From: daviderl31@yahoo.com   
      
   https://screenrant.com/buffy-the-vampire-slayer-fans-questions-the-initiative/   
      
      
   Buffy The Vampire Slayer: 10 Questions Fans Still Have About The Initiative   
      
   The Initiative had a major impact on the fourth season of Buffy The Vampire   
   Slayer. However, fans still have lingering questions about the group.   
      
   BY JONATHAN THOMPSON   
      
      
   After the fan-favorite season 3 finale, Buffy the Vampire Slayer set its   
   sights on the college experience, which resulted in the love-it-or-hate-it   
   fourth season. There were aspects of the season that were refreshing, with   
   new characters and engaging storylines involved. However, one thing that did   
   confuse fans was the introduction of the Initiative. As the Scoobies would   
   learn, the Initiative was a secret government effort to study and harness   
   the power of the supernatural for military purposes.   
      
   In season 4, viewers and Buffy were guided into the Initiative by Buffy’s   
   love interest, Riley Finn, who was a secret Initiative operative. The idea   
   that after three seasons of supernatural activity and near-apocalypses,   
   there was a government monster squad lurking in Sunnydale the whole time   
   mystified fans. It also raised a lot of questions, many of which have gone   
   unanswered but persist with each new Buffy binge watch.   
      
      
   10   
   How Was The Initiative Allowed In Sunnydale?   
      
   Considering what the Initiative’s agenda was, it is puzzling to determine   
   how the government operation ever came to open its doors in Sunnydale. In   
   season 3, fans discovered that Sunnydale was founded on the Hellmouth by one   
   of Buffy the Vampire Slayer's major villains, Mayor Richard Wilkins III.   
      
   Wilkins himself was not only evil, but he was strategic. He founded   
   Sunnydale as part of his plan to become a pure demon and feast on the town   
   in the process. However, this has led fans to question why did he not do   
   anything about the Initiative establishing itself in his sleep demon town?   
   It also begs the question of why the Initiative did absolutely nothing to   
   stop the Mayor’s ascension.   
      
      
   9   
   Why Did The Initiative Set Up Under A College?   
      
   Whatever the reason, the U.S. government was able to set up shop in   
   Sunnydale. Some fans wonder, though, why the organization chose to insert   
   itself below a college campus and integrate some of its key leaders and   
   operatives into the academic population. Other than the fact that UC   
   Sunnydale was an important new location in Buffy, it does not add up.   
      
   The extra lengths that the organization must have gone through to make this   
   happen seem ridiculous, as was their risk of exposure. Narratively, the   
   campus made sense because Buffy was starting school there. The setting also   
   allowed for Buffy and Riley, a teaching assistant, to meet and fall in love.   
   Logically, however, the location makes little sense on its face.   
      
      
   8   
   How Did The Government Convince Anyone To Join The Initiative?   
      
   During or after establishing itself under UC Sunnydale, the Initiative   
   needed to recruit operatives. Riley mentioned to Buffy that he was trained   
   in special operations with the U.S. Air Force before he was selected for the   
   Initiative. While it is unclear what Riley saw while in Special Ops, the   
   larger question is how the government convinced him or anyone else to join   
   the Initiative?   
      
   How did they introduce these candidates to the idea of the supernatural? How   
   did they all respond to learning that monsters are real? What happened to   
   recruits who could not handle it? Even for members of the military, this is   
   a big leap, but somehow they staffed the Initiative well.   
      
      
   7   
   Was There A Relationship Between The Initiative And The Sunnydale Military   
   Base?   
      
   In the season 2 episode “Innocence,” viewers learned of a very public and   
   visible military base in Sunnydale. In fact, the Scoobies managed to steal a   
   rocket launcher from the facility to destroy the Judge. So, when the   
   Initiative appeared in season 4, many fans wondered if there was a   
   relationship between the two military organizations.   
      
   That question lingers today. Sunnydale was a one-Starbucks town, so it was   
   unlikely it was a two-military complex town. Since viewers were meant to   
   suddenly believe the Initiative had been there all along, connecting it to   
   the known base would have made the concept more believable and less jarring.   
      
      
   6   
   Where Were The Initiative's Fraternity Commandos In Reptile Boy?   
      
   When season 4 revealed that numerous UC Sunnydale fraternity members were   
   secret monster hunters, many fans thought back to Buffy’s frat-demon   
   experience in season 2’s “Reptile Boy.” Some then wondered how the   
   Initiative missed the Delta Zeta Kappa annual human sacrifices to the demon   
   Machida.   
      
   Riley mentioned he had been living in Sunnydale for a few years, so it   
   stands to reason that the Initiative had been around in season 2. Would that   
   annual demonic event not have been something the military frat members would   
   have heard of? It is hard to believe, given their fraternity cover along   
   with the Initiative’s mission.   
      
   5   
   How Did The Initiative Not Know About Buffy?   
      
   One of the most bizarre moments in the introduction of the government   
   monster hunting squad and the research facility in Sunnydale was that said   
   organization had no idea Buffy was the Slayer (or the fact that she was the   
   latest in a long line of known Slayers in Buffy canon). In fact, Maggie   
   Walsh stated that they thought the Slayer was a myth.   
      
   Given every supernatural event that occurred in Sunnydale over the previous   
   three years and Buffy’s role in them, it seems truly unbelievable that the   
   Initiative did not know about her. Big Brother Walsh had security cameras in   
   Riley’s bedroom, but she had no idea one of her students was the Chosen One,   
   feared throughout the supernatural world she herself was studying. This made   
   the Initiative look worse than the time Spike escaped.   
      
      
   4   
   Was The Initiative Going To Do Anything About Pre-Season 4 Big Bads?   
      
   Revealing the Initiative not only begged the question of where were these   
   commandos during the college-related demonic events in “Reptile Boy,” but   
   it   
   also caused viewers to question where they had been during the last three   
   seasons at all. Prior to season 4, the Scoobies averted at least four   
   apocalypses.   
      
   Any of those villainous Big Bads could have overpowered Buffy and destroyed   
   the world and the Initiative was right there all along. Did the organization   
      
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