#not to mention the representation of buffy's grief and how she runs to open the door

[oonerspisms]

I feel like not enough people talk about Buffy 5x17, Forever.

Everyone knows about The Body, and for good reason. It deserves its fame. But as Buffy says in the next episode, the scariest thing about Joyce dying is that she doesn’t know what comes next.

When I started watching this show, I knew Joyce would die in season 5 in an episode called The Body, so I was more or less prepared. But I wasn’t prepared for what came after.

Something like Hush is widely considered to be one of the show’s scariest, but it did not compare to the shots of Joyce’s feet walking towards the house and the knock at the door. In Hush, I knew that it would end up all right; no main characters would die and they would get their voices back. But zombie Joyce? I had no idea what was coming next. You don’t fear a character dying when one already has.

Would she be a zombie? A demon? Would she look like a vampire? Or, maybe the scariest possibility, would like she look like she had before?

Upon rewatch this moment doesn’t stay as terrifying as other parts of the show, because it is so based on the audience (along with Dawn and Buffy) having no idea who or what is coming. My second time through the show I didn’t have that feeling in the pit of my stomach because I knew I wouldn’t ever have to find out.

But my first watch? Incomparable.