Joss Whedon Once Revealed a BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER Episode To Be The Best Things He's Ever Done

Buffy The Vampire Slayer is one of those shows that I continue to enjoy whenever I watch it. It’s become one of those comfort shows that I watch on a regular basis. The stories it told were so good and so fun, but there were also times when the stories would go in a very serious and intense direction.

Take the 2001 Season 5 Episode 16 episode titled “The Body,” for example. This episode destroyed me when I first saw it, and it wasn’t until much later in my life that it would hit me even harder. This is one of the most emotionally draining episodes in the whole series for me. It’s also an episode that Sarah Michelle Gellar can’t rewatch. She previously said: "I'm so proud of it, but I can't watch it. It's too hard for me. I'm an only child. It's just me and my mom. That was just a hard concept to grasp."

In the episode, Buffy is devastated when she arrives home and finds her mother, Joyce, dead on the couch having suffered a brain aneurysm. The season seemed to be leading up to her death after she was diagnosed with a brain tumor in episode 8. She seemingly recovered, but then Episode 16 hit, and audiences were shocked by her unexpected death. The rest of the Scoobies try to pull themselves together and deal with their own grief as best they can in order to be there for Buffy and Dawn during the extremely difficult time they were going through.

It was one of the most horrific and powerful episodes in the series and it didn’t involve anything having to do with the supernatural, or any monsters.

Joss Whedon talked about the episode in an interview with Metro, and he explained how the episode was personal for him, saying: "My mother died when I was 27 in a car crash. But I didn't really think about mining [the experience] until around season 3. This is the moment [Buffy] says 'I don't know,' she hasn't [dealt with this] before. There is a good kind of pain created from her situation that was particularly personal."

He went on to say that this episode is the best thing he’s ever done, and will ever do, saying: "I think ['The Body'] is probably the best thing I've done and the best thing I will ever do. And I'm okay with that. You know, there are worse epitaphs."

Just thinking back on that scene where Buffy finds her mom dead and worryingly utters, "mommy?" is super rough. It’s such a heartbreaking moment. The episode explored the devastating effects of grief and at the time I first saw the episode, it wasn’t something I could fully relate to. Then later in life, only a couple of years ago, my own mom was diagnosed with brain cancer, and that is something that she is still in the process of fighting.

All these years later, this episode of Buffy took on a whole new meaning. I saw the story in a whole different way and it affected me so much harder and my feeling toward it are now so much more complicated as my family and I are in the middle of helping our mom get through this horrible experience.

Then there’s the following episode that is even a little more messed up. That episode is titled "Forever," and it sees Buffy's sister Dawn attempt to resurrect Joyce by using a necromancing spell. There was a moment in the episode where we see the shadow of the resurrected Joyce pass a window, which made my heart sink and fill with dread. We then hear the knock at the door of the house and Dawn quickly ends the spell just as Buffy opens the door. That was so intense!

Whedon continued to talk about the episode, saying: "It doesn't give you anything. Death is the thing [Buffy] cannot fight, but it also renders her meaningless. She's not on a lot of committees, she doesn't have a lot of hobbies, it takes away her identity."

What are your thoughts on “The Body”?