"Cheers and Jeers"

Source: TV Guide
Transcribed by: Pamela
Date: 03.17.01


Cheers to going out with style. Despite the high body count on WB's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the show has never confronted death as starkly or with such shattering impact as in the February 27 episode, "The Body." Written and directed by series creator Joss Whedon, "The Body" dealt with a truly nightmarish situation, the sudden death of Buffy's beloved mother, Joyce (series regular Kristine Sutherland). Making the episode all the more wrenching was the absence (more or less) of the show's usual supernatural trappings: Joyce didn't succumb to a vampire's bite or werewolf's claws, she simply died of natural causes. After five seasons of life-and-death (and life-after-death) matters, Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and her young friends faced real mortality in no uncertain terms. As for us, we'll miss actress Sutherland, always a sunny spot in an often dark series.

 

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