Buffy's return from the grave

[caitaintdead]

Right there with you... It just doesn't seem to add up. You know what would have been cool? If they'd started the downward spiral of Willow and her magic earlier and instead of having DarkWillow emerge at the end of season 6, have her emerge at the end of season 5 due to Buffy's death. That way Buffy would have come straight back, and Buffy still would have been distraught at only having a few minutes in happiness before being pulled back to Earth.

Season 6 could have explored Willows journey of redemption. I like it.

 

[OldSwede]

I want to know how they buried her with a pretty headstone, casket and everything WITHOUT anyone knowing. It's not like the mortuary wouldn't need some sort of paperwork before letting you bury someone and buy a casket and a headstone.

As has been pointed out above, they must have buried her themselves and they did it in the woods. According to the Sunnydale tourist guide the main Cemetery is actually just beside the woods, so I guess it's still near holy ground...

 

[Spirit_Of_Fred]

For example - wouldn't people notice when she didn't age?

i can see how the buffybot becoming a permanent buffy replacement would have caused trouble, but i dont think this would have been an issue. couldn't willow just change her design to look older?

I want to know how they buried her with a pretty headstone, casket and everything WITHOUT anyone knowing. It's not like the mortuary wouldn't need some sort of paperwork before letting you bury someone and buy a casket and a headstone.

i agree with the "willow couldve used magic option", but also, what about xander? couldnt he have whipped up a nice casket? he does make that weapons chest for buffy's birthday.

 

[Lou]

i agree with the "willow couldve used magic option", but also, what about xander? couldnt he have whipped up a nice casket? he does make that weapons chest for buffy's birthday.

Well, if Xander made that casket, I give him real props for the satiny stuff inside! Caskets....not easy to make and hold. Plus the headstone!
Even if they didn't bury her in the cemetary, they'd still have to buy these things that aren't you're everyday items you can pick up at Walmart. (Then there is the Xander or Magic option) and yet still, even if they bury her outside of the actual cemetary, you'd have to figure that with her name and everything on it, SOMEONE would eventually stumble across it. It's not exactly legal to just bury people willy nilly where ever you want. Especially if hiding the death all together.

And, why would Giles go along with any of that? It seems like he'd want her to have a "decent" burial. Not hidden in the woods with a black market head stone and casket on the off chance someone would try to bring her back.
There's the whole Dawn thing, but HE wasn't staying to take care of Dawn. I find it hard to believe, even as much as he seemed to dislike Hank's idea of parenting, that he'd believe Dawn was better off with two unemployed witches, a robot, (Xander and Anya MIGHT be okay) and an obsessed vampire with a chip in his head.
I mean, I love them too, but they'd hardly be the motley crew I'd will my children to in the event of my death!

Spirit_Of_Fred agrees: we're doing this play. it's about this dead girl. got any good headstones? 😛

LMAO! Yes, "We don't mind paying a couple thousand....it's gonna be a REALLY good play!"

 

[Skanky Vamp]

they'd still have to buy these things that aren't you're everyday items you can pick up at Walmart.

Maybe it was a faux halloween headstone that they did indeed did buy at Wal*Mart.. or better yet! maybe they bought it from one of those online headstone places for pets and what not.. Buffy does sound alittle like a miniature poodle kinda name... though I am sure explaining how a miniature poodle saved the world alot may have presented problems, it still had to be easier than legally bringing her back from the dead.

 

[Lindsey McDonald]

Well, if Xander made that casket, I give him real props for the satiny stuff inside! Caskets....not easy to make and hold. Plus the headstone!
Even if they didn't bury her in the cemetary, they'd still have to buy these things that aren't you're everyday items you can pick up at Walmart. (Then there is the Xander or Magic option) and yet still, even if they bury her outside of the actual cemetary, you'd have to figure that with her name and everything on it, SOMEONE would eventually stumble across it. It's not exactly legal to just bury people willy nilly where ever you want. Especially if hiding the death all together.

And, why would Giles go along with any of that? It seems like he'd want her to have a "decent" burial. Not hidden in the woods with a black market head stone and casket on the off chance someone would try to bring her back.
There's the whole Dawn thing, but HE wasn't staying to take care of Dawn. I find it hard to believe, even as much as he seemed to dislike Hank's idea of parenting, that he'd believe Dawn was better off with two unemployed witches, a robot, (Xander and Anya MIGHT be okay) and an obsessed vampire with a chip in his head.
I mean, I love them too, but they'd hardly be the motley crew I'd will my children to in the event of my death!

LMAO! Yes, "We don't mind paying a couple thousand....it's gonna be a REALLY good play!"

I think by this time they knew how to get into the many funeral homes in Sunnydale. I mean, every second episode of the first few seasons had them sneaking in to stake a newly dead person! They probably just took a coffin, and left money. I don't think Xander could have made it - not because he didn't have the skill, but because building a coffin for your best freind who just killed themself might be a little too much to handle. On the other hand, I can definately see Willow handling the headstone. That was probably done by magic.

Also, about protecting the grave, that was probably done by magic too. Nothing like a good ol' Muggle Reppeling Charm to avoid complicated problems like that!

 

[InsaneMystic]

I think by this time they knew how to get into the many funeral homes in Sunnydale. I mean, every second episode of the first few seasons had them sneaking in to stake a newly dead person! They probably just took a coffin, and left money. I don't think Xander could have made it - not because he didn't have the skill, but because building a coffin for your best freind who just killed themself might be a little too much to handle. On the other hand, I can definately see Willow handling the headstone. That was probably done by magic.

Also, about protecting the grave, that was probably done by magic too. Nothing like a good ol' Muggle Reppeling Charm to avoid complicated problems like that!

A bunch of college(-age) people stealing a freaking COFFIN unnoticed would notch up the Sunnydale residents' degree of obliviousness to even loftier heights than before, however. Especially since they don't even have Oz's van anymore to transport it in.

 

[Lou]

Also, about protecting the grave, that was probably done by magic too. Nothing like a good ol' Muggle Reppeling Charm to avoid complicated problems like that!

The camera guy was allowed to get pretty close...unless he had a zoom lens, he was even able to get close enough to see INTO the casket for the coming back to life! :whistle:
Who says drinking kills braincells?

 

[Lindsey McDonald]

A bunch of college(-age) people stealing a freaking COFFIN unnoticed would notch up the Sunnydale residents' degree of obliviousness to even loftier heights than before, however. Especially since they don't even have Oz's van anymore to transport it in.

Willow was unfettered at this point. I think she could have managed it. Plus....it would be dark. I've just got an image just now of the Scoobies carrying a coffin down that street (you know the one. The only one.) in broad daylight. Spike's running along under a blanket, and for some reason, David Fury is singing. Yeah. What was I talking about?

Oh yeah, coffins. People'd probably notice, but not till after the fact. How many funeral homes guard the coffins at night? Plus, it's Sunnydale. Stranger things have happened! A coffin going missing would hardly register on the repressometer.

 

[Lou]

Yeah, and most people that want to "hide a body" don't bother with a casket. Even in broad daylight (minus Spike and the blanket and David Fury singing) most people would probably assume it wasn't a REAL coffin. At least I would.

And it's surely not the strangest thing that would have happened in the town. I would think the whole "Body was in the coffin, mortuary closed, body gone the next day and lots of dust laying around" was a bigger problem!

 

[InsaneMystic]

I still think there's more subtlety (and, thus, more room for Sunnydaler denial) in "body strangely gone missing without a trace (and man, someone should VACUUM here!)" than in "half-ton, two cubic yard wooden object being carried around".

Please don't konk me, Lou. *cowering with arms over head*

 

[Lindsey McDonald]

Yeah, and most people that want to "hide a body" don't bother with a casket. Even in broad daylight (minus Spike and the blanket and David Fury singing) most people would probably assume it wasn't a REAL coffin. At least I would.

And it's surely not the strangest thing that would have happened in the town. I would think the whole "Body was in the coffin, mortuary closed, body gone the next day and lots of dust laying around" was a bigger problem!

"Err...Mrs. Smith! Yeah....about that open casket thing.....not really going to happen..... No! No, nothing's wrong with the body.... You did want a cremation, right?"

 

[InsaneMystic]

Dlou444 agrees: Come to think of it, that means there could be LOTS of empty buried caskets that the Scoobies would know where to find! LOL!

You know, gross and disgusting and graverobberish as it is, this does sound like the most probable explanation! Granted, those coffins would have a general tendency towards a somewhat bashed-in (or rather, bashed OUT) top, but it's nothing I couldn't trust the Xandman to fix.

 

[Lou]

Except the ones they staked BEFORE the burial that were probably buried empty as family members wouldn't patronize a mortuary that kept losing the bodies! Those would have to be covered up or the place would go out of business!

 

[Skanky Vamp]

You know, gross and disgusting and graverobberish as it is

it's only gross and disgusting when necrophilia is involved, but at least they are doing it (ha!) in the privacy of their own homes.

 

[InsaneMystic]

I'm unconvinced. While such a cover-up probably could easily be pulled off here in Germany, where open-casket funerals are almost unheard of, Americans are big on that thing, aren't they? So wouldn't a mortuary that has to keep fidgeting up reasons to dissuade its clients from open-casket, after earlier having agreed to do that, face only somewhat milder, but still very noticable, problems with its business reputation?

Unless Sunnydale mortuaries all follow a strict policy that o-c costs lots and lots extra - so far fewer people would consider o-c in Sunnydale than in the general American population.

 

[Skanky Vamp]

here in Germany, where open-casket funerals are almost unheard of,

whys that, shadow? a taste thing or something more? i think open caskets are kinda demented.

 

[InsaneMystic]

As I said in my PM to you already, I guess that the moment the dead person is put into the coffin seems to mark to our cultural mindset the line where it's no longer Uncle Jim, and instead becomes The Body - and we don't want to look at The Body. We tend to find the cosmetics aspect of American morticians to be irritating, too, for that reason.

 

[Lou]

I think, probably after the first one or two bodies disappeared, they started saying, "You know, we don't like open casket ceremonies and here's the 300 reasons you shouldn't either". Just in case more bodies disappeared later!

 

[Skanky Vamp]

As I said

that predated the PM sorry