By: Bridget Sharkey
For 7 seasons, fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer witnessed hundreds of death scenes. Sarah Michelle Gellar casually staked hundreds of vampires while she strolled through the graveyard or Sunnydale High’s hallways, racking up an astronomical body count while still looking like a Cover Girl in the best early aughts’ fits.
In fact, eagle-eyed fans say that Buffy killed no fewer than 324 beings during her long run as a vampire slayer, including vampires, demons, humans, and, yes, even cyborgs.
But no death scene hit harder than Joyce’s passing in Season 5’s “The Body.” Buffy’s mother was the lynchpin of BtVS, the grounding force that made Buffy feel like a regular girl. Joyce was the one telling Buffy to do her homework, put on a jacket, and be nice to her little sister Dawn.
But then, in episode 16 of Season 5, the most gruesome death on BtVS occurs. There is no bloodshed. No violence. Just silence. Joyce passes away from a brain aneurysm in the Summers’ living room, with no warning and no witnesses. Just…gone.
The scene is shocking in its simplicity and its totality. With unrelenting and exacting details, writer/director Joss Whedon shows us that Death doesn’t only come for the bad guys. It comes for everyone, even mothers, even on a quiet afternoon with the sun streaming through the living room windows.
In this bare, vulnerable scene, the entire arc of Buffy’s character is laid bare in just a matter of moments. First, she tries to take control of the scene, giving her mother CPR and calling 911. We see her walls crumbling as she realizes there is nothing she can do. She then becomes a little girl, tears streaming down her face, pleading for “Mommy” to wake up.
Gellar’s acting is so raw and authentic that “The Body” is often skipped by fans on rewatches. And Emma Caulfield also plays Anya’s confusion so beautifully, as this demon-turned-mortal struggles to understand why Death exists. “No one will tell me WHY!” she pleads. It’s an angry, confused, childlike demand that speaks to everyone who has experienced grief, to anyone who has ever wondered WHY this death was allowed to happen.
Episodes like “The Body” are what make shows like BtVS more than just frothy entertainment. Joyce’s death scene forever altered the course of BtVS, but it also paved the way for darkly realistic programs like Jessica Jones, Supernatural, The Magician, Yellowjackets, and, of course, Angel.
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