Anya's speech is so powerful! It's so innocent and almost child-like because she's still so new to the mortal world. The acting in Buffy was always so underrated, it really was spectacular!

I felt so bad for Anya in this scene. Everyone expected her to understand everything about the mortal world and because of that, she never truly understood right from wrong. Whenever she did something wrong, she'd get yelled at while trying to understand what it was exactly she did wrong.

This episode had some of the best acting, writing and direction of any episode of Buffy.

As I recall, this episode has absolutely *no* background music in it. It's not usually something that you notice, but the complete lack of score makes this episode so much more compelling, even if you don't know why.

this scene fricking gets me crying every time. this whole episode is amazing, horrible, but amazing. the true horrors in the world.

At 1:11, the first "but I don't understand" gets me every time.

Anya reminds me very much of myself. I have Asperger's, and no one will ever explain anything to me when I'm making a mess of things because I don't understand. I love her almost as much as Giles

Pretty much the best description of death.

This scene should be called, "Getting cheated out of an Emmy". Caulfield deserved an award for that scene.

there were a lot of great moments in this episode, superb acting throughout. like buffy's discovery of the body, dawn's meltdown, or willow's clothes monologue. they all make me cry. but this.... this was just so vulnerable and fragile and real that i start bawling two seconds into her speech. emma caulfield, well done.

This scene for me is the most real and heartbreaking. Anya is kind of like a child in that she asks questions unfiltered and just genuinely doesn't understand death. There is no logic to death or the pain it causes it just happens. This connected with me as a kid losing my friend. It just felt so real and honest. Emma's acting here was phenomenal

Everything Emma Caulfield does in that scene communicates how she always feels like the outsider after becoming human again.

When people ask me to explain what it's like to be autistic when a major life event happens I point them to this scene because as an autistic person I can relate so damn hard to this.

Anya is the most underrated character of this show, and Joss killed her in the final episode like it was no big deal

“It’s stupid. It’s mortal and stupid.” That was the moment we really came to understand Anya’s entire view of the world. It was the moment where I realized I had to go back and rewatch everything with Anya in it knowing that she had no concept of how the mortal world really works.

Emma crushed it. Everyone did. Some of the best acting I've seen to date.

I had to memorize this for a play audition (my class was doing Once More With Feeling) and I got the role of anya

Sixteen years later and this still has me reaching for Kleenex.

Oh, Anya I miss you so much :(

You know what this scene does? It perfectly captures all the different ways grief makes u feel at the same time. Part of you feels aimless, like you need to keep changing clothes or moving somehow (like Willow) part of you feels numb and sad so cry and can’t talk (like Xander), part of you feels like you have to keep moving and get things don’t for the people around you (Like Tara) and then an inevitable part of you feels small and helpless and confused and frustrated like Anya. A friend of mine passed away yesterday and this scene actually helped me process a little.

The way she just asks “why”’ just broken.

Tara's maternal attention towards her grieving friends is adorable ♥♥

My mom died yesterday and this is strangely comforting.

And when they leave, the shirt that Willow wanted to wear was under the cushions where Anya is sitting....there were just so many little things in this episode that added to the enormous heartbreak that was this episode. It was just horrifically beautiful.

The line where she says Joyce will never brush her hair always breaks my heart a little more ever time I see this. I don't know why 😥

Though now a cult classic, Buffy was extremely underrated at the time. Every actor throughout the series has been brilliant at some point. I became a huge Anya fan after this scene and still haven't forgiven Joss for killing her off. Great episode and fantastic series.

My mother died young and unexpectedly and my little sisters found her...we all loved Buffy together and when we rewatched this episode after she was gone, it wasn't until this scene that we lost it. This entire episode was so damn realistic. The CPR, the emts, the morgue, the utter shock...all of that really happens just like that and to see it on screen was indescribable. I think it is the most gut-wrenching hour of television ever made.

The scariest episode of Buffy

This scene always gets me. Emma's delivery is just phenomenal. Even with the lack of music, her epic breakdown just hit home. Extremely well written.

This episode man. I have never seen an episode of a TV show or a movie or anything that made me feel a death like that. This entire episode was just so strong...

Brilliant piece of acting. It was such an unexpected moment in a show where people died every few minutes.

She deserved an Emmy for this scene.

Emma Caulfield - as she's shown on numerous occasions - is a very gifted comedienne but this scene is easily her best work on this show.

Then she finds the purple sweater stuck underneath her.

This speech is exactly how I feel when it comes to grief, especially others' grieving. My roommates just lost their cat, for a very dumb, senseless reason. I liked that cat a lot, but he wasn't my cat. I don't know how to process it. I don't know how to react to them. I don't know what to say. I want to be there for them, but we're not really friends. We used to be, but last year we had a fight that changed that. So I want to say something, I want to do something, I want to be helpful, I want to be there for them. But I don't know what to do. I feel useless. Everything feels meaningless. And nobody will tell me why.

Such a great monologue about death. One of the greatest moments in the series

Nothing knocks the supports out from under a person's life like the loss of a parent. Think of all the death that Anya witnessed (even caused) in her 1000 years as a vengeance demon. How long had it been since she lost something she cared about (if ever, as she was a young woman when D'Hoffryn found her. Clearly she had adopted Giles and Joyce as surrogate parents, perhaps even without realizing she was doing it. Joyce's death was not the result of any magical or demonic scheme. It was pointless and cruel in the way that so much death is. Anya is in her way innocent in the face of such loss. A fine scene, perhaps her best.

February 27, 2001 first airing today is February 27, 2021 20 years, and I still cry every single time, and it’s ALWAYS at the finality of Anya’s “well, Joyce will never have any more fruit punch...ever.” Just devastating. Stay safe and healthy out there everyone, and let your families know how much you love them as many times (and as much) as possible.

Tara was my favorite she kept being practical and sweet.

This is EXACTLY how I feel about Chadwick Boseman's passing. He was only 43, that's so young...someone can be there then they aren't. I haven't cried since I found out, but I've watched this and now I'm a mess.

To me Anya represents a child when trying to understand death.

God, this episode eviscerated me. It was utterly brilliant and agonizing.

This episode is still fresh for. I was too young to watch it back then, but now I watched it from the very beginning and on my last season. I'm still crying about the last few episodes that I've seen.

Emma was so astonishing in this scene.

When I watched this episode and this part came up I was so mad at Anya. But I kept watching and I wanted to give her multiple hugs and everybody else. Her reaction reminded me of when my cousin committed suicide. For awhile my thought process was un-centered and I was confused and sad. I didn't have a moment like Anya but I had her confusion kind of like a child's trying to understand serious things.

This hits different after you’ve binged all the early seasons and are fully immersed in the Scoobies’ lives.

This whole episode, with Dawn's reaction, the lack of background music, the whole emotional ark that Buffy went through through the whole event...etc, was a piece of masterpiece television. The lack of awards that this episode, SMG and the other actors, and the series as a whole awarded to them, not only for this powerful episode, but all the rest of the sheer fun that they had while making this series is just plain criminal. I wonder if awards for episodes can be awarded retrospectively?

Emma Caufield Ford's performance in this monologue is so moving. 😢 as we go through the motions of losing someone we love we fight to ask those questions in our heads when we lost that first person in our life to death. She really pulled our heart strings in this scene and she is such a amazing actor.

I don't know why I always come watch this scene. It's just so powerful, and moving. And I'm not crying you're crying.

This scene for me was the one that opened up the water works. I was teary eyed before this in watching the episode but it was Anya who I connected with in the moment. Also the scene where Buffy tells Dawn. This episode was brutally emotional.

This is serious masterpiece television. A demon of 300 years faces the mourn with the same attitude of a real human child or a 40 years old.

For me, this will always be one of the most beautifully written & brilliantly acted moments in the show. Anya's struggle to understand death, without warning (instead of death, in the form of vengeance!) & what her role is in it's wake, is absolutely heartbreaking. When she finally breaks down after being snapped at by Willow (who, I guess is the only one permitted to have inappropriate social skills in her time of grief) we're given new insight into her character. ALL of her overly-analytical, too-much-information, NC-17 traits seem less like that of a former demon & more like a fragile, awkward woman, desperately grappling with her emotions. I always had a soft spot for Anya & this scene just cemented my affection...

Easily one of the BEST scenes of the entire series, this is an amazing performance.

I can't decide which scene in this episode is the best because the entire thing is a master piece.

Still making me cry in 2022. I can’t even count how many times I’ve watched Buffy from beginning to end. Maybe around 35 times or more! I’m still watching it, it’s like my comfort food. I love Anya, she’s also so great in the episode Selfless Season 7. Emma is amazing!!!!

This scene has always moved me nearly to tears but one thing keeps me from that point (sadly). On the IMDB message boards, someone mentioned that while it's touching that Anya is so hurt by Joyce's death....imagine all the scenes like THIS she caused for others as Anyanka. Many men and woman for centuries have also likely been asking why. STILL a powerful scene but that guy's message lives on to this day.

I can count the number of classic moments on tv on one hand. The moments that stay with the viewer forever. I am an old man and yet I still find this episode a tough watch. Brilliant script, wonderful acting and probably the best explanation about death there is. You don't have to be a stranger to the mortal World to find death of a loved one so perplexing. Brilliant and moving.

This is one of my favourite moments in all of television. This was beautifully written and acted.

I loved Anya. This scene in particular was amazing because she showed pure humanity.

The whole episode is my fave episode of Buffy ever xx As much as I love a lot of other series/shows Buffy is my fave show of all time and I don't think people realise how big of an impact and influence it has on shows today be it as an inspiration or for shows that would never have gotten greenlit without the success of Buffy first xx

What was really depressing about this was how the death makes everything so quiet, like an entire episode with no music, it just makes the death even sadder

Anya Jenkins one of the best and one of my favorite characters on Buffy, i love her so much

The most heartbreaking scene in this episode 💔😭

this was honestly one of the most touching moments in that episode :(

this should be renamed "how to get emotional in under 3 minutes"

MY EMOTIONS...MY EMOTIONS!!!!!

I always come back and watch this scene every once in a while. I still find it so moving. I remember this episode and I remember feeling bad for everyone but I was pretty blah until this moment, it was this moment that made me actually cry.

This speech nails death. It's impossible for anyone to understand. I love my socially inept demon.

Anya!!! I cry so much with this 😭😭

This whole episode is true to real life. My mum died two days ago to the hour and I did everything that every character did here in this episode

This is one of the greatest representations of how a child coming to terms with death can feel. So incredibly worded. She may be an incredibly old former vengeance demon, but still absolutely new to her reinstated humanity.

I always feel this way. Especially lately. A few years ago I lost my brother and a friend to a drug overdose. A year before that my bfs brother died of the same thing. Now this past January I lost him in a car accident and idk why these things have to happen. It just hurts.

My mom is in her deathbed battling renal cancer... This episode is making me cry. I'm actually not myself right now. IDK how to process death so close. It's like accepting that we're alone in the end, and it kinda makes me sad.

Emma's deserve a Emmy for this episode.

This scene always cuts me to the heart. It’s so well acted. I hurt for the Scoobies

The break in her voice on "understand" sends chills. Note that the image is on Willow and Xander when it occurs, the reaction is how they and WE feel, we are IN the scene with these folks. Out of this awkward exchange, by the end of this mini-monologue, I am literally crying. Even as she grasps to express herself she nails that state of disbelief and disconnect, evoking a feeling of profound powerlessness, like from our worst traumas of childhood. ("It's stupid." Bullseye, and ingeniously informed by Anya's character.) It's such a desperately *lonely* burst of bewilderment, that questions the meaning of all aspects of human life. Its truly THAT artful, largely because Joss Whedon is (was?) a master at building to a powerful beat that instantly changes the tone of a scene, in a way thats surprising yet natural and unforced. For me, no other writer's dialogue has topped him in this way, among others. God I miss him doing new TV work. This is my favorite episode of television, bar none. A straight up masterpiece.

Everything about Anya just makes me sad, Xander breaking her heart, her falling back into her old ways to cope, the frequent disregard from the gang, and then finally her sudden and unmourned death. Sure, Xander seems sort of sad, sort of, but the emotion of what else was going on with them escaping death and reveling in their victory totally overshadowed any catharsis or sentiment that short exchange with Andrew might have provided. I get what they were going for, it's a realistic death, it shows how much she's grown as a character, etc, I get that argument, but I don't think it was given enough focus (inb4 you say that was the point). It's a lot like Wash's death in Serenity, sudden, the characters have to kind of shrug it off because of what's happening, but Zoey was clearly effected by it and there was a moment after the action for the characters to honor him. We didn't get that for Anya, it's just *stab* dead, we see her body, Andrew tells Xander, who was the only one who asked, and Xander says "That's my girl. Always doin' the stupid thing." in a somewhat sorrowful way and then the moment passes and that's all the reverence that the death of a main character gets. Thirty more seconds is all that was needed, Xander and Anya having a moment when they arrive to the school (one saying to the other "don't get killed" or something) and then more than just Xander giving a shit after she died, maybe he actually sheds a tear and Willow comes over and gives him a hug. Something, anything, I'm just so sore about it.

I lost my little sister very suddenly in March of this year (2016). I was going to college and I was on my way back when we got the call she was being rushed to the hospital. She had seizures when she slept sometimes. I went straight from the school to work and while I was at work I got the call saying my brother in law (Other sisters fiance) was coming to pick me up. I found out about her passing in the seating area of the restaurant I worked at. I don't remember much from there to the hospital but I had a mix of shock and denial I guess. My BiL said I asked if he was joking and I didn't believe him at first. Anya's breakdown reminds me of the whole family. Because it was such a sudden death and she was only 23 we were all left with this mix of confusion and pain we still don't exactly know why she passed, the doctors said it might have been a complication from a seizure but we don't really know. Its going to be Christmas soon, her birthday is the 19th of Dec and this year I have a feeling its going to be a lot harder than I think.

I feel the same and it just hurts, all it does is hurt... it never stops hurting

The whole series was a knockout. What a great show.

this scene haunts me to this day. i CRY every time and it's a gut punch. Beautifully acted on all parts and really, so brutally honest. we don't talk about death in our culture.

I love how, when referring to food, Anya talks about simple dishes like eggs and fruit punch rather than a more complex dish like spaghetti and burgers, because sometimes the greatest delicacies are pretty simple and mundane, and Joyce can't even enjoy that anymore.

I've been watching this episode for years. I saw it when it aired and now everytime I have a Buffy rewatch. I own every season on DVD so every couple months I'll do a rewatch with my daughter. I still cry through out the entire episode. Anyone who doesn't has to be heartless. The way the actors conveyed their sense of loss of Joyce gets me every time.

What I appreciate the more I get older is that NONE of them know what to do or how to act (except Tara) or how to make sense of this or how to cope or what to do. They are ALL in that sense vulnerable and child like...what Anya lacks (which is also something children lack and something some with ASD lack - not that those things are similar but it's why her speech rings of both) is the ability to understand social ritual...if no one understands something and they all have questions, why can't you just ask them? Why do you have to say "I'm so sorry for your loss" stoically over and over and stand silently at the buffet table occasionally saying things like "she's in a better place"? Even her "should I be changing my clothes"...it's "I don't understand death" but it's also "I don't understand why we're doing *this* instead of talking about it"...and that's part of what makes other's judgement of her so heartbreaking when it's revealed she's just confused and sad...because all she wants to do is stop changing shirts and standing around stoically and *talk* about it.

Makes me cry every time i see this clip

This was clearly an epic episode! Great acting from everyone but this vulnerable side of Anya's made me like her even more and it's a gut-wrenching speech.

This scene always makes me cry I just watched it and I literally have tears in my eyes

her speech hits close to home for a lot of us,! Anya was one of my many favs on this show.!

they kill evil all day long but the innocence and literal feeling of pain when losing someone important and close in your life never can be understood. this episode and scene brings back reality and how humans still cant make sense of life and death is stupid and her speech is so good and the acting is phenomenal and it brings the show into a fragile reality

her speech made me cry so much when i first watched it

Xander putting his hand through the wall was a moment of much needed levity after this powerful performance.

Thank you, Anya Jenkins.

Emma Caulfield is an absolute legend. The way she was able to portray serious subject matter and comedy was one reason I watched buffy to the end. Anya's initially antagonistic relationship with Willow was also awesome

I love this show and this is one of the most beautiful performances I have ever seen❤

My mother passed around 20 years ago. She had dementia and stroked out in her nursing home. She was 81. For a week, I didn't know what to feel. All I knew was I had what felt like this enormous basketball in my stomach - I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep and even getting drunk didn't help. It was like Doctor Who had frozen me in time and space. Months later, I watched Buffy - The Vampire Slayer, season 5, episode 16, The Body. I wailed like a banshee. I cried so much, I think I ruptured something. It was as cathartic for me as I hope it is for you if you have to endure such an event. You can concentrate on the mechanics, but you must deal with the grief eventually. I thank the writers, producers and Sarah Michelle Gellar's sterling performance.

Emma deserves way more recognition. Anya is genuinely innocent to this. She has absolutely no clue what to do. Most people struggle with grief enough as it is. And for Anya it's even more difficult. And later on when Xander leaves her at the alter. That would be devastating for anyone but for Anya it was even worse. She was new to everything. Love, grief, fear, all of it.

Clearly, the writer talking through Anya...

This show means more to me than I could ever express. Especially now watching it again decades later in my 30s after loosing my father. Anya is right. No one can ever explain to us why. This scene hurts so bad. What an impact this made on those of us who grew up with Buffy

still gives me goosebumps

I still remember the first time I watched this ep I though it'd be really sad and Sarah was amazing and heartbreaking but I never thought Down would get me, I always hated the character but it was really touching the acting and then Any and this speech are the three more sad moments ever, then Buffy dying and Buffy telling their friends singing how she felt. But when it comes to sadness Sarah Gellar is the most touching and best actress in the show ♥