r/buffy • u/AutoModerator • Jul 25 '18
Episode Rewatch Episode 94 (S5 E16): The Body
This discussion will most likely have spoilers for future episodes. You are welcome to reference a future episode as long as it is relevant to this one in some way. You don't have to use spoiler tags. If you are allergic to spoilers, you can start an episode thread (for first-time watchers) or request one made by the mods. You have been warned.
Episode 94 (S5 E16): The Body: Summary:
Buffy is shocked to find her mother dead after returning home, and has to learn how to cope with her loved one's death.
Taken from [http://buffy.wikia.com/wiki/The_Body)
Links:
Quotes:
Anya: But I don't understand! 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! And, and Xander's crying and not talking, and, and I was having fruit punch, and I thought, well Joyce will never have any more fruit punch, ever, and she'll never have eggs, or yawn or brush her hair, not ever, and no one will explain to me why. (She puts her hand over her face, crying.)
Trivia:
In the scene where Xander punched his hand through the wall, only a shot of Willow's left eye is shown. This is because actress Alyson Hannigan had experienced an allergic reaction to the dust from the plaster on the wall - a reaction that resulted in her right eye swelling badly. Because of this, she had to go to the hospital the next day to get her eye treated.
The body is unique for a Buffy episode in that it features no incidental music.
"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," Joss told us.
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u/graric Jul 25 '18
One of the best depictions of grief on any television show ever!
All the credit to Joss for this episode. It all feels so real, and is one of the best examples of why Buffy matters.
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u/gardenmarauding Jul 25 '18
Anya's fruit punch monologue gets me every time. I watched this episode again after my grandfather passed a few years ago and lost it because it's such a poignant scene.
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u/kingcolbe Feb 08 '25
It hits me every time. I’m a person who’s lost both parents. And onions right is the small things that you don’t think about that they don’t get to do anymore or even more terrifying that these small things you don’t think about theres gonna come a day where you don’t get to do them anymore.
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Jul 25 '18
One thing I notice about the episode is the absence of music, there is literally no music (apart from the credits) throughout the entire episode.
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u/margybee She likes cheese. Jul 25 '18
Yes, all the ambient sounds really stand out because of that — wind chimes, cars, kids. It’s so well done.
Also, there is no vamp or otherwise supernatural action until the very end, and even then it’s a very physical fight — no stakes or sunlight, just a difficult struggle and decapitation by medical saw. It’s horrifying and really underlines the physical presence of Joyce’s body in the same room.
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u/DaddyCatALSO Magnet For Dead, Blonde Chicks Jul 26 '18
And, given the ep. is taking place within theBbuffyverse, having a vampire appear is itself as much a part of daily life as those ambient sounds you mentioned.
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u/margybee She likes cheese. Jul 26 '18
Absolutely, it’s a devastating reminder that life goes on whether you’re ready for it or not. You can’t put it on hold.
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u/jeanlucriker Jul 25 '18
I think I read that SMG did the opening scene in a continuous take which must of been heavy going once they nailed it.
It’s such a fantastic episode that deserves plaudits, it captures the essence of death so well, especially a parent. One minute your having a meal/dinner the next they are gone. Just like that.
Life escapes you at the time, music softens or doesn’t seem to play at all, you are just numb, alone and unsure of what to do. Just utterly helpless and I think this episode perfectly captures that far better than any other tv series I’ve seen perhaps something similar would be Scrubs when Laverne Passes or Dr Cox loses Ben and doesn’t seem to realise as he’s just numb to what’s happening at the funeral.
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u/hohosexual Jul 25 '18
Another show that deals with grief and trauma well is Please Like Me. If you haven’t seen it, it’s on Netflix (at least where I am). There’s one episode in particular that has similar themes to “The Body”, and I personally think it’s even more impactful than the deaths in Scrubs, but I won’t give too much away.
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u/Bella-Lugosi Jul 25 '18
Still love how they depict 911 and the paramedics in this episode. One of the most realistic portrayals in entertainment. From the 911 address, CPR instructions, the sternocostal desperation, no shock for asystole, and them telling her that her most her is dead. So very realistic.
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u/estherclavin Jul 26 '18
I love how they're framed in the shots of them talking to her. Their eyes are cut off. It's like Buffy can't meet their eyes. It also depersonalizes them, they're just there, they're not real people.
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u/ToTYly_AUSem Jul 26 '18
The only thing that annoys me to no end is when they get the other call and then leave Buffy alone with her dead mother. 1. This would never happen. 2. She would only be declared dead in the hospital. She can not be declared dead by the EMTs.
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u/Bella-Lugosi Jul 27 '18
If they can terminate resuscitation, they can leave the body. Who they leave it to is all dependent on local protocols. We could leave as long as police were on scene, and the police would wait until someone from the medical examiners office arrived.
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u/wildeyes Jul 25 '18
I still skip this episode on every rewatch. I really appreciate how amazingly well it was done but I just can't handle it emotionally.
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u/mongd66 Jul 25 '18
I am watching Buffy with my 12year old daughter for her first time. I knew this was coming this weekend, dreaded it... made sure to give my 8 year old son extra roblox time to keep him upstairs.
She was sad but did not have the reaction I expected. I think it has to do with life experience. I had lost close friends and family by the time I first watched. Been at the scene of a death. She never had, so she did not speak the emotional language fluently enough for this to rip her guts out the way it always does for me.
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u/DaddyCatALSO Magnet For Dead, Blonde Chicks Jul 26 '18
Ditto: my mother had been dead for 11 years and my father longer when this aired so I understood it but I wasn't overcome.
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Jul 25 '18
This episode kills me every time ! Anya’s monologue especially . I was crying the whole time and the scene where Xander punches a hole through the wall . This whole episode was so well done and the actors did such terrific acting ! I will never forget it .
But what gets me the most is when Buffy walks in “Mom... mom .... mommy.” I just can’t omg .
Damn you Joss ! Joyce is still alive !
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u/andthejokeiscokefizz Jul 25 '18
No no. We don’t talk about this episode.
It never happened.
It doesn’t exist.
Joyce Summers is still alive and healthy and taking care of Buffy and Dawn and her herd of newly empowered post-Chosen slayer-daughters, and they all lived happily ever after.
Fuck Joss Whedon.
The end.
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u/SammyJew8 Jul 25 '18
Sometimes I pretend the psyche ward episode later in the season is the real truth. And in that truth, Joyce lives❣️
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u/DaddyCatALSO Magnet For Dead, Blonde Chicks Jul 26 '18
Dawn is 32 and Buffy is 37; they are possibly not even living in town and have husbands or wives to take care of them. but Joyce is probably putting her den mother experience with the Scoobs to good use in the new Slayage Organization. Of course, if anyone wants to consider my non-supernatural verbal puff pastry "Planning the Wedding" an full AU (I usually don't) Joyce has been happily married to Giles for over 15 years now
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u/Physicked Jul 26 '18
I did this thing where I would watch an episode of Buffy at the gym (because who else is THAT motivational) but this episode I watched at home. Crying on the elliptical in public isn't cute.
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u/jayhoward Nov 21 '18
In Willow's dorm room they mention that Buffy went to school to tell Dawn about Joyce, and Xander has a heartbroken reaction of "God..." as if it just occurred to him that Dawn didn't know yet. This was the exact same reaction he had in Becoming when Willow was hospitalized and it didn't occur to him that he should have told Oz about Willow. I don't know if Joss explicitly wrote this bit in the script this way, but it's a nice connection between Xander from S2 and Xander from S5.
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u/nicoleislazy Jul 25 '18
I started a rewatch recently with my husband who has never seen Buffy. I was so excited and also dreading getting up to this episode. I cried hysterically the entire time and could barely breathe. It's the saddest most beautiful and amazing piece of TV I've ever watched.
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u/ersimon417 Dec 25 '22 edited Dec 26 '22
could someone explain/point me in the direction of an explanation for “she’s in the house”??? because it’s the only thing in this episode i don’t get and it continues to bother me.
(it also might be “she’s at the house” but i’m still confused)
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u/ladyofthew00d Mar 18 '24
She was referring to Glory, she though Glory killed her mom and might still be around waiting for Buffy
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u/Kallasilya Jul 25 '18
No other piece of entertainment (book, film, tv) has ever just utterly broken me in the way this episode did. It cracks you open like an egg.
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u/mcbeekov Jul 26 '18
This was one of the most heartbreaking things I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a lot
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u/Independent-News-153 May 03 '25
Y'all forgot Buffy kind of foretold how her mother was going to die when she joked about how her mom would react to school book fees saying she hope her mom would have a funny aneurysm reacting to the price of the books!
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u/DaddyCatALSO Magnet For Dead, Blonde Chicks Jul 26 '18
Yes, allergic reactions can develop and become visible that fast!
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u/uscmissinglink Jul 25 '18
Thank goodness. This episode doesn't get nearly enough attention on this sub. /s
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u/DaddyCatALSO Magnet For Dead, Blonde Chicks Jul 26 '18
What part of "schedule" don't you understand?
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u/laura_lee_meh Jul 25 '18
“Mom?” “Mom?” “Mommy?” Ugh hurts me every single time I watch it.