Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans are pretty die-hard, and many built up a tolerance for death after hero Buffy Summers took down one vampire after another from 1997 to 2003. However, one death still haunts viewers 25 years after it aired.
Buffy’s Surprise Pass (Sarah Michelle Gellar) mother, Joyce Summers (Christine Sutherland), during Season 5 Episode 16, “The Body,” shocked fans and the entire Sunnydale Scooby Gang.
The episode aired in February 2001, putting pain at the forefront of mainstream television and shaking up the Buffy universe for decades to come. The ripple effect of a human death on a supernatural show remains one that TV lovers talk about.
“It was very heavy,” Sutherland says exclusively in the latest issue of Us Weekly of the pivotal moment when the killer discovers his mother after she has suffered a fatal brain aneurysm.
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Scroll down to see the memorable Buffy episode and why “The Body” still resonates with us and actress Sutherland 25 years later:
Who was involved?
creator Joss Whedon co-wrote the episode with Rebecca Kirshner i Steven S. DeKnight. From the cast, which also featured fan favorites like Buffy’s sister Dawn (the late Michelle Trachtenberg), and one of her best friends Willow (Alyson Hannigan) – only Kristine Sutherland was in the know ahead of time.
“Joss asked me not to tell anyone, so I didn’t tell anyone,” says Sutherland weand added that the exact moment of her character’s death was even a mystery to the actress. “Knowing I was going to die, but not exactly when, made the rest of (my time filming) so bittersweet.”
Why do we remember it?
Buffy fans were used to death — the entire series revolves around Buffy taking out bad vampires with bets — but Joyce’s death was sudden, unexpected, and personal. The human death left a lasting mark on all involved.
“I tried so hard to dissuade him,” said Sarah Michelle Gellar Weekly entertainment in 2017 about his reaction to Joss Whedon’s decision to kill off Joyce. “I wasn’t happy about it.”
Kristine Sutherland explains we“It looked like someone had died” on set when it came time to shoot Joyce’s death scenes. “There was this real heaviness.”
Key details
The episode begins with Buffy returning home and finding Joyce’s lifeless body on the couch. “It was very emotional,” Kristine Sutherland recalls of that opening scene, noting that it was “really weird” when the actors playing the EMTs lifted her into a body bag and carried her to the morgue.
Sutherland was also spray-painted with blue-gray makeup to give her that just-died pallor, she says. The “hardest emotional part” for her, however, was having to lie on the couch and hear Buffy “walk in the door and go, ‘Mom.’
“Tears were streaming down my face,” says Sutherland weand added that the sound of silence used throughout the episode powerfully reminded viewers that for the characters, “the world just stopped” when Joyce died.
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The Consequences
Kristine Sutherland recalls feeling “honoured” to be part of a TV episode that “resonated internationally”.
The story was personal for her: “I lost my boyfriend when I was 16,” she says. “I remember those feelings so clearly because I had no concept of death. It was such a huge thing to understand when I was young.”
Since then, she’s seen how episodes like “The Body” can help with grief, especially at a young age. “All these young people over the years have come up to me and said, ‘I lost my mom, I lost my dad, and this episode helped me deal with it and understand it,'” shares Sutherland. (Rolling Stone ranks “The Body” as one of the top 10 Buffy episodes of all time and the guardian has it in the top five.)
A new perspective
At the time the episode aired in 2001, grief and loss were not common themes in hit television shows. Now with series like Six feet under, This is us i A million little things in hindsight, it’s easy to see the impact of “The Body.”
“It gets me every time,” Kristine Sutherland says of the chilling delivery. It’s “so relevant today,” he adds.
where are they now
Joyce appeared in flashbacks and dream sequences during seasons 6 and 7 of Buffyappeasing fans who missed her. Kristine Sutherland, meanwhile, continued to work in television and film after her role as one of 90s TV’s favorite moms, including starring in A life to live in 2010 and Russian doll in 2016. She’s also a proud grandmother who is “looking forward” to showing Buffy to her grandchildren.
Sarah Michelle Gellar, meanwhile, is currently executive producing a revival for Hulu. Buffy the Vampire Slayer: New Sunnydale – next to Dolly Parton and Oscar nominee Hamnet director Chloe Zhao. “I feel very lucky,” Gellar explained exclusively we on the project in 2025.
Sutherland is also proud of how far his TV daughter has come, calling Gellar a “fierce warrior.” She recalls how the actress would “command the set” even as a teenager. “I learned a lot from her. I really did,” says Sutherland we.