Buffy The Vampire Slayer: 20 Greatest Moments
2. Joyce's Death
I think we have established by now that The Body is the single most powerful episode of Buffy ever and just one of the most emotionally-devastating episodes of TV all round. Its greatest scene has to be the opening where Buffy discovers her mother Joyce's body.
It's beautifully written and directed by Whedon with a bravura performance from Sarah Michelle Gellar, as Buffy struggles to comprehend what has happened. The initial gut-punch of seeing Joyce dead is also a terrible reminder that most deaths don't come in some big dramatic moment, they usually occur when we're not expecting it.
For a show called Buffy the Vampire Slayer, this is a staggeringly realistic and down-to-earth moment.