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55 pages 1 hour read

Jessa Maxwell

The Golden Spoon

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Part 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 2: “Day One: Bread”

Part 2, Chapter 6 Summary: “Betsy”

Bread is the first task of Bake Week’s first day of filming. As she embarks on her first time sharing hosting and judging duties, Betsy feels particularly resentful of Archie. However, her resentment, even to herself, takes the form of concern for the contestants. On his own competition show, Archie is known for being a harsh judge, whereas Betsy has always adopted a gentler approach. The only reason she had agreed to let Archie join the show, she reminds herself, is that she relies on Bake Week to fund the expensive maintenance of the house. As they prepare to begin filming, Betsy notices the show coordinator Melanie’s harsh attitude toward the crew.

Part 2, Chapter 7 Summary: “Hannah”

Hannah rushes to begin the first baking challenge. Aware of the cameras, Hannah adjusts her reactions and attempts to “laugh to cover [her] embarrassment as the cameras rush to film [her] first mishap” (44). She assesses the other contestants and notices Stella and Lottie struggling with their dough. Though her first impulse is to help, she reminds herself that this is a competition and that she needs to focus on her own entry and not go out of her way to help others. She turns around to find Archie Morris standing at her station and almost instantly understands his magnetism. Careful not to show her initial confusion, Hannah composes herself to speak to the cameras.

Part 2, Chapter 8 Summary: “Pradyumna”

Pradyumna settles into the process of his first bake, thriving on the opportunity to improvise with ingredients. He notices that Stella seems to be struggling. Seeing Melanie on the sidelines reminds him about how she chose him for the show despite his lack of aspiration to pursue a career in baking. A tech entrepreneur by trade, Pradyumna made enough money selling an app to live comfortably for the rest of his life, and he sees baking as his latest diversion. Nevertheless, being in the tent has rattled him; he has a moment of panic when he realizes that his refrigerator door is open, meaning that his dough has failed to cool. Though he wonders about sabotage, making eye contact with Lottie grounds him.

Part 2, Chapter 9 Summary: “Lottie”

Lottie, who did not sleep well the night before and finds herself unnerved by the camera, tells Betsy about her plans for the first bake: a summer stollen with fresh fruit and a pane bianco with mozzarella and sun-dried tomatoes. When Betsy remarks on how traditional her choices are, Lottie begins to doubt herself. Remembering the many applications she has submitted to be a contestant on Bake Week over the past decade, Lottie motivates herself not to let Betsy’s comments faze her.

Part 2, Chapter 10 Summary: “Stella”

Stella tries to focus on her dough despite the commotion around her. She recalls discovering Bake Week in days after quitting her job as a journalist, which led her to remember that she had purchased one of Betsy Martin’s cookbooks as a child. A former foster child, Stella found comfort in the cookbook and imagined a stable future for herself—even though she never baked any of the recipes until a year ago. Stella remembers how passionate she was about writing and journalism and alludes to the end of her successful career. In the aftermath, Stella had turned to baking—and to the example of Betsy Martin—and applied to Bake Week on a dare. After struggling through the audition, Stella had been shocked to learn that she had been chosen to compete.

Part 2, Chapter 11 Summary: “Gerald”

Organized and systematic, Gerald grows annoyed at how the filming process disrupts his baking; he regrets not having accounted for these sorts of interruptions in his meticulous planning. Despite his annoyance, he speaks with Archie for a third time. When Archie expresses some doubts regarding Gerald’s baking, Gerald scoffs and struggles to hide his frustration.

Part 2, Chapter 12 Summary: “Hannah”

As Hannah finishes up her first bake, she notes Melanie’s unfriendly disposition. Determined not to be seen as a child who cannot handle the show, Hannah focuses on bantering with Archie for the cameras. She feels a newfound confidence when her bake turns out perfectly and Archie winks at her.

Part 2, Chapter 13 Summary: “Peter”

Peter finishes his bake before the other contestants and feels a brief moment of annoyance as Stella rushes to complete her plating after time has been called. He feels a sense of pride in the appearance of his breads and watches Stella receive her first lukewarm critique from the judges. Betsy praises the appearance and taste of his babka but is visibly disgusted by his chocolate horns, which, it turns out, had been made with salt rather than sugar. Embarrassed, Peter wonders how he could have made such a simple mistake.

Part 2, Chapter 14 Summary: “Betsy”

After filming ends for the day, Betsy ventures into the kitchen on the way to grab a bottle of brandy to help her unwind. She briefly remembers a childhood spent rolling out dough alongside the family’s cook, but her reverie is interrupted when she overhears Melanie complaining about her and the show to a cameraman. Betsy is startled to hear that Melanie finds Peter boring and is happy he’s leaving, and she fears that she has already ceded too much control of the show to her. Her mother, Betsy thinks, would have never put up with this kind of insubordination in her own house. Still, Betsy retreats to her room without confronting Melanie.

Part 2, Chapter 15 Summary: “Stella”

The contestants gather for a drink in the library. They congratulate Gerald on his win and comfort Peter over his mistake. Stella admits to herself that she feels relieved that Peter will be the first to go home instead of her. As they chat about the competition in general terms, Lottie announces that she is going to bed. The rest of the contestants speculate about the house and what it must be like for Betsy to live there by herself. Hannah says she has heard footsteps above her bedroom, though the fourth floor is unoccupied and there is no obvious access point. Peter tells a story about renovating a haunted house. Gerald is skeptical, but Stella excuses herself and has to fight a panic attack on her way to her bedroom.

Part 2, Chapter 16 Summary: “Hannah”

Hannah, visibly drunk, encounters Archie on her way back to her room. She asks about what the secluded East Wing looks like. In exchange for her secrecy, he offers to give her a glimpse. She accepts.

Part 2, Chapter 17 Summary: “Pradyumna”

Pradyumna and Peter, alone in the library, continue to drink. Peter confides in Pradyumna that he discovered where the stairs to the fourth floor should be using Gerald’s blueprints of Grafton Manor. After Peter excuses himself, Pradyumna pours one last drink and takes his time returning to his bedroom. He observes one painting in the hallway that features a portrait of a woman whose “eyes are hard and intense” and filled with a “cold fury lurking beneath them” (89). Just before entering his bedroom, Pradyumna observes Lottie wandering down the hallway. At first he thinks she is sleepwalking, but then realizes that she is looking for something. Despite his curiosity, he decides to go to sleep.

Part 2 Analysis

As the competition commences, The Dangers of Competition and Rivalry emerge more concretely. Even contestants like Peter and Pradyumna, who are not particularly invested in winning the show, find themselves drawn into the competitive spirit of the tent, and begin comparing their bakes to those of others. Moreover, they are both forced to question whether it is the competition that leads a saboteur to disrupt their bakes. Upon discovering that someone has left his refrigerator door open, even Pradyumna, who enters Bake Week with no aspirations of winning, admits that “for the first time in the tent, I feel a twinge of pure competition” (51). Competition both distorts and clarifies, forcing the characters to act in ways that they normally would not, while also reminding them of their goals.

It is not only the contestants who fall prey to rivalry. While Betsy prides herself on having made Bake Week “just good-natured competition and respectful defeat,” she struggles to adapt to the introduction of her new co-host whose differing judging style and popularity threaten her role as the show’s creator (42). Although Archie is the target of much of Betsy’s resentment, the real threat is clearly Melanie, the show coordinator, who has gradually taken over more of the decision-making. Melanie’s knowledge of the show and her investment in it makes her a more formidable foe than the carefree Archie, and Betsy resents Melanie’s unwillingness to conceal her ambition.

Through Betsy’s eyes, Melanie emerges as a figure for the theme of The Allure of Fame and Success—although, since Melanie’s voice is only ever overheard, her true motivations remain beyond the scope of the narrative. Betsy notes how Melanie has changed from when she first came to work on Bake Week. Along with her relentless search for success, Melanie’s appearance “has become more intimidating, much more polished and put together” (43): exactly the opposite of the authentic domesticity that has built Betsy’s brand. As much as Betsy shares Melanie’s desire for Bake Week to succeed, she resents that Melanie’s perfectionism “has her veering a bit too close to control freak” (43). Since Melanie’s job is to control the flow and the unfolding of the show, Betsy is essentially worried about Melanie being too good at her work.

Hannah, whose ambition was already revealed in her narrative in “Four Days Earlier,” maintains a keen awareness of the cameras throughout the competition. She adjusts her reactions due to the presence of the cameras and strives to garner the favor of the audience and the judges by “angling my best side toward the cameras” (47). When she encounters Archie up close, she registers—almost involuntarily—the way that a famous, successful person can draw others toward them, and she falls for it entirely, believing that Archie has singled her out for special notice. That belief, even when it remains unspoken, isolates her from the other contestants mentally as well as physically, for Archie takes her to the East Wing, which is supposedly off-limits to the contestants.

At the beginning of the first day of filming, Betsy ruminates that “everyone starts out almost the same, all on their best behavior for the cameras, but it won’t take long for a bit of adversity and competition to bring out their true personas” (39). For her, the process of Defining Identity and Authenticity plays out in front of the cameras, as unexpected events or difficulties provoke seemingly authentic reactions from the contestants. This is, of course, one of the core assumptions of “reality TV” more generally—that some sort of truth emerges under these conditions. However, as both Hannah’s and Gerald’s experiences on their first day in the tent make clear, the conditions of the competition are highly artificial and, if not fully scripted, at least directed. Gerald resents having to redo certain steps in his process to provide better footage, and Hannah is flustered by Archie’s presence. Yet neither one of those moments constitutes their “true persona.” Indeed, Betsy’s attitude toward her contestants reveals more about her own identity—a need for control and a carefully concealed cruelty—than it does about them.

Moreover, “Day One” continues to build the suspense of the novel. Events such as the salt-sugar confusion remain unexplained and mysterious, troubling the contestants. The house itself becomes more ominous, with the sound of footsteps at night and the existence of now-sealed fourth floor. Lottie’s wandering in the middle of the night draws her character into question. Details like the location of the hidden stairs to the fourth floor and Stella’s overwhelming panic attack foreshadow events later in the novel.

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