Season 5, Episode 16
Written by Joss Whedon
Directed by Joss Whedon
Original Airdate: 26 February 2001
"I don't understand how this all happens. How
we go through this. I mean, I knew her, and then she's...there's just a
body, and I don't understand why she just can't get back in it and not be
dead anymore. It's stupid. It's mortal and stupid."
Anya
REGULAR CAST
GUEST CAST
CO-STARRING
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Kevin Cristaldi as First Paramedic
-
Stefan Umstead as Second Paramedic
-
Loanne Bishop as 911 Operator
-
J. Evan Bonifant as Kevin
-
Kelli Garner as Kirstie
-
Rae’ven Larrymore Kelly as Lisa
-
Tia Matza as Teacher
-
John Michael Herndon as Vampire
SYNOPSIS
-
Christmas, 2000, brings the entire Scooby Gang
together for dinner at the Summers home. In the kitchen, Buffy and Joyce
both reach for a pie that falls to the floor. In the present, Joyce's
unresponsive body on the couch leads the frightened Slayer to do
everything she can to revive her, finally calling 911 and attempting
CPR. The operator instructs Buffy to wait for the paramedics, and then
Buffy makes a call to Giles. The paramedics arrive and try to revive
Joyce with CPR. Buffy imagines that her mother is miraculously brought
back, but suddenly reality hits and the paramedics call Joyce's time of
death.
After informing her that the coroner has been contacted, the paramedics
leave, and Buffy throws up on the floor. Buffy covers up the mess, and
then Giles arrives, worried by Buffy's phone call. He discovers Joyce on
the floor but Buffy tells him it's too late and the two embrace. The
coroner takes Joyce's body away.
At school, Dawn talks with a friend in the bathroom after being called a
freak and hearing other rumours started by another student, Kirsty. They
return to art class where the class is sketching a nude statue and Dawn
talks about Kristy and a cute boy with her friend. Buffy arrives and
after a few moments with Dawn's teacher, she tells Dawn that they need
to talk. Dawn reacts hysterically to the news that her mother is dead,
not wanting to believe the truth of the situation.
Joyce's body is stripped of clothing at the hospital morgue by an
examiner. At her dorm, Willow stresses over what to wear to the
hospital, and finally breaks down into tears. Tara comforts her, kissing
her repeatedly to calm Willow. Xander and Anya arrive to pick up Willow
and Tara. Willow and Xander are dealing by crying while Tara tries to
remain strong and Anya is confused by the whole situation.
The group discusses their plans and their thoughts on how Joyce died.
Xander overreacts and Willow calms him by offering to physically fight
to help him get his aggressions out. Anya asks inappropriate questions
about Joyce and Willow snaps. Anya is hurt by the death like everyone
else, but she doesn't understand death or how expressing emotions will
fix anything. Xander punches a wall to let out some of his anger and
after his hand is cleaned up, the gang goes to the hospital to help
Buffy.
Everyone meets at the morgue, hugging each other in support. A doctor
informs Buffy, Dawn and Giles that Joyce most likely died from an
aneurysm. He tells them all that it was probably sudden and painless and
there was nothing that anyone could have done. Giles volunteers to take
care of all the paperwork and arrangements for Joyce, which Buffy
graciously thanks him for. Anya awkwardly expresses that she wished
Joyce hadn't died, but Buffy understands what she meant. Buffy and Tara
are left alone and Tara offers her support because she too lost her
mother.
Not wanting to believe her mother is dead, Dawn sneaks into the morgue
to see her body. When she hesitates to lift the sheet covering the body,
another body behind her suddenly moves and a vampire rises off a table.
Dawn's disappearance is noticed and Buffy finally finds her being
attacked by a vampire in the morgue. Buffy fights with and beheads the
vampire. The sight of Joyce's body shocks Dawn and when Buffy tells her
that their mother is gone from the body, Dawn innocently asks, "Where'd
she go?"
TRIVIA
-
This was not Kristine Sutherland's final
episode in the series. She appears again in
The Weight of the World,
Normal Again,
Conversations With Dead People and
Bring On the Night. Kristine is a
fan of sci-fi and fantasy, though not of horror. She loves Buffy,
and watched it every week, though she has said on several occasions that
she can find the show scary. She worried a lot when she was working on
Buffy that Sarah Michelle Gellar was working too hard. Kristine
used her role as Joyce to prepare herself for when her daughter becomes
a teenager. Joyce's death had been planned at least as far back as the
end of season three. Kristine Sutherland had planned to leave the show,
or make less appearances, during season four to spend more time in Italy
but was told by Joss Whedon that he had plans for her in season five.
She said in an SFX magazine interview: "He said, "But you have to come
back. I need to kill you, and it's really important.""
-
James Marsters is not in this episode at
all, the first (and only) time this has occurred since he became a
regular character in The Initiative.
-
This episode contains Willow and Tara's
first on-screen kiss. Joss wanted the kiss to be natural, and not to be
the main focus of the episode so he included it in this episode. He told
TV Guide, "It belongs somewhere where you least expect it".
-
There was no Previously on Buffy the
Vampire Slayer... teaser at the beginning of this episode and there
was no music, incidental or otherwise at all. Joss Whedon told the BBC
Buffy website: "The lack of music, the no cutting, every act in
one scene... it was all supposed to be relentless, almost a kind of
boredom to create what I wanted to capture".
-
According to Joss Whedon's DVD commentary
for Restless, the first act of 'The
Body' opens with a flashback Christmas scene because Joss didn't want to
have the cast and crew credits appear over the main body of the episode,
which he felt would ruin the atmosphere. He also states (in the DVD
commentary for this episode) that he wished he'd included Joyce in the
scene at the table, rather than having her separated from the Scoobies
in the kitchen.
CONTINUITY
GOOFS
-
Buffy tells Dawn the news in the hallway
during class. Kirsty and her friends are out in the hallway watching
Dawn and Buffy. Why aren't they in class?
-
The paper towel which Buffy uses to wipe up
the mess changes suddenly from being wrinkled to folded in a neat
square.
-
Dawn goes into the classroom and takes off
her bag. The camera cuts away for a second and when it returns, Dawn
still has her bag on.
-
Dawn's drawing changes suddenly when Buffy
arrives in the classroom.
Buffy Vs.
Dracula | Real Me |
The Replacement |
Out of My Mind |
No Place Like
Home
Family |
Fool for Love |
Shadow | Listening to Fear |
Into the Woods |
Triangle
Checkpoint
| Blood Ties |
Crush | I Was Made to Love You |
The Body |
Forever
Intervention
| Tough Love |
Spiral | The Weight of the World |
The Gift
|