I’ve just got home after drinking black Russians all night(Work xmas thing) and came home to The Body. Fuck me if this isn’t some of the best TV ever.
What an episode! Willow, Anya and the rest. WOW
But the episode is all about sound IMO. The lack of music etc.
Anya " It’s stupid" 
WOW. Seriously WOW. I’m fucking crying like a baby looking at Buffy. WOW.
Tara “It’s always sudden”
I’ve seen this ep. several time before but every time it’s like the first.
What a classic!
You might also note that the entire first scene is done in one shot. Steadicam from the beginning untill Buffy vomits in the dining room. Yes, a classic.
Anya’s speech gets me every time, as does the scene where Buffy breaks the news to Dawn. This isn’t my favorite episode, as I can’t bring myself to watch it very often. But it is quite possibly the best.
The obligatory fight scene in the hospital ruins it for me.
The fight scene could be done without, but it’s one of the finest episodes of a TV show ever, and certainly one of the few to really explore the feelings that go with the death of a loved one.
I still think Anya’s fruit punch speech belongs at the top of the list of most moving television moments, ever.
Black Russians, eh?
Oh Lord, I’d hate to see what you look like now.
I’m going for a cure with micilin later on. Come along and find out 
Thanks for the offer, but I have to do the last of the Xmas food shopping tonight. Enjoy it!
See, for me the fight scene works. It illustrates that even in the midst of the gravest personal tragedy Buffy has to keep it together and do her job. It’s an extreme version of the same sort of carrying on that us normal folks need to do when our loved ones die, and the logical culmination of her various speeches to Riley during her mother’s illness (“I can’t cry because if I start I won’t be able to stop”).
Eh, I felt the fight was also grituitous and unnecessary. Yeah, we all know she’s got a job to do, but there didn’t need to be a fight scene to prove it.
I think my favorite part (aside from the mood and silence) was when she tries to perform CPR on her mother and brakes her rib. They often seem to forget that super strength carries over to normal activities, and I think it was a really interesting effect…all she wants to do is help her mother, but she just ends up causing more pain. I feel that’s much more important and handled better here than the fight is to show “She’s still gotta kick ass.”
I agree with Otto that the fight scene was important. To me, the shock and sense of betrayal from the universe that a vampire can rise from the dead while Joyce lies cold on the slab, coupled with the sense that the world doesn’t stop being a dangerous and unforgiving place even for a moment, is a fine finale.
I think for the same reason I enjoy the moment where Xander’s car gets ticketed for double-parking.
Best/worst moment though, is the little catch of breath from the 911 operator after Buffy’s “She’s cold.”
Whimper.
That and the fact that Dawn was in there too. In my mind, that sort of showed that she’s got to look out for her sister now as well.
Going by what I was taught in first aid, when you perform CPR correctly, you are going to break ribs no matter what, even if you don’t have super strength.
Well, isn’t the point of that first big hit to the chest supposed to crack the sternum? Or was I informed incorrectly? (good thing I never had to perform CPR in real life, eh?).
Still, it showed how fragile other people were when compared to Buffy. I mean, it’s a horrible thing to be right there, (possibly) capable of helping someone, yet being unable to at the same time. Her super strength meant that trying to help was going to do more harm than good, so she had to just sit there and not do anything but wait. That’s a terrible feeling, especially for one who’s entire point is to just get in there and actively kick the crap out of whatever problem they’re facing.
I don’t know, I found that part rather powerful.
Anya’s "this is stupid’ speech breaks my heart every time. Although, what is Joss’s fascination with Fruit Punch?
Also, Buffy telling Giles not to move the body and then realizing what she had said.
One of the strongest episodes in a series filled with strong episodes, and perhaps the best acting ever out of SMG. I got the feeling several times, especially in Season Six, that Ms. Gellar was merely phoning her lines in. But if she was, it was never out of lack of ability. The woman is a fine actress, and nowhere in BTVS did this shine through more prominently than The Body.
You were extremely misinformed.
There is no first big hit. You are not trying to break ribs, especially not crack the sternum. That can cause many problems, though sometimes it is a side effect of CPR.
Please take a course before attempting CPR.
This was my second favorite BtVS episode, right behind Hush.
You don’t need super strength to crack ribs in CPR: it happens all the time actually, most often to older women (like Buf’s mom). So that was a very realistic scene even without super strength. It’s horrifying, but when the person is pretty much dead anyway, it’s better than nothing. CPR is usually unsuccesful anyway.
The “first big hit” you are thinking of is an actual proceedure, but it isn’t part of normal CPR. It’s called a precardial thump or something like that, and it’s purpose, I believe, is to physically jolt the heart: something that only works for some very particular heart problems (and cn actually make OTHER heart problems worse), so a non-professional would never be advised to do it unless directed to by medical personel that have diagnosed it as being potentially helpful (though it rarely is)