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BtVS 5.16 The Body (SPOILERS)

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P@rick

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Jan 10, 2002, 3:11:28 PM1/10/02
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*** SPOILERS for BtVS 5.16 The Body ***
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Well she's gone. And boy did she get an exit. This ep was cruel, this ep
was heartwarming, this ep was scary, this ep was stupid, but most of all
this ep was intense. And I'll try to cover all these things next.

It started the same as IWMtLY ended. When Buffy gets home it takes her a
few seconds to find her mother dead on the couch. By that time the
viewer had already spotted Joyce in the background as Buffy was yelling
up the stairs. Out of focus, but clearly Joyce and presumably dead. We
had to wait a whole week to know for sure, Buffy takes considerably less
time.

But not before we get a flashback to (the) last Christmas dinner. Where
everybody is having a wonderful time and we get inside information on
the Santa deal. There's talk of eating to much and feelings of nausea.
Later we see Buffy vomit on the carpet. By then Joyce, who Buffy refuses
to refer to as 'the body', has been declared dead. CPR didn't bring her
back like Buffy hopefully imagined for a moment. When Buffy looks out
the backdoor there's a huge contrast between the lively sounds outside
and the dead silence inside.

As we go from scene to scene and see the news hit the people closest to
Joyce, we see how her body goes through the process of autopsy. And all
the while no music and sometimes even no sound.

The rest of the Scoobies meet. Tara and Willow have their first onscreen
kiss. Couldn't have been a more proper and sincere time. Xander starts
to freak and wants to find something to blame for Joyce's death and
fight it. Willow offers him to take her on instead and puts up her
fists. But Xander quickly sees that he is no match for her, which she
acknowledges. I smiled and I cried.

Joyce is in the hospital again, but this time in the morgue. A place
with wich the Scoobies are all too familiar. Or are they? I don't think
Buffy patrols there. And as the obligatory and inappropriate vampire
rises behind Dawn, I wonder how many doctors are killed during autopsy.
Tara tells Buffy her mother died when she was seventeen. When she died
she probably still thought she was half demon. Very touching how Tara
tries to connect to Buffy. Just like it is touching how Anya tries to
get a grasp of and a grip on what's happening. Buffy appreciates their
efforts.

Dawn looks at her mother on the autopsy table. Buffy tells her that by
now she's certain that it's no longer Joyce, it's just her body. Just
like Willow couldn't tell Anya where Joyce went, Buffy can't tell her
sister. Dawn reaches out to The Body.


Bye, Patrick
--
Keeper of the Willowism, "And I'm eating this banana. Lunchtime be
damned!"
Keeper of the Wily Willow Charms
ThreadMaker [tm]
ReviewMeister [tm]

deathwalker

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Jan 11, 2002, 6:55:18 AM1/11/02
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wot she die of then?
"P@rick" <pat...@nksf.VampWillow.nl> wrote in message
news:MPG.16a813def...@news.xs4all.nl...

Mattia Valente

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Jan 11, 2002, 11:30:33 AM1/11/02
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deathwalker wrote:
>
> wot she die of then?

It's spoilerfree now, technically, but reply UNDERNEATH the quoted text
in the future. And snip the non-relevant bits.

Anyway, an aneurysm, prolly. Or some other kind of cerebral haemmorage.

Mattia
--
"My beagle went swimming today and now he's typing on my keyboard with
his ample nose. Oh, and he's the bestest handsomeest beagle EVER."
--Tim Minear, Salon.com, May 2001

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