Pamela Joane Fitzgerald is the mother of Brigitte and Ginger Fitzgerald and the wife of Henry Fitzgerald. She is portrayed as a loving, albeit clueless and sometimes dismissive, mother to her daughters.
Description[]
Pamela Fitzgerald was the wife of Henry Fitzgerald and the mother of teenage sisters Ginger and Brigitte Fitzgerald. She lived in the suburban community of Bailey Downs in Ontario, Canada. A chipper and loving woman, Pamela often disregarded her children's more eccentric behavior and always made herself available to give motherly advice. In contrast to her husband, she often displays the willingless to get more involved in the lives of her daughters who regularly reject her attempts to get closer to them. At the same time she was also never nosy or inquisitive about their lives and rarely talks to them outside of their daily encounters at the dinner table.
Pamela wears a headband, a turtleneck, and a variety of outdoor-wear jackets depicting cuddly animals.
In her freetime she pursues crafting as a hobby, and often returns from craft stores with all kinds of material, such as dried plants. She also tends to the potted plants outside the house.
History[]
When Ginger showed signs that she experienced acute back pain, Pamela was quick to point out that it could signal the onset of the girl's first menstrual cycle[1]. This conversation devolved into an argument and Ginger avoided any future talk on the subject.
After Pamela found undeniable proof of Ginger's period in the laundry on the following day[2], she prepared her a short cake to congratulate her. Ginger reacts with bewilderment, suspecting her sister to have snitched on her, and storms off. When Ginger started to distance herself from her sister, Pamela tried to comfort Brigitte, telling her that this was normal for girl that grows up and suggested to her that the two sisters could bond again as soon if she started her own journey to adulthood as well.
When her husband got stranded at the supermarket due to a dead car battery[3], she wanted to pick him up and asks Ginger if she wanted to come along which she rudely declined, due to being preoccupied with increasing worries about her transformation. A short time later, Pamela and Henry returned and found the girls supposedly staging another of their deaths for a photoshoot. In truth, Ginger and Brigitte were trying to cover up the accidental death of a high school student named Trina Sinclair. She was elated when Brigitte then asked her for advice on "what guys wanted", which was also in fact a ploy to distract her, but she happily sat down with her daughters to share her motherly knowledge. Later she dug out old issues of women's magazines to read about dating advice mothers could give their daughters, while Henry suggested that the girls were actually hiding something, which she promptly rejected.
She later[4] learned that Ginger was cutting classes and was requested by the police for questioning about Trina's disappearance. Which prompted her to ask Brigitte what was going on, who then told her only a part of the truth, obviously withholding information about the death and the ongoing werewolf transformation, but also praised her mother's hands-off approach to parenting and letting them make their own experiences. Which pleasantly surprised Pamela.
On the next day[5], Pamela found two severed fingers which she at first dismissed as fake props, but soon discovered that they were in fact real. Moments later she checked on the tool shed, digging up Trina's corpse. Realizing what must have happened, Pamela grew extremely protective of her children. She went driving all around town to find them, ultimately encountering Brigitte on her way to Ginger on the Halloween party. Pamela never asked any questions about the severed fingers and told Brigitte that she was ready to leave her husband, burn down the house and drive off somewhere to start a new life. This plan never came to pass however as Ginger, having been infected with the curse of lycanthropy, turned into a werewolf and killed several people. She in turn was killed by her own sister who stabbed her in the heart with a knife. Before, Pam left the car to look for her daughters but loses them in the crowd at the party.
Relationships[]
Brigitte Fitzgerald[]
Pamela is not on the best terms with Brigitte. Although she wants to help her daughters, Brigitte tends to be dismissive of her mother. In fact, Brigitte only calls Pamela by her first name. Brigitte does not approach her mother for help with Ginger's abnormal changes. In a deleted scene, Pamela is shown entering the Greenhouse to find her, but Brigitte at the last moment leads a weakened Ginger away from her mother, intending to run away with her sister.
Ginger Fitzgerald[]
Like with Brigitte, Ginger does not trust Pamela and refers to her by her first name. She also does not approach Pamela for help when she experiences changes. In one scene when Pamela surprises Ginger with a strawberry cake celebrating her first period, Ginger appears disgusted for her mother's celebration and anger toward Brigitte for "telling her mother" (which is not true, as Pamela discovered Ginger's period while doing the laundry and discovering Ginger's soiled underwear).
Henry Fitzgerald[]
Pamela appears to be the "main" parent in the household, and she tends to be dismissive of Henry and puts her opinions and desires first. Apparently, she and Henry are undergoing couple's counseling. She feels more attached to her daughters than to him, as she was willing to leave him and blow up the house when she was prepared to run away and start a new life with Brigitte and Ginger elsewhere.
Trina Sinclair[]
Pam discovers Trina's body in the tool shed.
She does not formally ever meet Trina, but she is made known to Pamela after a phone call from the guidance counselor at Bailey Downs High School, at the request of the police. They ask about Ginger for questioning as she might be related to Trina's disappearance. Pamela does not know about Trina's accidental death, and Brigitte only reveals that Trina bullied her and Ginger hit her back, but she then mentioned that they had it under control. Pamela later discovers Trina's severed fingers, which led her to discover Trina's dead body. Only then does she realize that her realizations of her suspicious daughters came true, and she pledged to Brigitte that she will protect her daughter at all costs during the van scene.
Trivia[]
- In a deleted scene ("Let's Kill Them All!"), Pamela is prompted to leave the car and look for her daughters at the party when a police car arrives at the greenhouse, believing the police is looking for them. In fact, they were looking for Jason McCardy for attacking a little kid. After she encounters McCardy confronting her daughters, she knocks him out and tells the sisters to leave immediately. When the police officers who were looking for Jason come closer to her, she gives them the severed fingers that she kept in the plastic container and tells them that she was the one who killed her, feigning to be insane and to intend to kill more people.
- "Pamela" or "Pam" is what Ginger and Brigitte always referred to their mother, rarely as mother or mom. In the scene after the first werewolf attack, Brigitte can be heard screaming, "mom!"
- The van she drives is a 1999 Dodge Grand Caravan[6].
- Mimi Rogers handpicked the wardrobe for Pamela in conjunction with costume designer Lea Carlson
References[]
| Characters in Ginger Snaps |
|---|
| Brigitte Fitzgerald • Ginger Fitzgerald |
| Sam • Pamela Fitzgerald • Jason McCardy • Trina Sinclair Henry Fitzgerald • Mister Wayne • Ben • Tim • Nurse Ferry • Ms. Sykes • Janitor |
| Hockey kid • Mother • Toddler • Puppy Kid • Announcer • uncredited characters |