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The Mister Gordo Podcast
Once More with Sobbing
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The Body
ep 516
Aired February 27th, 2001
IMDB Summary
Buffy, Dawn, and their friends deal with the aftermath of Joyce's death.
Directed by: Joss Whedon
Written By: Joss Whedon, Rebecca Kirshner, Steven S. DeKnight
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Hello and welcome to the Mr. Hortipod. This is Sarah.
SPEAKER_01And I'm Brit.
SPEAKER_03And we're back for a very, very, very sad episode, The Bunny.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. This is probably one of the best episodes of the show, though.
SPEAKER_03It is. It was um directed and written really well. Um, I know that Joss had said that he took so because he lost his parent, so he just took that feeling and brought it to the episode. That kind of like silent, there's like no music.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Um stuff. But it was a very solid episode.
SPEAKER_01And Sarah Michelle Geller was fantastic acting in this.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I think everyone did a good job, but yeah, she knocked it out of the park for sure.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, for sure. Um well before we get into the episode, what how what have you been up to?
SPEAKER_03Um, I don't know. Just chilling, I guess.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. This we're doing a s two recording. Back to back.
SPEAKER_03So we're we haven't done the Filicon yet in this time. So if you want to pretend that it's already happened, um, it was a good time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um, we're excited because we're going to see some people tomorrow, as we mentioned in our last episode. So I'm only thinking I'm gonna see Orlando Blue because uh financial reasons, but we'll see where the wind takes me.
SPEAKER_03Um I got enough, but I kinda also want some hobbits. But it'll be a very last-minute decision, and if there's no lines. Yeah. I spray I'll be in lines all day if I add them to my car. Though I did like the I I really love the idea of getting all of our signatures plus uh Orlando on something.
SPEAKER_01That'd be cool. I yeah, I'm gonna see what kind what the vendors have there. I've never been to one of these. I went to the you know, the Hellmouth Con, which I think was like smaller. This is just like bigger.
SPEAKER_03It's bigger than Hellmouth. Well, it's also more than just it's more than one genre, yeah. The Hellmouth Con was specifically just buffy stuff. Like, so it's just a little bit more jumping around.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So so I don't think we really have any like big updates, but the next episode we found we could talk about the con probably. Yeah. If anything great happens. Exactly. So, but alright. Um, I guess let's just get into this depressing episode.
SPEAKER_03I'm sorry. Hopefully, this is a good episode to listen to. Um, I both love this episode, but I find it so hard to rewatch. Um, I don't know, at the same time. Especially rewatch without tearing up. I still tear up, but yeah, we're not doing it tonight, so not tonight. Alright, so let's get into it. Uh, the episode opens with a rollback to the end of I Was Made to Love You. I am sorry again for the last episode. I completely skipped this last part, but I think it works because we don't need to hear about it twice. But the last episode, it really ends. I ended it with Spike like getting the Buffy bot, but really ends with uh Buffy coming home. Um, Joyce had her uh her date and there's a uh flowers there from him. Um she goes to find Joyce and then finds Joyce in the living room laying down, her eyes open, looking pretty dead. So um, this is where they leave off, and it brings it right back to this one. Um so anyway, she's calling out for her mom. You see that she's in the living room sofa, um, everything's kind of out of focus. The focus is on Buffy in the foreground.
SPEAKER_01She did we talk about how she had flowers?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I said the the guy left flowers for her.
SPEAKER_01So I I was reading something. Never mind, I'll get there when we get to that point. Okay, continue.
SPEAKER_03Anyway. So um Buffy frowns, looks down the hall towards the kitchen, calls for Joyce again. She turns to the living room, walks in asking her mom what she's doing, but you see Joyce is laying on the sofa, her eyes are open, uh, one arm hangs loosely over the edge of the sofa. Um, she does not move or blink, and um Buffy just says, Mom, mom, mommy. Um, this is the opening credits. Um, there's no background music at all in this episode. Just wanna motice it again. Um in the summer sighting room, um, Christmas lights are lit all around the walls and candles are burning all around. On the left side of the table are Buffy, Anya, and Xander. On the right are Don, Willow, and Tara. Giles sits at one end and Joyce on the other. Um, the scene opens. Buffy and Joyce stand up to clear the plates. Joyce is uh going to bring out pie, and Xander makes a comment about how he needs to barf, but a good kind of barf from all the good eating. Anya also says she needs to barf. Uh Joyce smiles. Riley. She carries a pile of dirty dishes past Anya towards the kitchen. Joyce, Giles, and Buppy exit. Um, Xander looks to see if Joyce is angry, then turns back to the table. Uh Xander asks how Willow is doing, and she responds that she had too much nog. Uh Tara asks if she wants her to rub her tummy, and mentions Willow likes it when she and then she stops explaining things. Um when we see Dawn learning, uh lurking. Um she thinks that her nog has rum in it. Uh, Xander makes a comment about Santa, and Dawn says she's old enough to realize Santa isn't real. Anya says it's it's a myth, um, that it's a myth. There is a Santa. Everyone looks surprised. She continues, um, he's been around since like the 1500s. He wasn't always called Santa, but you know, Christmas night, flying reindeer, coming down the chimney, all true. This is when Buffy re-enters. Um, Anya continues, um, he doesn't traditionally bring presents so much as you know, disembowel of children, but otherwise. Um, I think Don look visibly just like gets depressed. The camera follows Buffy um as she uh carries dishes in the kitchen, she's smiling. We see Giles doing something by the counter, and Joyce is taking something out of the oven. Um, she explains she burnt the pie, but Buffy reassures her it's just blackened like Cajun pie. Giles turns and we see he's holding a bottle of wine and asks if they should open another. Buffy says as long as they stay away from band candy, she's cool with anything. Joyce and Giles look embarrassed. Giles clears his throat, grabs a bottle opener, and moves off um out of the frame. Buffy uh begins to um examine the burnt pie. Her and Joyce are having a cute moment, and Buffy starts to cut the pie.
SPEAKER_01But then we cut back to present day and a shot of Joyce's face as she lies on the sofa, her eyes open and unseeing. Buffy rushes over and begins shaking Joyce by the shoulders and just yelling for her over and over, getting no reaction. Buffy gets up panting and sniffling, and the camera follows her into the kitchen where she picks up the phone and dials 911. She fidg anxiously while it rings, and Buffy tells the operator that her mom isn't breathing, and she gives the address. The operator talks her through what to do and tells her to do CPR. Um, the operator continues talking, but talking, but Buffy drops the phone to her side and moves towards Joyce. She takes hold of Joyce's legs and pulls her down across the sofa so she lies flat. She tilts Joyce's head back, opens her mouth, and pinches Joyce's nose shut and breathes into her mouth twice, and then begins chest compressions. Uh, at some point we hear a cracking sound, and Buffy tells the operator she broke something, and the operator tells her a paramedic should be there in a moment. She might have cracked a rib. It's not important. Buffy tells them her mom is cold, and the operator asks her if the body is cold, and Buffy yells, No, my mom. Should I make her warm? And the operator tells her, No, the best thing to do is wait for the paramedics, and they are nearby. Buffy drops the phone to her side and looks up at the window. It stands up. Bright sunshine streams in the window, and it's totally quiet except the faint sound of the 911 operator's voice. Buffy brings the phone back up to her ear and says she has to make a call, and then she presses the hang up button. And then there's like a lingering shot of the telephone number pad. Um Buffy hits a speed dial button, and we hear it dialing and ringing, and then we hear Giles answer, and Buffy tells him, You have to come, she's at the house. And she turns the phone off and turns to look over her shoulder, and she walks to the front door, opens it, and looks out. Um we hear a siren and the sound of the ambulance coming to a stop. Buffy goes back inside, leaving the door open. She walks back into the living room, and we zoom in on Joyce lying on the sofa and zoom in on Buffy staring at her as we hear the ambulance doors close and footsteps approaching. Pan down Joyce's torso. She wears a knee-length skirt, but it has bunched up a bit, so her slip is showing. Buffy glances anxiously towards the door and goes over and pulls Joyce's skirt down to cover the slip. She turns and goes back to the doorway separating the living room from the foyer, and then two male paramedics come in carrying equipment. Um Buffy watches anxiously as they put their stuff down and check Joyce. The first one puts his hand on Joyce's throat and says there's no pulse, and they lift Joyce onto the floor. Paramedic 1 has a stethoscope and a flashlight. And Buffy tells him she just found her like that a few minutes ago. Um, paramedic one checks Joyce's eyes, and paramedic two attaches some wires to her chest. They tell her they are going to intubate her. Um while they do it, they ask if she has any health problems. And we pan across paramedic one by Joyce's head. Um, they're hooking up like an EKG machine, and it's just showing a flat line. Buffy says she had a brain tumor, but she's been fine. Um, shot of Joyce's face with an oxygen mask covering it, and paramedic one holds the mask in place while paramedic two is doing chest compressions. The machine makes a uh rhythmic breath-like sound, and paramedic two checks Joyce's wrist for a pulse and resumes chest compressions, and then suddenly Joyce begins to cough and gasp. Paramedic 1 removes the mask, they yell out that they got her and they need to get her on the truck. And the two paramedics stand up as Buffy rushes forward. Joyce opens her eyes and looks at her. Um, cut to a shot at the top of an ambulance with the lights flashing and sirens going. Uh, we cut to Buffy and Joyce in the ambulance with the paramedics, and the paramedics talk about how it's a miracle. And then it cuts to Joyce in a hospital bed and Dawn sitting on the bed beside her. Buffy and a doctor standing next to the bed saying she's good as new. And Joyce we hear Joyce say, Buffy, thank God you found me. And t and then you zoom in on Buffy as Joyce says this. Cut back to the living room as we realize this was all in Buffy's imagination. She's still standing there watching the paramedics work. There's utter silence, except for them continuing CPR, and the EKG machine still showing flatline. Um, paramedic two stops CPR and turns to the paramedic one saying she's cold. And there's a shot of Buffy staring wide-eyed. They call it, and paramedic one looks grim and begins to pack up his stuff. Buffy's lower lip begins to tremble, and paramedic two stands up slowly and walks towards Buffy. He appears blurry from her perspective. Um, she's just in shock while he tells her that her mother is dead and there was nothing she could have done, as it was a good while before she found her. Um, in the background, we see paramedic one packing up, removing the wires from her chest, and paramedic two continues guessing it must have been an aneurysm or some clotting, some complication from surgery. Um, Buffy's staring at him with tears in her eyes, and the paramedics get another call and tell Buffy they're going to call this in, and the coroner's office will be by to take choice. He asks if there is someone she can call, and she says someone is coming. In the background, paramedic one walks to the doorway carrying his stuff, and paramedic two turns to pick up his stuff and turns back to Buffy and says he's sorry for her loss. He leaves and leaves the front door open. Buffy walks to the door, still holding the phone and looks out and tells them, Good luck. And there's a sound of the ambulance closing and driving off. Buffy turns and walks back inside, still holding the phone, still looking dazed. And she looks towards Joyce, and we hear the ambulance siren starting up. Um so something I read, um, and I'm sure you've read this too, but they used like a steady cam for this episode, so it made it more like they said they wanted it more to be like a play. So like I think they practiced it. And then the like actual shot they used, they like they didn't I don't think they filmed it, but the the shot that they used that that's the one like the four-minute scene with Buffy walking around and everything. That's the one they like actually they only filmed it one time or something. I don't know. One shot, yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03It's hard to do. Well, especially if you have a lot of moving parts, but yeah, if you can get it all done one.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it definitely added an element to the episode.
SPEAKER_03I think the first I think it was the first episode of House of the Dragon. I could be wrong, but there does an entire opening scene when Rhenira is giving birth. Not the first episode, it's like one of the episodes when she's the first episode she's older, she's the older version of Rhineira. But anyway, she does an entire opening scene, like a 10-minute or so scene, and it's one shot, and they're going through the entire King's Landing, and there's all these people and everything like that, and going all the way up to her giving birth, and it's um very just impressive because there's so many moving parts, and they do it all in one shot, like with one take, it's very impressive because you just at least with that one, I still think it's impressive with the Buffy one, but at least with the Buffy one, there was just Buffy.
SPEAKER_01It wasn't a lot of we have to go back and watch the House of Dragons one because I don't remember that scene very well.
SPEAKER_03It's I think because you get so traumatized with the birth stuff that you just you probably don't notice it, but if you I guess if you're into film and it's something that because I I listen to a lot of House of Dragon podcasts, and like whenever I do uh whenever I watch Game of Thrones or whatever, I listen to the podcast because they fill in a lot of gaps for me. Um, and that was something that I guess a lot of cinematography people, like people who like are very big into like shows and movies and how people film stuff.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Um, that was just a very impressive kind of like you know, shot.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I thought it was interesting. Yeah. I they did a good job on this episode.
SPEAKER_03Oh, they did a fantastic job.
SPEAKER_01Okay, well we're not there. Um I'm jumping ahead. But anyway.
SPEAKER_03Anyway, so we're going, uh, let's continue. Buffy turns and walks towards the kitchen, uh, putting down the phone on the table. She gets to the back of the living room just before the kitchen door. Um, she falls to her knees, vomits. We hear the sound of wind chimes, um, and just uh some rushy noises. Um it's all very like weird, like because there's no music. So you hear like all the background noises from outside, and like the one thing that's happening inside, and then you know, it just gives you this like weird, tense feeling, I guess, when you're watching it.
SPEAKER_00Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_03Um so uh Buffy's at the very bottom of the screen. Um the majority of the picture is showing the wall, the small side table. It's this little area I didn't know existed in this house. Yeah. The first time you see it, it's like it's not um not a dining room, but it's like a little like off weird random room between like the kitchen, I think, and like I don't know. It was like it's a very small little like. It's a room I've never seen before. I know I've never seen it before either. It was used just for this shot. Yeah. Never see it again. At least I don't think you do. I could be wrong. Um anyway, um, Buffy stands up, um, her back to the camera. She puts a hand on her stomach, walks through the kitchen, and back through the door, opens it, looks out. We hear birds singing, distant voices, city noises. I know that they wanted to make it like because I mean, like death, it makes everything feel like it's stopped and whatever, but life still goes on around you. I know they wanted to kind of emphasize that. Yep. Um we hear a bird singing, distant voices, there's a close-up of Buffy's face. She's sweaty and pale. She stands there for a moment, um, then turns back inside, leans on the door for support. She looks at the kitchen island, goes over, takes a bunch of paper towels off the roll, leaving the back door open. She goes back in the living room and puts the paper towels over the spot on the carpet where she vomited. There's a lingering shot of paper towels on the carpet as the moisture begins to seep through. I know. I was like, this is kind of gross. Um Giles calls out for Buffy. Buffy turns, Giles standing in the front door panting. Uh Buffy tells uh him that she is waiting for the corner and she needs to go tell Don who's at school. Um Giles is very confused until he sees Joyce for the first time. He rushes towards her out of frame. Buffy tells him it's too late. Um, Giles starts shaking Joyce, and Buffy yells out they aren't supposed to move the body. Um Buffy looks at her. Buffy looks aghast, putting her hand in her mouth, and she realizes what she just said. Giles gets up, um, moves over to Buffy, uh, puts his arm around her, and uh Buffy stares in shock. And um, there's a shot of Joyce lying on the carpet, her eyes are still open. Um there's an overhead shot of Joyce being zipped up in a body bag, and we only see the hands of whoever's doing it. They pull a zipper over her face. We head over to Dawn at school. She's leaning against a wall crying. We um at this point you kind of think it's about Joyce. Um we see that she's in the bathroom crying about uh Kevin Berman calling her a freak in front of everybody. Um the door opens. We see she's standing in the bathroom. Um, the door that um opened was the toilet stall door. Another girl, Lisa, comes in, uh, walks forward and tells her that um he didn't say that um she was a freak. We see that it's actually a mirror behind on. Um Lisa is in the front reflected in the mirror. Um she goes over to the sinks, uh, which Don is staying next to and begins to wash her hands. They talk about the situation.
SPEAKER_01Oh my god, it was a whole monologue about this like girl who I don't even know. I was like, this is such teenager talk. I don't even care to rehash all of it.
SPEAKER_03But it's basically non-important essentially, she's kind over a boy and then another girl who's bullying her, essentially. Yeah, that's what we're talking about.
SPEAKER_02I just skipped through it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's fine. Um, it's not important, it's just kind of well, I mean, Dawn's still living her life at this point. Yeah. Before Told Joyce. Yeah. Um, they talk, the bell rings, they walk to class. Don and Lisa entered the classroom, the walls are are all glass around. Very weird. Um, so is this like where is the school? I kind of want to know because Sunnydale's Hyde hasn't reopened. I don't know. I kind of I really want to know what school they're at right now because they never tell you what the name of the school is. Um, but clearly it's not Sunnydale High anymore. So I'm like, where is she? Um that's a good question. Unless she's still can no, she's fourteen. She was a good one.
SPEAKER_01I mean, was there another school in the town?
SPEAKER_03There had to be another school for kids to ha to go to school somewhere. I just don't know where. It wasn't Sunnydale High. So maybe another maybe she has to go to another like area, like another district. Maybe. In order to start. They never really said. Because I mean you imagine the teens at in Sunnydale still have to go to school. So they have to go somewhere.
SPEAKER_01And it had to be close enough for Buffy to go pick her up.
SPEAKER_03Uh a car drive, maybe it's like a half an hour or something.
SPEAKER_01Did she have her license?
SPEAKER_03I think whenever you know what in the show, she always is getting driven by like Xander or somebody.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's because like when she walked in the door, she like, Do you want me to go pick Dawn up? And it's like, well, how close is the school? Maybe there's a couple schools in Sunnydale. Like there's I don't know. It's supposed to be a really small town, but it's got a whole small when it wants to be. It has a train station.
SPEAKER_03It's small when it wants to be. It has um a whole university. It has a castle somewhere.
SPEAKER_01It's a stone state, honestly.
SPEAKER_03It's a castle, a Dracula castle somewhere. It's like it holds Sponnydale State. It has both a beach, but also in the desert.
SPEAKER_00I don't know where this place is.
SPEAKER_03And a lot of cemeteries. It's just like the Springfield of Buffy. Yeah. You don't know where it is. It's just in Southern California, but somewhere in Southern California. Anywho. Um the bell rings, they go to class. Um, there's a cute boy at the back of the classroom. We see the teacher standing by a model, which is a two to three foot-high statue of a naked woman. Um, like, I don't understand. I don't know. Maybe it's not an art person, but why do they need to do mood nudes for high schools? I don't know about high school. They want to do nude models for teens.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that is strange. Very weird. That is strange.
SPEAKER_03Like, I know art is supposed to be like objective or whatever, but I'm just saying it's just teens are just teens.
SPEAKER_02Feels like indecent exposure at this point.
SPEAKER_03It's just very weird. But anyway. Um, there's this whole scene uh where he's she's talking to Kevin and getting like, you know, her floor on. Um we see Buffy in the hallway looking at Dawn. She comes in, um, goes to the teacher, and then walks over to Dawn, who's still talking to Kevin, not having noticed her. Don sees her and tells her, uh Buffy tells her that she needs to talk. There's a shot of the teacher watching. Obviously, the teacher now knows. Um there's a shot of Lisa looking over, um, a shot of a statue. Dawn puts down her charcoal and uh walks with Buffy towards the door after arguing for a little bit. She didn't want to leave Kevin because apparently Kevin was gonna die in between this time. I have no clue. I just skipped through that too. Buffy closes the classroom door behind them and the exit of the hall. Um, she Don wants to know what's going on. Buffy suggests they go outside because again, there's a freaking wall of windows where all the students getting involved. Literally. And Dawn is just apparently being stem as fuck right now. This is when she decides teenager. I was like, this is where she's gonna put her foot down. I don't know why she can't go to the other hall or something like that, but whatever. Um she asks where her mom is, and Buffy tells her she had an accident and something went wrong with a tumor. Um, Dawn has tears in her eyes, but she's asking if mom uh will be okay. Um, we see the inside of the classroom and like um her friend and the Kevin boy, the teacher pretty much everyone's staring. And this is why Buffy wanted to move them away.
SPEAKER_01And all you see is them in the hallway through the class.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and like it's very like you can't hear what's going on, but you suddenly see Dawn crying and shaking. Um uh she backs away. Um, you hear her uh yell that she's a liar, crumbles on the floor sobbing, and um you see just the Kevin boy just watching the shot of the teacher, all of them.
SPEAKER_02And then you see- Yeah, they like creepily all move towards the class again.
SPEAKER_03Another reason Buffy was like, Let's go another reason. Seriously, and Dawn's like, no, we're gonna make this into a presentation. Um, I get it. This was legit just for like camera action, because like the dramatics of it, but whatever. Um Buffy kneels to comfort Dawn, and we pan across uh Dan's half-finished sketch of the statue, which looked pretty nice actually. A good little artist there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so there's an overhead shot of Joyce lying on a metal table, and there's hands wearing gloves, come into the picture and unbutton her blouse, then begin to cut away her camisole with a pair of scissors, and Joyce's eyes are still open for some reason. I know they usually like close them by now. It's for TV. Yeah. Um, we see a shot of Tara's face and a window behind her, and then we see a shot of Willow standing in her dorm room next to the closet. She's wears an undershirt and is holding a blouse on a hanger, but she's staring at it without really seeing it. And Willow doesn't move. In the foreground, we see Tara's shoulder and the back of her head, and a shot of Anya sitting in the passenger seat of a car, looking out the window as the car moves down city streets. And a shot of Xander driving the car in total silence through all of this. There's overhead shot of the car pulling up beside some other ones that are and he he's parking up on the sidewalk, and we see a grassy lawn, and the camera pulls back, and we see out of the oh my god, why didn't I get rid of all of this? It's just basically he pulls up to their place. Um, Terra sees that they're there, and she's like, Oh, they're here, and then we cut back to Willow still frozen.
SPEAKER_00Double parks.
SPEAKER_01So cut back to Willow, still frozen, holding the shirt, and she reacts, returning from her thoughts, and looks at the shirt and then tosses it back in, and we see like a big pile of clothing there already. Cut to Xander and Anya in the car. Xander asks if she wants to come up, and Anya looks around and looks at him and says he's double parked, and Xander's like, let him give me a ticket, and they both get out. Cut back to the dorm room. Willow takes two more shirts out of the closet and turns to Tara and asks what she thinks of the purple shirt. There's a whole scene here of Willow totally spazzing about her clothing options and crying, and Tara comes over and puts her hands on her shoulder and like rubs her shoulders and neck, and Willow tells her she can't do this, and Tara kisses her on the forehead, then on the mouth, and Willow returns a kiss. And this was supposed to be like a big moment because I think it was like one of the first uh It was the first.
SPEAKER_03Well, it was the first kiss they are able to do on on TV.
SPEAKER_01On TV.
SPEAKER_03Like you hear about them kissing, you hear about stuff they do, but it's all And why was it that they could finally show it? Because they were allowed to. Because executives or whatever gave them the permission to do it. I think he fought to he fought for it though. Yeah. Joyce not Joyce. Josh had a fight for this scene. Um But yeah, they didn't want um they didn't want the the kiss to happen on TV. Well But this is also the reason why Willow is no longer considered bi.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03She is straight up gay. Um, and that would be fine if like in the future she doesn't like she acts like she's never liked guys at all. No, you had like a huge crush on Xander and you were in love with Zaz. Let's not forget this.
SPEAKER_02Power of the vagina, Sarah.
SPEAKER_03You don't understand. Well, no, I think because they wouldn't like they were like, you can either be straight or gay at this point. Like that's where they were going. They're like, bye, you cannot be. And that's why she couldn't just say, like, oh, I do occasionally guys. She had to be straight up gay at this point.
SPEAKER_01I don't know. Once you go with a rack, you don't go back.
SPEAKER_02Okay, then Tara leans her hey. Boobs are fun.
SPEAKER_01I would like to get rid of Mindercross. Honestly, I'm like looking up. I'm like, how can I get rid of these smaller?
SPEAKER_03You know, I hate boobs.
SPEAKER_01I'm like, they're too much in the way.
SPEAKER_03Um clothing sucks.
SPEAKER_01Alright, so then Tara leans her forehead against Willow's and tells her, we can do this. And they both nod. And Tara continues rubbing Willow's shoulders. Katsu Anya and Xander climbing up the stairs, and then Anya asks, uh, like, what do we do? And Xander says he doesn't know, but he'll talk to Giles. And then we see them coming up the stairwell, and there's like various students around. And Anya asks him, What will they be expected to do? And Xander looks at her but doesn't answer. And then he walks up to the door of room 213, and the door is slightly open, and Xander knocks and pushes it open and enters. And we see Tara in there, and Willow appears from around the corner, and she's wearing a greenish shirt with a red cardigan over it. Xander and Willow hug while Tara and Anya stand there looking uncomfortable. Um, they discuss how much they all cried and how they need to meet Buffy at the morgue. Willow gets nervous again and says she needs to change, and she removes her cardigan and tosses it aside and goes off to get another shirt. Xander asks what else Giles said, and Tara said he thinks it was natural and nothing to do with glory. Willow reappears now wearing a pink turtleneck, and Xander just starts blaming the doctors for letting her go. There's a close-up of Tara looking concerned and upset, and Willow tries calming Xander down by putting up her fists and telling him to fight her in like a joking way. And Xander stares at her, then sighs and walks over to her and kisses her on the forehead. And Tara just watches sadly. Anya asks if they are going to see the body, but Willow says she doesn't know. Tara points out they should take over patrolling, and Willow looks at herself unhappily, then at Tara and says she can't wear this, and she turns to change again. Um, Willow wants a top that Joyce liked, but can't find it, and Tara offers to go to the laundry room to check, and Tara walks out. Anya walks around the room a bit aimlessly, then turns back and asks if they are gonna cut the body open. Willow is horrified and tells her to shut her mouth. Anya asks if she's supposed to be changing her clothes a lot instead. Um, Anya doesn't understand how any of this works. And Willow and Xander just look at her in surprise, and yeah, Anya goes into like this little speech where she's crying and saying, like, 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 immortal and stupid. And Sander's crying and not talking, and I was having fruit punch, and I thought, well, Joyce will never have any more fruit punch anymore, and she'll never have eggs or yawn or brush her hair, not ever, and no one will explain to me why. And then she stops and puts her hand over her face, crying. This is like the first time I've ever seen Anya actually upset. Um, Willow has tears in her eyes too, and Xander goes over to Anya, but she pushes him away and goes and sits down in a Papa-San chair by the window. Xander goes back to the doorway and he's just pacing back and forth. In the hallway behind him, we see various students still passing by, and there's just total silence. And a shot of Willow sitting on the bed, and then Anya's still in the chair. Um there are a bunch of pillows on the chair, and one is poking her in the back. She turns around and pulls it out, and it's a stuffed animal with a blue sweater wrapped around it. And right beside the chair is a closed bureau with the drawers slightly opened. Anya tucks the blue sweater into one of the drawers and sits back holding the stuffed animal, which is actually the sweater that uh Willow was looking for. And there's a shot of Willow staring at the floor, suddenly there's a loud banging noise. Willow and Anya jump and look up, and there's a shot of Xander in the doorway with his left hand stretched out, obscured by the wall. He apologizes, and Willow walks around the corner and discovers Xander's hand is buried in the wall. And uh he tells them he has pent-up frustration, and there's a whole scene here with them trying to get his hand out of the wall. He twists his arm, pulls it out, and his knuckles are covered in blood. All the girls go, ooh, in concern, and there's a shot of the bloody hand as Xander flexes his fingers. Um Anya leads Xander over to the sink to wash it, and Anya looks under the sink for band-aids as he's doing that. In the foreground, Tara turns to Willow and tells her she couldn't find the shirt. And Willow shrugs and says, Doesn't matter. They need to get there for Buffy. And there's a shot of Tara and Willow facing each other in the foreground. And in the back, Anya and Xander are still tending to his hand. And Xander says the Avengers gotta get to the assembly. That's what they do. They help Buffy. He puts the towel down and goes out. Willow and Tara go too, so does Anya. Um, and the camera stays on the closed door. After a moment, the door opens again, and Willow rushes in, and she we see a shot of Willow's red card again on the table by the window, and she grabs it and leaves again, and we hear the sound of the door closing again as the camera pans across the table to the window, and outside on the street below, a police officer is putting a ticket on Xander's car.
SPEAKER_03Um, we open to an overhead shot of Joyce lying on the table. Um, there's a sheet covering up to her shoulders. She's pale and her eyes were open. A pana, a pair of hands wearing uh bloody rubber gloves attaching a small bandage to the side of Joyce's forehead. Uh I don't know why. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01Uh do they have to like cut in there?
SPEAKER_03I don't know. Um anyway, I'm not a morgish mortician. I'm a mortician. Um then the hands remove the gloves. Uh we pull out to find um the doctor, uh, the same one from listening to fear and into the woods. Uh pulling the sheet up to cover Joyce's face. He turns off a lamp that hang is hangs over her, turns away. We see that he's wearing rubber's uh smock over his blue hospital scrubs. He removes the smock and puts it in the hazardous waist, and then moves out to the morgue, picking up a clipboard. He moves into the office area, puts the clipboard on the desk, and then picks up a white coat and exits. Um he walks down a dark hallway, uh, passes an orderly. Uh the hallway is folded up gurnies and bogs. It's basically a deserted. This is a very like for the fact that at Sunnydale gets all these stuff that happens, it's a very deserted hospital half time. Yeah. Um everybody dies before they get there. He comes around the corner, sees waiting room, uh, where Giles, uh Buffy, Don, and the rest of the Scoobies are gathered. Um, Tara hugs Dawn and Xander hugs Buffy, and Xander hugs Giles. They all hug each other essentially. It's a very sad moment. Um Don says that they aren't telling them uh the doctors aren't telling them anything. Giles looks around and suddenly Anya hugs him. He looks surprised, hugs her back. Over her head, uh, he notices the doctor, everyone looks over, he walks forward. Buffy, Giles, and Dawn go to meet him, the others kind of stay behind. The doctor says he examined Joyce um and it was a sudden sudden hemorrhaging from a ruptured uh arterial vessel near where the tumor was removed. He says that the doc uh that Joyce knew the dangers and possibilities of rupture, and that she didn't even get on the phone, so it was very sudden. She may have felt a little nausea and passed out. Um so uh Buffy has this like flash, uh so Joyce in the living room, Buffy by her side. Buffy takes Joyce's hand in concern as Joyce um sits on the sofa. Um she says, My head, and then we flash to Buffy, Joyce, and the paramedics in the ambulance. And then flash to Don, Joyce, Buffy, and the doctor in the hospital. Um we cut back to the present, where the doctor is saying it's doubtful that this could have been dealt with in time. We cut to a close-up of Buffy's face, a shot of the doctor looking sympathetic. Um Giles thanks him. Uh Buffy asks if he's sure there wasn't a lot of pain, and the doctor responds, Absolutely. Um the doctor's mouth continues to move, but what we hear is what Buffy is thinking, not what he's actually saying. And the doctor in Buffy's thoughts says, I have to lie to make you feel better. Um there's a close-up of Buffy staring at the doctor. Joss asks what else needs to be done, and the doctor says the um there's some forms that need to be filled out, and decision is made. Joss tells Buffy that he's gonna handle those, and the doctor nods, they move away. Um Willow takes both Buffy and Dawn by the hands, leads them to the sofa. Um, they sit. Tara sits on uh Buffy's other side. Anya, Xander, and Dawn remain standing. Uh Dawn says that she needs to pee and walks off. Uh Buffy mentions that um she thinks Dawn is mad at her. She had a meltdown when she told her and probably still doesn't believe her. Anya randomly blurts out that she wishes Joyce didn't die because she was nice and now they all hurt. Anya looks hopefully at Buffy who says thank you. Xander looks a little surprised. Um Willow, Xander, and Anya go off to get some food for Buffy. Um, there's a shot of uh Buffy and Tara sitting next to each other. They look at each other then away, and they talk about their deaths and mothers. Uh Tara says that she lost her mom when she was 17. They briefly talk about it. We get over to Dawn coming into the bathroom. She looks around the corner, um, sees Buffy and Tara talking, and then we pan over to the door that says morgue um with a sign that says authorized personnel only. Um Dawn goes over to the door, um, opens it, goes down the hall. It's very silent. Um we see from uh Dawn's point of view, she can see the second door where the doctor desk is. Um we go into the morgue. Um Dawn's face uh is showing on the camera through the window. In Dawn's point of view, we see a shot of the interior of the morgue with several sheet-covered bodies lying on the tables. Dawn opens uh the door, goes inside, and turns and bolts the door shut. She turns back and walks slowly past through a bodies covered in sheets, towards the one at the end. Don't know how she knows where she needs to go, but she does. Um Dawn walks up to the last table, farthest from the door. She stares at the shape, closes her eyes and opens them, and then she reaches out her hand. Um she pulls back the sheet and um with her hands and then um takes a step back, swallows. From behind her on the furthest table, um, we see a body suddenly sit up, um, removing the sheet covering it. Dawn doesn't notice this. She there's a complete silence. Um we see that the shot of the person sitting up is a male vampire. He looks around, sees Dawn, smiles, and then puts the sheet aside, swinging his legs over. We have a long shot of Dawn's back. The camera is at floor level in the foreground. We see the vampire's bare leg. Um, Dawn is in the background of the shot, still staring at the sheet-covered body. The vampire's other leg comes into view. Um we see a close-up Don turning and seeing him and then getting ready to scream. We cut over to Buffy and Tara sitting on the sofa. Um Xander, Willow, and Anya return with uh their arms full of soda and junk food and coffee. They say they panicked and um got everything essentially. Willow asks about Dawn, and uh Buffy says that she's gonna go check in her in the bathroom. She walks the hallway, um, looks at the door, uh, marked women, and then across the door, marked personnel only. She goes to the second door, opens it. She walks down slowly at first, and then faster. You hear a scream. She comes to the um door and sees Dawn struggling as a vampire is behind her and has her by the arms. Dawn shrieks and struggles. Dawn shoves the door, but it's locked. She throws herself against it and it bursts open. The vampire pulls uh Dawn up against him and then bends his head to bite. Uh Buffy runs up behind him and um grabs him by the neck, grunting. Dawn yelps and continues struggling. Um she pulls the vampire back. Um he loses his grip down and who uh on Dawn, who flies forward, crashing into a growny. As she falls to the floor, she accidentally pulls a sheet um so it exposes Joyce's head. Uh Buffy struggles with the vampire, he hits her. The stomach, she loses her grip. He grabs her by the neck. They struggle. There's a whole big fight scene here. Yeah. Um, they fall on the uh floor, there's noises. We see Dawn recovering from lying on the floor. She looks up, sees um Joyce's head. Um, Joyce is on the floor with a vampire on top of her. She punches him in the face, they roll. Oh yeah, Buffy is.
SPEAKER_02I was like, Joyce was on the floor?
unknownNo.
SPEAKER_02Buffy. He said Joyce was on the floor with a vampire.
SPEAKER_03Maybe it's possible. Sorry, dude. I didn't even hear Joyce on that one.
SPEAKER_02I was like, I don't remember that scene, but okay.
SPEAKER_03As they struggle, she reaches over and grabs a medical instrument that looks like a short saw. She puts it against the vampire's throat um as he grabs her face. By the way, the guy's pure naked in this, by the way. Yeah. This entire scene, he's completely naked. Um, and if it was HBO, we would see everything. That is true. Everything swinging. Um, she puts it against the vampire's throat as he grabs her face. His hands fall aside, and Buffy shoves a saw through his neck, cutting his head off. He explodes the dust, um, and she falls, lie on her back. She lies there a moment, staring at the ceiling, and then she rolls over, sits up, and we see Dawn. Um, Dawn is crouching and staring up at the gurney. She pulls herself up to a kneeling position so she can joy see Joyce's face. Joyce's eyes are still open. Jesus At least put quarters on them. We stay on a shot with Joyce in the foreground. Dawn immediately behind her and Buffy in the background, still sitting on the floor. Dawn asks if she's cold, and Buffy says she's gone, but it's not her. Don asks, uh, where does she go? She lifts her hand, reaches out very slowly. There's a shot of Joyce's head with Dawn's hand moving towards her cheek. The picture goes black just before Don's um fingers touched the body. And that's the end.
SPEAKER_01I wanna know what they do when that body, that vamp body, just disappears.
SPEAKER_03I don't know. They must have this must happen a lot for them. Seriously. The walk away. But it doesn't like because it's dusted, it's because they probably just leave. Um, but this must be a very normal thing in Sunnydale. Like so, okay. And all the paperwork has got suddenly interrupted.
SPEAKER_02Literally, the walking dead.
SPEAKER_03You can imagine that someone comes out from out of state that's auditing them, like, what the fuck?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you lost all these bodies. What's with all the ash all over the floor?
SPEAKER_03To be fair, I feel like the world should be in a at a certain point, especially hospitals, be somewhat aware something's wrong because now most of the action happens inside the hell because there's a hell mouth, but there's vampires everywhere in the world. So you imagine some things like this happen occasionally in other hospitals.
SPEAKER_02You would think in other parts of the world.
SPEAKER_03So yeah. Um, I mean, it's happening in LA probably with an angel. Oh, seriously.
SPEAKER_01Um, all right, so the cheese factor we gave for this episode was a negative five.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I was like one, but then we're like, nope, we can go in the negatives, it's fine.
SPEAKER_01Um it's a sad episode. It's a very sad episode. It's like really good acting, no music, one vampire through the whole episode.
SPEAKER_03I'm so glad I got through this without crying. Um I think because the combination of me being tired and then whenever you were talking, I was trying to zone out, so I wasn't paying attention to the card.
SPEAKER_02I gave us really long talking parts too.
SPEAKER_03Uh but yeah. Oh. It's a rough episode. It is. But the next episode's pretty rough too. I don't remember that one. It's like it's like the it's I guess I'll have to say you'll have to watch it. Um, it's not as rough as this episode, obviously. Yeah. And we're back to like music and everything, all that stuff, but it's still like it's a continuation of this episode, essentially. So um but we're getting into the the latter part of the season. And I feel like what happens in this episode really affects Buffy's decision making going through the rest of the season. So yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, I uh I'm ready for bed. So on this depressing note, maybe we need to watch something funny before we go to bed.
SPEAKER_03Exactly. Before we officially sleep.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Um, alright. So until next week. Bye.