Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1996–2003): Season 5, Episode 16 - The Body - full transcript

Hey, mom.

Ooh.

Still a couple of guys
gettin' it right.

Hey, flower-gettin' lady,

want me to pick
dawn up from school?

Mom?

What are you doin'?

Mom?

Mom?

Mommy?

I think we're just
about ready for pie.



Then I'll be pretty much
ready for barf. Xander!

Gross. No, no, barf
from the eating,

'cause all was good,
and too much goodness...

I'm taking it
as a compliment.

Yes, everything was delicious.
Yes.

I'm going to barf too.
Everyone's so sweet.

How you doing there, wil?
Are you in the vomit club too?

I had too much nog.

Oh, baby. Want me to rub your tummy?
She likes it when I,

uh, s-stop
explaining things.

My nog tastes funny. I think
I got one with rum in it.

- That's bad.
- Yeah, now Santa's gonna pass you right by,

naughty booze hound.

Santa always passes me by.
Something puts him off.



- Could be the big-honk menorah.
- Did you write him a letter?

- What'd you ask for?
- Um, guys, hello. Puberty.

Sort of figured out
the whole no-Santa thing.

- That's a myth.
- Yeah.

No, I mean, it's a myth that it's a myth.
There is a Santa Claus.

The advantage of having a 1,000-year-old
girlfriend. Inside scoop.

- There's a Santa Claus?
- Mm-hmm. Been around since the 1500s.

But he wasn't always called Santa.
But, you know,

Christmas night, flying reindeer,
coming down the chimney... all true.

All true?

Well, he doesn't traditionally
bring presents...

So much as, you know,
disembowel children.

But otherwise... the
reindeer part was nice.

Damn it. I hate this oven.
It burnt.

No, it's just blackened.
You know, it's Cajun pie.

Shall I open another?
Do you think we dare?

As long as you two stay away
from the band candy,

I'm cool with anything.

You are
a demon child.

I live to torment you.
Is that so wrong?

A daughter's duty,
I suppose.

All we have to do is cut off
a little bit of the burnt...

Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom.

Mom, mom, mom, mom,
mom, mom.

Mom!

911 emergency.
Hello?

Do you have... it's my mom.
She's... she's not breathing.

Is she conscious?
No. I-i-i-i can't...

She's... she's not breathing. I
need you to give me your address.

What? I'm gonna send
an ambulance over.

1630 Rivelo.
I-i-it's a house.

Rivelo, near Hadley. I'm
sending a unit right away.

Are you alone in the house?
Yes.

And did you see what happened?
Did she fall?

No. No. I-i came home and
sh... wh-what should I do?

Do you know how
to administer c.P.R.?

No. I don't remember.
Okay, it's very simple.

You want to tilt
your mother's head back,

cover her mouth with yours
and breathe into her mouth.

- I-i know this.
- I know this.

God. I can do this.

I can do this!

Okay. Okay. There.

One, two, three, four, five,

six, seven, eight...

One, two...

Oh! Oh, god.

I... are you there?
I-i broke s-something.

Hello?
It cracked.

Is she breathing?
No.

Paramedics should
be there in a moment.

You might have cracked a rib.
It's not important.

She's cold.

The body is cold?
No, my mom!

Should... should I
make her warm?

No. If she's not responding
to the c.P.R.,

best thing is to wait
for the paramedics, okay?

When will they be here?
They're very nearby.

You just...

Stay calm.
When the paramedics arrive...

I have to make a call.

Hello?
Giles, you have to come.

Buffy?

She's at the house.

She's in here.

- I'm getting no pulse.
- Let's lay her out.

- How long's she been like this?
- I found her... a few minutes.

- Was she conscious?
- No.

I'm baggin' her.
What?

We're gonna intubate. Trying to get
her to breathe. This your mother?

Yes. She have any serious
health problems?

- Any history of heart disease or...
- no.

There-there was a tumor,
a-a brain tumor.

But-but she had an operation,
and she's fine now.

She's... she's been fine.

We got her!
My god, we got her!

Let's get her on the truck now.
Call it in ahead.

- I never brought one back this late.
- Buffy.

I'm here.

It's a miracle. That's what
it is... a beautiful miracle.

Good as new. Buffy, thank
god you found me in time.

She's cold, man.

Call it.

I'm sorry.
Wh-what do we do now?

I'm sorry, but I have
to tell you that...

Your mother's dead.

It looks like she did die a good
while before you found her.

There's... nothing
you could have done.

What... I'm guessing it must've
been an aneurysm or some clotting.

Some complication
from surgery.

She probably felt...

Very little pain.

I'm gonna call it in. The coroner's
office will come by and take her in...

And they'll determine the
cause of death conclusively.

Dispatch seven,
we have a 2-0-6.

What's your status?
We're moving.

Location is Beaumont and 9th.
Your gig is on the street.

Go now.
Okay. We gotta fly.

All right. I'm gonna
call this right away.

The coroner's office
may take a while.

In the meanwhile,
I think you should sit,

have a glass of water
and try not to disturb the body.

Do you need anything?
Is there someone you can call?

Someone's coming.
Let's go.

I'm very sorry for your loss.
Thank you.

Good luck.

Buffy! What is it?
Is it glory?

I'm waiting.
The... the coroner's coming.

- What?
- I have to tell dawn.

Sh-she's at school.
I'll go there.

I'm not sure... oh, god.
No. No.

- Don't. No. It's too late.
- Joyce?

- They're coming for her. No. No. We're...
- Joyce!

We're not supposed
to move the body!

Oh, god.

I can't believe it.

It's not that bad.

How can you say
it's not that bad?

I just don't think
it's that big a deal.

Kevin berman called me a freak
in front of everybody.

No, that's no big deal.

He didn't say
you were a freak.

Forget it.

He just said
you were freaky,

which, you know, freaky
can be sort of cool.

Yeah. Real cool.

I'm a suicidal head case.
You know it was Kirstie.

She was telling people how you
were into cutting yourself and...

That's such a lie!

I got cut...
By accident... one time.

Now Kevin thinks I'm...

That was when you were
wigging out about your family.

And, of course, Kirstie's gotta
turn everything into a story.

She was telling people
that you were adopted.

What a prima biatch.

I swear, if I could
make her head explode...

Using only
the power of my mind,

that's what I'd be doing
right about now.

Great. Now I look
like a wet rat.

You know you can't go out
there looking all cry-face.

That'll just give
Kirstie more ammo.

You know, my big sister could
really beat the crap out of her.

I mean, really really.

What do you think?

Can I show my face?

You're good to go.
We're gonna be late anyway.

Kirstie alert.

- Hey, dawn.
- Hey.

How you doing? You okay? Good.
Thanks for asking.

Biatch.

Okay, remember,

we're not drawing the object.

We're drawing...

The negative space
around the object.

We just draw the edges.
Hi.

Oh. Hey, Kevin.
And then give me a sense...

Of the spaces around,

the space in-between.

What's going on?

Um, negative space.

Yeah.
What's that all about?

Yeah.

That's pretty good.

Thanks.

So I heard you, like, had a
freak-out and cut yourself.

No. Not even.

It was a whole...
It was so not...

I felt like that before.

Things get so crazed,
you know?

You just feel like you want
to do something extreme.

Yeah.

I just had a lot of
intense stuff going on.

A lot of people
don't understand that...

Pain.

Yeah.

Then Kirstie's gotta blab it
everywhere 'cause she's...

Kirstie, man.
It's like she thinks,

"I'm so hot, everybody should
just bow down before me."

And I'm, like, "whatever."

She's so superficial.

Everything's always about
clothes or who likes who,

and there's just way more
important stuff going on.

There's a lot of crucial,

you know, stuff.

Yeah.

This one time
in history,

she had this book called
annals of history,

and she didn't know how
to say the word "annals,"

so she kept saying...
Dawn.

I have to talk to you.

Um, what?

Can it wait?
I'm in the middle of a class.

I know.
Please come with me.

I thought mom
was picking me up.

What's going on?
Something's going on.

Let's go outside... no.
Tell me what's going on.

It's... bad... news.

What is it?
What happened?

- It's bad. Please, can we...
- Where's mom?

Mom h-had an accident...

Or, um,

something went wrong
from the tumor.

Is she okay?

Is she...
But she's okay?

But it's...
It's serious... but...

Dawn.

No!

No! No, it's not true!

You're a liar!
She's fine!

Please, it's not true.

She's fine.
Oh, no!

No! No!

No!

I think they're here.

Do you wanna come up?

You're double-parked.

Let them
give me a ticket.

What do you think?
The purple, right?

'Cause... 'cause it's somber?

No. No,
it's too depressing.

It's like I'm a funeral guy.

Well, this is...
This is cheerier.

Maybe I wanna be cheery, like...
Like everything is normal.

No, that's... that's rude.
That's... it's disrespectful.

♪ La la la ♪
I don't care.

If I had that blue one...

Joyce really liked
the blue one.

She told me one time. You
sure it's not in your room?

I-I-i can look again.

No. No. I-i should...
I should wear the purple.

The purple.
I-i think the... the purple.

I-it's just that it's so...
I don't know.

It doesn't mean something bad?

I think it's, um, royal.

Purple means... royalty.

Well, I can't see Buffy
at the morgue and be all royal.

"Oh, I'm the king of everything.
I'm better than you."

I have to be supportive. Buffy needs
me to be supportive. I need...

Oh, god. Why do all of my shirts
have to have stupid things on them?

Why can't I just
dress like a grown-up?

Can't I be a grown-up?

Shh.
Tara.

Shh, darling.
I can't do this.

We can do this.

Okay. We can be there
for Buffy.

And dawn.

Little dawn.

We can be strong.
Strong like an Amazon?

Strong like an Amazon,
right.

Okay.

I wish I had the blue.

So what do we do?

I'm not sure.

Willow talked
to Giles.

But what will we do?

What will we
be expected to do?

Hey.

How you doing?

I know the feeling.

I'm afraid I'm gonna
start to cry again.

Xander cried
at the apartment.

It was weird.

Yeah, it-it's a...
It's a thing we do.

What's going to happen?

Well, i... I guess...

We're gonna meet them
at the morgue.

That's where they
were taking her.

Um, Giles said that he
was gonna go with Joyce,

and Buffy was gonna go to...
The school to tell dawn.

God.

Do you know how to...
how to get... yeah.

It's at the hospital.
It's a wing.

We do morgue time
in the Scooby gang.

I have to change.

- What else did Giles say?
- Not a lot.

Are they sure this was...
Natural? I mean, glory...

Giles is pretty sure that
it wasn't... it wasn't her.

But she said she was gonna come after Buffy's
family. We should be going after her.

She could have done it
and... and covered her tracks.

Wh-why would she?
She'd want us to know.

I'll tell you what it is.

It's the frickin' doctors.

They just let her out.
Clean bill of health.

Dig a hole in your skull.
Here's a band-aid. Next!

Xander! They should
have checked her over.

They should have
had her in.

We don't we have enough
monsters in this town

that doctors
gotta help them out?

Xander, i...
I don't think it was...

It just happened.

Things don't happen!

I mean,
they don't just happen.

Somebody's...

I mean, somebody's got...

Okay.

Let's go.

Come on. You and me.

Come on.

You know I can't take you.

Damn straight.

- Are we gonna see the body?
- What?

Are we gonna be in the room...
With the dead body?

I don't know. No.

But I guess we should take
over patrolling and all that.

Yeah.
Oh, yeah.

- For however long.
- You know it.

I can't wear this.

I-I really should
have the other.

Joyce liked it so.

Do you think you could have
left it in the laundry room?

- Maybe.
- I'll go check.

- I'll just be one minute.
- We're cool.

- Are they gonna cut the body open?
- Oh, my god!

Would you just stop talking?
Just shut your mouth, please!

- What am I doing?
- How can you act like that?

Am I supposed to be
changing my clothes a lot?

Is that the helpful thing to do?
Guys...

- The way you behave...
- Nobody will tell me.

Because it's not okay for you
to be asking these things!

But I don't understand!
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 mortal and stupid.

And... and Xander's crying
and not talking.

And I was having fruit punch,
and I thought,

"Joyce will never have
any more fruit punch, ever,

and she'll never have eggs or yawn
or brush her hair, not ever."

And no one
will explain to me why.

We don't know...

How it works or...

Why.

Sorry.

Sorry. Some... pent-up...

Xander.

- Where did your hand go?
- As I was saying, some frustration...

And now, um,
I appear to be stuck.

Oh, my god.

Is your hand okay?

Pretty much.
I'm really sorry.

You could have hit
an electrical... thing!

And once again
with the sorry.

Did it make you
feel better?

For a second there.

A whole second?

In my defense,
some crappy wallmanship.

Yeah, you can hear
everything next door.

Who did the drywall in this place?
I always forget to ask.

Did I miss something? Xander
decided that he blames the wall.

Can you turn your wrist?

Hold on.

Oh!
Ooh! Oh.

It's okay.

It hurts.

Here, wash it off.

Band-aids?
Underneath.

I couldn't find it.
It doesn't matter.

We should get there.
Yes.

I wanna be there for Buffy.

You're right.

The avengers gotta get
with the assembly.

We'll go. We'll deal.
We'll help.

That's what we do.

We help Buffy.

How are we going to help?

Is there
anything we can do?

Glad you're here.

Love you so much.
I know.

They're not
telling us anything.

Doctor?

Okay, I've examined
your mother's body.

Can we see her?

Dawn, not now.

The on-site report seems
more or less accurate.

Your mother did have what
looks like an aneurysm...

A sudden hemorrhaging from a ruptured
arterial vessel near the, uh...

Where the tumor
was removed.

Shouldn't we have known about
that... that was a danger?

Sometimes these things are detectable,
and sometimes they're not.

Joyce was aware of the
possibility of a rupture...

And the effects.

She didn't even get on the phone,
so, clearly this was very sudden.

She, uh, may have
felt a little nausea...

And probably passed out
as it happened.

I doubt there was much pain.

And even if someone
had been by her side...

My head.
Mom!

It's doubtful that this could
have been dealt with in time.

Uh, thank you, doctor.

Are you sure... That there
wasn't a lot of pain?

Absolutely.

I have to lie
to make you feel better.

What, uh, needs
to be done now?

Well, there, uh...
There'll be some forms...

And some decisions
you'll need to make.

Buffy, why don't you let me handle
this as much as I can? Please.

We will need you to sign a
couple of release forms.

Yes, thank you, doctor.

I'll figure out which ones
you need to see.

We'll be here.

What did the doctor say?

Nothing.
That it's, you know...

It's what we thought...
A tumor.

Why don't we sit down?

Giles says he's gonna
go over the paperwork.

Man, if there's one day they
should not give you homework...

Dawnie, do you wanna sit?

I don't think we're gonna
have to be here very long.

- What about...
- What about what?

Nothing. I have to pee.

Do you want someone
to go with you?

No. I still remember
how to pee.

Do you know where it is?
Yeah.

I think maybe she's
mad at me or something.

'Cause you were
the one that told her?

How'd she take it?

Meltdown.

She just wouldn't believe me.

I still don't think she does.

I wish that
Joyce didn't die...

Because she was nice.

And now we all hurt.

Anya, ever the wordsmith.

Thank you.

Do you want anything?

Something to eat
or a soda?

Honestly,
I-i couldn't tell.

Well, I think you should
try to eat something.

Yeah, maybe dawn
could use a snack.

I'll find something.
Xander, do you have any money?

We'll come with.

We'll be right quick.

I'm sorry you have to
go through all of this.

You don't have to
worry about me.

Everybody wants to help.

I don't even know
if I'm... here.

I don't know
what's going on.

I've never done this.

That's just an amazingly
dumb thing to say.

Obviously, I've never
done this before.

I have.

My mother died
when I was 17.

I didn't know.

I'm sorry.

No, no,
I didn't mean to...

I'm only telling you
this because...

I know it's not
m-my place, but...

There's things...

Thoughts and reactions
I had that I couldn't...

Understand...

Or even try to explain
to anyone else.

Thoughts that made me feel
like I was losing it,

or like I was some kind
of h-horrible person.

I know it's
different for you,

because it's
always different, but...

If you ever need...

Was it sudden?

What?
Your mother.

No.

And yes.

It's always sudden.

- We panicked.
- Uh-huh.

Have anything
you want.

The sandwiches
are meat.

I'm just not hungry.

What about dawnie?

- Is she still in the bathroom?
- I guess.

You guys wait here.

Dawn?

Is she cold?

It's not her.

It's not her.

She's gone.

Where'd she go?

Grr! Arrgh!