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Season 5, Ep 16 (Patreon)

Published:
2022-12-13 15:55:01
Edited:
2023-07-01 15:18:25
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

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Buffy Season 5, Ep 16 - The Body

Vidyard video

Comments

StephanieB

In Dawn’s art class their assignment is to draw the negative space around a body. That is what this entire episode is about- focusing on the space around Joyce’s death, around the body. Dawn’s drawing even sort of looks like Joyce’s final position on the sofa.

RNR

There's also a very poignant, palpable lesson that Joss uses this episode to deliver. Joss has stated that he's an existentialist, and one of the cornerstones of existentialism is that the universe is utterly indifferent to us. Hence, the children laughing in the background. Life goes on, it does not care that Buffy just lost her mom. Hence, Xander getting a parking ticket. The Universe does not care that he's dealing with Death and Grief. Hence, the vampire attacks Dawn in the morgue. Despite losing her mother only hours ago, despite the fact that her mother's body is inches away, Buffy is the Slayer, and so she must slay. The Universe doesn't care about what you're going through. It just keeps spinning.

Cecelia M

I don't know how it works in the US. but I'm fairly certain it doesn't work this way in Ontario either. I don't think a paramedic can legally declare death, I think they have to assume life until they get approval to stop life saving measures, and I can't imagine they wouldn't take her to a hospital. Just leave her there and go to another call. I don't know for sure but I just really don't think this is how it would work. And for sure the EMT couldn't say it was likely an aneurysm and she didn't suffer, that's 100% out of their scope of practice, but maybe that was just for the beenfit of the storytelling.

Claire Eyles

When this episode first aired it was widely hailed as the best episode of Television ever produced, still is in many quarters, which was sort of funny seeing as prior to this the majority of entertainment news outlets tended to dismiss BTVS as just a silly show for teenagers. It was rather amusing at the time watching entertainment journalists suddenly get whiplash en masse as they all snapped their attention towards this episode and went, "OMG, this is greatest television episode in the history of TV, and it's, wait, what?! Buffy the Vampire Slayer did it?!" Some paramedic and medical training programs in the US also later used this episode as part of their 'responding to grief' training programs, to give trainess an idea of the different types of grief reactions they might see in the field.

Keith Jones

My father died at home a couple of years ago. It was expected, so nothing like this episode. He had been altogether unwell for a year or so. My wife is a nurse and between her and the doctors we knew he would be gone within the week. My point is, we had to call paramedics who came out to verify what we all knew. They left him there in the bed. The funeral home actually came to pick him up an hour or so later. My wife said that was how it normally happened if someone died at home.

shellibelle77

This is a tough episode to get through. The lack of music always gets me. And I always cry all the way through this one. You're not alone there.

Clémence

🫂🥺❤️ After watching it God knows how many time, I’m still an absolute mess the whole episode, I was right there with you crying. It’s a very very well crafted episode and I liked that you appreciated the way it was done

The Oracle Witch

Darcie, im so sorry for your loss of a parent at a young age. No amount of time knowing or preparing ever really prepares us. My grandparents raised me and my papa aka Homey was my dad to me and best friend most days. We had 6 years of his cancer diagnosis, I woke up or came home every day scared Id find him the way buffy found her mom. I had seen the ep in 2000 i believe or 2001 and he was diagnosed in 2002. He passed in 08 while i was a senior in high school. Rewatching it after with the pain of his loss can be triggering especially now in my 30s watching my grandmas grow weaker and seeing my parents age and deal with their own health issues. It isnt an ep I rewatch willingly and I wish this one time we could of warned you. But i am glad i watched with you and I hold space for you always. 🖤 Cinematically its a beautiful episode with much to psycho analyze. My grieving stage is a mix of dawn and buffy. Denial numb angry and full of break down tears. I also inappropriately make jokes or laugh when numb. Buffy as a show is always breaking barriers and doing the most amazing unthinkable (at the time) episodes. I promise it wont stop amazing you, making you laugh or cry while still leaving a mark somewhere deep in you. For anyone who truly gives this show a watch through walks away different. Buffy is strength and Buffy is heart. We all have a little Buffy in us.

Ora Solomons

For a long time I always understood this episode was good, but I had no personal experience with a loved one dying so I didn't truly feel it the way other people do. This year the father of a close friend of mine passed away and I helped them through the initial grieving process. It made me see this episode in a completely different light as I realised so many things in this episode really do represent feelings and reactions that happen in real life. I'm sure this episode is even more emotionally harrowing to watch for those who have lost a parent. Thank you for sharing your personal story, I'm sorry for your loss ♥️

Claire Eyles

This episode actually means a lot to me & am I grateful for its existence. My Grandmother, who I was very close to, and who helped raise me, died suddenly in front of me and my Mum when I was 8 years old. We'd just finished having tuna mornay for tea, Grandma went to her room, Mum and I were clearing the table and getting a start on the dishes when we heard Grandma call out for my Mum; Mum responded back that she'd be there in a sec, and Grandma called out again only way more urgently that time, so Mum and I rushed into her room and found her sitting on the edge of the bed clutching her chest in obvious pain, Mum had just enough time to sit next to her and ask what was wrong, Grandma's last words were to tell my Mum not to panic and then she fell back dead (we later found out the left wall of her heart had ruptured so death was pretty much instantaneous). Nearly everything that happens at the beginning of this episode, the blind panic, the desperate attempts to do CPR, Buffy withdrawing into a child like state, her later catatonic like shock when she realises her mother is dead, all of that is almost a mirror image to what I experienced with my Grandma's death. At some point, even before the ambulance arrived, we knew Grandma had died (it was pretty obvious when her face relaxed into like this death mask appearance, which was kind of disturbing to see), so of course at that point my Mum and me did the only thing we could think of to do, and that was to put the kettle n and then sit eerily quiet in the lounge room drinking cups of tea. It was all so very oddly civilised, like there's a dead body in the next room, but let's just sit here in complete shock drinking cups of tea out of pretty china cups. Once the ambulance arrived, told us she was dead, laid her out nicely on the bed and covered her with a white sheet, that was when we completely lost it. We did have to wait for the coroner (unexpected death at home) but from memory the ambulance did stay until other family members arrived & the coroner didn't take that long to get there. The thing is at the time, and for sometime after as well, the only depictions of grief responses that I saw on Film or TV were like this misty coloured ideas of everyone coming together, and cathartic tears being shed, and so on, and that was nothing like what I experienced. For years, even when I was old enough to know better, I had this thought in the back of my mind that I'd somehow gotten the whole grief thing wrong, because my experience didn't match the typical Hollywood version at that time, like there was some sort of proper grief response test that had been doled out and I'd failed it. This episode was the first time I had actually seen something that was close to my own experience & I spent half the episode going, "Oh no, poor Joyce, this is so sad", and the other half being strangely happy because, "OMG, look, this is how it was for me as well, so I didn't get the whole grief thing wrong, I'm so happy to see this on screen."

Claire Eyles

And sorry I tend to overshare way too much with this episode, in the hope that other people will be able to relate, or feel better with their own experiences, or just as a way to let people know I feel for them for what they might have been through as well. Losing a loved one is never easy, regardless of circumstances.

boleynns

This episode is so beyond good in all its heartbreak. I hadn't lost anyone for the first ~10 years that this episode existed, but then over the following decade lost my mother and my grandmother (who was much more like my mother), and watching this episode now is an even more impactful experience because of how accurate it is -- all the little details, like Buffy absentmindedly saying "Good luck!" to the paramedics, or the way the camera focuses on the phone, the complete lack of music throughout, the little fantasy Buffy has of everything magically being okay, and man that Anya monologue gets me every time. Truly one of the greats, and even though it hurts me it is still easily one of my favorite episodes of the show.

Rhi

Yup, this one's heartbreaking. But so well made, easy one of the greatest episodes of Buffy and television in general!

Andrew Pulrang

I second what the other commenters have said here, especially about you sharing you personal experience. I think the paramedic scene is a bit off, but only slightly. I think their dialog was a little too sparse and casual, and the lack of communication with Buffy on arrival seems unrealistic to me. But I think that the one who spoke to Buffy afterwards was very nice and both businesslike and compassionate. I've always thought that the reason they took off and left the body was that they happened to get another emergency call. That MAY be realistic ... I don't really know. I wonder if Joss and the writers did any research on paramedic procedures, or if they just did what they had to to get the scene over with and move on to the next bits. Either way, maybe the mistake was in not making the incoming call audible enough for the audience to fully absorb its meaning. So some people might miss that detail and wonder why they rushed off so fast. My favorite part of the episode is the dorm scene. It's all great, but I especially love Anya's part in it. Her speech is so raw, honest, and well delivered. Also, I think there's a masterful moment of nonverbal acting there from Tara. Anya comments on how weird it is to see people crying, Willow says, "It's a thing we do," and she's kind of snarky about it. Tara gives her a look ... it's just a second ... as if to say, "Willow, don't be mean to Anya." It's not an angry look, more like concern. Tara knows Willow well enough to know that she's often especially impatient with Anya and is apt to make snide remarks to her. It's a great couples moment where one transmits mild disapproval to the other without saying anything, just with a look.

x_Rhi_x

Anyas speech. Heartbreaking every damn time. I lost my dad last year and the realism of stages and variations of grief in this episode is crazy. Just knowing that it's ok to act strange and unpredictable in these situations, to feel lost and not know what's going on. ♡

Andreas Prytz

Joss said he wrote the episode out of his own experience losing his own mother. And yes sometime they leave the body and people have to wait for the coroners exactly like they said. My uncle died last year and they left him for hours before the coroners came to pick him up.

Saga (edited)

Comment edits

2026-09-06 19:00 Sending you tons of love<3<3<3<3
2022-12-13 21:35

TheLoungingPotato

Before I dive headfirst into this reaction and all of the emotions that come with it, I wanna make sure I leave a comment first. Only because I'm not sure I'll be able to afterwards. I lost my mom very suddenly back in August of 2020. This episode was already up there with how it portrayed immediate grief and loss. I'd already lost all of my grandparents so I was familiar. But losing a parent was different. And I feel like this episode truly highlighted a lot of those emotions. In all of those weird, random thoughts you get in the middle of processing grief, I actually thought back to this episode the day that my mom died and thought of just how accurate everything really was. And for that, I can't imagine ever appreciating another piece of media quite as much as this episode, or even this show.

TheLoungingPotato

So, the paramedics actually left my mom's body right in the middle of my living room too. I thought it was something instated because of COVID but reading so many people's comments over the past two years and it seems to be something that happens more often than it should, even before COVID was a thing. I love Tara's conversation (you knew me mentioning Tara had to be coming) with Buffy at the hospital. It's the first time we've seen them really interact at all and it's on such a deep level. That sort of understanding that can only come from losing a parent. The rest of the Scoobies can all empathize and there's nothing wrong with that. But what Tara does is have that deeper connection to mourning a parent that nobody else can connect to. Something Buffy can kind of "take comfort in" for lack of a better term, knowing she's not exactly alone despite feeling it.

Raven Dark

Oh, crap. Hello, Darkness, my old friend. *deep breath* Diving in...

Harriet Loughnan

Sending all the hugs. This one is really painful to watch. And yet I have watched it multiple times - on my own and via reactors like yourself. There is something so beautifully horrible about it.

Thom Purdy

The Christmas scene at the beginning is there so that there wouldn't be credits over the scene with Buffy trying to save Joyce. The total lack of music just makes it more real. The funniest joke never finished, never laughed at, is the story Dawn was telling Kevin about Kirsty. Everybody hates seeing Joyce at the beginning of every scene. I'm 60 years old, have seen this episode over 20 times, and it still makes me ball my eyes out.

Phoenix Dawn

Oh Darcy! Thanks for sharing that and I am so sorry for your loss! I can't imagine watching this episode with that kind of personal experience.

Conor

On the Paramedics thing, it actually makes sense for them to leave the body. They aren't going to risk the life of another person who calls in for someone who has already passed. In the scene you can hear that they've been called for another emregency so calling for someone else to collect the body is the best they could do.

John

I'm only just catching up on this reaction now bloody hell it's an extremely tough one to watch while also being so beautiful. It's one of my favourite episodes of the show's entire run and it's easy to see why. So much of this episode feels real from the children playing outside while Buffy's world stopped to Willow worrying about what to wear and Anya trying to make sense of everything. I also can't imagine what it must have been like for you watching this after losing your Dad but also sharing that with us. I'm so sorry to hear that genuinely. Sending massive hugs from Ireland.