Avengers: Age Of Ultron - 10 Heartbreaking Joss Whedon Deaths That Will Be Hard To Beat

3. Joyce Summers: Buffy The Vampire Slayer

A fascinating exploration of death and the impact it leaves on those left behind, The Body was unlike anything the show had done before. It built on on the increasingly difficult arc of series five, as Buffy's mother Joyce discovered and underwent treatment for a brain tumour. Mid way through the season, she had survived and up to the Body she was starting to get her life back, returning to her job and even going out on a date in the previous episode. So the shock of her death hit even harder, with Sarah Michelle Gellar delivering one of her finest moments as grieving daughter Buffy. The Body was an episode devoid of music, with a phenomenal script from Joss Whedon and outstanding performances from all involved. It hit the audience in the gut, particularly the moment where Buffy imagined the ambulance arriving to resuscitate Joyce before the grim realisation that it was all in Buffy's mind. Oddly, the only thing seems truly out of place in the appearance of the vampire at the end, suggesting that just this once the supernatural could have been absent from the episode. Anya's speech struggling to understand the concept of death, Willow and Tara's first on-screen kiss and that uncomfortable but mesmerising first ten minutes made the episode a stand out story in the show's seven-year history.