Summary
- Sarah Michelle Gellar was profoundly affected by filming the saddest episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "The Body."
- The death of Buffy's mother, Joyce Summers, in "The Body" is one of the saddest television deaths ever and is widely recognized as one of the best episodes in the series.
- "The Body" is a disorienting and surreal episode, offering an utterly human depiction of loss and grief, showcasing Gellar's exceptional acting skills.
Sarah Michelle Gellar and the rest of the cast of Buffy the Vampire Slayer never failed to give fans all the drama, action, and romance. They also made us hysterically laugh and ugly cry more often than not. In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, death is almost a character itself. So, there have been many sad moments where we've lost certain beloved characters, either from supernatural or natural causes.
Death might've been part of the series, but one sad moment hit harder than the rest. Making the saddest episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer almost broke completely Sarah Michelle Gellar, and she's never forgotten it. Who would?
What Is The Saddest Episode Of Buffy The Vampire Slayer?
Is a beloved character's death ever not sad? The death of Buffy's mother, Joyce Summers (Kristine Sutherland), ranks high on most people's lists of saddest television deaths ever. Season 5, Episode 16, "The Body," also ranks as one of the saddest Buffy episodes ever, but also one of the best in general. That's in part due to the episode's excellent writing and Sarah Michelle Gellar's powerful and emotional acting.
"The Body" comes smack dab in the middle of one of the most action and drama-packed seasons of the series before Glory really starts causing issues for the Scooby Gang. At the end of Season 5, Episode 15, "I Was Made to Love You," Buffy Summers, whose name has interesting origins, returns home and sees that her mother received flowers. She reads the card and calls to her mother in greeting.
When she goes into the living room, she sees her mother lying dead on the couch. She freezes in shock and says, "Mom?... Mom?... Mommy?" In "The Body," fans are greeted with the scene again, and it's almost unbearable to watch. Buffy runs over to her mother and starts shaking her and yelling her name.
Then, the slayer runs over to the phone to call 911. She even tries to give her mother CPR, but it's too late. On the phone throughout the whole thing, Buffy gets more and more hysterical, but once she hangs up, she starts retreating into herself, going into shock. As the vampire slayer, Buffy has seen and dealt with death thousands of times, but the death of her mother hits harder than anything else, of course. This is a totally different kind of scenario.
Buffy quickly turns ashen gray and clammy. She throws up in the hallway and opens the back door to get some fresh air. The only thing she can think of doing in the situation is cleaning up her sick until Giles (Anthony Head) comes and starts his own CPR. She yells at him not to touch "the body," and it all suddenly hits her. Her mother is dead. The scene is heartbreaking and leaves viewers feeling ill and shaky themselves.
Why Filming The Saddest Episode Of Buffy The Vampire Slayer Was Hard On Sarah Michelle Gellar
Buffy the Vampire Slayer wasn't a stranger to killing off main characters, but Joyce's death in "The Body" hit especially hard. It's, hands down, the most memorable death of the series, and it's all thanks to Sarah Michelle Geller's great performance. However, filming a horribly emotional scene like that can stay with a person, and it did with Gellar.
In a video for Buzzfeed UK (per Screen Rant), Gellar explained some behind-the-scenes facts about what it was like to film the heart-wrenching scene. She said it was both personally and technically challenging.
"My mom and I are super close and it was, really—a single parent just like Joyce was–, and it also meant that Kristine Sutherland was leaving which was really hard for me," Gellar said. "But the hardest part about this… was this entire scene was shot as a Steadicam-oner, like a play.
"So we rehearsed a couple times with the camera the boom and, you know, because you have to walk through all of these sets; it’s about a four-and-a-half minute take and she had that performance all the way through and everybody had to get it right.
"So, like, even if I thought my performance was great but the boom was in or the camera got [in the way]… so we had to, like, get it all. We could only do it a few times so we just rehearsed it like a play and then we just went for it. I really give credit to the whole crew because that was, like, a team effort."
Is Buffy The Vampire Slayer's 'The Body' The Best Episode?
Many cite Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 5, Episode 16, "The Body," as one of the best episodes to have ever aired on television, and it's all thanks to Sarah Michelle Geller's hard work.
Rolling Stone wrote, "There's no hyperbole to saying 'The Body' is one the finest episodes of television… ever. In a show defined by its supernatural and its horror and its commitment to the otherworldly, 'The Body' offers an utterly human depiction of loss and grief.
"The episode is disorientating and surreal at times, with no score and a camera that frames the world in a way it hadn’t done so prior. Every character brings their own reaction to Joyce’s death, in much the same way that we all react differently in our own grief. It’s not a homogenous experience, there’s no “correct” way to grieve. While it’s one of the finest episodes, it’s unbearably difficult to watch because it’s so real."
For once, there's no slaying, vampires, demons, witches, or anything supernatural. There are just the humans dealing with sudden loss. Gellar delivered "the starkest imaginable portrayal of sudden loss."
It might have affected her and may not be her best memory during her time working on the show, but it showed what she was capable of as an actress. She should be proud of the episode and that heartbreaking first scene.
