THE BODY: Buffy the Vampire Slayer 5x16 Reaction
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- Опубликовано: 8 ноя 2023
- The Body AKA The Heart DESTROYER: Buffy the Vampire Slayer 5x16 Reaction
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Anya "I wish that Joyce didn't die." Gets me every time. So sincere and declarative, completely thought out, she knew exactly what she was saying. And she of all people knew how serious the consequences of a wish could be in the Buffyverse. Makes it such a powerfully meaningful expression.
I was just saying this the other day watching this Episode!! ANYA made a conscious choice of a WISH!! Probably the only time she ever made a wish.
She wished someone i am not going to name because of spoilers dead @@jluvjourneys3487
I tried to explain that before on another reaction video. I interpreted it as a gesture of compassion as well. But I think she also was taking a shot in the dark trying to bring Joyce back to life with the wish. At this point in time, she's never tried to make a wish herself. And she is unaware that she can't (when in demon form).
"Whoever wrote this had firsthand experience."
Joss Whedon's mother died when he was pretty young. I think it was also from a brain haemorrhage. And Willow's breakdown over her clothes is heavily inspired by an incident where a young Joss became obsessed with finding the exact right tie to wear to a funeral. This is an _extremely_ personal episode, even as it captures something universal.
No, it was a car accident and he was 27 at the time.
@@METerrell OK, he was older than I'd thought, I got that wrong. But I see it reported as both a brain haemorrhage and a car crash. It's possible that this is a case of fan rumours seeping into real life, but it's also possible that she had an aneurysm behind the wheel.
@@Talisguyyeah that's a relatively common way to due behind the wheel
My own mom died like that... I left a comment with more details on the previous Buffy reaction if anyone wants to know...
I don't know, why I'm mentioning this here, I probably shouldn't have done that.
I just want people to know, that yes, shit like this happens in real life.
That's why I learned to appreciate the episode SO much more since then. I really used to not like it all that much. Now it's one of my favorites...
Sorry folks....
It helps, talking about it... A bit....
I'm gonna stop now... 😅
@@chanceneck8072 It happened to my aunt as well, a few years ago. A normal day that flowed in a normal way. My uncle returned home and found her, as though she had tried to sit down and just slumped to the floor.
I'm sorry for your loss.
@1:06 "What is this?" Joss wrote the Xmas scene to cover up "the secondary credits" so there wouldn't be "guest staring this week" text over the "opening scene".
An early stage of Grief is Denial, that is what Buffy does when she imagines Joyce being saved by the paramedics and being "as good as new". It's not the show going too far, it's just the show showing someone denying the situation they are grieving about.
And also Buffy initially saying "no" when the paramedic asked if she had any health issues. A brain tumor is a pretty serious health issue.
I do wish they included more hints that what was going on was going on in their heads. I'm not sure what else they could have done, though.
Personally it was such a relatable moment. That period of festering in, "If Only" where you imagine a world where it didn't happen, and want to live in that denial world where you can believe you're going to see them again. Hear their voice. Feel their touch. While the cold reality slips around you that it never going to happen as long as you live.
"She's cold". "the body is cold?" "No, my mom".
"Why am I still watching?"
We've all been there. You're still watching because these characters mean A LOT to all of us.
Thank you for being so open and for sharing your raw emotions.
This is alternately and simultaneously the best episode of any tv show ever and the most uncomfortable thing to watch. That it didn't win every tv award going is a travesty.
I know. It is the best piece of television I have ever seen, since the early 80s. Why it didn't get an Emmy, or at least a BAFTA, I'd even have it put into a Nobel category, if it was viable. I totally agree, a total travesty.
I just started watching this show like 2-3 months ago and when I got to this episode, I was immediately BLOWN AWAY by how fantastic it is. I immediately recognized it as one of the top 3 episodes of TV I've ever seen before
@@dragonpaulz_ It is such a travesty that it did not get, or was nominated, for ANY awards. This should be put into the Television museum, for the high quality episode that it is.
14:45 Note how Anya Phrased that. "*I wish* Joyce didn't die" Anya knows more than anyone the danger of wishes but she uttered one anyway on the off chance that it would work.
I the way I interpret that statement is the fact Anya is finally realizing her own mortalitybeing a ex-demon who was previously immortal.
I believe this episode draws from Whedon’s losing his mother. Undoubtedly the most real depiction of death and loss I’ve seen. I’ll say that the fake out life saving is a personal favourite. It’s the type of wish fulfilment that could happen in a show, but then we have the slow realisation that it’s just too good to be true. I really feel for Buffy in that moment, a moment of hope, of self-delusion. Been there.
The scene where they "trolled us" showing Joyce recovering with the paramedics is actually portraying the "What if...?" scenario our minds go through when hit in the face with a traumatic experience like this. "What if I arrived earlier, what if Mom recovered?" etc. Also notice there was no music in this episode; Joss Whedon (who wrote and directed this episode) said in the DVD commentary that he wanted to showcase how mundane and boring death is, based on his own personal experience with someone close dying. No fanfare, no dramatic music, no fireworks. And life goes on...parking ticket and all. And constantly showing Joyce's body and the naked vampire was to show how obscene death can be. It's probably the most mature and realistic portrayal of how death affects us that I have ever seen. It was exhausting to watch but SUCH a brilliant episode 😣. Love your reactions as always
Another explanation that I heard was that music gives comfort in scenes like that, and he wanted no comfort at all for the viewer, he wanted to make it as real as possible. And everybody agrees he succeeded spectacularly ..
The scene with Tara and Buffy is really touching. "No, and yes, it's always sudden." This so accurately captures the feeling. My mother suffered a stroke, and was in a care home for 8 months before she passed. So, this line captured so much.
My mum had cancer for years. At the end we had a few weeks to sit by her side and then a few days at the very last. It still felt sudden.
The scene in the house with Joyce reviving was showing you the outcome Buffy was desperately hoping for in her head. She played out what she hoped would happen when they were performing CPR. Always a tough episode to take. Well done on the edit.
It killed me. Such a strong and heartbreaking episode. Thanks. @PurpleNurple did an amazing job with the RUclips edit.
One if the most heart breaking episodes on tv ever
It has been proven that you can grieve a fictional character just like a real person. You feel whatever you need to feel.
Please don’t apologize or be embarrassed. Your reaction is shared pretty universally among the fandom. This is one of the most affecting and effective bits of filmmaking ever made, and regardless of age, gender or whether it’s the first time or rewatch #15 it draws at least some tears from most of us.
And you’re spot on - Wheedon lost his mother suddenly as a teenager, and was determined to tell this story. Kristine Sutherland did not wish to leave the show, but he warned her at least a season before that this was coming. It’s interesting to watch Joyce in S5, because watching reactors one remembers that Joyce was NOT a particularly popular character in the first couple of seasons; and she’s barely in Season 4. But by the time 515 rolls around her loss is devastating.
Thanks so much for watching and your kind words. It’s a very vulnerable thing and appreciate you saying that. Thanks also for the info bts too. It’s nice she had a heads up on what’s to come too.
Actually if you listen to the commentary, Kristine was in Europe a lot in S4 doing theater & told Joss she was ready to leave for a big part. He BEGGED her to come back "because I'm planning on killing you." And she said yes. For such a sad episode the commentary is quite entertaining.
12:40 - Anya making a wish, that's big for someone who knows how dangerous wishing can be.
One of the most brutally realistic episodes in TV history. As difficult as it is to watch, it is also masterfully crafted. The reactions of the characters, Buffy's desperate imagining of a happy outcome etc. But it's also in the little things embedded around the story. The paramedics being called to another incident, Xander's parking ticket and even the vampire at the morgue. 'Your' world may be falling down around you but 'The' world carries on, unknowing and indifferent to you. One of the harsher realities of existence.
My mom died of a brain aneurysm. This episode did a good job replicating the shock, disbelief and delayed grief.
Saw when originally broadcast in UK. Was shocked, and very amazed and impressed by the calibre of TV-making-one of the finest episodes of TV ever, it will go down in the "annals" of human art.
This episode murders every single person who watches who has any empathy. I end up crying every time I watch a reactor reach this point.
Great reaction! No background music, no distractions. Great writing and acting. Best episode ever.
Dakara, the fact that you go to this episode without being spoiled for it is amazing in itself. Many rate The Body as the best episode of BTVS ever, I don't personally, however The Body is one of the greatest episodes of tv drama ever shown. Whedon is a master at torturing the viewers. The fact that his episode has no music, and when Buffy opens the back door and hears the children playing it is so real, that even when a person has a personal tragedy life goes on as normal for all other people, it is all very human and ordinary, this is why it is so incredible. So many people watching The Body, myself included, have had an almost exact experience to this, this is why it is so brilliantly written and directed. SMG puts in an incredible performance here, and it is criminal that she was not awarded for this. This is why S5 is amazing. However I think there is one more episode in this Season which even surpasses this. A brilliant heartbreaking finale unmatched in the Series. Season 5 was a Zenith for the show.
the scene in the house was a daydream Buffy was having, and then ripped back to reality that Joyce has passed. It's a very very realistic portrayal.
And as someone who has been watching the show since it originally aired, I still cry every single time. no shame in that.
Nobody will mock you for crying with this episode. I have trouble crying on situations I actively want to cry. Yet I cry even watching reactions to this episode
No mocking from me, I admit, being a male of a certain age, where this sort of emotion is looked down upon, I openly weep with this episode. Every single time.
4:24 Under normal circumstances they would definitely stay. But they got a call for another emergency, that takes precedence. Maybe it was really nearby and urgent, or the other ambulances were busy. In that case, they absolutely would leave.
Everyone cries during this episode, no matter how many times we’ve seen it. I tear up just watching reaction videos for this one.
Absolutely. I’m a manly man who punches crocodiles and says informed things about cars.
But if you don’t choke up when Willow is falling apart you’re not human and I don’t want to know you.
I don't think Joss Whedon's intent was to troll with the breakaway scenes in the first act. He attempts to portray all the things that speed through your head when you are experiencing emotional shock: what if I had been here 10 minutes earlier? what if the EMTs revive her right now? what if we take her to the hospital and then everything is OK? Everything is overwhelming and the show's production demonstrates that incredibly creatively, with a close up of a phone pad, because even the simplest tasks can be too much when you can't think. In that state, you can't fully register the person in front of you who is telling you, so the camera cuts the EMT off so you only see his mouth saying the words. The entire episode is brilliant. Nothing makes me cry, though, like Anya's soliloquy. Her reaction is like a child's, like she's experiencing the LOSS that comes with death of someone you care about, even though she's had 1000 years of being surrounded by death. Thanks for the reaction. This episode is a right of passage for Buffy fans, so you HAD to watch. It's required.
If anything, it's your mind that's trolling you because it's having trouble accepting the reality of a sudden profound loss and it's not like that for a day, it's for weeks and a couple of months. They're dead; they're gone but a part of you feel that they're on a trip or at work and you're "expecting them" to come back, which isn't true. You have to keep reminding yourself, "He's not coming back." I recall a week after my husband died of a brain aneurysm, I was still feeling like I was being "punked". That this was some sort of cruel joke and I wanted it to be over. I then have to remember that just a few days before I had brought home his ashes and I had been hugging the box. Those first few months were a total mindf*ck. Joss captures it perfectfully with that "trolling" because it's your mind trying to adjust to the new reality and it can't.
You picture saving them because you still can, they're not dead.
The “what ifs” really hit me hard. My mom died rather abruptly in her home in the early morning. I had literally been there the previous day, considered spending the night and was actually awake at her time of death. For a long time afterward I replayed in my head, “what if I decided to stay? I would have been awake, I could have done something.”
And about your mind playing tricks on you, thinking that they’re not really dead… absolutely right. The entire week afterwards, part of my mind was like- it makes no sense. I literally saw her last Thursday. Now her body doesn’t exist except as ashes in an urn? What? No. She could just walk in that door with her groceries and this has just been some weird, horrifying nightmare.
@alicequinn505 True. Not until someone verifies that. They were still in the process off trying to revive her, so there was still some hope to cling to.
I was fortunate, in that my mother was revived, but not so fortunate in that she passed away days later. We knew the inevitable, but we kept her on life-support until the family was together to be there for the moment.
I wouldn't put it past him, knowing the kind of person he seems to be. I'd say there's a cruelty to him that is exposed in these moments.
I always feel sorry when a reactor gets to this episode. I swear we were not trying to traumatize you when we insisted you reacted to this show :~
This was the most heartbreaking episode I watched still gets to me now
When my dad passed, his body was in our house for about 6 hours until our mortuary place could come collect his body. When there is no evidence of foul play, they will leave the body in home until the morgue can take it. The same with my grandma.
Probably the best episode of TV ever written, directed and acted. One I religiously try to skip on rewatch. Its criminal that it didnt win a truckload of awards
One of the most **ICONICALLY HEARTBREAKING** episodes in television history. And yet it is also therapeutic!
There is no need or reason for you to apologize or feel weird about crying watching The Body for the first time. This is storytelling and television at its most powerful. This is one of the most difficult to watch episodes in television history. No one can imagine a teenage supernatural show that shows death and the immediate aftermath in such a realistic manner that it leaves ever viewer mesmerized. Just so unexpected but one of the many reasons that BTVS is really a great show. There are so many aspects of the show that makes it great besides the dialogue...No background music, the direction, and SMG's fantastic performance to name a few...the show compels everyone to watch even though they want to quit. You finished and you have earned your first Buffy Purple Heart. There is still a wild ride ahead, but you have surpassed the first upper layer that makes this show a classic.
This breaks everyone, men women, young old, its brutal, and one of the most acclaimed episodes of TV for its observation of death and loss
One of the best episodes of television ever made FULL STOP 👏 just from The PHENOMENAL acting, to the lack of soundtrack and to the almost surreal imagery and shot selection from the directing at points. Truly the definition of a masterpiece. I’ve seen it so many times and it literally NEVER gets any less devastating. Christine Sutherlands performance is one of my all times favorites in the series and Joyce’s warmth and strength shouldn’t be under rated, Buffys SO MUCH like her mother.
don't ever feel stupid for crying over a heart-wrenching story, well told.
One of the absolute best and most horrifying pieces of television I've seen.
And acting is just superb. Sarah being simply incredible. Alyson reducing anyone who sees her monologue to tears. Anya's reaction being that of a child...
I don't know anyone who could see this episode without breaking.
Don't ever worry about crying at things like this. I'm 54 and I still bawl every time I see it.
And it's so close to home (Joss wrote it from personal experience) and so differently made that they actually use it for teaching in film schools.
It's a masterpiece, you don't want to watch again.
I recall one reactor who rewatched the episode. She used it as a coping mechanism. It wasn't for fun, just therapeutic.
10:47 - I think people react so strongly is because most can relate, understand this feeling. Relating to a loss at a magical quest is one thing, but grieving.. everyone has done that as some point so they can relate to the pain. They know that this pain is and it's here, not in some fantasy TV land.
I didn't take the house scene as trolling, but them channelling the denial factor...the wish on the part of Buffy that she would suddenly be revived.
I watched this episode when it first aired over 22 years ago and have rewatched many times including following reactors watch it, and this episode still brings me to tears. When Buffy says "mommy," the shock and horror in her face when she calls her mom "the body," Anya speech, etc.
[Original post said over 30 years]
Well it's only been 22 years. Stop making me older than I actually am lol
@@treyokelly9662 I don't why but I keep thinking Buffy had its 30 year anniversary instead of 25. Being a season 5 episode, you are right that its a little over 22 years.
@@rob4canada lol not a big deal. I was just like oh no I already have a bad back a hernia at 31. I don't need extra years on me! 😂
My parents both died from cancer, dad in 93, mum in 99. On both occasions the doctors were
able to let us know a few days in advance that they were about to go so quite a lot of family
and friends kept coming to the house so no one was on their own. My mum was the first to find
my dad had died and her howl haunts me to this day. I think they keep showing Joyce to prepare
viewers who have never seen one what a real body looks like. My dads eyes were open but also
his mouth. I managed to say goodbye to my mum before she became unconcious and there was my
brother and one of my aunts in the house when she passed. I was on my own in the bedroom
and actually saw her die or rather heard her stop breathing. I went through a lot of guilt at
the time as I really felt relieved.
Like you said, it’s the truth. Anyone who watches The Body and doesn’t cry has something broken. I don’t like watching this episode, but it is art. It shares something real with us. And I have my tissue box ready any time I watch a reaction.
The flash of Buffy imagining her mother being saved was the cruel, but it’s true to what goes through your mind in those moments.
2015 - My mom was on her 3rd bout of pneumonia in a few years when her oxygen saturation rate dropped so low she was hospitalized. They started her on antibiotics, and we reluctantly went home after telling her we'd be back tomorrow. That night, she was so tired of fighting to breathe that she agreed to let them intibate her so she could rest... and she never fully woke up again. I spent every day for a week in ICU at her side praying for her to wake up, but she got a secondary infection called ARDS. The doctors sent her to a care facility, and slowly slipped away. We got the call late one night that they transferred her back to the hospital and it was time. We all came and stayed in the room with her, mostly silent, until she was gone. It wasn't sudden, but it was sudden. I had a mom one minute... and then she was gone.
The reason for them cutting back to Joyce's body is because that is exactly how it is - you get distracted by other people and plans, but then the cold reality of death slaps you, and you remember WHY there are people around and plans to make, because someone you love is dead. And that keeps happening for much longer than you want it to, but it gradually gets better - but the trade-off for it getting better is that you start to forget... you forget their voice, their smile, and you look at pictures of them to remind you, but you forget anyway. You either live with the pain of grief, or you forget most of them except the love and the things they taught you.
This is the most brutally honest depiction of grief and loss I have ever seen on TV. Every character was on point. The scene that gets me is when Buffy has to tell Dawn what happened at school. The way she breaks down, with her class mates looking on. Such a personal event, and yet so public.
Why do they keep cutting back to Joyce? Because Joss really wants to make it as uncomfortable and raw as possible. Usually when death is handled in a show, it’s to show meaning or catharsis, or the beauty of life, etc. even if it’s tragic, it’s all done in a way that is dramatically palatable. That’s why there is no music in the episode either . Joss wanted to show how raw, and real, and uncomfortable death is, just as it is in real life.
My own mother died very suddenly a few years ago. This episode depicts so much of the experience of the first several hours perfectly. I wasn’t sobbing at first. I wasn’t even tearing up. What initially happened was that my mind just went into autopilot as I dealt with the unthinkable thought that my mom was no longer around. The world outside my own head felt very surreal and strange. So what did I do? I played mobile games on my phone while emergency services took her body to the hospital (had to stick around in case the police had any questions, though what had happened was pretty cut and dry).
The lack of catharsis even extends to the structure. Nothing is complete. Nothing is resolved. Everything is agonizingly drawn out. It's almost made up entirely of deleted scenes from a conventional episode about death. We're not shown the Big Showy Grief Moments of film and TV loss - we spend so much more time on Dawn's art class and her mundane problems than her reaction to Joyce's death, we don't see Xander's initial reaction or him crying at the apartment but we see him getting a parking ticket, of all things, Willow's scene is her losing her mind over her clothes. But we're not even shown resolution for what the show _does_ choose to focus on. Buffy starts to break down in Giles' arms when she breaks out of her initial shock, but we cut away before we see anything. Willow never finds her blue sweater - Anya does, but she doesn't know Willow is looking for it and just puts it back in the drawer. Dawn reaches out for Joyce's body and it cuts away before she makes contact. Nothing has a defined ending. It all just...hangs there. Excruciatingly.
Death is not "raw and uncomfortable" for many cultures in the world today, and wasn't in western society (certainly in Britain at least) not even that long ago.
It's actually a terrible thing that this is where we have ended up as a society.
@@wyterabitt2149 that’s not how I felt when I dealt with it, and I’d appreciate you not making any value judgments on how death “should be” experienced, especially in response to a post where I relate my own rather painful history with it.
The implication that the way I felt when my mother died somehow reflects negatively on society is absolutely infuriating to me. Screw you.
@@1stgenkpopfan646 What are you talking about? Your second sentence is clearly not a personal anecdote, it was about what Joss's intention was. I was referring to this, and how it's a reflection of an aspect of society that has changed for the worse in our relationship with death overall. And this is how death is mirrored by others and media, making it a circle of fear and being uncomfortable with the process.
I was talking about anthropology not you. You just didn't like what I said, and thought pretending I had done something like that would make me look bad. Do you think people in the past didn't grieve as good as you did, because their overall attitude to death was healthier so I must have been insulting you?
Regardless, if you want to debate something or disagree that's fine. But suggesting that a public post is protected from what you don't want to hear is just a bit silly, allowed but pointless.
@@wyterabitt2149 and the rest of my post was about how I related to that experience very strongly, and then your judging that society holding that experience with death is a change for the worse … it’s not too difficult to connect that to said personal anecdote, is it?
I don’t think it was intentional on your part, but you need to be careful in discussing this subject, especially in response to a post where a personal experience with death is shared.
Were you five pounds lighter after this episode from all of the tears? Ugly crying is the norm for this episode. I am a 61 year old man but Buffy is still one of my favorite all time shows. I still tear up watching people react to this episode because the acting and direction is so phenomenal that it hits everyone. Anya still gets me the most of all of them. I'm sorry that we all enjoy watching your pain but isn't that why we watch reactions? Just to share in the joy and the heartbreak.
I doubt this is anyone's favourite episode but it is one of the best episodes of tv ever made. The acting , the production, the writing it's all on point.
Less than three minutes in and I was weeping. And I didn't stop. Damn it, this episode just devastates.
it is hard to watch and at the same time of the greatest episodes of any show ever
When someone dies your mind goes to the happy place for just a split second for buffy that was a Christmas dinner reality snaps back its not meant to hurt you but be a realistic depiction of death.
Tara talking with Buffy was done as excellently as Grey's Anatomy handled this subject. There was a scene in GA where Christina talked with George right after his father died. Sadly, welcoming him to 'The Dead Dads Club'. That the feeling of the universe being wrong without them never goes away, and others won't fully understand until they go throught it too... (I know you've talked about the series Grey's Anatomy in other reactions, so no spoilers here).
13:34 never were truer words spoken. This was first aired February 27, 2001. My mom passed away just under 3 months later, from ALS. It was both expected, as she was taking the palliative care way out, and yet still incredibly sudden.
Buffy isn't a TV Show, it is brilliant art, a generational masterpiece.
Being this upset over tv shows you have a strong sense of empathy. There no reason to be ashamed that a tv show has affected you this much. I would be willing to bet every one of the 930 likes on this video bawled their eyes out at this episode. You're not alone.
When I first saw the ending of the last episode I wasn't paying attention and didn't notice Joyce's body and back then I couldn't rewind. So I had no idea what I was in for watching this episode
The intent of this episode is to show the many ways people deal with death and grief. Everyone including Anya are displaying real ways people experience death and grief of others.
Did you notice the lack of music?
I've seen this episode more than a dozen times and from the start I have tears running down my face and I need multiple tissues to blow my nose. I would expect it to become easier but it doesn't. Well, yes I'm not having difficulty breathing this time.
I've seen 2 different psychologists react to this episode and they both had a similar conclusion that this episode was very realistic in the way the different characters reacted to death and grief.
Poor Dak. Honestly anyone who can watch this episode for the first time without sobbing should probably be on some kind of watch list...
The reason they kept showing us Joyce is that bodies are never just bodies. They were always someone.
I always seem to end up commenting on this specific episode with reactors. This is probably the most accurate and well made depiction of grief in media that I've seen. I feel like people end up ugly crying because death of a loved one is such a relatable event. I find if someone hasn't experienced loss to this degree, they tend to not react as strongly. When this first aired, I watched it as a kid, and didn't really connect to it. When I re-watched it after I lost my mom, I cried profusely and had to keep stopping. Thanks for the great reaction, love your discussion and congrats you made it through to the end of this ep.
Anya's "But, I don't understand!" speech, and Buffy's "We're not supposed to move the body!" kills me every time.
Anya finds the sweater Willow is looking for.
@@AndrewSmoot About Anya. Everybody talks about her “I don’t understand!” and “I wish that Joyce didn’t die” moments. But I want to talk about why everybody talks about them because nobody ever seems to explain why they’re such significant moments.
What I find so incredibly moving is that what she feels and expresses is at the core of human feeling about death. The problem for the others is that she expresses it in a childlike manner, in ways adults have unlearned. In that moment, without realizing it, she is extremely human. That’s precisely the point. She’s a newborn experiencing loss and grief for the first time and in so doing her own emotional pain as a human again. Something she has all but forgotten about in 1000-something years of being a vengeance demon doling out that same emotional pain to countless humans.
This episode has us feeling sympathy for her - maybe even empathy. But in a way, her arc in this episode is also about karma. She’s here to experience personally that of which she caused others to experience in her past. The way the other Scoobies react to her is supposed to reflect that: Anya just being Anya and not understanding the reality of the situation because she’s emotionless and careless. Yet her reaction jilts and jars you immediately when she makes her speech.
Of course she doesn’t understand as a former vengeance demon. And that’s the most human she’s ever felt and expressed herself to be. Ironically and cleverly because she’s always being the one to disregard human emotion. Her speech in this episode is by far her best moment in her entire appearance in this show. And Emma Caulfield fucking NAILS IT!
And there it is, definitely one of the whopper eps of the series as it is so well written and executed with the excellent acting, dialogue, the use of sounds/silence, and the different camera angles to put us in the moment when one's head, heart and emotions are racing all over the place, with thoughts of "what if things were different/done differently"... and the harsh slap of reality her mother to something natural that Buffy is powerless to rescue her from..... A ton of great scenes: Willow freaking out over her choice of clothes, Anya's questioning her first brush with death of someone that she knew well and cared for, and the Buffy/Tara scene pairing that we don't get much of. Just a masterpiece of an episode that gutted us back in the day, and every time since...... Wonderful reaction that gets you a CTU today...... Awesome as always, D! Keep em coming!
I found my mother two months ago in her chair, non responsive. Thankfully she was still breathing, I called the ambulance and everything turned out fine in the end. Apparently she had a "small" (sure as heck didn't feel small) heart problem, she is now on a blood thinner and that shouldn't happen again. But the first few moments before I realized she was breathing were ... Intense to put it mildly.
I had ugly flashbacks to this episode the whole time I waited for news from the hospital. I almost strangeld our poor cat because I needed to hug somebody so much!
The flashback to dinner at the beginning was there because Whedon didn't want to have the crucial scene of Buffy with the body play during the opening credits
8:21 In an episode full of tears, Willow's warble when she says "Tara" here wrecks me every time.😭
This show is not your typical escapist television fare, especially in episodes like this. It's the difference between art and just entertainment. Showing Joyce again and again and the whole way the episode was shot is just a masterpiece of capturing the experience of grief.
No one who watches it can be unaffected by the trauma. Take care.
everybody cries watching this one. Even when its a rewatch. a very powerful and excellent depiction of something that so many shows gloss over. Its hard, its confusing, your mind is both racing and you feel empty. And no one knows how to deal with it. but you have to anyway.
Well done getting through this episode. Anya’s speech is the child’s prospective of death, it kills me every time. This episode is simultaneously the best tv ever made and the hardest tv to watch.
10:45 You are not alone. This episode was written, and written extremely well, to show how confusing and disruptive death is. I mean, we all know it's coming for everyone we know, yet each time is shocks and surprises us 😞 Also note that there is no background music. The lack of it adds to how stark and jarring the feelings are.
that is also why you learn it as one one two and not one hundred and tvelve, when shocked the first one is easier to remember
Like the small touches: don't see the top of the ambulance guy's face, "I have to lie to make you feel better" mixed in with his emotionless doctor-speak, and how Buffy sucked against the only vampire
Joss drew on the emotions he had from his mothers death to write this.
Thank you for sharing your feelings and thoughts over these 2 episodes. No one is laughing, I always tear up with every reaction to this one. The reason we watch reactions is to empathize with other people. There's no need for embarrassment. Expressing your emotions is what reacting is about.
One of my favorite reactions is that of TheLexiCrowd to 'I Was Made to Love You' and I highly recommend it. And yes Joss Whedon hates us, that's why he showed Joyce looking her best and getting on with her life before gutting us.
I mean -- she had that one great *great* day. It'd be hard to ask for a better way to go out.
You know, two of the most raw and jarring things about ‘The Body’ are Willow’s hyperventilating when deciding on what clothing to wear and worrying that she can’t find that blue top that Joyce liked and Anya’s voice going hoarse during her monologue.
- like those 2 acting performances from those 2 actresses … it’s just insane how visceral it is, how much emotion and desperation that is conveyed through the screen, how much you’re able to feel from them doing that, how it just stops all thought process and you’re just bombarded with sensation.
Is it just me that cries like a fucking dam’s burst watching those two scenes? Every. Time. I. See. It.
Like yeah, Gellar gets me too. But Hannigan and Caulfield are up there too for that episode.
I mean… wow. No words. Just wow.
That’s some god damn A class acting right there.
You had one of the most raw reactions to this episode of any reactor! It kept showing us Joyce because the episode is called a the Body and she’s the body I guess. Such an important episode of TV history. Hardly anything beats it
Thank you for allowing us in, just brilliant and raw.
As someone who cries at TV shows and movies, I feel that, at least in my case, I tend to cry when the show is representing something that happens in real life, like in this situation, the loss of a parent. I'm empathizing with the real people who have experienced a similar situation to the one in the show.
Oh yeah Willow and Tara's first on screen kiss was in this episode.
When my mother passed and I saw the body.... even in the morgue while viewing it, I had the daydream of it somehow not being so, there was a miracle where I envisioned her waking up and asking why we had messed up her favorite top.
I get some people may think things went too far, but far me, it was a very concise representation of the day of my event....
That thanksgiving scene was there because even the Weevil Genius couldn't bear the thought of Buffy's (all in one take) opening scene(s) having the titles etc over them. Thus he wrote that scene to the exact length they'd be on the screen and, truthfully, Buffy's 'flower gettin' lady' to 'Mommy' moment was 'repeated at the end of the previous episode and was written for this episode and tacked on to the end of 'I Was Made to Love You' ~ I suspect because he just loves to torture the fans. I do, however, to a acidic bias about his motivations more than twenty after experiencing that moment 'live'. Worse is to come, kerk
5:23 Baby-girl, we were/are _all_ that upset, "over tv!" 💔
I actually had the privilege of meeting Kristine Sutherland when she came to Nottingham’s *'Em-Con'* & I burst into tears! Bless her, she came round the table and just held me til I calmed down; I told her how much Joyce had meant to me & that I’d always wished she was _my_ mum! She thanked me and said it was one of the things she’d always remember as a wonderful part of visiting the UK…
Two years later, I mentioned it on a certain platform, tagging her in the post, and she remembered me! 🥰❤️
@@NostalgiaBrit that warms my heart ❤️
BTVS has 3. 3 moments that’ll make any viewer ugly cry. This is number 2. Anya gets me every time
I hate to tell you D. Every time you rewatch this series and/ or episode, and for whatever sick reason, there will be many. As we who love this show can tell you out of experience. You feel these feelings as deep as you felt them this first time around. Every time! But enjoy😁. But that the price we pay for loving one of the best shows ever made.
With regards to your comments at 21:00 about "Why?" -- I personally think it's because Buffy isn't about supernatural stuff for its own sake, but rather as a metaphor for life. Seasons 1-3 were "High School is Hell (sometimes literally)". Season 4 was a transitional period that everyone goes through. Now we get Buffy as a young adult (edit: she even left college earlier in the season to take care of her mom), especially with a young sister to take care of -- and maybe even more so if she now has to take over the "mom" role.
That’s why ‘The Body’ fits in so well with the show. Because the deeper level to it is life and death and how to deal with it.
I think when scenes like this are well-written, you don''t feel emotional for the show's character. You feel emotional because it brings back the feelings you had when you went through something similar. If you haven't experienced it, then it won't do much. If you have, and you've had that layer of thick skin peeled off you like skinning an onion, it really hits.
Ah, the resuscitation fake out. Yes it's evil, but it does have a purpose. The scene is from Buffy's perspective and I have actually experienced that dislocated feeling where your brain denies reality and jumps through an alternative scenario for a split second. Everything about this episode is so scarily accurate (well, apart from the vampire of course) that it had to be written from personal experience.
Please don't be hard on yourself for crying - these characters get into our hearts - and quite frankly I don't trust anyone who doesn't cry at this episode. Just kidding. 😆 And in no way do you look a mess. Big hugs. ❤🩹
It's one of my favorite scenes
Why we get so effected is simple, we can relate what's happening to events in our own lives.
We cry because it is an incredibly well written show over (this far) five seasons and the incredible acting ability of all coincerned especially SMG. It has also helped people (such as myself) who have lost parents. I cry not only every time I see it but also every time I see a reaction to it. The vampire at the end, the parking ticket etc is a brutal reminder that whilst we think that the world shoukl stop turning because of our tragedy, everyday life continues and doesn't seem to care. Props to Kristine Sutherland for the best dead body acting I have ever seen. That is not easy. The Joyce waking up wasn't malicious but was what was flashing through Buffy's mind. It is very true to life.
The hardest episode of Buffy to watch. And yet a fantastic moment of television. Glad you watched.
The first time I saw a reactor get to this episode, I was giddy with anticipation, assuming it was going to be like watching a reaction to the Red Wedding. It isn’t. It’s not shocking, it’s heart wrenching. Every damn time. And it gets skipped on rewatches, because seeing clips during reactions is all I can take.
Also, Tara is a sort of spiritual messenger or sage in her whole time on the show. There's a wisdom that she emanates at various points that exceed even Giles in my opinion.
That fake out scene at the beginning where they show Joyce being revived is painful, but I think necessary in two ways: 1) it is what many people experience when going through this type of thing, many imagine their loved one being saved or fantasizing that they got there just in time. 2) It tells us, the audience, that this isn’t going to be one of those times. The reality of the situation hits us all like a ton of bricks.
Also a note about the Tillow kiss… This was at a time in TV where any kisses between two women were really hyped up by the network as being a big (often sexy) “moment” (I am specifically thinking of Ally McBeal but there were others as well). Whedon very purposefully did not want that to be the case for this show. I personally like that it is a quiet, gentle moment with zero fanfare. I think it also helped to get it by the censors that it was a kiss if comfort and not sexual in nature.
This can be anyone coming home to visit their mother.....it is a horror scenario, my mother had a stroke, but luckily it poåped by her eye so she got blind in one eye and must take medication to prevent a stroke again, but it could just as well have been good bye that time
Hope your mum is doing well
It is impossible not to cry when watching ‘The Body’. Whether it be that remarkably visceral 3 minute long uncut performance from Gellar in trying to revive Joyce. Anya’s soul-crushing ‘I-don’t-understand’ monologue from an almost vocally hoarse Caulfield or Hannigan’s realistic anxiety attack where Willow just wants to find and wear that god damn blue sweater that Joyce liked. Or any other highly relatable and resonatable scene in this whole episode because all of it is just A++.
This episode man. It’s so good but it’s so upsetting. And it’s like you can’t have one without the other. To get the goodness, you must have the sadness. To get the sadness, you must have the goodness.
It’s so good because it’s so upsetting.
And it’s so upsetting because it’s so good.
It makes us all feel that negative space.
Such a painful episode to watch but still one of my absolute favourites. I cannot even begin to explain how incredible this episode is. I’ve written a recap for it that does it some justice but there’s no combination of words that can truly describe this masterpiece. It figures that for a supernatural horror show the most horrific thing that happens to our favourite characters would be something entirely natural and normal.
I am so glad they ruled out the supernatural with Joyce’s illness. It made ‘The Body’ 10x as unsettling to watch. Knowing there was nothing Buffy could do. No one she could fight, defeat or kill to make her recover. It was a human error. One that couldn’t be taken back or prevented in time. Joyce died of an aneurysm. A natural condition. Not a supernatural one. I think that’s what makes Season 5 so compelling to watch. You have a Slayer who is wanting to learn all about her origins and ancestry, and yet the most devastating thing to happen is not Slayer-related. It’s not monster-related. It’s not spiritually-related. But it’s still family-related. A very personal predicament.
I know there’s headcanons that Dawn’s arrival had something to do with Joyce becoming ill in the first place. But I’m personally glad it’s not the canon story. They could have went there. Hell, they even misdirected you there in ‘No Place Like Home’. And there were even several other options. Glory. The Queller demon from outer-space. Even Ben…
But like I said… would the gut-punch of ‘The Body’ actually tore right through you if it was of supernatural cause and effect? Because honestly, that is the most horrific and scariest episode of all as well as the saddest. I can’t think of any other that comes close. For me, it’s all because it’s a real human experience. It’s all very much dealing with the human condition.
And I’ve said it before - that’s what I want to see in TV. Not necessarily a complete depiction of real life natural events because I enjoy watching the supernatural too. But… just something that makes you take another look or another listen and realize … “well damn, this could be a true story” if it already isn’t. One that real people can experience and overcome. Because what is more heroic than that?
And isn’t that the great big metaphor of The Slayer?
Or at least Buffy’s version of ‘The Slayer’?
“These external monsters are the internal demons”
Granted maybe they do go too on-the-nose with it in Season 6 but I would say that’s the very point of BtVS.
Isn’t THAT exactly what makes Buffy so compelling besides the fact it’s a very character driven show?
Isn’t THAT what truly makes Buffy a heroine?
My brother passed away alone at home in a similar manner in June 2021. Aortic dissection at home. Like an aneurysm. This ep crossed my mind durimg that time. Denial, grief, dreaming of an alt history, the works. Never easy for anyone.
It wasn't trolling showing the day dream of Joyce waking up, it was showing what Buffy herself was thinking. The fantasy that everything is fine, the wish that the bad things would just immediately go away and everything would go back to normal. It was nothing to do with trolling the audience or making the audience sad or anything like that, everything in the episode was simply an examination of what nearly all of us experience when we go through traumatic grief.
When I worked a night shift, a coworker and I took to marathoning her expansive dvd collection. We worked around to Buffy. I was pretty wrecked on this episode. Later I realized the night we watched it was the anniversary of my mothers death. I think I mentally blocked it out at the time. Strong feelings.
Oh, in the US the reason that bodies are not always taken by the ambulance is to protect the scene, though they'll usually stay with the grieving unless another medical emergency is taking place nearby. The EMTs can do whatever is needed to save a patient but once the person is declared dead then they shouldn't affect the scene too much. Leave the body where it is & contact the police/medical examiner. Police comes over after with a medical investigator to ensure that the death was natural, they'll arrange for the body to be transported to the hospital if an autopsy is needed. It's basically a way to make sure that if a muder takes place then the evidence is as untouched & unaffected as possible. This is only done in cases where someone's death is supicious to even the slightest degree. The EMTs will speak to the family or whoever is there to find out if the person had any medical conditions, and they will contact the departed's primary doctor to find out if it was an expected death. If it was & they can confirm it was a natural death then they may take the body with them to the hospital themselves. However, that's rarely done, usually, the police will still have to look over the scene just in case somebody tried to take advantage of someone else's illness & murder them. So the cops & medical investigator will usually arrange for the body to be taken to the hospital or contact or give permission for the family to contact the funeral home to take the body. Leaving the ambulance free to head to whatever emergency they need to go to, as you saw them doing after speaking to Buffy, & Buffy wished them good luck.
7:00 exact words that everyone feels when we see this series.
This was all we talked about at school. We were all shocked.