Poor Joyce

These episodes are heartbreaking. Joyce’s death, coming so suddenly and in the midst of the battle with Glory for the Key, hits Buffy and the Scoobies harder than any other death so far in the series. Joyce, although sometimes oblivious or narrow-minded, loved her daughters and their friends, and was an integral part of the gang. She was present in all five of the previous seasons, making her the longest lasting female character over the age of 21, and earning her status, however questionable, as the Crone. When she passes, the others are left with a hole that none of them are able to fill.

In The Body in particular, Whedon does a good job of capturing the intense and erratic emotions surrounding a sudden death. From Willow’s frantic search for an appropriate outfit, to Anya’s heartfelt plea for someone to please explain death to her, each is unsure how to deal with their loss. Xander’s punching the wall and Dawn’s unrestrained anger and hurt are contrasted with Spike’s anonymous gift of flowers and Tara’s calming advice to show various ways of reacting to incomprehensible emotions.

Buffy, however, reacts by shutting down. She seems to embrace more of her cold Slayer side, focusing on the job at hand, rather than acknowledge the depth of her loss. This emotional disconnect is reflected by Buffy’s portrayal as a robot in Intervention, and by her conversations with the primitive First Slayer.

But Buffy admits that her shut down had begun earlier, with her failed relationship with Angel. There is an interesting scene, in which Buffy spends the night in the graveyard by Joyce’s fresh grave, talking to Angel. We see her surrounded by the things which have proven most difficult for her: the loss of a loved one, a lover she can never have again, and the graveyard where she’s forced to do battle nightly whether she wants to or not.

Even with the ‘help’ of the vision quest, Buffy has only acknowledged her disconnect, but hasn’t fully dealt with it yet. It seems admittance really is only the first step, and Buffy’ll have to work through her current disconnection before she can understand her gift.