THE BODY: Buffy the Vampire Slayer 5x16 Reaction
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
- 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).
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.
"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.
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.
One if the most heart breaking episodes on tv ever
12:40 - Anya making a wish, that's big for someone who knows how dangerous wishing can be.
It has been proven that you can grieve a fictional character just like a real person. You feel whatever you need to feel.
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.
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.
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.
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 :~
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.
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).
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.
Less than three minutes in and I was weeping. And I didn't stop. Damn it, this episode just devastates.
The hardest episode of Buffy to watch. And yet a fantastic moment of television. Glad you watched.
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.
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.
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.
8:21 In an episode full of tears, Willow's warble when she says "Tara" here wrecks me every time.😭
The first time i watched this episode i didn't appreciate the brilliance of it as i was pissed, like you about some of the scenes. didn't even notice most of the things, like the lack of a soundtrack.
Watched it again a few years later and appreciated it so much more. It's just such a brilliant piece of art
I don't usually get affected by TV shows. But this episode? Every time. Every reaction.
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 ❤️
67 year old man who first watched this on broadcast tv. I've probably seen it about 25 times now. (More if I include watching reactors.) I cry every time. Anybody who mocks you is a pure troll.
If there’s no foul play suspected, at least here in California, they will absolutely leave the body there and tell you to just wait for the coroner. There’s an episode of Roseanne where a salesman dies at their kitchen table and they have to wait hours for the coroner to come. This is such a realistic portrayal. Most media gloss over the horrible minutia surrounding deaths. Waiting with the body. Having to hire cleaners or clean it up yourself once the body is removed. It can be horrific.
The Christmas scene throws everyone off. But they decided that they wanted a buffer between the opening theme & to get the credits out of the way before going through the rest of the episode.
This is what makes a show truly great
This is a tough episode. Brilliant, but tough. I was impressed you recognized that the scoobies were being the stages of grief.
As an FYI, I am in the US and was left alone with my Dad after he passed until the funeral home came. I think it depends on the state and the reason. Since the coroner determined it was natural at the house, they left. If there had been any questions, I am sure it would have been a different story.
Almost everyone cries during this because it is such a realistic take on the process. I find it catharthic every now and then. It originally aired just before my mom passed and it re-aired after my mom passed (which I was not there for as I was in another state) and it was a different experience after, but I also found it incredibly therapeutic.
What makes you such a wonderful person is your vulnerability and authenticity. You are very endearing. Big Hugs I send to you 💋💋❤❤ With Respect Always Brant Heavner 😊😊😊
There’s a tiny line in here that I’ve never heard mentioned.
“She’s cold.”
“The body?”
“No, my mom.”
It doesn’t even occur to her. She legitimately doesn’t understand what they said. And it ties into a few minutes later when she shouts “We’re not supposed to move the body” when she realises what she just said.
Anya's speech + being an ex-demon granting wishes and wishing for Joyce not dying, kills me
Anya and Willow totally wrecked me. I was ugly crying for awhile.
There were no short cuts to ease the pain of experiencing the loss..not even episode music to soften the raw blow.
Definitely an episode of what the stages of grief looks like.
Every single one of them was brilliant.
The Joyce actress wanted to move to Paris.
Since the main characters were in the empty nest stage of their lives, her character had little to do.
I can't remember if budgeting had anything to do with it also, but I think they gave her character a respectful farewell.
Dear Dakara,
it's the crulest, most real and therefore finest hour ever put on any screen. It helped many people to deal with their grief or prepared them when this happened after they watched it later in their live.
Reality: There is a misunderstanding, reality is not limited to the physical world. Those characteres are brain childs of authors, embodied, voiced and portrayed by actors and pictured by directors, filmers, cutters and producers. The only things they can't do is making own thoughts and interact with us directly, but they guide us and we them along the way for years and decades and influence us, cause they resonate with what and how we're thinking. When we loose one of them, it ends our shared journey. We can look back, reviste them on earlier states, but no future developement, like we can watch videos or look at pictured of persons who past away and aren't arround in the physical world anymore. With all that said, there is barely or no difference between our onscreen characteres and the 'real' ones in the physical world.
Finally, it's a shame, that 5x15 is often overlooked because of how it ended. It deals with important themes like devotion, dependence, love, desire and what is human. In your reaction, you said that April 'isn't real'. Are you still sure about that?
By far one of the hardest episodes to watch in television history
It always gets me every time this episode pops up, No music need for this episode just incredible acting ❤️🙏
Okay. I've got my blanket, tissues, and salty snacks, and sparkling juice (the latter two things for hydration and electrolytes).
I'm ready.
😐
I don't need to see Willow cry!
Anya: Hold my beer.
“I don’t need this from Anya.”
Willow: Hold my magic potion.
I already addressed what made me sob like crazy, so I'll just pop in one more time to mention my favorite parts, because I thought they were the most impactful or powerful:
1) Like you noted, anything where camera angles were slightly off or the sound was completely silent except for whatever was going on in the scene (birds chirping in the background, the sound of water running, Buffy being sick, whatever). So true to how you feel like you're in a bubble of shock or stunned silence and the smallest things around you feel heightened or distorted as a result.
2) Willow freaking out about what to wear and what message she'd be sending. Soooo relatable. (Plus, doesn't it kind of suck that her first serious on-screen kiss with Tara is in the midst of all this trauma?? Like, I was so happy for them, and then heartbroken as the rest of the scene went on, which made it hard to appreciate the moment they got.)
3) Anya's speech. I just think it's the most human thing of all, and it makes me sob to this day. I cannot watch that scene without crying. Emma Caulfield was brilliant.
4) Xander and Willow. All of it. Again, I can't watch that whole scene with Willow, Tara, Anya and Xander without crying numerous times. They were all so good, and the writing was perfect.
5) Anya throwing her arms around Giles, and he smiles just the tiniest bit and hugs her back. Oh my heart.
6) Buffy and Tara's conversation. Nothing else to be said - just perfection. ❤❤❤
I just want to say that I prefer that the kiss was in this episode because it humanized it. Especially when it was Tara kissing Willow. Very in character. Great for representation.
@@Girl4Music That's a great point. I can cosign that! ❤
@@sherrysink3177 might want to get the full explanation then.
“Can I just talk about this scene for a hot minute? I don’t think people realize how important it really is for more than just the first on-screen kiss part of it and therefore why it actually belongs in this episode.
Willow is hyper-fixating on what type of clothing she’s going to wear to meet Buffy at the hospital, as it’s really the only thing she can control right now as everything else is falling apart around her. Her mind is panicking as she tries to think of all the meanings a piece of cloth can have while Tara tries to reassure her that it really doesn’t matter what she wears. But Willow is not listening as she tries to figure it all out.
Willow is near to having a full blown panic attack in this scene. There is such turmoil going on in her head. So much distress and fear. So she externalises those emotions and those thoughts by worrying over what she should wear because that’s tangible. That’s something she has within her reach to grasp on to. Something she can control. She’s projecting the mental chaos. A way of dealing with an uncontrollable situation. And it’s bloody brillIant. Incredibly well performed by Alyson Hannigan. She absolutely nails what it’s like to experience deep levels of anxiety. The compulsive overthinking The intense feelings of loss of control. The hyperventilating. The shaking. The trembling. The crying. The worrying. The wandering back and forth. The physical freezing up. The none-deciding or non-concluding and around and around again. Over and over again. Just the complete irresolution of the whole experience of an anxiety attack. Until someone takes you out of your fucking insane chaotic head.
SHE NAILS IT!!!
Everything is so well performed, written, directed and produced in this episode. It’s probably the greatest piece of performance art I have ever seen in my life. But THIS scene. This scene hits fucking home for me. Gellar gets A LOT of praise for her performance and rightly so. But Hannigan’s is just as fantastic to me because she realistically portrays OCD the way Gellar realistically portrays PTSD. Through the experience of visceral reactions. In fact all the actors are really good at portraying deep levels of complex trauma all throughout ‘The Body’ that are worth mentioning and meriting. Praising.
Regarding ‘The Kiss’.
A lot of people do not like that Tillow’s first on-screen kiss was in this episode because it can’t be enjoyed in the same way it could if it was in another episode and thus it seems inappropriate to have it in ‘The Body’. Joss said that actually it was appropriate to put it here because it humanises their romantic/sexual relationship. It’s the way Tara just goes in for the kiss after first kissing her forehead, knowing it’s not going to be enough to calm her girlfriend down and the way Willow readily accepts. It’s a sweet kiss. One filled with compassion and reassurance. I disagree that it didn’t belong here. I definitely think this was the right way to have their first on-screen kiss because this couple is absolutely encapsulated in mutual validation. So it’s only right that their first on-screen kiss be used for that purpose. Validation.
Tara’s aim is to comfort Willow, not to overstep her boundaries. Willow needs her presence all around her to take her out of her chaotic head. It’s being in her head that is triggering her anxiety to escalate into a panic attack. Tara intuitively knew that she needed to pull her away from that and the only way to do it was through physical sensation. It was right. When you kiss someone, you’re pulling their energy into yours and you’re transferring yours to theirs. I can imagine that Empaths are great lovers because of this and while it’s been pointed out that Tara isn’t an Empath herself, she clearly possesses the potential to be one because she can read energy and instinctively knows how to use her own energy to comfort and to validate someone else’s energy.
That’s your basic definition and purpose of an Empath. To take away pain or negative energy through absorbing it into yourself. And Tara doesn’t just do that for Willow - her girlfriend. She does it for the others too. And ‘The Body’ best depicts her skill of empathy. If it was anyone else, yeah, maybe the kiss wouldn’t have been a good idea to put here. But because it is, I think it really works that it is here because it’s who Tara Maclay is. It’s her purpose in serving a narrative that doesn’t revolve around her but effectively makes her stand out among the rest. It wasn’t in bad taste to put their first kiss here. Quite the opposite. It humanises same-sex love.”
Coming over from Patreon to see what you did with the edit of this one, and since I’ve already seen you react to the ep I’m noticing different things. For instance just now at 13:03 where you’re lamenting how you look because you’ve cried, you said “oh look at the state of me” and I couldn’t help but laugh because you still look like a frickin’ model 😂 It was like that moment in the Barbie movie where the narrator broke in about Margot Robbie saying she wasn’t pretty lolol
I cried like a baby first time I saw it.
Interestingly I think that in parts of California there are laws about an ambulance transporting a dead body. Like a body that was declared dead on scene. I think in other states and some rural areas ambulances may transport a corpse but I believe if a body is declared dead at the scene it’s in the custody of the local coroners office. You can even legally transport a corpse yourself I believe. There are all kinds of weird laws about death/dead bodies that vary a ton just by where you live. Not sure what the policy would be about staying with the person on scene though
Only a couple of TV things "get me" this badly - this episode of Buffy.... every time, even though I know whats coming.... it crucifies me.... Even down to Buffy pulling down her [mothers] skirt before the EMT's get there - its just so real.... And of course the "comedy" (REALLY?!?!?) "Marly And Me". "A bit of Heaven" gets close. But yeah, for an easy "I want to be upset I will be".... The Body. I thought it was called "Mom", but maybe I'm mixing up either episodes or releases? Either way.... very, very powerful stuff. And for a dead body - that actress is amazing!
I know what you mean. I grew up watching this show and Joyce Buffy’s. Mom was an amazing character throughout all of the seasons up till season five she was an amazing mom and I think it’s because you almost feel part of Buffy‘s family, so when Buffy loses her mom you feellike I just lost my mom or in other words my television, Mom you know she was always there just about every episode, so yeah I mean I grew up without Mom so you know she was a big part of my life so
For me personally, tv doesn't get any better than this episode.
This episode is an in depth exploration of grief in many different forms. There's Buffy's imaginings of what might have been--whether imagining the paramedics saving Joyce, or later what might have happened had she just been there (yet another of the ongoing tendency of Buffy to take blame on herself for things that aren't, or aren't entirely, her fault). There's Willow with her changing clothes trying to figure out how to best support Buffy using something she could control. There's Anya's not understanding. And so on.
It hits hard. It's supposed to hit hard. I've probably watched it a dozen times over the years and it still hits hard.
And it's a shame that they weren't handing out Emmys like candy on Halloween for this episode.
Another thing. Note the vampire fight at the end. It's not like the others in the series which are all snappy with punches and kicks. This one is up close, brutal, and ugly, underscoring the tone of the episode.
BTW, another show that focuses with laser precision on the feels is the Science Fiction show Farscape. Perhaps you might want to check that out. It can take a bit to really get going (YMMV, as always) but it's one of my favorites.
Ohhhh ef, here we go. Been waiting for this upload.
I wouldn't necessarily call it trolling, the moment of Joyce coming back... It's what goes through the head of anyone in that situation, the dreaming/imagining that everything will be fine. I actually think it's a really well written moment, even if it does unintentionally fool us.
Okay. I’ve seen a few people say they didn’t like the vampire scene and wish that they had not included anything supernatural in this episode and while they have valid opinions, I really want to throw some perspective into them. The vampire may be out of place for us in the world that we live in but it is not out of place for Buffy and Dawn. Their world is the world of the vampires, the demons, the monsters of all kinds. It’s not real for us, but it’s real for them.
That is THEIR world. One they know and interact with every day. This is just another day like always… only something personally tragic has happened. Their mother has died… and from very natural causes as they (and we) are told by the EMTs and the doctor. But vampires won’t stop showing up just because the protagonist has personal problems to deal with. If anything - if they knew - they’d show up in numbers. They’d take advantage of her vulnerable state and - unless they’re Spike - would actually kill her because they don’t care that her mom has died.
The thing is that you’re still viewing this episode as if it’s just a TV show episode about a female vampire slayer for your viewing entertainment all the while saying there should be no vampires showing up in the episode because the supernatural shouldn’t be involved in such a realistic and visceral portrayal of something very traumatic and harrowing, forgetting that in Buffy and Dawn’s world, the supernatural is very traumatic and harrowing. The vampire scene itself shows this to great effect. That it’s always been how it is for Buffy when any vampire is encountered in this supernatural world, it’s just Buffy doesn’t have the energy this time to fight him off and so it is much more difficult for her to slay him than it usually is. Her experience has changed.
Okay, you don't like the vampire scene, and that's fine. That's a valid opinion. But please understand that there's a reason for it being here and as drawn out and as gruesome as it is. This is their real world.
They do leave the body in the home. Ambulances are for the living.
Oh, if it's any consolation I cried like a baby first time watching :). And i've cried like a _slightly_ more together baby every other time, including here, 20+ years later. At lots of parts but for whatever reason, at Anya especially (maybe because she has a kind of childlike vulnerability in the scene ?).
For me the "Joyce lives!" scene is actually _acknowledging_ that this is tough to watch _because_ it's reality, not trolling us (even within the scene itself there are hints - it's very "fictiony", with lots of cuts past the hard stuff etc.). Because _in a TV show_ that's what would happen - CPR, life saved, happy ending, next episode - but in real life that _almost never_ happens ("fun" fact: unlike in films and TV, in real life CPR works _about_ 5% of the time "in the wild" and even in hospitals it's only around 20%). The scene is about the episode refusing to let us (or itself) off the hook with any of the tools of fiction, spelling out its intent to capture fundamental human truth. Which I think it absolutely does.
Hard to watch TV but basically a masterpiece IMO.
this is such a hard episode...seriously spectacular, but so hard to get through, especially if you have experienced losing a loved one. normally, upon my own re-watches, I tend to skip this unless I need a good cry.
also, with that "fake out", I don't think they/Joss wrote that in to be cruel. honestly, from my own experience, its realistic...it was Buffy and her mind going through a moment of wishful thinking, hoping so much- despite knowing the reality- that the CPR would bring her back. its natural for someone to go through wishful thinking or the many ways they could have saved that person they love from passing. even if there was absolutely no way to prevent it.
Great episode, but to me its follow-up episode "Forever" is more consequential since it all but set-up the realities Buffy ends up facing in season 6
...well, and a year on I realise why I knew what to do when I found my mom. I even broke a rib as well, fuck me sideways.
Also, re: they wouldn't leave her - they would. It happened to my family as well. We had to find a funeral home at midnight, and they only came to collect at 2am. The paramedics don't have the capacity to care for a body, and once a doctor comes to pronounce, it's not their job anymore.
This episode effects me quite deeply due to thefact that I have been in Buffy's position. Somebody I considered a freind shot themselves in front of me. There were their insides running down my shirt front and nobody would tell me why either. It's more senseless when somebody choses to do it to themselves. This is why this episode destroys me each and every time.
This episode breaks most people who love this show.
The paramedics absolutely would leave the body there. If they get another call they're not going to risk the life of someone who can be saved over someone who is already pronounced dead.
❤️🩹 Don't feel stupid. We're right there with you. No mockery, only sympathy.
"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.
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".
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.
Yeah definitely should have won an Emmy.
@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".
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 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 UA-cam edit.
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.
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.
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.
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.
My mom died of a brain aneurysm. This episode did a good job replicating the shock, disbelief and delayed grief.
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
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.
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.
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.
Great reaction! No background music, no distractions. Great writing and acting. Best episode ever.
This was the most heartbreaking episode I watched still gets to me now
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.
it is hard to watch and at the same time of the greatest episodes of any show ever
7:00 You should not skip ths episode, this episode is horrible in uit's subject matter. But it is also one of the masterpeices of television.
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.
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
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
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
If you watch this episode and don’t ugly cry there’s something wrong with you. I’ve seen it on DVD about 10 times and about that many reaction videos and I still tear up .
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.
One of the most **ICONICALLY HEARTBREAKING** episodes in television history. And yet it is also therapeutic!
In the Wish Anya hinted to Giles she has murdered people by her own hands not just by wishes so we know she's seen death first hand but not like this
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
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
don't ever feel stupid for crying over a heart-wrenching story, well told.
The best and most terrible episode in all of television.
Sums it up
Including, this show, AtS, all the canon comics, and the audio this is my second favorite in the Buffyverse and just on this show.
Reaction viewers always put this off. I had a hard time waiting the one week I was forced to. I considered it, even before it aired - based on other Joss Whedon written episodes - one of the best episodes of TV ever. It gave me more solace than heartbreak and pain because of how realistic it was. Such as thinking Joyce was revived. It wasn't trolling. It was Buffy bringing herself out of her hopeful thoughts. Realistic.
Personally, I can't wait for The Normies to get to this episode.
The only problem I wish were different is I wish there was no opening credits song that to jar people against the no music sound. I wish they had been played over the flashback to give Joss enough time to have Joyce to come in and out of the scene and gather the plates as he had planned, but couldn't quite pull off.
Why are they doing this? This is a coming of age story in the nineties. Authority figures in the main characters life, with these stories always die. Especially when a character starts feeling like they need them and depending on them more.
Why do they keep showing us Joyce's body? In an show where death can mean actors still work, they need to state how non-supernatural her death was. And the hours after the fact each one act play lays out. If you not ugly crying (even when finding soloce like I did) they aren't doing their jobs).
The kiss had Joss telling the studio higher ups he would quit if it didn't air. The first kiss viewers see them have isn't their first in-universe and isn't an episode spectacle. It's just another in a numerous amount of kisses Tara delivers her girlfriend of nine and a half months to give her comfort in such a hard time, and happens to be the first time viewers see them kiss in general. It's perfect.
The only moment I break from sad/upset to another emotion (in my case anger at Willow) is when Willow says to Anya that "It's not OK to be asking these things." I have seen real people (not just former vengeance demons) ask these exact type of questions in dealing with their own grief. It's not up to Willow how Anya acts whether Joyce is alive or not. I would like to lend Willow leniency, but she's proven to treat Anya this way even when Joyce was alive, so I just get annoyed with her not seeing the grief Anya's trying to bury and not seeing Anya's uncomprehension at real death, as opposed to what she caused as a vengeance demon. But even with Willow doing that, it creates a great speech for Anya. Lots of people will talk about Anya wishing Joyce was alive and how huge that is. Her not understanding speech hits me harder.
So many people don't comprehend the line the doctor says about, "I have to lie to make you feel better," being Buffy's thoughts because she doesn't want to believe that she couldn't have done anything.
"Is this happenning?" Life moves on even when someone's world falls apart. People will still get tickets (as Xander did for double parking), kids will still play (as we heard that Buffy saw but she didn't see. She has the same seeing but not seeing and hearing but not hearing issue with the paramedic, which is why his face was hardly ever shown and why his back filled the screen during Buffy's coverage of his side of their conversation), and vampires still rise as happens to Dawn in the morgue.
The fight scene Buffy has with the vampire isn't the normal fight scene. It's brutally realistic without any gymastic flips or fun choreorgraphy. Buffy fights as if an intruter has violated her because in a way this vampire has. He's intruded on her and her sister's pain.
For how brutal this episode is I actually just want to say even though losing Joyce is DEVASTATING, there’s a strange type of morbid beauty to the fact that she got to pass peacefully from NATURAL causes. Almost every time we lose somebody on this show or Angel it’s to a horrible death by supernatural monsters or events, even Xanders first thought was it HAD to be Glory, and if not Glory then something else had to be the cause becuase things “don’t just happen”. At least Joyce got to pass when it was truly her time, in the comfort of her home with no pain or terror and thats honestly a win compared to the alternative options in this franchise. 💚🙏🏻 part of what makes this episode a 10/10 is removing it from the monsters and mayhem and just letting it be REAL.
Part of the reason I wished they sat with the pain and trauma of the every day death in this show and not just gloss over it or make jokes.
Jesse and Larry didn’t get this respect.
Dakara: I'm drained...
Me: (nodding) Mm-hmm.
Daraka: Exhausted...
Me: Yep.
Seriously though, right there with you, I promise. In fact -- probably because I had the luxury of not watching it on camera -- when I first saw this episode, I sobbed and sobbed uncontrollably. Not just ugly cry but outright sobbing. It's unforgettable.
And it was so annoying, because then the episode would lighten just a little, and then another scene or moment would make me sob all over again. It was a wave of emotions, over and over again. Like, I'd cry when Willow cried, then calm down a little, while Xander was ranting about the medical community and Willow comically pretended she was going to fight with him, then I cried all over again when Anya said her thing. At first, I remember being annoyed with Anya for her questions, but then it became so clear that she truly didn't understand, and I realized WHY she didn't understand, and her emotions and speech about Joyce were the most devastating. It broke me so hard.
So please don't feel silly. Your feelings watching this show -- whether the grief or awkwardness or anger --- are all valid, and we were exactly where you are.
I think this episode is a master class in how to write something so raw and so human and so devastating, that anyone who has lost a loved one of any kind can understand. Even though it's "just a TV show," I think we connect with it so brutally because it does a brilliant job of reminding us of our own lives and emotions and mortality and how we feel about and connect with others. It's less about a TV show in that moment, and more about us understanding deeply what the character is feeling and going through, and we are reminded of our own experiences through witnessing their struggles and grief. We find connection in that, and I think that's beautiful and important to keeping our humanity and empathy.
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.