aired on: February 27, 2001

written by: Joss Whedon

directed by: Joss Whedon

The nightmare is true: Buffy discovers that her mother isn't breathing. She frantically calls 911 and administers CPR. The paramedics arrive and after Buffy's brief mental flashes of everything turning out all right, they pronounce Joyce Summers dead. Apparently she had an aneurysm from the brain surgery. She passed out and it quickly killed her, most likely without pain. The paramedics leave on another emergency call and assure her that the coroner will be there shortly and would she please not disturb the body?

Buffy, in shock, walks to the other room and vomits. As she wanders around the house, Giles arrives (Buffy called him after she talked to the 911 operator). Giles thinks Glory has attacked, and as Buffy mumbles about telling Dawn, he sees Joyce on the floor and rushes over. Buffy tells him not to disturb the body and then it hits her — her mom is dead.

As Giles deals with the coroner, Buffy goes to tell Dawn. Dawn is in the bathroom crying about gossip-spreading classmates and getting called a freak by a cute-guy/jerk. She heads to art class and just as her day's beginning to get better, Buffy arrives. What follows is a chilling scene where her classmates look through the glass in silence as Buffy is obviously telling Dawn bad news… there's denial and crumpling to the ground, poor kid.

Flash to Xander and Anya driving to the dorms in silence. Upstairs Willow is in a panic about what to wear. As she tears through the closet trying to find a sweater that Joyce particularly liked her grief is apparent during the compulsive wardrobe changes. Tara tries to comfort Willow as Xander and Anya arrive. Awkward silence. They're all trying to figure out how to deal with the death. When Anya asks inappropriate questions about Joyce's body and Willow tells her to shut up — we see Anya breakdown because as an 1,100-year-old demon, she doesn't understand mortal death and doesn't know what's going on. Xander puts his hand through a wall. Everyone deals with death differently. Then they all decide to focusing on supporting Buffy and Dawn.

Flash to the hospital where the coroner tells Buffy and Dawn that the paramedics were apparently right — their mom died from a brain aneurysm. Giles steps in to deal with paperwork and Dawn walks off to the bathroom. Tara confides to Buffy that her mom died when she was 17 and that she understands what Buffy's going through. Meanwhile, Dawn has snuck off to the morgue because she doesn't believe her mom is really dead. As she's about to uncover the body, a vampire rises and attacks her. Buffy, sensing that Dawn was in trouble, finds her and kills the vampire. In the process the sheet covering Joyce moved to reveal her face and Dawn and Buffy are left staring at the body.