4.07 The Initiative

[Clare]

4.07 The Initiative - Episode #063
Spike finds himself captured by a mysterious military organisation, which is run by some familiar faces.

Review (also post a score out of 10) and discuss this episode.

[cyclica]

Call me crazy, but there seems to be something slightly off about this episode. It seems to meander about and drag on forever without really reaching a climax, it feels like just a series of events rather than one episode long plot. And it seems to be shown from everyone except buffy's point of view.

I loved the epic battle between harmony and xander, and the spike's impotence scene. But that's about all I loved, this ep was full of scenes and ideas that didn't work.

The whole flare gun plot point was badly thought out, and I never got on board with the xander/giles scenes anyway.

The initiative iteslf looked impressive, but I'm not buying that riley, walsh and the others have the time to lead these double lives. It seems like being in the initiative would be a full time job, not something you can do when class is over. And would spike really beleive that the initiative was run by buffy?

All in all its a disjointed, weak episode, saved only by the 2 good scenes I mentioned above. I give it a 5.

[partcynic]

4x07 “The Initiative”

Episode Rating = 5

S4 presents its first arc episode with “The Initiative”; an enjoyable edition that’s nonetheless a harbinger of troubles to come. Considering how much effort was clearly placed into developing the Initiative facility and its members, it’s ironic that the material involving the military complex is by far the worst thing present, and torpedoes both the arc’s believability and entertainment value from the get-go – certainly not a good thing for a year-long story. However, this episode is also host to interesting progressions for Buffy, Riley, Spike and Harmony, and features a cute romantic plot with lots of witty humour; all of which would have compelled me to rate it higher if wasn’t for the leaden, clumsy arc development.

What I Liked about “The Initiative”:

- Ignoring the crappy ‘secret agent’ stuff, Riley’s material was solid. His attraction to Buffy could have been better foreshadowed, but the light rom-com vibe and his observations of her ‘peculiarity’ were entertaining (extra points for her using the term to describe him at the end). I’ve said this a lot (partly because Riley is a very simple character, and doesn’t have the depth to merit more), but he really seems like a respectable guy, and he’s endearing enough to be likeable while having a few genuinely cool moments, such as giving Parker a much-deserved smack in the face.

- Graham is a bit of a non-entity, but I liked how he was on Riley’s side and stuck up for him when Forrest was mouthing off.

- The Initiative is creepy at the start, and I liked the continuity of Spike’s cellmate being the member of Sunday’s gang who got captured at the end of “The Freshman”.

- Post-“Wild At Heart”, Willow was understandably down, and the episode avoided going overboard and making her a moping mess. In every one of her scenes, you could tell that she was upset, but it was kept at a good level, and lighter moments like her “rip the still-beating heart” speech to Riley (and their subsequent collaboration) were humorous without disregarding the pain she was going through.

- I loved seeing Buffy stand up to Walsh after the latter was so curt to Willow, and Walsh having an increased appreciation/respect for her afterwards was nicely in-character.

- It’s great to see Harmony again, and she continues to be interesting and funny. All of her exchanges with Spike were amusing (especially his pet names for her, and the fact that she’s the only person observant enough to note that he’s wasting his time pursuing Buffy), and her later ‘fight’ with Xander was hilarious. It was also neat that she put a poster of a unicorn up in her lair; serving as the first indicator of her obsession.

- Xander and Giles are basically spares now, but their scenes were enjoyable. It was fun to see them interact after Buffy asked them to handle the patrol (even though she shouldn’t be doing that), and Giles cutting off Xander’s rambling speech was pretty funny.

- Spike’s attack on Willow and its aftermath were the strongest scenes in the episode. The impotence metaphor was brilliant, and every exchange the characters had was funny. In fact, it went a long way to alleviating the sour taste left by quite a few of the story’s other aspects, and the revelation that Spike’s now ‘neutered’ was a clever twist at the time.

What I Disliked about “The Initiative”:

- He hasn’t yet done enough to truly warrant dislike, but I can’t say I’ve ever been fond of Forrest. He’s a generic cocky, macho and sex-obsessed college guy, and his flat characterisation combined with his insubordination to Riley during the Spike-hunt to make him annoying. Suffice to say I would have been happy if he’d never appeared again.

- I like Riley, but Marc Blucas is a wooden actor, and his attempts at portraying ‘Agent Finn’ are weak.

- Perhaps it was a budget issue, but the Initiative is underwhelming. The opening shots with Spike in the cell have a fittingly cold, clinical quality, but the complex didn’t maintain that disturbing veneer once we saw it in full. Rather than resembling a top-secret science lab, it looks like an empty air hangar with aluminium foil stuck to the floor, which really undermines the precision and finesse the institution is supposed to possess.

- The Initiative and its members are laughably incompetent. At the start, we see scientists removing Spike from containment with no armed supervision (are we supposed to believe that no hostile has ever tried the fake-out method before?), and the response to the alarm going off is incredibly slow. Then, despite Spike’s escape being something that could “[end] the Initiative itself”, Walsh doesn’t bother sending anyone out until nightfall, by which time he could have been long gone. On top of that, we then have trained operatives restraining a vampire by placing a bag over its head (despite the fact that vamps don’t breathe), and then saying that Willow may have been turned, apparently unaware of what siring requires. I know that the soldiers are intended to be brawn rather than brains, but shouldn’t they be aware of basic facts about the monsters they’re hunting?

- Unlike with Buffy, I can’t believe that Walsh, Riley et al are really living these double lives. I was happy with their prior characterisations, and could have done without the silly additions.

- There are a few strength inconsistencies. Xander fighting Harmony was humorous, but his slap-and-kick style doesn’t fit with someone who was supposedly fending off vampires for an entire summer. Similarly, Riley shouldn’t have been able to hold Buffy to a draw. Even if he’s physically fit and combat-trained, she’s ten-odd times his strength, and should have demolished him during their unwitting confrontation.

- Xander having supposedly stockpiled weapons during “Halloween” was a ridiculous retcon, and didn’t make sense. His scheme with the flare gun seemed contrived to blind the Initiative members, and you have to wonder what the plan was. Were he and Giles going to sit outside all night, look for any flares, then run off and probably be no use against Spike (before promptly dying)?

- Buffy and Riley should both be better at preserving their secret identities. Their chat on the bench was funny, but it sacrificed characterisation for humour. The two of them could easily have come up with slicker reasons for staying/leaving, and the exchange felt awkward because of their failure to do so.

- Spike’s chip is all over the place. It’s explicitly stated that he can’t hurt people without experiencing extreme pain, yet he kicks, punches and shoves the scientists/soldiers/Willow around with no effect. As a major plot point, this really should have been kept consistent.

- Why does Willow claim that she “had no idea” Spike was interested in her during “Lover’s Walk”? Wouldn’t his having told her he hadn’t had a woman in weeks and being about to bite her be a big clue to the contrary?

- Perhaps it was the combat high, but why don’t Buffy and Riley recognise each other’s voices during their fight? It’s also weird that Riley can’t identify the gender of his attacker – while her superhuman strength obviously wouldn’t match a typical woman’s (or man’s, but you know what I mean), it’s not like her vocalisations sound masculine.

Do I like this episode more or less than the last time I watched it?

I enjoyed this episode more on re-watching it, but I think the grade I’d given it before was accurate, and raising it would mean ignoring quite a few annoyances and problems with the plot (and most importantly, the presentation of the Initiative and its staff). Going back over this review, it appears that I have many more dislikes than positives, but that’s not fully indicative of my feelings, and is more due to the flaws being concrete while the positives were more general assessments of the humour, atmosphere and relationship progression. With this balance of qualities, I’ve decided to keep my grade the same, leaving “The Initiative” with a nicely watchable five out of ten.

[cyclica]

I've said it before and I'll say it again- this episode is all over the place. It's not so much a story as it is just a bunch of stuff that happens. So to review, scene-by-scene -

We start out with a focus on riley, which is good since we haven't seen much of him recently. At what point did he suddenly start liking buffy? The whole ep is built loosely around riley wanting to ask buffy out, but hasn't it been buffy who was jealous of riley and willow getting on so well at least at the start of the season? Where did riley's sudden attraction to buffy come from? Though I did enjoy how he gradually discovers he likes her, and the running joke of riley finding buffy 'peculiar'.

This may be the first appearance of riley's friends forrest and graham, I can't be sure though. All three of them are pretty bland characters, but graham must surely win the award for most pointless character ever, at least until the potentials arrive in s7. He adds nothing at all. Forrest was ok, but he had a line that really clunked- 'she's so hot, she's buffy'. Had he never heard the name 'buffy' before?

Spike is in a lab! It's a pretty shocking scene the first time watching the episode, and it drew me in.

Giles and xander talk about how pointless they are now. At least the show is open about it. Buffy walks in, looks at a picture of an army guy, tells giles and xander she's going to a party, and leaves. She couldn't have told them that over the phone?

So spike talks to the vamp who got away from 'the freshman' (nice continuity), who tells spike not to drink the blood, because they starve you then give you drugged blood to knock you out. Well spike's only just woken up, he's not exactly starved yet, and anyway why would they want to knock him out straight away? I did enjoy spike wondering if buffy was behind all this.

In class, oz's name isn't mentioned, and it's only now that he's left the show we finally get to find out his real name- daniel osbourne. At least we didn't have to wait until after the show was cancelled to find out his full name, like miss lehane.

Xander looks over all the army stuff he supposedly acquired back in s2 at the same time he got the rocket, not that he would have had any reason to get any of this stuff. It's a poor excuse to give him and giles something to do, and setup the flare gun later on. Though I did like xander's mother offering punch to xander and his 'friend', as though giles was just a kid.

Riley runs into parker, and punches him when he was being crass about buffy. Gah, I was hoping the parker subplot was long over by now. And I'm surprised parker didn't report riley... and that all the other people in that big crowded room didn't report a TA punching a student.

Spike lays on the floor until the scientists open the door, so he can surprise them and escape. Ok first of all, shouldn't they have noticed no blood around his mouth, and no empty packet of drugged blood on the floor? And secondly, why is he being knocked out at all? We know later on that he already has the chip in his head. And third, why drugged blood? Why not use the rayguns that knocked him out in the first place, or the tranquilisers they have on them? Why use a method of rendering someone unconscious that only works when they aren't there to see it happen?

Willow is still upset about oz leaving, though she seems merely down in the dumps, when riley comes in asking for advice on how to ask buffy out. This leads to one of my favourite lines from the episode, as willow gives this long depressing insight into relationships (from her point of view), which ends with "one of you leaves and rips the still-beating heart from the other, who's now a broken, hollow, mockery of the human condition"... and riley replies with "Yep, that's the plan!" This scene also begins the running joke that buffy likes cheese. I liked these little running jokes, it's a shame she doesn't like cheese and isn't peculiar in later episodes.

Harmony puts up a poster of a unicorn (another running joke! which lasts until angel season 5) when spike walks in. From this scene on it's clear that this is the new, funny spike, and the old, threatening spike is gone. Especially when he calls her 'my little mentholated pack of smokes'.

Giles and xander are on patrol. Even though they could easily get killed.

Buffy takes willow to a party to cheer her up. Upon rewatching, I noticed something I didn't before- no alcohol! Everyone seems to have water or cola, certainly riley is enjoying the party with a glass of water. Though in his case I suppose it's in-character. Anyway, riley tries to ask buffy out, and fails.

Next we have one of my all-time favourite btvs scenes, and one of the two 'good scenes' you'll be remembering after the episode is over- Xander Vs Harmony! Both of them should be much better fighters, and harmony should win straight away thanks to her vampire strength, but who cares? It's hilarious!

Xander tells buffy about spike, and riley is needed downstairs... in the initiative! It's a big shock to discover he's one of the soldiers, and having an underground military force that hunts demons is a big shake-up to the buffy universe. Though I'm not quite sure why the initiative keeps their lab in a big hole in the floor, with walls covered in tin foil. And perhaps this is just my ignorance of labs or military instillations, but what are those big white balloons hanging from the ceiling?

Walsh tells the soldiers hostile 17 has escaped, and they have to go get him. At no point does anyone refer to hostile 17 as a vampire, so I assume everyone already knows he's a vamp, and that they must have memorized what each of the hostiles are. But then they grab their guns, which are useless for hunting vampires.

Speaking of useless weapons, xander gives buffy a flare gun, so she can fire it when she's in trouble. Ok, I'm gonna need bullet points for this one-
- If xander thinks flare guns are such a good idea, why has he not suggested them before?
- Why does he think he would be of any use in a situation that buffy herself can't handle?
- If buffy needs help and fires the gun, by the time xander gets there, she would already be dead.
- Was xander planning to just stand outside and watch the skies until buffy comes back, looking out for any flares?
- What if buffy is in trouble indoors? Xander wouldn't even see the flare. ... which is what acutally happens later on!
- If buffy is in trouble... can't she just call xander and tell him to meet her?
- Where is buffy supposed to hide the gun when she's outside? She can't walk around openly holding something that looks like a gun. Hey buffy, is that a flare gun in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me?

Spike uses a computer to locate buffy's dorm. Instead of grabbing the first guy he sees and forcing him to reveal where she is (which would be in-character given how impatient spike usually is). It's not a big deal, but it's just so odd seeing him use a computer.

Riley talks to buffy... after first changing out of his army clothes and into jeans, which he presumably carries with him at all times, even on patrols. It's an amusing conversation though as they are both trying to get the other one to leave, because they are ruining each other's patrol.

Now for the second big scene you'll remember after the episode's over- Spike's Impotence! This whole scene is hilarious, escpecially when willow suggests that 'we wait a half an hour and try again.' ;D ... but with every good scene comes something to nitpick- why is the chip suddenly working now and not in the fight earlier?

So the building becomes dark, and I assume it's the kind of TV dark' where the viewers can still see what's going on but the characters can't. Spike manages to get away because buffy saved willow by using the flare gun to cause confusion. Somehow riley and buffy don't recognise each other's voices.

Walsh is angry that spike got away, and says the report reads 'like a child's riddle book'. Hmm, I've actually never seen one of those. Maybe they have them in america. They also explain to the audience how the chip works, which is good because the first time I watched the impotence scene I had no idea what was going on.

Riley tells buffy he likes cheese, and she calls him peculiar. The end.

Upon rewatching (and over-analyzing), I feel the same way as before. On one hand this ep is funny all the way through, has a couple of memorable scenes, shakes things up and furthers the plot. On the other hand, riley and his friends are pretty dull, giles and xander are pointless, and the whole ep feels like a bunch of scenes rather than one story. Plus the ep is full of things to nitpick, though admittedly I didn't notice most of them until rewatching.

Overall I'm giving a slight bump up to a 5.5 rating.

Btw... longest review ever!

[partcynic]

Call me crazy, but there seems to be something slightly off about this episode. It seems to meander about and drag on forever without really reaching a climax, it feels like just a series of events rather than one episode long plot.

I wouldn't call you crazy - that's a good encapsulation of this episode's nature (and subsequent issues).

I loved the epic battle between harmony and xander, and the spike's impotence scene.

Me too. They were both great fun.

Where did riley's sudden attraction to buffy come from? Though I did enjoy how he gradually discovers he likes her, and the running joke of riley finding buffy 'peculiar'.

I always thought Riley's attraction to Buffy was abrupt. In prior episodes, he approaches her like an older brother instead of a romantic interest (or even an equal), and the sudden 'oh, I'm interested in her after all' development is a bit too rom-com for this series.

This may be the first appearance of riley's friends forrest and graham, I can't be sure though. All three of them are pretty bland characters, but graham must surely win the award for most pointless character ever, at least until the potentials arrive in s7. He adds nothing at all. Forrest was ok, but he had a line that really clunked- 'she's so hot, she's buffy'. Had he never heard the name 'buffy' before?

I mostly agree. Though I'd take Graham's bland nothingness over Forrest's active dudebro obnoxiousness any day of the week.

So spike talks to the vamp who got away from 'the freshman' (nice continuity), who tells spike not to drink the blood, because they starve you then give you drugged blood to knock you out. Well spike's only just woken up, he's not exactly starved yet, and anyway why would they want to knock him out straight away?

And since they'd already operated on him and installed the chip, why would they want to drug him again immediately after? Wouldn't it have been better to let him regain consciousness and see if the chip worked properly? (note: after writing this, I saw you mentioned it yourself in your longer review).

Xander looks over all the army stuff he supposedly acquired back in s2 at the same time he got the rocket, not that he would have had any reason to get any of this stuff. It's a poor excuse to give him and giles something to do, and setup the flare gun later on. Though I did like xander's mother offering punch to xander and his 'friend', as though giles was just a kid.

The whole flare gun plot point was badly thought out, and I never got on board with the xander/giles scenes anyway.

The initiative iteslf looked impressive, but I'm not buying that riley, walsh and the others have the time to lead these double lives. It seems like being in the initiative would be a full time job, not something you can do when class is over. And would spike really beleive that the initiative was run by buffy? [...] I'm not quite sure why the initiative keeps their lab in a big hole in the floor, with walls covered in tin foil. And perhaps this is just my ignorance of labs or military instillations, but what are those big white balloons hanging from the ceiling?

Harmony puts up a poster of a unicorn (another running joke! which lasts until angel season 5) when spike walks in. From this scene on it's clear that this is the new, funny spike, and the old, threatening spike is gone. Especially when he calls her 'my little mentholated pack of smokes'.

So the building becomes dark, and I assume it's the kind of TV dark' where the viewers can still see what's going on but the characters can't. Spike manages to get away because buffy saved willow by using the flare gun to cause confusion. Somehow riley and buffy don't recognise each other's voices.

I agree with all of this. We're very close in opinion here.

[cyclica]

I'm happy to see you're back, and doing comments again.

Apr 28, 2010 6:34:59 GMT -5 partcynic said:

... I liked the continuity of Spike’s cellmate being the member of Sunday’s gang who got captured at the end of “The Freshman”

I strongly suspect that scene was filmed at the same time as 'the initiative' and inserted into 'the freshman' before it aired. I'm pretty sure that vamp didn't appear in any scenes with sunday's gang except that one at the end of the ep.