atheneum

The episode opens with the same last few moments of "I Was Made to Love You", with Buffy coming home and finding Joyce lying on the couch, staring unblinking at the ceiling. We cut to a flashback, or a memory or something, of Buffy and the whole gang, including her mom, at the house for Christmas dinner. Everything's normal, everyone's happy, Buffy's helping her mom in the kitchen with the pumpkin pie, when suddenly we flash back to Joyce lying dead on the couch. Buffy runs to her and shouts "Mom!" like a thousand times, sobbing, and then she jumps up and runs to the phone, calling 911. The operator starts to talk her through CPR, but Buffy remembers and starts to administer it herself. On the second round of chest compressions, though, she cracks Joyce's ribs and freaks out. She gets back on the phone and tells the operator, who says it's not important; to keep administering CPR. Buffy tells her that "she's cold", and wants to know if she should try to keep her warm. The operator pauses, and verifies that the body is cold. Buffy says no, her "mother" is cold. The operator tells her the paramedics should be there soon, and Buffy hangs up and calls Giles, telling him he has to come. She hangs up and hears sirens in the distance, and goes and opens the door. She then comes back in and straightens Joyce's skirt before the paramedics come in.

They look for a pulse and can't find one, and start working on her, asking Buffy questions about her physical health. They do CPR on her, and suddenly she starts breathing. In the ambulance, the paramedic says this is a miracle. We cut to the hospital, where the doctor proclaims Joyce good as new, and Joyce thanks God that Buffy found her in time.

Cut back to the living room, where the paramedics continue to work on Joyce in silence. They finally stop, one of them saying to the other that "she's cold", and they call it. One of them apologizes to Buffy, but says that her mother is dead. They get another call, and have to leave to go take it, but say that the coroner's department will be there soon. They leave, and Buffy vomits.

She goes to the back door and opens it , too stunned to even think of what she's doing right now. She keeps hearing the sound Joyce's ribs made when they broke. Still in a zombie-like state, she pulls some paper towels off of the roll and lays them down on top of where she got sick earlier. She stands up and Giles comes running in, shouting what is it, is it Glory? Buffy says she's waiting for the coroner, and that she'll have to tell Dawn, but Dawn's in school. Giles comes further into the house and looks into the livingroom and sees Joyce lying dead on the floor. He runs to her and Buffy shouts that they're not supposed to move the body. Then it finally seems to hit her, and she starts to cry, and Giles rushes to her and holds her.

Joyce gets zipped up in a body bag, and then we see Dawn crying. She says she can't believe it. A voice offscreen says it's not that bad. The camera pans back and we see we're in the girl's bathroom at school. Dawn's crying 'cause some guy called her a freak, and her friend comforts her. They leave and head to art class. As the teacher talks about what they're drawing, Dawn and the guy next to her (Kevin) talk. Buffy comes in and interrupts them, and pulls Dawn out of class. Out in the hallway Dawn demands to know what's going on, and Buffy tells her that Joyce had an accident; that something went wrong because of the tumor. Dawn starts to cry and says that she's okay though, right? We cut to inside the classroom, where the teacher and all of the students are watching through the glass wall as Dawn starts sobbing when Buffy tells her, and all we can hear is Dawn's wail that it's not true, that Buffy's lying. Then Dawn collapses to the floor, crying.

We see a pair of hands peeling back Joyce's clothes, cutting away her undergarments. Then we cut to Willow and Willow's room. Then Anya and Xander driving. Everything's totally silent. Back up in the room, Tara sees Xander and Anya pull up downstairs, and Willow looks like she's about to cry. She frantically tries to decide what to wear, and dissolves into tears, saying she has to be at the morgue to help support Buffy. She cries, and Tara tries to comfort her, kissing her first on the forehead and then on the lips, and stroking her shoulders as she reassures her that they can be strong for her.

Xander and Anya come in, and Xander and Willow hug. Willow says she's afraid she's going to cry again, and Anya says Xander cried at the apartment; it was weird. Willow looks annoyed and says it's a thing "we" do (meaning humans). Everyone stands around in silence, until Anya asks what's going to happen. Willow says they're going to go to the morgue to meet Buffy, and Tara says that Giles went with Joyce, while Buffy went to tell Dawn. This is a really long scene where everyone tries to deal with Joyce's death. Willow keeps changing clothes, Xander works himself up to anger, mad at Glory, mad at the doctors, mad at the world, until Willow de-escalates him. Anya doesn't know how to react at all, and Tara tries to keep everyone together. Tara leaves to go search for a shirt Willow really wants to wear, and Anya keeps asking invasive questions about "the body". Willow tells her to shut up; just stop talking. She says she can't say things like that, you just don't ask questions like that. Anya finally starts crying and says she doesn't understand how she's supposed to act; she doesn't know how Joyce can be there one moment and be just a body the next, and why she can't just get back into her body and be fine, and everyone's being quiet and crying and no one will tell her why this is. Willow apologetically says they don't know why. Xander punches the wall. When he pulls it out it's all bloody, and Willow and Anya bandage it. Tara comes back saying she couldn't find the shirt, but Willow says it doesn't matter. They leave to go to the morgue, saying they're gonna go help Buffy; that's what they do.

At the morgue, (which is a wing in the hospital) the mortician or whoever finishes the autopsy and covers Joyce up with a sheet. He walks down a long dark hallway. Out in the waiting area, Buffy hugs everyone, and Giles greets the doctor when he comes out. He and Buffy and Dawn go to talk to him, and he tells them that Joyce had an aneurysm in the area the tumor was removed. Buffy asks if it couldn't have been detected, and he says that Joyce was aware of the possible side effects, but she didn't even have a chance to get on the phone, so it must have been very sudden. He says she probably only felt some nausea, and passed out when it happened, and that even if someone had been with her when it happened, probably there was nothing they could have done. As he says this, Buffy sees three quick scenes in her head, imagining herself with Joyce when it happened, and then them in the ambulance, and them at the hospital finding out she'll be okay. Then she comes back to the room with the doctor. She asks again if he's sure there wasn't much pain, and he says absolutely. Then he goes on to say something else, but what Buffy hears is "We have to lie to make you feel better."

Giles asks what has to be done next, and the doctor says there are some forms and whatnot to fill out. Giles says to Buffy that she should let him handle everything he can, and Buffy nods and says "please". Giles walks off with the doctor and the gang comes forward to reclaim Buffy and Dawn. They all go sit down. Dawn starts to say something, but doesn't finish, and then says she has to pee, instead. She wanders off to do so, and Xander asks how Dawn took it. Buffy says it was a meltdown, saying that Dawn just wouldn't believe her; she doesn't think she does even now. Anya blurts that she's sorry Joyce died, because she was nice, and now they all hurt. Buffy just looks at her and simply says thank you, understanding what she means. Willow thinks that Buffy needs to eat something, and Buffy says Dawn probably needs a snack, and Willow, Xander and Anya go off together to find something to eat for them. Tara stays with Buffy on the couch.

Buffy babbles a little, and ends with "I'm sorry, I've never done this before." Tara tells her she has; her mother died when she was seventeen. They have a little conversation, which basically boils down to Tara understanding how Buffy feels. We cut to Dawn coming out of the restroom. She sees Tara and Buffy talking on the couch, but instead goes down the dark hallway into the morgue wing. She goes into the autopsy room, which has several cadavers lying under sheets on gurneys. Dawn closes and bolts the door behind her, and walks over to Joyce's body, which is under a sheet. She starts to reach for the sheet to pull it back, but hesitates. In complete silence, we see a body sit up behind Dawn and pull the sheet away to reveal that it's a vampire. He gets up and starts walking toward Dawn and she turns around and sees him, horror on her face.

Back out in the waiting area, the rest of the gang returns with refreshments. They wonder if Dawn's still in the bathroom. Buffy goes to check, but sees that the door is right next to the entrance to the morgue wing. On a hunch, she goes down the hallway, going faster and faster as she hears sounds of a struggle in the autopsy room. Buffy breaks the door down and pulls the vampire off of Dawn. In the struggle, Dawn falls onto the surgical table and the sheet falls away from Joyce. Buffy fights with the fledgling, and Dawn slowly looks up.

Buffy finally kills the vamp by decapitating it with a surgical saw, and then it's complete silence again as she and Dawn look up to see Joyce, dead, lying on the table. Dawn asks if she's cold, and Buffy says that's not her, Joyce is gone. Dawn asks where she went. Buffy says nothing, and Dawn slowly reaches out to touch Joyce's face. That's where it ends.

FLAWS: Don't 911 operators already have the address you call from on their monitors when you call? That's how it is where I live, anyway.

Also, I'm not sure, but don't doctors have to be the ones to "call" a death? You know, like, so and so was pronounced dead on arrival (at the hospital) and stuff?

THOUGHTS ON THE EPISODE: Wow, I never actually got to see this one until I just sat down to review it, and I've gotta say it's pretty powerful. You definitely need a hankie for this one. Farewell Joyce, we loved you!

The only thing I really want to point out in this ep is the way Buffy relied so heavily upon Giles. She was the first one she called after 911, he was the one to comfort her, he was the one to take care of all of the forms and stuff. In the next episode he's the one taking the phone calls and helping her plan the funeral. Buffy has always depended on Giles, they've always had that bond between them, but it's extremely evident in this episode just how much she needs him. * sniff * I love them.

BEST LINE: n/a

"The Body"