I don't get the love for "The Body"

[LittleMissLikesToFight]

I will just say this; as a person who lost her own mother in a similarly quick and unexpected situation at home, nearly the same as joyce (except my mother died at the hospital, not at home), watching this episode brings back incredibly strong emotions.

It was EXACTLY everything I ever felt, from time seeming to go slow motion, to getting lost in day dreams of her still being alive, to feeling the overwhelming urge to throw up, to everything seeming like it almost doesn't exist, like I was completely detached from reality, from having friends reactions similarly across the board as the scoobie gangs was...

And it makes me feel that I am not alone... as a person whose been there, I GOT it. It's not supposed to be overly dramatic like a soap opera, it's supposed to feel REAL. It's supposed to feel like what it REALLY feels like to lose a parent.

It does that exceptionally well. I've always said if i ever met Joss, I am going to thank him for The Body, because at times when I feel like only I understand my own pain in the situation, I realize it's not true, and I feel comforted. I feel like I can make it, I can continue to live my life.

 

[sylvanscribe]

It's a well done episode as far as that, but the emotional resonance depends on how much you believed Joyce Summers was an integral part of the series/Buffy's life. We only get to see bits and pieces of her, and in Season 4 she was largely absent anyway.

I think it would have been a lot better if someone a lot closer to the gang (from our perspective) died. Giles for instance. Killed by Glory's minions. Or, if a senseless death was still needed, falling over from a heart attack. Imagine how much more powerful it would be if the only true father figure, the supreme guiding force, in most of these kids lives was finally gone. That would be dramatic, no? And ASH would be free to go back to the UK like he wanted.

 

[TheVoid68]

But I don't think that The Body was necessarily about Joyce's death, it was more about death itself, the nature of it, how it affects the people closest.

 

[msfantastico87]

The Body is my second favorite episode of the series. I really love how they capture everyone's emotions. The way the camera man followed Buffy around when she found Joyce in just one take, making sure to capture every single emotion that was running through her. The way Willow didn't know what to wear as to not seem like she was stealing the spotlight. The way Tara tried to comfort Willow. Anya's monologue gets me everytime, just the way she says it sends chills down my spine, and just the fact that she is trying to understand what is happening really makes you appreciate Anya a lot more. Also one of my favorite scenes is when Buffy is telling Dawn. I thought it was brilliant how, like Michelle Trachtenberg said in the reunion, they had dialogue but in the end it was drowned out to make it look alot more intense and so you can plug in your own emotions. It's a very heartfelt episode.

Now I may seem a bit mean saying this, but I'm kind of glad that decided to do it to Joyce instead of one of the scoobies. I feel like if they did that it would have been a disaster. I mean, in later episodes, you see Dawn feeling alone, and Buffy feeling out of the loop and saying things like "I just wish mom were here". I think Joss Whedon accomplished what he was trying to go for, and that's just dealing with the aftermath of someone's death.

 

[Cohen]

The Body is the best written hour of television I have ever seen in my life. I believe it even got an Emmy nod, as well (though of course, since it wasn't on one of the Big Four networks, it didnt get the Emmy). I cannot fathom why you feel it is not Buffy. Everything with the Joyce storyline this season was building up to this moment. This is why Joss decided Joyce was going to get sick in the beginning of the season. If you feel like it's a halt in the season, you're right. Death is a halt in real life. When someone you love dies unexpectedly (and less face it, even when you know it's coming, it's still unexpected), your life stops.

I never appreciated this episode for what it was until my grandfather died. He was more of a father to me than my own father. And that morning will replay in my mind until the day I die. I will never forget going to second block, the day after my 18th birthday, where the day before I got a surprise birthday party, that day I got a surprise phone call from the office. For 12 years of school, I have never been unexpectedly called out of school, so I knew as soon as they told me that I had been dismissed, that something bad happened. And on the way to the hospital, i called my best friend on her cell phone, who was in the same class as me, bawling my eyes out while trying to drive safely, praying that he wasn't dead. And I will never forget my mother and my sister's faces when I got to his room in the ER, and that realization that the worst thought I had was true, and that I would never get to tell him goodbye. And that 18 hours before when he had told "Happy Birthday" it would be the last thing he'd ever say to me.

These actors got all these raw emotions that you feel when your loved one dies. It doesn't matter that WE didnt see Joyce a lot. The characters did. She was the mom to all of them that they never had. This episode was made to be different. This show was made to be different. Joss wrote this show to be different than all the others because he knew that he could tell a story that would relate to people, because it was filled with metaphors. But there's no metaphor to death. It just is. And he wrote and directed my absolute favorite hour of television. So it's so hard for me to understand how anyone could NOT love this hour of television.

What has been said before is right. This hour wasn't made to be semi-entertainment. This hour was supposed to mean something. Was supposed to get you to open your mind, and think. That's what this SHOW was about. So, it's very Buffy. It's just different than the comedic horror that goes on during every other episode.

 

[TeamSunnydale]

I think that this episode was pure Buffy gold! It was a real life situation, with amazing acting from the whole cast-especially Emma Caulfield. Its one of my favourites of the whole series.

 

[MysticMisfit]

Like others, I totally disagree with the OP.

 

[PDH5204]

Great episode but one that I almost rarely watch. Takes me back to a place that I don't want to go and to a place that I dread going to, meaning that a decade or so ago, a client of mine, well, his two year old son got into the pool. I was in the pediatric intensive care unit when life support was terminated and the young lad flatlined and was soon thereafter pronounced dead. Was my first and only time with the little fella. After everything else in the hospital was done, I sat on the hood of my car, parked out on the street, for almost 4 hours. Just sat there. That's where I don't want to return to. For where I dread going to, well, both my parents are still alive. So, again, great episode, but let's not go there. And by the way, if you have a small child or children, fill the pool up with sand until you are absolutely certain that the little one(s) know how to swim. Thanks.

 

[TheChosenTwo]

I totally disagree, this episode was heartbreaking and all actors at their best.
All actors showed here that they are awesome actors.

 

[buffyprops]

I agree with the last post wholeheartedly...
but I have to say it is the only episode I have watched a total of TWO TIMES.
Yes it's a gut wrenching watch but I think more-over...
by this point in the show we are all very aware of Joss' ability to manipulate our feelings and his willingness to do so...not to mention the fact that possibly the easiest way to "tweak" our emotions as viewers is to kill off a long standing member of the cast and do it in an episode that is suddenly nothing like a "usual" Buffy episode at all.
I think the first time I watched it was just because it was Buffy and it was the newest episode on.
The second time I watched it was because I wanted to verify that there really wasn't anything going on there that was mystical or in the usual vain of the show.

 

[xfivebyfive]

The Body is such an amazing episode. The acting in it is wonderful, we really see the actors shine in this episode. It's so painful to watch. Even if people didn't like Joyce we can all relate to Buffy, either having lost a parent or the fears of losing one. I think that's why it hits home so hard for so many people. It's not like the other episodes but thats what makes it so beautiful. Its completely about the human side of the show. I don't watch the episode often, only when I do full series rewatches because its just soo sad. But its the same with Seeing Red or Passion, I love them but theyre just to painful for me to rewatch often.

 

[NL197]

This episode is equally "emotional" and "heart-wrenching" and all the other oft-repeated adjectives throughout this thread, and it is as emotionally forced and manipulative as well.

It is both, because it is not only a realistic, slice-of-life episode, but it is also "A Very Special Episode", which brings all the cliches associated with that kind of label.

I think that's why it's very easy to disagree with the original post, and understand it at the same time. One hand you've got this hardcore, true-to-life story, and the other hand you've got the experimental, let's go for an Emmy Award episode. It's because this was on a show like Buffy, which has gone for experimental episodes before and after (Hush, Once More with Feeling, etc) that this episode easily gets placed alongside those. That they are atypical is both an asset because it shows that the series is taking risks and being creative, and a curse because their inherent special nature / feeling makes them stick out as being "A Very Special Episode" that tries too hard to be unique.


Sure, I can relate to it to a degree as well, as I live with my mother (I am her caregiver) and she's nearly died several times - once I thought she was gone as I held her, trying to lift her up off the floor when she collapsed a few years ago and like now, I don't have friends or family for support (do dogs count? ) so I can definitely relate to this episode and at the same time I can see exactly what it is that bothers King of Hell about it. It's great, and it's not so great, at the same time, and depending on one's more emotional point of view.

 

[Willow My Love]

If you've never been in that situation, then you definitely wouldn't get why that episode was spot on.

My father grandfather (my mom's side of the family refers to him as my father because he raised me whereas my real father was rarely, if ever, around) died when I was 12. I wish I'd had the chance to unsee what I've seen. Seeing someone breathing, then the next minute they're not is horrifying. I pretty much did what she did. I didn't call anyone because my mother already had, but I did throw up. The only difference is I crawled in bed with him and didn't want to believe what I'd seen. It took the coroner an hour to get there. They pronounced him dead at 5:35pm. He died at 4:45. I tried to tell them that. They didn't listen. Buffy dealt with her mother's death way better than I dealt with Papal's. Buffy functioned. I didn't. It took me years to deal with everything.

So when I see that episode, I cry like a child. I have to have tissues ready. My significant other watched it and cried with me. We watched the whole series together. This and the episode after were the hardest for me. I freaked out over my clothes too.

 

[Goby]

I'm an older member, and I lost my grandfather (who was like my father) back in 1994. It was a day that I will never forget, and a day that seemed to happened in slow motion. It was a day that seemed to never end.

I will say that "The Body" is not only the best BTVS episode I've seen, but possibly the best episode of ANY show I have ever seen. It was perfect. It was not like a soap opera (there was no music) and by the time I watched it I had a connection with every character on the show. By this time we've seen 100's of people, demons, and vampires die on BTVS. Yet this is just one very natural death, that happened without demonic or dramatic cause, and that happens millions of times everyday. And we are there to see what Buffy and her loved ones went through.

I thought Willow and Anya stole the show, but actually, they all did. The acting was perfect. There are melodramatic moments in TV and movies that are simply not moving. You know, those "very special episodes" that really aren't that special. This ranks up with Casablanca, Pride of the Yankees, Map of the Human Heart, and Schindler's List as movies/shows that truly tear me apart emotionally.

This took me back to that day in 1994, when at 4:00 a.m., the phone rang, I answered it, and heard those horrific words from my mother: "He's gone." This show made me cry like a baby, and in fact, I'm sort of tearing up right now. Perhaps without experiencing a day like Buffy's you can't truly appreciate this show.

I don't know if I'll watch that episode anytime soon. But that doesn't mean I don't think it was one of the all-time greatest moments in TV history.

 

[A Flawed Fashion]

I love it. I think it moves you and shakes so many people because it is so real. Everything is just so surreal and you feel almost frozen when you lose a parent like that. I think the way they portrayed Buffy and her friends was perfect.

 

[BananaBuffy]

See, I'm prone to agree with any of Joss Whedon's ideas. If he thinks this episode works for the show then it works for the show, there's no more arguments. I adore this episode, with every fibre of my being. It is brilliant. The point of it was not to add to the plot, but to deal with something that everybody has or will at some point in their life. The point of the epiosde is truth in telling a story and it does it really well. It deals with real emotions and actually makes you feel more than some of the tamer dramas do.

Buffy kind of is a soap opera sometimes. Just a comment.

But the acting performances in this episode are stellar and it's more of a stand alone episode. If you're looking for something to increase the plot then this isn't it, so I suppose some of your arguments are valid and maybe it isn't your cup of tea but it is many peoples. I would be so proud of myself if I was Michelle or Sarah or Alyson or Emma. They all, and the others, did fantastic jobs at portraying their characters going through grief. And they all deal with it differently. Not to mention, there is even some humour. Xander punching the wall is amusing yet very, very heartwarming. And I always laugh when Anya says "Xander decided he blames the wall"

It is one of my all time favourite episodes, making me cry everytime I watch it. I don't find that there are forced emotions, only real ones.

 

[zobothehobo]

Buffy kind of is a soap opera sometimes. Just a comment.

Emotional drama, betrayal, people die and they come back to life, addiction, illness, and sex. Lots and lots of sex. Yup. Buffy is like a soap opera.

 

[BananaBuffy]

Emotional drama, betrayal, people die and they come back to life, addiction, illness, and sex. Lots and lots of sex. Yup. Buffy is like a soap opera.

Exactly. I've always thought of it that way. I don't think of it as sci-fi, horror or action. I view it as a dramady 😀 Or a soap opera sometimes.

 

[Nikita]

The Body. I don't truly know how to show my love for this episode and the one that comes after it...Joyce was an amazing character and an interesting one as well. She was one of the oldest members of the cast but was still able to be important to us, as fans and the characters.

Do I agree with her death? Certainly. This season was about her illness, or at the very least, the first half was about her illness. Kristine Sutherland played the role very role and even in this last episode, you wanted her to wake up and yell "Surprise!" just so she didn't have to leave. Joyce's death impacted me more then any other death in the 'verse. Tara was the only one who came close but Joyce's was so real where as Tara's wasn't. Tara was shot and Joyce just died. She became The Body. Tara's death was much less emotionally powered then Joyce's as well (Although, Tara didn't get an episode for mourning, She definitely didn't get two.)

If you don't like this episode, it could just be that you don't understand how powerful it really is. This episode is just a masterpiece of acting performances, visual direction and cinematography. Buffy has always been known for it's music and the way it lets music affect the episode and work its magic to give the episode another layer. This episode took that clique (if you want to call it that) that Buffy used and completely shattered it. This episode was powerful, had many layers and was SO beautiful and moving without using the music.

On that note, this episode and an episode that also deals with the death of a loved one of Buffy's, Passion. Compare these two and you realize both are EXCELLENT. Both episodes are among the best of their seasons and among the best episode on TV ever. I see one unique difference among the others, and that is the music that I discussed before. Passion used music to show the seriousness of the death, and it was moving and beautiful and passionate, but The Body didn't and was arguably more moving and beautiful and passionate.

This episode said goodbye to a loved character, but it also involved HUGE character development for Buffy. This episode marked the time when she had to become less of a sister for Dawn and become her mother (or a substitute.) She had to grow up from the end of I Was Made To Love You and smacked into the Body, and she had to turn into this woman, dealing with death and having to be a shoulder to cry on for Dawn.

Two more amazing elements to this episode were Anya and Willow. Allyson is such an amazing actress and you can see that whenever she does something she commits to it 100% and it shows in this episode. She frantically searches for something to wear, we feel her emotions and we want to cry with her. Willow and Tara share their first kiss and it makes you want to smile among the chaos that is going on around.

But I don't understand! I don't understand how this all happens. How we go through this. I mean I knew her and then she's , .. there's just a body and I don't understand why she just can't get back in it and not be dead anymore. It's stupid. It's mortal and stupid. And Xander's crying and not talking and I was having fruit punch and I thought well Joyce will never have anymore fruit punch ever, and she'll never have eggs or yawn or brush her hair, not ever and no one will explain to me why..

Emma Caufield gives this speech that if you ask me, should've gotten an Emmy for it. It was just so beautiful and I felt myself tearing up during it, We have a 1000 year old ex-vengeance-demon who basically spills out her soul and you're just looking on to her and you're just so enthralled within her and it's horribly sad and horribly meaningful.

I can watch this episode only coupled with Forever and then an episode like OMWF, I need something happy after it otherwise I will cry and cry and cry because of how sad, beautiful and moving it is.

To finish;
The Body. <3

 

[CrayonBreakyMe]

This is definitely not your run of the mill Buffy episode. It's like Hush or OMWF in that it tries something completely different. Maybe it doesn't grab you but understand it grabs most people. It's a very realistic portrayal of how people react when someone suddenly passes away.

I completely agree. I love those episodes because they're different, and as someone said before if all of the episodes were like that I wouldn't like it, but they come every once in a while.
Hush has practically no speaking in it
OMWF has musicals and singing and dancing and
The Body has absolutely no music in it at all. I think that definitely adds to the feeling of "This is normal...this is real life" When someone you know dies, there is no happy back ground music throughout the day. When my friend died I felt like everything was quite, my knees buckled and I fell to the ground and I felt like I wanted to throw up. I couldn't even tell my other friends that she died, it was almost impossible for me to get the words out. I think that this episode was magnificently done. I love it.