaps trilogy, and she was played by Canadian actress Emily Perkins. Brigitte first appears in the 2000 film Ginger Snaps and later in the 2004 sequel Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed. The modern day Brigitte from the first two films appears as her 19th century counterpart with the same namesake Brigitte Fitzgerald in the prequel film Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning.

Biography
Brigitte Fitzgerald, also referred to as Brige, Bee, and Beebster, was born in 1984 in Bailey Downs, Ontario, Canada. She is the second daughter of Pamela and Henry Fitzgerald, and she has one older sister, whose name is Ginger Fitzgerald. A bright 15-year old student, she attends Bailey Downs High School, where she skipped a grade. She is an avid reader and possesses a love of biology and macabre studies. With the same values as her older sister, she has an introverted personality and exhibits asocial behavior, even resenting her own parents, and she dislikes the "construct" of modern society and desires to escape it; in contrast with Ginger, Brigitte is more timid, acquiescent, and reticent.

Since as a young girl, Brigitte dedicated her life to following and protecting her sister; as young children, Brigitte signed a pact with Ginger to be "together forever" and "united against life as we know it." The sisters always attend the same classes, perform the same activities, and never leave each other's sights, being inseparable. However, as Ginger undergoes substantial changes due to puberty and from the effects of lycanthropy (an infection from an attack by the Beast of Bailey Downs), Brigitte discovers that Ginger comes to separate herself from Brigitte. In the meantime, she also found herself shifting away from Ginger, where she slowly shifts away from always being obedient to her sister. After her sister completes her transformation into Gingerwolf, she attempts to cure her sister with a monkshood extract, but accidentally kills her when Gingerwolf accidentally impales herself on a knife which Brigitte held in self-defense. However, Brigitte finds that she was also infected with lycanthropy, where previously she mixed her blood with Ginger's from cuts on their palms, trying to earn back Ginger's trust, which proved short-lived.

Finding her own transformation accelerating, Brigitte finds that the monkshood extract was only a temporary treatment to slow the effects of lycanthropy, and she isolates herself and avoids getting close to other people to protect them. She was treated for a time at the Happier Times Care Center for a drug overdose on monkshood, but she was kept against her will as she was labelled as a drug addict. She finds company in Ghost, a resident of the clinic, and resents all other residents and workers of the clinic. She later transforms into a werewolf (see Brigittewolf) as her lycanthropy transformation completes.

History
For the Brigitte Fitzgerald from Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning, see article Brigitte Fitzgerald (I).

Events of Ginger Snaps
Late fall of 1999, the Fitzgerald sisters Brigitte and Ginger were assigned an assignment for social studies class to present on "Life in Bailey Downs." Brigitte followed Ginger's idea of a macabre slideshow of the girls in a series of horrific death scenes to disgust the class and to try to get into detention to get out of school. The sisters presented their slideshow presentation to their class and awaited the class's response. Though relieved that the class seemed impressed by their work, Brigitte was repulsed of the exaggerated reactions of Mister Wayne, who loudly expressed his disgust of their work.

During gym class, Brigitte played a game with Ginger, where Brigitte targeted a rival field hockey player named Trina Sinclair and dictates how she would die. One of Trina's friends overhears and tells Trina, who becomes enraged and pushes Brigitte into the mauled remains of a dog during a hockey game. Embarrassed and repulsed by what happened, she hides in the girls' locker room, where the janitor hands her a clean rag to wipe the blood off of her face.

That evening, Brigitte and her sister went for a walk through a neighborhood park. While discussing the inadequacies of their lives, Brigitte suggests dognapping Trina's dog Morley and replacing in his absence the dissected remains of a dog to scare Trina. Spotting a dead dog, the sisters could not believe their luck, but Brigitte notices that the body was still warm and wet. Just at that moment, Ginger begins her first period, to Brigitte's horror that she was inflicted with "the curse." Meanwhile, a large being whooshes by, shaking a swing set. Sensing something was wrong, Brigitte suggests the sisters leave, but the Beast of Bailey Downs leaps out and attacks Ginger, dragging her off screaming into the woods. Brigitte tries to follow them, but was too frozen with fear to do anything. Gaining her repose, she goes after Ginger and beats on the creature with her Polaroid camera, accidentally taking a snapshot of the beast. Brigitte drags Ginger away, and the sisters run home. She carries Ginger to the empty Fitzgerald's house and begins treating her wounds; upon examination, she was shocked to see that Ginger's wounds were already beginning to heal.

Brigitte goes to buy hygiene products for Ginger, where she sees Ginger accept an invitation from Jason McCardy to go smoking. Sensing an irregularity in her sister's usual introverted, asocial persona and recalling the peculiar circumstances that started developing (Ginger's being attacked on a full moon, her growing hair from her wounds, and her large menstruation volumes), she breaks from her own introverted persona that included avoiding talking to guys, and she eventually found Sam, the man who hit the Beast with his van. Sam recognizes that he had struck a lycanthrope, and Brigitte was surprised that he was willing to accept such a concept. Sam tried to press Brigitte for answers concerning what really happened that night, but she evaded his inquiries. Gathering what she knows, she brings her concerns to Ginger, but she found her older sister dismissing them as ridiculous. On her own, Brigitte secretly checks the calendar to see if Ginger's menstrual cycle somehow corresponded to the effects of the full moon. Taking refuge in a playhouse that the girls used when they were younger, Brigitte researches the lore concerning werewolves, but came up with nothing short of b-movie schlock fare.

Before long, Brigitte notices the effects of lycanthropy on Ginger. She grew more assertive, more promiscuous and even exhibited physical alterations such as pointed teeth and discolored hair. At night while Ginger was sleeping, Brigitte goes to examine her, and she was shocked to find her growing a tail. This terrified Brigitte who went back to Sam for his guidance. Pretending that she was the one infected by the curse, she asked for Sam's help. She receives his silver earring to see if it might help, and she goes home and convinces Ginger to let her give Ginger a naval piercing. After a difficult piercing where the ring was stuck, the Brigitte monitors Ginger, but she does not finds results of improvement she was hoping for.

The following day at field hockey, Brigitte had a run-in with Trina Sinclair, who pushes her onto the ground, triggering Ginger to brutally pummeling Trina, but Brigitte was helpless to stop her sister until Ms. Sykes stopped the attack. Following this incident, Brigitte sees that Jason has a bloodied spot on his pants, and she remembers that Ginger had engaged in unprotected sex with him: putting two and two together, she realizes that Ginger had spread the lycanthropy infection to Jason. She confronts Ginger, who appears indifferent to her actions, and fearing an epidemic, Brigitte contends to visit Sam, but Ginger insists on following. Brigitte relents, and arrives to tell Sam how the silver did not have any effect. Sam tells Brigitte about monkshood, a seasonal flower that was a cousin to wolfsbane and how theoretically it could be a potential cure, but it only bloomed in the spring, and it was currently fall. In the meantime, Brigitte noticed how disrespectful Ginger was to Sam, and she dismissed her after Ginger accused Sam of trying to win over and then rape Brigitte. Brigitte finds her sister leaving her alone with Sam, and she rolls her eyes after Sam tells her that he does not think of her that way.

Walking home by herself, she sees Trina Sinclair, who accuses her and Ginger of stealing her dog. Brigitte was taken off-guard when Ginger puts Trina in a headlock and drags her inside the house. Brigitte tries to get her to stop, but Ginger kept antagonizing Trina. During the scuffle, she was horrified when Trina slipped and suffered a fatal head injury, instantly killing herself. Brigitte hears their parents returning home, and she quickly gets Ginger to help hide Trina's body in the freezer. Right before her parents view the messy scene, Brigitte plays a death scene where she takes a picture of Ginger in the blood, disguised as fake corn syrup blood. Brigitte distracts her mother to tell her about "what guys want" before her mother notices the body in the freezer. Once their parents were out of the way, Brigitte and Ginger pulled Trina's now-frozen body out of the freezer and buried her in the backyard tool shed; unfortunately, Brigitte accidentally broke two of Trina's frozen fingers off, and the fingers were inadvertently dropped them on the ground in the back yard. Brigitte tells Ginger that she cannot go out anymore and to lay low until everything passes.

Several days later, Trina was noticed missing, and she was declared missing. The school began interviewing students of interest for her disappearance, and Brigitte forges an absence note from her mother about Ginger. While walking to class, Brigitte was grabbed by Jason McCardy, who cornered her inside a supply closet. She notices Jason's grotesque appearance from lycanthropy refuted his claims that Ginger and Brigitte are responsible for his condition. She tells him that he is in deep trouble and to get lost. The timely arrival of the school janitor prevents Jason from further harming Brigitte. That evening, Brigitte attempts to keep low to dodge her mother's questions about the school inquiring about Ginger's absence, and she was shaken to find that her mother was told by the school that Ginger was asked to be questioned by police. Brigitte leaves the table with Ginger, but she is trapped by her mother who demands what was going on. Brigitte discovers monkshood her mother bought from the local crafts store on a nearby table, and Brigitte tells her mother the partial story of how Ginger beat up Trina because she was bullying them and that was all to satisfy her mother. The next morning, locking her sister in the bathroom, Brigitte took the Monkshood and went to see Sam at the Greenhouse to create a treatment. Brigitte was dismayed to hear from Sam that there was no guarantee that the cure would work, what side effects might occur, and whether the cure might be fatal. She was also shocked to find out that Sam indicated that he knew that it was Ginger who was suffering from the effects of lycanthropy and not Brigitte. She receives a small dose of experimental extract from Sam, which he aspirated into a syringe.

On her way back to see Ginger, Brigitte discovers that Ginger had broken out of the bathroom. She runs to school and comes across Jason attacking a small child along the way. Turning around, Jason attacks Brigitte, and she was forced to stab him in the neck with the syringe. She was surprised to see that the Monkshood solution had worked and that Jason was seemingly cured; unfortunately, she was now in need of more monkshood. She traces Ginger back to the high school where she discovered that her sister had murdered their guidance counselor Mr. Wayne. Brigitte made Ginger swear that they would wait until everyone left school for the day then find a way to clean up this mess. After hours, she goes and finds the janitor's cart, but returns to see Ginger attacking the school janitor. When the janitor is unconscious but starts choking on his blood, Brigitte finds that he is infected and goes to get help; Ginger chooses to eviscerate him. Brigitte is then horrified when she notices Ginger actually liking the gruelsome act, but she refused to join the supernatural pact with her sister who suggests that they "swap some juice, and make our own little pact, just like before." Brigitte refuses and denounces her sister, who kicks Brigitte to the ground and leaves.

Knowing that Ginger was about to attack Sam at the Greenhouse Bash, she runs toward the event but is picked up by her mother. She listens to her mother who states that she discovered Trina's murder, knows about her daughter's involvement, and states that she will burn the house down and run away with them. Brigitte considers this, and after arriving at the greenhouse, she enters the party to see Ginger attacking Sam. Brigitte stops Ginger but is dismayed at hearing Ginger resenting her because she could never be like her older sister. In response, Brigitte cut open her own hand and placed it on Ginger's bloody palm, infecting herself while boldly stating, "Now, I am you." While exiting the greenhouse with her sister, Brigitte sees her mother searching for them in the party, and she makes the last minute decision to abandon her mother. Outside, Brigitte hears from Ginger that she is too weak to continue because she is feeling her transformation continuing too fast. She sees Sam unexpectedly hit Ginger across the back of the head with a shovel, and she scolds told him that the monkshood solution worked, but they needed to get Ginger back to the house to get more of it.

As they drive back towards the house, Brigitte feels faint from the developing lycanthropy infection from the earlier blood mixing. When they arrive at the house, Brigitte is afraid that Ginger might have escaped from the van's loose back doors. Afraid and unaware that Ginger has fully transformed, Brigitte enters the house with Sam, and they enter the pantry to create a second monkshood dose. Brigitte refuses Sam's request that she take the cure and to run away with Sam, but she told him no, insisting that he needed to cure Ginger first. She tries to get up and open the door, but is too weak. She eventually relents to give Sam the syringe to go cure Ginger. Brigitte is horrified when Sam is dragged out the door, brutally banged and mutilated on the door, and dragged away, leaving behind a bloody trail. Brigitte picks up the dropped syringe and follows the blood trail downstairs. Weak from exhaustion and from the developing lycantropy infection, she collapses on the steps, dropping the syringe in the process. She recovers it, but when she turns the corner and looks up, she sees her sister, fully transformed into a Gingerwolf, hovering over the bleeding Sam. Brigitte slowly crawls towards them and begins lapping at Sam's blood in an attempt to convince Gingerwolf that she was now like her. When she began choking on it, Brigitte announces that she can't and she won't adopt Ginger's new way of life. The Gingerwolf sensed Brigitte's insincerity and repulsion and kills Sam in front of her.

Brigitte runs away from the chasing Gingerwolf and barely escapes by kicking a hole in the plaster wall of the basement and escaping through the crawlspace back to the sisters' bedroom. Sensing that the Gingerwolf might appear any time, Brigitte picks up a knife that Ginger used to sever her tail and holds it to defend herself while holding the syringe with the other. The Gingerwolf appears, and at first Brigitte attempts to convince the Gingerwolf to remember her younger sister. When she finds that the Gingerwolf does not show recognition and keeps crawling forward, Brigitte announces that she will not die in the bedroom with her sister. The Gingerwolf pounces, and she accidentally stabs the werewolf in the heart, killing it. Brigitte lays in shock at the fatal wound and craws to the wall to regain herself. Tears appear in her eyes when she discovers that she fatally wounded her sister, and she looks up at the photographs to see pictures of the sisters in their adventures. She crawls back to the Gingerwolf and lays on her head, quietly sobbing while her sister has breathes weakly and finally stops breathing.

Events of Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed
Sometime after the incident with her sister, Brigitte found herself addicted to the Monkshood in hopes to cure her lycanthropy. She constantly sees the ghost (or possibly a hallucination) of her sister Ginger. Ginger tells her that the Monkshood is a temporary cure that only slows down the effects.

She also attempts to not let people get close to her as she is being stalked by an unnamed male werewolf that intends to mate with her. She eludes one encounter when a librarian named Jeremy who flirted with her found her overdosing on Monkshood in her motel room. He attempts to take her to the hospital when the male werewolf attacks, Jeremy was killed in the encounter and dragged away. Brigitte however, overdoses on the Monkshood and is found by someone who mistake the Monkshood for an illegal drug and she is placed in a rehabilitation clinic for drug abusers and chronic care patients.

She meets Alice, the director of the facility who, despite Brigitte's plea, refuses to release her. Brigitte manages to palm a piece of glass so she can measure her healing rate. A clinic worker, Tyler, visits her at night and offers her Monkshood if she preforms sexual favors. She refuses and Tyler tells her she won't have access to the Monkshood until she agrees. Brigitte's healing begins to accelerate and later Ginger appears, taunting her as Brigitte's lycanthropy advances. A depressed Brigitte complicates suicide but decides against it.

Brigitte is also followed by an eccentric girl named Ghost who is in the facility along with her grandmother Barbara, who is a victim of severe burns. Ghost goes through her comic collection and discovers that Brigitte is a werewolf. Ghost tries to slip some Monkshood to Brigitte but is stopped by Tyler. The following night, in fear of her transformation rated, Brigitte finally gets Tyler to inject her with the Monkshood. Around this time the male werewolf has found its way to the clinic. The werewolf kills Ghost's dog. Ghost reveals the body was found in the disused crematorium. Ghost offers to help Brigitte escape but only if she can go with her. While crawling through the air vents, they find Beth-Ann, who has been having sex with Tyler in exchange for drugs. Beth-Ann is brutally killed by the werewolf. Ghost tells Brigitte that the escape route is where the beast dragged Beth-Ann. Brigitte and Ghost head there when the male werewolf attacks and separates them. When they make it to the crematorium, Brigitte is briefly subdued by the werewolf. Brigitte and Ghost finally make their escape when the werewolf is burned.

Brigitte and Ghost arrive at Barbara's house. They arrange for Tyler to deliver Monkshood to the gas station. When Brigitte finds the dead body of the gas station attendant she, along with Ghost and Tyler, head back to Barbara's home. While in the house, Tyler injects the Monkshood into Brigitte, but her body rejects the Monkshood. Ghost later tells Brigitte she was raped by Tyler, in retaliation Brigitte locks Tyler outside and allows the werewolf to kill him.

Alice arrives and is attacked by Ghost. Brigitte learns that Ghost has been lying to her about Barbara - Ghost claimed Barbara was a smoker, which lead to her accidentally setting herself on fire, but it is revealed that she wasn't. Brigitte attempts to confront Ghost but is stopped by Alice who attempts to take Ghost away. However, they are stopped when the werewolf makes its presence known. Alice takes Ghost to the attic for refuge. The werewolf enters the house through a broken window. Brigitte is almost completely transformed. Ghost briefly distracts the werewolf leading Brigitte to fight and seemingly kill the werewolf when it falls into the basement. Ghost also appears to have killed Alice, and finds Brigitte close to a full transformation. Brigitte begs for death, but instead Ghost locks her in the basement. Brigitte's final fate is unknown but it is clear that Ghost intends on using her to kill people she doesn't like, starting with Barbara.

Appearance
Brigitte dresses very conservatively and covers up most of herself, and she does not use make-up. She wears a bird skull necklace like her sister, who she often matches outfits with. She wears long leggings and over-fitting clothing, also often donning an overcoat.

Werewolf Transformation
See main article werewolf transformation.

Brigitte infects herself with Ginger's blood in order to become with the werewolf curse herself so she could prove to her sister that they are still on equal terms. She is seen having shivers and is dozing in and out a few minutes after the infection, probably from the initial werewolf transformation. In the events of Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed, she fully transforms into a werewolf, where the monkshood cure no longer worked. Her transformation appearance differed from Ginger's in that her face was more grotesque, and her fur was more brown. The overall transformation was extended contrasted with Ginger's very quick transformation from the first film.

Fan Theories
See main article fan theories.

There are many things discussed about the character of Brigitte, including how she obtained funds to survive her runaway from her home, and the identity of the male werewolf stalking her.

Trivia

 * Brigitte, age 15, is played by a 23-year-old Emily Perkins. Katharine Isabelle, who plays her big sister Ginger, is four years younger than Perkins.
 * When Brigitte accidentally pulls the leg off of the dead dog in the beginning of Ginger Snaps, the position of it in her hands changes between cuts.
 * Perkins had her hair shaved off shortly before the start of filming, so she had to wear an (occasionally obvious) wig during the shoot.