Evil elf Pepper (short for Peppermint)
Pepper (Jillian Bell) is the main antagonist of the 2023 Christmas fantasy comedy film Candy Cane Lane.
Backstory and Introduction[]
Pepper (short for Peppermint) was introduced as the owner of Kringle's, a Christmas decoration shop. However, her backstory revealed that Pepper was actually one of Santa's elves, regarded as Santa's favorite out of all of the elves. As it turned out, Pepper was immensely strict when it came to the naughty list; her standards forced people to be perfectly nice, with any and all infractions resulting in them being placed on the naughty list. Santa, fed up with Pepper's strictness, demoted Pepper to the reindeer stables, only for Pepper (who believed Santa was going soft on humans) to leave the North Pole.
Pepper built and ran Kringle's, but she continued her strict policies with her customers. While selling her decorations to her customers, Pepper had them sign lengthy contracts and gave them holiday related tasks, under the penalty of turning them into glass figurines if they failed. To make sure her victims would fail in their mission, the villainess often changed the rules at the last moment.
In the film's events, Pepper's customer was main protagonist Chris Carver, who was looking to win a decoration contest, after which Pepper sold a "12 Days of Christmas" decoration to Chris. After the purchase, each of the song's lyrics came to life due to Pepper's magic, beginning with six swans swimming in the backyard pool. The occurrence led to Chris (along with his younger daughter, Holly) confronting Pepper, who tasked Chris with collecting the golden rings, but it as followed by the villainess enlisting three French hens to disrupt the workplace of Chris' wife, Carol Carver. During that time, Chris learned about Pepper's backstory as one of Santa's elves from Pip, Gary, and Cordelia, who were revealed as victims of Pepper's maniacal quest, while also learning that he would face the same fate as the trio--among others--if he failed his own mission by Christmas Eve at 8PM.
Climax[]
Chris and Holly took the trio home with them by taking part of Pepper's village from the shop, much to Pepper's dismay. After tracking her victims to the Carver household, Pepper sent her ten lords-a-leapin' to disrupt Joy Carver's track tryout, though they were defeated when Joy grabbed one of the golden rings, while Nick Carver managed to get one from one of the eight maids-a-milkin'. With four rings total, the Carvers learned that Pepper was in possession of the fifth ring, leading to the family, along with Pepper's victims, banding together against the villainess.
The climax saw Pepper walk into a trap set up by the Carvers, which was followed by Santa Claus appearing and confronting his former elf, who lashed out at her former boss and reminded him of Chris' deal. After snatching Pepper's ring, Chris stated that he had all of them, but in response, the evil Pepper stated that she never said five golden rings, only reminding him that he needed to get the golden rings. It was at this point that the Carvers realized that, due to the repeating lyrics, they had to acquire 40 golden rings, and with the contract being a binding one, the group rushed to get the remaining 35, while Pepper used her magic to bring all of the carol's lyrics to life all over the neighborhood, while also pushing the tower's clock ahead to make sure she'd win.
Chris ended up becoming a figurine during the quest, which saw them collect 38 rings. However, Santa's loophole allowed Chris and Carol to count their wedding rings among the tally, undoing Pepper's curse, with Pepper complaining about Santa's loophole. As for Pepper's remaining victims, they ended up returned to normal due to Holly's letter to Santa wishing for them to return to normal. After receiving a hug from Holly, Pepper was offered a chance to return to the North Pole in exchange for a promise to behave, but as the mid-credits scene showed, Pepper ended up as a figurine in what was now Chris' decoration shop, with the villainess protesting her karmic punishment.
Trivia[]
- Jillian Bell also played the evil Mercedes Nillsen in 22 Jump Street, drug queen Trina in Office Christmas Party and villainess Katt Bozwell in Good Burger 2.