Rewatching: Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body
I’ve been re-watching a bit of Buffy, not all the way through, just skipping around to certain episodes. I decided to watch the Season 5 episode ‘The Body’. In my opinion this is one of the most powerful episodes of any TV show.
Joss Whedon wrote and directed this episode himself.
Joyce, Buffy’s mom, had been suffering from a brain tumor, and just when she seemed to be recovering from her operation tragedy strikes. Buffy arrives home to find her mom on the couch, not moving, and not responding.
This episode always makes me cry. Buffy, our heroine who is always saving the day, is suddenly almost childlike. Finding Joyce laying there on the couch, dead, we see Buffy go through various emotions; panic, hope, numbness, denial.
The pacing, the writing, the acting, and even the lack of music, all make this episode what it is. You are pulled right into it. What the characters feel, you feel too. Anya’s speech seems to really strike a cord with me, and others I’ve talked to. In this episode these characters become real people who you can truly connect with. This show may be about a super-powered girl who fights demons, but this was one of the most realistic episodes of any show that I have ever seen. ‘The Body’ pulls off what many other shows never could.
