Joyce Summers

Joyce Summers is a fictional character in the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, played by Kristine Sutherland.

Related Topics:
Fictional character - Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Kristine Sutherland

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Joyce Summers, the mother of title character Buffy, first appeared in the episode "Welcome to the Hellmouth", bringing Buffy to Sunnydale after Buffy burns down the gym at her old school.

Related Topics:
Buffy - Welcome to the Hellmouth - Sunnydale

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She made appearances from season one to season seven, appearing in each season at least once, being one of few non-cast member characters to do so. Joyce got involved with a number of men, including Ted, a robot played by John Ritter, in the episode "Ted".

Related Topics:
Robot - John Ritter - Ted

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Joyce was at first a typical, somewhat overprotective parent--somewhat justified by having a daughter who burned down the school gymnasium back in L.A. However, she and Buffy did have a pretty good mother-daughter relationship. Occasionally we saw glimpses of a complicated and very cool woman--in season two, episode three, for example, she hits Spike with an axe and warns to "get the hell away from her daughter!".

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She flirted with Xander Harris under a spell in "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered'", and had sex with Buffy's Watcher Rupert Giles twice on top of a police car, while under another spell in the episode "Band Candy".

Related Topics:
Xander Harris - Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered - Rupert Giles - Band Candy

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Joyce Summers eventually went to her death, starting with what seemed to be a small sickness in "Out of My Mind". After she has surgery in "Listening to Fear", the Scooby Gang thinks that Joyce is okay. But to the shock of many, Buffy finds her mother dead on the couch in "The Body", after dying of an aneurism. That episode revolved around the aftermath of her death, and featured no non-diagetic music.

Related Topics:
Out of My Mind - Listening to Fear - Scooby Gang - The Body - Aneurism

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She returns in the season six episode "Normal Again" in an alternate reality where Buffy was a mental patient and was just dreaming up vampires and demons and the Slayer. She made her second to last appearance in the season seven episode "Conversations with Dead People", where she came to Dawn Summers as a ghost. It was never explained if this really was Joyce, or The First posing as her. Her final appearance is in "Bring on the Night" where Joyce comes to Buffy in a dream.

Related Topics:
Normal Again - Conversations with Dead People - Dawn Summers - Bring on the Night

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Joyce made 58 guest appearances on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, from season one to season seven.

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