Joyce Summers

Encyclopedia : J : JO : JOY : Joyce Summers

Joyce Summers

Kristine Sutherland as Joyce Summers

First appearance Welcome to the Hellmouth
Last appearance Bring on the Night
Created by Joss Whedon

Statistics
Name Joyce Summers
Status Deceased
Species Human
Affiliation Ally of the Scooby Gang
Notable powers none
Portrayed by Kristine Sutherland

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

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Joyce Summers appeared in the series premiere "Welcome to the Hellmouth" as the mother of title character Buffy. She appeared in 58 episodes, at least once per season -- one of the few outside the core cast to do so.

Joyce brought Buffy to Sunnydale after Buffy burnt down the gym at her old school. She was at first a typical, somewhat overprotective parent. They were close though, and there were glimpses of a complicated and cool woman. On one occasion ("School Hard") she attacked a vampire with an axe to protect her daughter when everyone else fled the school. She owned her own art gallery in town, and brought some of the artwork home, but Buffy never actually attended any of her own mother's gallery shows.

Joyce was divorced from Buffy's father Hank and rarely dated. She saw Ted, a robot played by John Ritter ("Ted"). She flirted with Xander Harris under a spell ("Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered"). She had sex with Buffy's Watcher Rupert Giles twice on top of a police car under another spell ("Band Candy"). Though they had been and remained friends, after this incident they were both too embarrassed to take matters further.

Joyce did not take kindly to Buffy's adventures at first. She and Hank had put Buffy in a mental institution in Los Angeles for a couple of weeks when her daughter first revealed her calling. Buffy decided no one would believe her, and got out by keeping her tongue. The first two seasons saw this conflict intensify, reaching the breaking point when Buffy walked out the door after staking a vampire in front of her and Spike. They reconciled after a tough summer and Joyce learned to accept Buffy's extracurricular activities. She suffered a temporary relapse under a demon's spell, when she led other adults in an attempt to burn Buffy, Willow Rosenberg and Amy Madison at the stake ("Gingerbread").

Joyce Summers found a new daughter in Dawn at the end of the season five opener. She became sick ("Out of My Mind") with what proved to be a benign brain tumor; this occasionally allowed her, like a number of others suffering from mental illnesses, to sense something of Dawn's anomalous nature. She improved after a successful surgery, but died soon afterward of a brain aneurysm caused by the disease. The following episode ("The Body") detailed the aftermath of her death, featuring only diegetic music.

Kristine Sutherland appeared in Buffy three times after Joyce's death: in an alternate reality where Buffy remained a mental patient ("Normal Again"); as a manifestation of the First Evil, visiting Dawn in the guise of Joyce's ghost ("Conversations with Dead People"); and in Buffy's dream ("Bring on the Night").

"The people who appeared in the opening credits (Scooby Gang & Fang Gang/FG) appear in the box, and the most important villains/friends who had a significant emotional impact on multiple of those opening credits characters - as long as they have a significant episode count, and preferably if they appear in three or more seasons."

-->

Buffyverse
Main	Canon \| Index Chronology: Ancient \| Modern \| BS1 \| BS2 \| BS3 \| BS4/AS1 \| BS5/AS2 \| BS6/AS3 \| BS7/AS4 \| AS5 \| Future \| Flashbacks
Buffy	Characters (main) \| Characters (minor) \| Episodes \| Plot \| Comics \| Film \| Pilot (unaired) \| Promo: History.. \| Novels \| Promos: Pre-"Bargaining"
Angel	Characters (main) \| Characters (minor) \| Episodes \| Plot \| Comics \| Corrupt (unaired) \| Novels \| Pilot (unaired)
Spin-offs	Comics \| Fan made productions \| Fray \| Novels \| Spike movie \| Undeveloped productions Buffy Animated \| Card Game \| RPGs \| Tales of Slayer (prose) \| Tales of Slayers \| Tales of Vampires \| Toys \| Video Games Upcoming: Blackout \| \| \| \| \| \| Portal Through Time \| Spike vs Dracula \|
Powers	Angel Investigations \| Circle of the Black Thorn \| Order of Aurelius \| The First Evil \| The Initiative \| Monsters \| Old Ones \| The Powers That Be \| Ra-Tet \| Scooby Gang \| Senior Partners \| Watchers' Council \| Wolfram & Hart
People	Adam \| Amy \| Andrew \| Angel \| Anya \| Buffy \| Caleb \| Connor \| Cordelia \| Dawn \| Darla \| Doyle \| Dru \| Eve \| Faith \| Fred \| Giles \| Glory \| Gunn \| Harmony \| Holtz \| Illyria \| Jasmine \| Jenny \| Joyce \| Jonathan \| Kate \| Kennedy \| Lilah \| Lindsey \| Lorne \| The Master \| Mayor Wilkins \| Oz \| Professor Walsh \| Riley \| Spike \| Tara \| Warren \| Wesley \| Willow \| Xander
Places	L.A. \| Sunnydale Bronze \| Caritas \| Hellmouth \| Hyperion \| Library \| Magic Box \| Pylea \| Sunnydale High
Music	Complete Tracklist \| Use of Music in Buffy & Angel \| Dingoes Ate My Baby \| Film \| \| \| Once More, With Feeling
Key Terminology	"Demon" \| "Slayer" \| "Vampire" \| "Watcher" \| "Werewolf" \| "Witch" "Child of Senior Partners" \| Shanshu \| Sunnydale Syndrome \| Tro-Clon

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

Joyce Summers

See also