Warning: Contains spoilers for Shining Vale episode 3.
In Shining Vale episode 3, the horror-comedy TV show spends some time focused on a cornflake bake, which begs the questions of whether that is a real meal and what the cornflake bake means in the episode. Shining Vale follows Pat Phelps as she and her family move from Brooklyn to Shining Vale, Connecticut. In the new house, Pat begins to experience hallucinations that she fears might be ghosts or could be related to Pat's medications and depression.
Over the course of Shining Vale’s first three episodes, both Pat Phelp’s (Courteney Cox) editor, Kam (Merrin Dungey), and her therapist, Dr. Berg (James M. Connor), suggest that she lean into the hallucinations to either channel it creatively or work through her feelings. This leads Pat to call out and welcome the ghost of the house into her. While she speaks with Rosemary (Mira Sorvino) and discovers a hidden Tiki bar in her house, Pat’s actions while possessed by Rosemary lead to her blacking out and discovering that she has written 13 pages, tampered with her husband’s work presentation, and cooked a cornflake casserole bake for the Phelps family without remembering it. Notably, Pat not only doesn’t remember making it, but doesn’t seem sure of what it is, referring to it as a casserole then as a “cornflake…” before going mumbling something inaudible0.
The cornflake bake that Pat makes in Shining Vale episode 3 might seem like a joke made up for the show, tying into strange dishes that were cooked with a range of ingredients in the 1950s and 60s. However, Shining Vale’s cornflake bake is a real dish. There are two primary types of cornflake bakes. A cornflake casserole is normally a collection of chicken, cream of chicken soup, mayonnaise, and some vegetables, all covered in cornflakes and baked. The other version of the dish made by Shining Vale's ghost is a more potato-heavy dish that is more common and replaces the chicken with potato or hashbrowns and integrates cheese to make a cornflake bake that is more of a side dish.
Shining Vale’s use of this particular dish obviously invokes the idea of the 60s and fits with Rosemary having been behind the wheel when it was made. However, Shining Vale’s cornflake casserole has a deeper, darker meaning. Both versions of the dish are common among certain church communities as an ideal item to bring to a pot luck, but the more potato-heavy version has another name: funeral potatoes, or even Mormon funeral potatoes. While sometimes topped with cornflakes, funeral potatoes can also substitute chips in more recent recipes.
Death in Shining Vale still feels like something that is far away. While Rosemary and Daisy appear to have died at the hands of foul play in the house, that was many years past, based on their style. While it is unclear what happened to more recent inhabitants of the house, it is possible that they left after being harassed by ghosts and are still alive. However, the presence of the ominously named dish at the center of Shining Vale episode 3 hints that there is death to come in the comedy series.
Shining Vale releases new episodes Sunday on Starz.
