- ⤷ Note: This article is about the organization. For the episode, see The Initiative.
The Initiative was a secret United States Government agency tasked with the capture and research of demons for military purposes.[1]
History
Beginnings
The Initiative program was initially established during World War II as the Demon Research Initiative. It was meant to monitor demon activity and study demon physiology to aid the United States war effort.[2]
In 1943, Mr. Fury, an agent of the DRI, forcibly recruited Angel to recapture a T-Class prototype U-boat which housed the results of the Third Reich's own research on vampires. Angel's mission was a partial success, as the submarine reached U.S. waters but the documents containing the research were destroyed by Spike. As a result, Angel quickly jumped ship and went underground until the end of the war.[2]
In the following decades, the Demon Research Initiative evolved into the Initiative, led by Maggie Walsh and stationed in an elaborate facility underneath the UC Sunnydale campus. Though on the surface they appeared to be simply containing "hostile subterrestrials" — as they classified demons —, they were secretly working on the 314 Project, meant to create bio-mechanical demonoid, cybernetically enhanced human-demon hybrids, as super-soldiers. Additionally, many soldiers, most notably Riley Finn, were secretly fed special performance-enhancing drugs, which would threaten Riley's life later.[3] After the Initiative's dissolution, Riley mentioned that he had been living in Sunnydale for a few years, indicating that the Initiative had been active in Sunnydale for some time.[4]
Sunnydale and downfall
In late 1999, Buffy Summers and the Scooby Gang first came into contact with Initiative commandos, though, as it was Halloween at the time, they initially dismissed them as people in Halloween costumes.[5] However, when Buffy later came into contact with another commando while on patrol, she began to suspect more was going on.[6]
Buffy's old enemy, Spike, was among the vampires and demons captured by the Initiative, who implanted him with behavior-modification circuitry, a cerebral microchip that rendered him unable to willingly harm or attempt to harm humans without causing him debilitating pain. When Spike escaped the Initiative and attempted to attack Willow Rosenberg, the Initiative went after him and nearly captured both Spike and Willow before Buffy arrived and engaged them in combat, forcing them to retreat and allowing Spike to escape.[1] As he was still being targeted by the Initiative and unable to hunt for blood due to the chip, Spike turned to the Scooby Gang out of desperation, bartering his knowledge of the Initiative in exchange for their protection.[7]
Eventually, Buffy discovered that Riley, whom she had developed mutual romantic feelings for, was a Initiative member himself, and the other Scoobies soon found out as well while dealing with an encroaching apocalypse.[8][9]
Buffy eventually joined the Initiative herself, but her excessive questioning of the organization's plans and motives, as well as her influence over Riley, began to unsettle Professor Walsh, who attempted to have her killed in action, only to fail. Afterwards, Walsh was murdered by Adam, the first bio-mechanical demonoid created in the 314 Project, who subsequently escaped the facility and set about making an army of similar super-soldiers.[10][11]
When Willow's werewolf ex-boyfriend Oz returned to town and was captured by the Initiative, Riley, having been torn between the Initiative and the Scooby Gang since Walsh's failed attempt on Buffy's life, finally realized the full extent of the Initiative's corruption. Witnessing the Initiative willingly conducting brutal experiments on Oz simply because he wasn't completely human despite Riley vouching for the fact that he wasn't dangerous, Riley turned his back on them and helped the Scoobies break Oz out of the complex.[12]
Adam quickly began the final stages of his plan, convincing the vampires and demons of Sunnydale to work together, with many of them allowing the Initiative to capture them. Adam's plan was simple: he intended to fill the Initiative facilities with demons and then unleash them on the soldiers by unlocking their cells from Professor Walsh's secret laboratory. Afterward, he and his minions would recover body parts from the slaughter and fashion a new race formed from man, demon, and machine. Knowing that Buffy would be able to even the casualties before being killed herself, Adam recruited Spike to isolate her from her friends, planning to trap her in the facility as well; though Spike briefly succeeded,[13] he soon let too much information about the plot slip during a subsequent encounter with Buffy, and the group reconciled and set about stopping Adam.[14]
To assist him in his plan, Adam created a second biomechanical demonoid from the corpse of the recently slain Forrest Gates and reanimated Professor Walsh and Dr. Francis Angleman as mindless zombies to do so. However, the Scoobies used the powerful enjoining spell to combine their essences and powers within Buffy's body, allowing her to overpower and destroy Adam. Subsequently, the Scoobies, assisted by Spike, who had been double-crossed by Adam, joined with Initiative soldiers to stop the demon attacks, saving most of them with only 40% casualties amongst the Initiative.[14]
With this, the government decided to shut down the Initiative for good, and remove any paper trail of its existence, deeming it and its operations a failure.[14]
Legacy
Following the Initiative's closure, the Army maintained operations in hunting demons, incorporating many of the trained Initiative soldiers, including Riley Finn. They hunted down demon nests in the United States, as well as foreign countries. The goals of the Army now aligned closely with those of the Slayer: protecting people from demons and preventing demon threats from spreading.[15]
Three years later, while searching for a way to retire Spike's chip, the ensouled vampire and Buffy visited the remains of the secret base, where they discovered the burned bodies of humans and demons alike, and were briefly attacked by a demon that survived the breakout before being confronted by military operatives sent by Riley, who removed the chip at Buffy's request.[16]
Years later, the Scoobies would compare both the military operation Drextalcorp Recycling Technologies[17][18] and the treasonous Pandora Project[19] to the Initiative.
Components
Leaders
- Ward[13]
- Professor Maggie Walsh[10]
- Colonel George Haviland[20]
- Colonel McNamara[12]
- Doctor Francis Angleman[10]
- Tactical consultant Jonathan Levinson[20]
Operatives
Prisoners
Behind the scenes
- In the dubious canon comic storyline Haunted, Richard Wilkins's spirit managed to survive for a time by possessing vampires and other deceased bodies, the Mayor's vampire body is briefly captured by the Initiative shortly after graduation. He muses that he had no idea a facility like this existed in his town.
- The existence of a secret government/corporate organization dealing with the bizarre/supernatural is a recurring theme in Joss Whedon's works, as seen with SHIELD in Agents of SHIELD, The Conspiracy in Cabin in the Woods, the Blue Gloves in Firefly, Rossum in Dollhouse, and the successors to The Company in Alien Resurrection.
Appearances
Canonical
| Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 4 | |||||||||||
| "The Freshman" Appears |
"Living Conditions" Appears |
"The Harsh Light of Day" Absent |
"Fear, Itself" Appears |
"Beer Bad" Absent |
"Wild at Heart" Appears |
"The Initiative" Appears |
"Pangs" Appears |
"Something Blue" Appears |
"Hush" Appears |
"Doomed" Appears | |
| "A New Man" Appears |
"The I in Team" Appears |
"Goodbye Iowa" Appears |
"This Year's Girl" Appears |
"Who Are You?" Appears |
"Superstar" Appears |
"Where the Wild Things Are" Appears |
"New Moon Rising" Appears |
"The Yoko Factor" Appears |
"Primeval" Appears |
"Restless" Vision | |
| Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 5 | |||||||||||
| "Buffy vs. Dracula" Mention |
"Real Me" Absent |
"The Replacement" Absent |
"Out of My Mind" Mention |
"No Place Like Home" Absent |
"Family" Absent |
"Fool for Love" Absent |
"Shadow" Absent |
"Listening to Fear" Absent |
"Into the Woods" Mention |
"Triangle" Mention | |
| "Checkpoint" Absent |
"Blood Ties" Absent |
"Crush" Mention |
"I Was Made to Love You" Absent |
"The Body" Absent |
"Forever" Absent |
"Intervention" Absent |
"Tough Love" Absent |
"Spiral" Absent |
"The Weight of the World" Absent |
"The Gift" Absent | |
| Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 6 | |||||||||||
| "Bargaining, Part One" Absent |
"Bargaining, Part Two" Absent |
"After Life" Absent |
"Flooded" Absent |
"Life Serial" Absent |
"All the Way" Absent |
"Once More, with Feeling" Absent |
"Tabula Rasa" Absent |
"Smashed" Mention |
"Wrecked" Absent |
"Gone" Absent | |
| "Doublemeat Palace" Absent |
"Dead Things" Absent |
"Older and Far Away" Absent |
"As You Were" Absent |
"Hell's Bells" Absent |
"Normal Again" Absent |
"Entropy" Absent |
"Seeing Red" Absent |
"Villains" Absent |
"Two to Go" Absent |
"Grave" Absent | |
| Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 7 | |||||||||||
| "Lessons" Absent |
"Beneath You" Absent |
"Same Time, Same Place" Absent |
"Help" Absent |
"Selfless" Absent |
"Him" Absent |
"Conversations with Dead People" Absent |
"Sleeper" Mention |
"Never Leave Me" Absent |
"Bring on the Night" Absent |
"Showtime" Absent | |
| "Potential" Absent |
"The Killer in Me" Mention |
"First Date" Mention |
"Get It Done" Absent |
"Storyteller" Absent |
"Lies My Parents Told Me" Absent |
"Dirty Girls" Absent |
"Empty Places" Absent |
"Touched" Absent |
"End of Days" Absent |
"Chosen" Absent | |
| Angel: Season 5 | |||||||||||
| "Conviction" Absent |
"Just Rewards" Absent |
"Unleashed" Mention |
"Hell Bound" Absent |
"Life of the Party" Absent |
"The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco" Absent |
"Lineage" Absent |
"Destiny" Absent |
"Harm's Way" Absent |
"Soul Purpose" Absent |
"Damage" Absent | |
| "You're Welcome" Absent |
"Why We Fight" Absent |
"Smile Time" Absent |
"A Hole in the World" Absent |
"Shells" Absent |
"Underneath" Absent |
"Origin" Absent |
"Time Bomb" Absent |
"The Girl in Question" Absent |
"Power Play" Absent |
"Not Fade Away" Absent | |
| Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 11 | |||||||||||
| The Spread of Their Evil Absent |
In Time of Crisis Absent |
A House Divided Absent |
Desperate Times Absent |
Desperate Measures Absent |
Back to the Wall Absent |
Disempowered Absent |
Ordinary People Absent | ||||
| The Great Escape Absent |
Crimes Against Nature Mention |
Revelations Absent |
One Girl in All the World Absent |
Girl Blue, Part 1 Absent |
Girl Blue, Part 2 Absent |
Girl Blue, Part 3 Absent |
Girl Blue, Part 4 Absent | ||||
Other
|
References
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