Smile Time is oddly comforting for me. It's the first episode I played when my AtS S5 DVDs showed up. The "Self Esteem" song gets stuck in my head at the oddest time. The ep is funny and wacky and touching in places, and if you ignore everything that happens afterwards, it's hopeful. It makes me happy.

I was just thinking about "The Body" last night and how it reached in and touched me on levels that no other fiction has as an adult. I can't say that I like it... my initial viewing was so traumatic that I've never gone back for a second watch. But it's the most powerful hour of mass media entertainment that I've ever run across.

Actually, despite the fact that it's a little non-sensical, Buffy's speech to the First Slayer in Restless is very moving to me, and can get me a little misty just thinking.

"I walk. I talk. I shop. I sneeze. I'm gonna be a fireman when the floods roll back. There's trees in the desert since you moved out. And I don't sleep on a bed of bones."

Yeah, I find Restless to be very moving and comforting.

I think I'm one of the few who've gone back for repeat viewings of The Body. I don't know, maybe I'm a masochist, but for those of you who've been wondering?

It's still just as much of a gut punch on the fourth viewing (which is, I think, as much as I've been able to stomach).

Actually, despite the fact that it's a little non-sensical, Buffy's speech to the First Slayer in Restless is very moving to me, and can get me a little misty just thinking.

"I walk. I talk. I shop. I sneeze. I'm gonna be a fireman when the floods roll back. There's trees in the desert since you moved out. And I don't sleep on a bed of bones."

Oh, yeah. I don't even think it's particularly non-sensical. That's probably an episode I use for plain old escape. Where some episodes are inspirational for me, and some just lift my spirits because they're funny or sweet, Restless takes me away.

I've watched The Body at least 4 times, probably more, and Restless probably 10. I think that they're the two most perfectly crafted hours of television I've ever seen. I agree that The Body hurts just as much the nth viewing.

I'm still not familiar enough with the full body of Buffy to be able to name episodes I would use to lift me out of specific moods, generally, though i have found myself itching to watch Tabula Rasa on more than one occasion. Something about the sheer funny of it most of the way through followed by the total, if melodramatic, downer of the end really works for me, but I couldn't really put a finger on what moods inspire the desire.

I turned on the TV one morning to watch Buffy before work, and The Body was on. I LEPT for the remote. I just didn't want to go through that again.

Oh yeah. It zoomed right past "moving story dealing realistically with death" into I'm-only-supposed-to-feel-this-sad-at relatives'-funerals territory.

We have a standing argument about whether Buffy cracks Joyce's ribs when applying CPR in "The Body." Unfortunately, neither of us are psychologically ready to watch the episode again, so the argument remains ongoing while the DVD remains on the shelf.

I'm not sure what else it could have been.

Well, here's the script:

She drops the phone on the table, appalled that she didn't do this sooner -- rushing to Joyce and tilting her head back, she puts her mouth to hers and blows, twice. Then pressing her palms to the middle of Joyce's chest she pumps, rapidly 15 times. She breathes again, then pumps, more powerfully.

ANGLE: HER HANDS ON JOYCE'S CHEST

We hear something CRACK.