Summary
Little America Season 1, Episode 5, “The Baker” tells the true tale of a Ugandan woman struggling to live up to the American dream.
This recap of Apple TV+ Series Little America Season 1, Episode 5, “The Baker” contains significant spoilers.
- Read the Season 1 review.
- Read the recap of Episode 6.
- Read the recap of the previous episode (4).
- Access the archive of all the episode recaps.
That famous saying “the American dream” is the central theme in Little America Episode 5.
It opens up in Uganda in 1971. A father makes a toast to his oldest daughter Beatrice, claiming she is special. He wants to give her the best education and life. He talks about how he did not choose to be a baker and that it was passed to him. He wants different for Beatrice and tells her to go abroad and make her own opportunities. Before Beatrice leaves, her father gives her an American-style cookie to try.
The first scene of Beatrice in America is years later. She’s partying hard and her friends are congratulating her on the divorce. As she returns home, she’s unable to give her angry babysitter money. Beatrice bakes cookies late at night; her son Brian wakes up and tries one.
Beatrice has an overbearing and concerned mother. You can understand why her mother is stressed; the family worked hard to collect money to give Beatrice a good chance at life. Her mother rings and questions why Beatrice has a science degree but spends the day selling french fries. She tells Beatrice that she’s wasted her education. Beatrice continues to work at the diner with her son Brian sat at a booth. The customers love her homemade cookies. When her manager Frank comes in, he fires her for always bringing her son in while she works. On the way home, an Avon saleswoman inspires her
Beatrice decides to try out selling cookies on the street. One guy gives her money out of sympathy but does not take one. A store supervisor walks outside and tells Beatrice to stop selling outside the store. While hanging with her friends, she discusses the pressure coming from her mother and proceeds to place a basket of cookies on her head and mocks how she could sell them. Her friends tell her she should sell the cookies exactly like that.
At the midway point, Beatrice tries selling cookies with a basket on her head. Predictably she manages to sell to some stoners. Her cookie business picks up quick but her mother calls her a waitress on the sidewalk and that her brothers have put money together to bring Beatrice home. It gets from bad to worse for Beatrice; the police tell her to stop selling food on the street; she requires a commercial license and retail space.
Refusing to return to Uganda, Beatrice uses the money from her family to get a license and rent a store. I felt this was a bold move but understandably, her mother is fuming — “You are not my daughter.” This line really hurt Beatrice. She then learns her retail space is without the oven equipment, so she asks the pizza place around the corner if she can borrow their kitchen at night to cook her cookies.
Beatrice opens up the business and it quickly becomes popular. She ends up in the local papers due to her success. Beatrice offers an olive branch to her mother and invites her to America.
Little America Season 1, Episode 5, “The Baker” closes with Beatrice showing her mother her new place and the business. Beatrice’s mother tries one of the cookies and she is very impressed. The credits roll; In 1989, the Mayor of Louisville gave her the key to the city and she has shopped her cookies all over the world.
If anything, Episode 5 just demonstrates why immigrants are good at making themselves a success in a foreign country; they work hard with the mantra of having nothing to lose.
