High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! "The Body" is the sixteenth episode of the fifth season of the fantasy television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003). It was written and directed by series creator Joss Whedon and originally aired on the WB network in the United States on February 27, 2001. In the series, Buffy Summers is a teenager chosen by mystical forces and endowed with superhuman powers to defeat vampires, demons, and other evils in the fictional town of Sunnydale. She is supported in her struggles by a close circle of friends and family, nicknamed the Scooby Gang. In "The Body", Buffy is powerless as she comes upon her lifeless mother, who has died of a brain aneurysm.