"THE BODY." BtVS Episode.

On Buffyworld.com: Trailer, Summary, Transcript

On BuffyGuide.com: The Body

“The Body” was written and directed by series creator Joss Whedon.

“The Body” is different artistically than any other episode in the entire seven-year run of the series. There is no background music to any of the scenes; and the use of color and camera angle create an artistic feel that echoes the estrangement and eeriness that accompanies death.

Episode Synopsis:

“The Body” began with the final scene of “I Was Made to Love You”, where Buffy enters her home, sees that flowers have been delivered from her mom’s first date with the unseen Brian. The card reads, “Thanks for the lovely evening. See you soon? Brian.” After replacing the card, Buffy calls out to her mother, asks if she should go and pick up Dawn from school, and then is shocked to discover her mother’s lifeless body on the couch. She says “Mom, mom, mommy—“which, according to Whedon in his commentary for the episode reflects the digression to childhood that Buffy undergoes.

Following the title run, a flashback scene (though not one from previous run episodes) of Christmas Eve dinner at the Summers' home takes the audience away from the previous scene. This will be the only break in the course of the episode from the aftermath of Buffy’s discovery.

Buffy, Dawn, Joyce, Xander, Anya, Willow, Tara and Giles are finishing Christmas Dinner as Joyce and Giles, along with Buffy, clears the table of dishes. Giles and Joyce appear as Buffy’s central parental figures, as well as the surrogate father and mother for the group at large. At this point in the series, we have witnessed the fractured relationships between Xander and his possibly alcoholic, absent parents (referenced prominently in episodes: Amends, The Freshmen, Living Conditions, and The Replacement. Xander’s parents do not appear on screen until Season 6’s Hell’s Bells) the estrangement that Willow feels from her parents, namely, her mother (Gingerbread); Anya has presumably outlived her parents; Tara is presented as estranged from her family in “Family”; and Dawn’s “key” status makes her parentage difficult to explain (No Place Like Home). Willow complains about drinking too much egg nog and how the “Big honkin’ menorah” somehow always throws off Santa. Tara asks if Dawn has written Santa a letter, to which she humorously reveals that she had figured out the whole “no Santa thing.” Anya tells the group that the no Santa myth is a myth—that he brings “disemboweled children” instead of presents.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Buffy and Joyce lament over a burnt pie (“It’s Cajun Pie,” Buffy responds) as Giles asks if he should open another bottle of wine. Joyce and Giles appear to flirt in this scene and Buffy says, “as long as [they] stay away from the band candy, I’m cool with anything” (referencing the episode where Giles and Joyce revert to their teenage selves and have sex, twice).  The three joke, with Buffy saying it’s her job to torment her mother as they attempt to repair the burnt surface of the pie. The scene concludes as the pie falls to the floor.

The audience is immediately taken back to the timeless moment of Buffy’s discovery, as the frame is filled with Joyce’s lifeless face, her eyes wide open. She begins to shake her mother, repeating “mom” and receiving no response. The audience witnesses as Buffy begins to break down emotionally, she has become frantic and wide-eyed as she reaches for the phone to dial 9-1-1. The operator establishes that Joyce is not breathing and Buffy gives her address to the operator as 1630 Revello (a previous calls to 9-1-1 occurred during Season One’s Angel after Joyce was attacked by Darla) . Buffy is emotional, unable to concentrate, and cannot remember how to perform CPR. The operator tells her that it is “very simple,” and after initiating a description of the process, Buffy moves to her mother, pulls her off the couch by her legs forcibly and begins CPR. The force behind her chest compressions results in the painful sound of Joyce’s ribs cracking, which horrifies Buffy.

Buffy informs the operator that she has “broke something,” and the operator asks if Joyce is breathing. Buffy replies that she is not, and the operator attempts to calm her by saying that the paramedics are on the way and that it is unimportant if she broke a rib. Buffy tells the operator that her mother is cold, and the operator says, “the body is cold,” which is the first of many references to the episode’s title. Buffy asserts “No! My mom!” to correct the operator’s use of “the body” and asks if she should make her warm. The operator tells her that she should wait for the paramedics to arrive. Buffy is angered by this response and asks when the paramedics will be there.

From the distance, the ambulance siren becomes audible. Buffy looks out the window and drops the phone as sunlight filters in around her. She retrieves the phone and tells the operator she “has to make a call.” Her actions and voice are subdued and indicate the shock and disbelief she is in. After disengaging with the operator, Buffy calls Giles and tells him that he “has to come over.” The conversation is disjointed and sporadic, and she hangs up before getting a response from Giles.

Still dazed, Buffy walks to the door as the ambulance siren nears and the vehicle pulls in to a tire-screeching halt outside of their home. She opens the door, then looks over at Joyce, notices that her skirt is hiked up slightly above her knee, and hurries to adjust the clothing before the paramedics can see.

The paramedics rush into the house and Buffy watches with anxiety as they check her mother’s pulse and examine her with a stethoscope.  As this exam transpires, the paramedics ask how long Joyce has been unresponsive.  The paramedics attach nodules to Joyce as Buffy answers that she had found her a few minutes before, in the same disjointed speech that she has been using since on the telephone with the 9-1-1 operator. The paramedics tell Buffy they are going to intubate, and ask if Joyce is Buffy’s mother. She answers yes, and the paramedics begin to question her about Joyce’s medical history. AS they question her, the EKG (Electrocardiogram: a machine that monitors the heart beat) machine indicates a flat-line of Joyce’s heart. After a moment of confusion, Buffy explains how her mother had brain surgery to remove a tumor but has been “fine” ( Joyce is first sick in “No Place Like Home”; is diagnosed during “Shadow”; has surgery during “Listening to Fear,” and  is in recovery during “Into the Woods”).

As the paramedics continue trying to resuscitate Joyce, Buffy has the first of two dream-like sequences where she imagines her mother has come back to life. In this sequence, the paramedic triumphantly proclaims that he has “got her! My God, we got her!” The scenes rush together as Joyce is taken to the hospital, given a clean bill of health by her neurosurgeon, Dr. Kriegel as Buffy and Dawn smile. Joyce says, “thank god you found me in ti--” as the audience is zoomed back into reality: Joyce is not being revived and there is no miracle.

Buffy watches with helpless anxiety as the paramedics stop trying to administer CPR  Buffy’s lower lip trembles as she realizes what this means. The paramedic tells Buffy that they are sorry, that her mother is dead. Buffy’s eyes fill with tears as she grapples with the finality of the news. The audience sees as the frame of the camera angle makes her appear small and overwhelmed by the paramedic. The paramedic tells her that Joyce had been dead for a while, and there was nothing Buffy could have done to save her. As he delivers the news, the top of his head is out of the frame. The unreality of learning of the absoluteness of her mother’s death is communicated visually to the audience as Buffy appears to grow smaller and smaller in the frame.

The paramedic tells her that he suspects that the cause of death was an aneurysm, that she probably died without any pain, and that the coroner will come to pick up the body. Buffy does not seem to register the information the paramedic is giving her, instead, she seems increasingly overwhelmed. The sound of the dispatch radio is the only other sound in the room, and the second paramedic informs the first that they have a call to attend to.  The paramedics launch into “paramedic jargon” as Buffy appears shocked. The paramedic tells Buffy the coroner may take awhile, and that she should avoid moving the body. He advises her to drink a glass of water and to sit, and asks if she needs to call anyone. More composed now, Buffy answers that she already has. He somberly says that he is “sorry for her loss” and Buffy thanks him; she tells them “good luck” in a muted tone as they leave and she watches from the front door. The audience does not see what Buffy sees as she looks out the door in this scene, or in the previous scenes where she looked out the door anticipating their arrival, or her first glance out the window while she was in shock. As a result, the audience feels confined in the moment, as though they must endure every heart-wrenching moment along with Buffy, in tandem, without escape.

Buffy leaves the door open and walks through the house. She looks over at her mother, and then continues to the kitchen. The camera angles feel dreamy and unreal. Buffy falls to the floor and vomits as the camera pans up to the open window. Breeze ruffles the curtains as the sound of wind chimes funnel in. Buffy stands and continues to the kitchen. She walks to the back door and opens it, looking out. The audience does not see what she sees; instead, the frame is filled with her face: her complexion is almost yellow; her skin appears waxy and glistens with sweat. She is devoid of make up and looks almost haunted. As she stares out into the world, light hits her face and the audience hears the distant sound of the ocean, of birds singing, distant cars traveling down the street, and of children at play.

She moves away from the door, to the kitchen counter, where she grabs a handful of paper towels in a hurried motion. The only sound is of her breathing and the paper tearing from the roll, creating a sense of eeriness. Buffy moves to clean up where she has retched on the floor, she places the paper towels in perfect squares on the mess and it absorbs the liquid into the design of the cloth.

The audience hears as Giles arrives, panicked, asking what has happened, and if it had anything to do with Glory. Buffy is still in shock as she tells Giles that she is “waiting” and that the coroner is on the way. Giles does not register what she has said until he looks over and sees Joyce. He attempts to shake her as Buffy tells him not to, her tone surprisingly calm. When she sees that Giles is shaking her mother, Buffy reacts: “We’re not supposed to move the body!” in a desperate tone of voice. She is horrified when she realizes what she has said—that she has referred to her mother as “the body”, and she clasps her hand over her mouth in horror.

Giles moves to comfort Buffy and hugs her, and as he does, Buffy stares at her mother in abject horror, as if the reality of the situation has finally weighed on her and she has truly realized just what she has lost. The scene ends with the sight of Joyce staring up at the ceiling, her sightless eyes creepy and jarring.

Before moving into the next scene, a brief shot of the cadaver bag being zipped up and closing over Joyce’s face fills the frame.

The next act opens with an emotional, teary-eyed Dawn, who is lamenting over being called a “freak” by her crush, Kevin Berman with her friend Lisa in the school bathroom. Lisa tells her not to worry about it, and that Kevin had not exactly called her a freak, but said she was “freaky”, which was “kinda cool”. Dawn doesn’t agree, and says that he must think she is a “suicidal headcase.”  Lisa says that the reason behind it all was Kristie, who had gossiped about Dawn cutting herself (see “Blood Ties”) Dawn replies that she had not been cutting herself, that she had gotten cut, as she wipes at her tears with a paper towel. Lisa further reveals how Kristie was telling everyone at school that Dawn was adopted, and Dawn calls Kristie a “primo be-yatch” and that her sister could “beat the crap out of her. I mean, really, really.” She emerges from the bathroom, waves at the gossip-spreading Kristie, and walks into her art classroom.

Dawn walks through the classroom. Easels are set up in rows, a sculpture of a naked woman is at the front of the room, and Dawn sees her crush, Kevin Berman, who she is next to in class. The teacher gives instructions about drawing the “negative space” around the object, as Dawn and Kevin flirt. Kevin compliments her drawing, Dawn thanks him as Lisa holds up her sketchpad with “HE WANTS YOU!” scrawled on the surface. Kevin asks Dawn about cutting herself; Dawn stammers with covering up for her actions as Kevin tells her he’s felt that way before. The two talk about how difficult life can be, about the “intense stuff” going on and how a lot of people really do not understand pain. Kevin agrees, the two talk about how Kristie spreads rumors but is really inferior to them both. Dawn begins to tell Kevin about how Kristie did not know how to pronounce “annals--” as Buffy interrupts and tells her that they need to talk.

As soon as Dawn sees Buffy, she grows somber. It is as though she knows something terrible has happened in advance of actually learning anything. There are camera shots to Dawn’s teacher, who appears to be concerned, Lisa, and the statue. Dawn tells Buffy that she thought her mother was going to pick her up from school, and Buffy does not answer—alerting Dawn to something being amiss. She begins to ask Buffy what is wrong, and Buffy answers that their mother had an “accident”. Dawn begins to become emotional, asserting that it is serious, but that their mother is okay. Buffy says “Dawn--” and the rest of the scene unfolds without sound. Dawn and Buffy are watched from inside the art room windows as Dawn reacts to the news of her mother’s death. She falls to the floor in grief. The scene ends with a shot of Dawn’s drawing, unfinished.

The following scene shows Joyce on the autopsy table. Her blouse is unbuttoned, then the camisole is cut away with scissors. Her body is being prepared for autopsy.

The next act begins with two cut scenes, both in silence. The first shows Willow in her dorm room, teary eyed, trying to decide between shirts as Tara looks out the window at the activities going on at the campus green. Xander and Anya are traveling down the streets of Sunnydale to Willow’s dorm. Anya stares out the window. They double-park outside the dorm room, Anya comments that they are double-parked, and Xander says, “let ‘em give me a ticket.”

Willow is indecisive about what to wear as Tara watches with sympathy. She holds up two shirts and asks what she should wear, asking if it should be the purple because it’s “somber.” She then switches to a yellow shirt and asks if it’s more appropriate because it’s cheery. Willow continues to angst over her wardrobe choices, saying she doesn’t want to be cheery, since that is disrespectful. Tara does not seem to know what to say to Willow’s grief.

Willow says that she wishes she had the blue sweater, since Joyce liked it, but it she cannot find it. Tara offers to look for it again, Willow reverts to the purple, and Tara tells her that she thinks that purple means royalty. Willow begins to cry. She says she can’t wear purple because she doesn’t want Buffy to think she is saying she is better than her, and that she “has to be supportive.” Willow starts to sob, looks through her clothes, and finds a shirt with a rabbit on the front, and asks why her clothes all have “stupid things on them” and “why can’t I be a grown-up?” Tara kisses Willow in comfort (the first on-screen kiss between Tara and Willow) and Willow seems to take solace.

Willow says that they can be strong and can be there for Buffy, Dawn and Willow says that she wishes she had the blue sweater again. The scene cuts to Anya and Xander on the stairs. Anya does not know what they are supposed to do, and starts asking several questions about what is “expected” of them. Xander does not answer. They arrive at Willow’s dorm room, Xander and Willow embrace. Willow says she is “afraid she is going to start to cry again”, Anya comments that Xander cried at the apartment and that it was “weird”; Willow retorts that “it’s a thing we do” sarcastically to Anya.

No one speaks or moves until Anya asks what is going to happen. Tara tells them that Giles was going to the morgue and that Buffy had gone to the school to get Dawn. Willow again decides that she needs to change clothes after Tara asks if they know how to get to the morgue. Xander asks Tara if Giles had given indication to Joyce’s cause of death, asking if it was natural or caused by Glory. Tara replies that Giles was “pretty sure it wasn’t her” and Xander recalls Glory’s threat to come after Buffy’s family. Xander wants to go after Glory, just in case she is to blame. When Xander’s theory about Glory is discounted by Willow, Xander shifts the blame to Joyce’s doctors. It is clear that Xander desperately needs someone to blame. Willow says that she thinks it “just happened”, and reacts to Xander’s anger by putting up her fists and asking if he wants to fight. They exchange glances; Xander relents and kisses Willow on the forehead as Anya asks if they are going to see the body. This annoys Willow and Anya continues to ask inappropriate questions. The group decides to take over patrolling while Buffy and Dawn grieve, for however long it takes. Willow says that she needs to change, again, bringing up the blue sweater again. Tara volunteers to check the laundry room for the sweater and leaves Anya, Willow, and Xander alone.

When Anya resumes her line of questioning, starting with “are they going to cut the body open?” Willow gets angry and tells her to stop talking. Anya is confused and unsure why her line of questioning upsets Willow, and asks if she ought to change her clothes a lot. Willow tells her that it is “not okay for [her] to be asking these things!” and Anya says “but I don’t understand!” She begins to cry and expresses that no one will tell her why, and that she does not know how to act or respond, and that death is “moral and stupid”. Xander tries to comfort her as she sobs, but Anya backs away.

Willow tells Anya that she does not know how it all works, and then sits on the bed. The room is filled with awkward silence as Anya collapses into a chair. She appears uncomfortable then pulls out something at her back—a stuffed animal (Little Burnt Boy) and the missing blue sweater. Her discovery goes unnoticed as Willow stares at the floor. Off-screen there is the sound of ruptured plaster: Xander has punched the wall.  The girls react to his anger, moving to him with concern, as Xander explains that his fist is stuck. He explains that he hit the wall in a need to get rid of some of his frustration. Willow asks if it made him feel better, and Xander responds that it did: for a second. As Xander jokes about the “crappy wallmanship” in attempt to alleviate the tension in the room, the girls pull at his arm, trying to free it. Tara returns and asks if she had missed something. Xander pulls his arm from the wall and his hand is covered in blood. Xander and Tara exchange glances after she states: “it hurts.”

Xander’s injury allows the gang to act as “Scoobies” again, full of purpose and direction. They search for band-aids and then decide that it is time to leave, so that they can be there for Buffy. This unified stance—“being there for Buffy and Dawn”-- becomes a motivator that dismisses some of the pain and hurt that has filled the group since the beginning of their scene together. They leave the room as Anya asks how they are going to help. The camera lingers on the empty room and closed door before it swings open again to show Willow needing to change again, grabbing the sweater she had discarded earlier. The camera pans out the window, to the parking lot, where a ticket is being placed on the windshield.

The following scene shows Dr. Kriegel commencing his examination of Joyce’s body. The camera follows him as he walks down the hospital hallways, the only sounds those of regular hospital business: a stretcher’s wheels against the tile floor, the distant sound of announcers. Dr. Kriegel approaches the family waiting room, where Buffy, Dawn, Giles, Willow, Tara, Xander and Anya all wait.

The group exchange hugs and offers of support. Willow tells Buffy that she loves her, Dawn tells Tara that they still don’t know anything, and Anya and Giles share a touching hug. Dr. Kriegel appears and Dawn asks if she can see her mother—Buffy responds “not now” as the doctor delivers news of his findings. He tells the group that the cause of death did appear to be an aneurysm. Buffy asks if they should have known about this possibility and Dr. Kriegel informs them that it can sometimes be hard to detect but that Joyce knew of the risk. He says that she probably died suddenly and without pain. Buffy has another daydream flash where she imagines being there with her mother when she first felt a twinge of pain in her head and that she’d, once again, found her in time and had been able to save her. This daydream is more rushed than the previous scene, and the return to reality is abrupt. Buffy asks the doctor again if he is sure there was no pain, and as his mouth moves to voice the affirmative, she hears him say, “I have to lie to make you feel better.”

The doctor tells them that there are some forms to sign and some decisions that still need to be made, tasks that Giles says he will take on, again fulfilling the fatherly role. Dr. Kriegel tells Buffy she’ll have to sign some release forms, she agrees, and Giles thanks the doctor. As he walks away, Xander asks what the findings were. Buffy says that it was as they thought: a complication from the tumor. They all sit, but Dawn continues to stand and says she needs to go the bathroom. Buffy asks if she wants someone to go with her, Dawn responds “No. I still remember how to pee.”

As Dawn walks away, Buffy says that she thinks that Dawn is angry with her. Willow asks if it is because she was the bearer of bad news and Xander asks how Dawn took the news. Buffy explains Dawn’s reaction as a “meltdown,” and that Dawn didn’t believe her. Anya says that she is sorry Joyce died, because she was “nice, and now we all hurt.” Buffy smiles warmly at Anya as Xander refers to his girlfriend as “ever the wordsmith.” Xander, Willow, and Anya volunteer to get food from the vending machines, leaving Buffy and Tara alone. They sit side by side awkwardly, and Buffy apologies to Tara for having to “go through all of this.”

The two share a conversation where Tara reveals that her mother had died when she was seventeen. Tara offers her support to Buffy, telling her that everyone goes through different emotions and feels different things, but if she ever needs someone to talk to, she is there for her. Buffy asks if Tara’s mother’s death was sudden, and Tara says: “no. Yes. It’s always sudden.”

Dawn leaves the restroom, and instead of returning to the waiting room, she goes down the hallway to the morgue. Once there, she locks the door and moves to her mother’s sheet covered body. As she approaches the gurney, a vampire that resembles a corpse, naked with the autopsy “y” visible, moves toward Dawn. The sound in this scene is very muted, giving another dreamlike quality. The colors in the scene are varying shades of blue. Dawn sees the vampire nearing her and screams.

Xander, Willow, and Anya return with snacks from the vending machines that include sandwiches. Buffy says she isn’t hungry. Willow asks if Dawn is, as Xander wonders if she’s returned from the bathroom. This exchange alerts Buffy to the continued absense of her sister and she goes to look for her. She moves more quickly after hearing Dawn’s muted scream and breaks down the door.

Buffy enters and attacks the vampire in a very physical fight. The vampire lets go of Dawn and she falls forward, hits her head on the gurney, and her hand catches on the sheet that covers Joyce, exposing her face and shoulders. Buffy struggles with the vampire and their fight knocks over a tray of surgical implements, one of which is a bone saw that Buffy uses to cut through the vampire’s throat, effectively dusting him.

Dawn sits up and sees her mother’s exposed body as Buffy lays against the floor, emotionally spent. She rolls over and looks at her sister as the frame fills with all three of the Summers’ women.  Dawn stares down at her mother and asks “is she cold?” Buffy responds “it’s not her. She’s gone.” Dawn asks where she has gone, and reaches out to touch her mother as the screen goes black, without resolution.

Critical Observations:

• Repeated Words: Three words appear several times and tie in to the theme of death and dying: “body”, “God” and “cold”.

• The term “the body” or “body” is used a total of seven times: from the 9-1-1 operator(1); the paramedics(1); Buffy(1); Anya (3), and Dr. Kriegel (1).

•  “God” is repeated eight times: Buffy (2), The Paramedics (1), Joyce (in daydream sequence) (1), Giles (1), Willow (2), and Xander (1).

• “Cold” is repeated four times: Buffy (1), 9-1-1 Operator (1), Paramedic (1), and Dawn (1).

• Colors: color patterns and schemes are repeated throughout the episode in set design (Dawn at school; the hospital; the morgue) and in clothing of all characters. These colors are primarily: green, purple, rose, blue, red, grey, white, pink and yellow.

Other essays of note and interest in Slayage:

• Joyce and Giles as parents: Cynthia Bowers (Kennesaw State University). Generation Lapse: The Problematic Parenting of Joyce Summers and Rupert Giles (2)

• Religious Imagery in Buffy: Zoë-Jane Playdon (University of London). “The Outsiders' Society”: Religious Imagery in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (5)

--Hillary Robson