Spike's chip in "The Initiative"=Continuity Error?

[Joe]

I was watching "The Initiative" last night because I was bored and all that... and I found something that bugged me quite a bit. All the other countless times I've seen that episode, I assumed Spike had the chip in his brain from the moment we saw him in that cell and it was applied prior to that episode. We can assume this because we know that he doesn't leave the cage except to escape when he was awake. That's all fine and dandy.. but there's a problem with his escape.

During his escape he is clearly choking, punching, and kicking the scientists on his way out. Continuity Error? Or am I missing something?

[gumgnome]

Spike's chip definitely takes a while to charge up, obviously, because you're right - in The Initiative he's still definitely able to take care of himself. Later in the season, he can't even point a gun at someone.

[Whedon Fan]

My BS reason for it was that the chip didn't start to work right away either it booted up when he left the initative or just some point after. But yeah mega error. The Writers obviously forgot or never realised a lot of the "spikes chip" story arc.

[henzINNIT]

They turned it on after he escaped. Pretty easy fanwank tbh.

[Midnight Butterfly]

I never noticed that. Maybe it takes a while to charge up ot maybe it was an error on their behalf.

Or, maybe it has something to do with his mind. Spike is alloyed to hurt the bad guys. At this point in Spikes mind he is 100% certian that these are the bad guys, and the writers wanted us to think so to a certain extent. If he couldn't punch them then we would know at that moment that they arnt the bad guys after all. And then again I am probably wrong

Thanks for bringing that up anyway. Never noticed it before.

[Zombierella]

Hah. I never even thought about this. But like others have said, I imagine it's possible that they turned his chip on when he escaped. The wierd part about the whole initiative process is that the other vampire in the cubicle next to Spike had been there longer, and apparently his chip wasn't working yet either. I'm wondering if the chip doesn't get activated unless either a. a vampire escapes, or b. if they planned on doing testing and trials with vamps. Confusing.

[bunneh]

I noticed that too, actually, when I watched this episode the other day.

Personally, I bet the writers didn't have any kind of reasoning behind it. It was probably just the fact that, well, how else would Spike escape if he couldn't fight his way out? They probably figured no one would notice or care, and if they did then they would think up their own explainations...like we're doing here. xD

[Darth Rosie]

I also noticed this error. Obviously the writers needed Spike to get out of the Initiative and they wanted us to be terrorized by his starting to bite Willow - and then surprised and exhilarated that he can't.
Bunneh, your thoughts sound pretty conclusive to me. And yes, I am also willing to think that the chip was still charging (really ...) or had to be activeted (though nobody said so). Specuating coherency, nice.

[bunneh]

Oh, and I talked to a friend about this last night and he said that yeah the chip is a little inconsistant in what it does, but if you notice when he escaped he didn't actually ever throw a punch. He just shoved them, etc. And in "Something Blue" he was also able to shove Giles aside when he ran out.

So, that could be something, I suppose. Though I still stand by the opinion that writters (not just in Buffy) will tend to change things as they need them, and expect fans to figure it out on their own. =P

[Joe]

Jul 27, 2009 16:22:06 GMT -5 bunneh said:

Oh, and I talked to a friend about this last night and he said that yeah the chip is a little inconsistant in what it does, but if you notice when he escaped he didn't actually ever throw a punch. He just shoved them, etc. And in "Something Blue" he was also able to shove Giles aside when he ran out.

So, that could be something, I suppose. Though I still stand by the opinion that writters (not just in Buffy) will tend to change things as they need them, and expect fans to figure it out on their own. =P

Right when he awakes from his fake sleep, he clutches one of the scientists throats and throws them. That's pretty violent for the chip not to work. I also believe that he does throw a couple punches (or at least kicks). I just no for sure that when I watched I knew Spike's later chip wouldn't let him do any of that.

[Skytteflickan88]

Jul 27, 2009 16:22:06 GMT -5 bunneh said:

Oh, and I talked to a friend about this last night and he said that yeah the chip is a little inconsistant in what it does, but if you notice when he escaped he didn't actually ever throw a punch. He just shoved them, etc. And in "Something Blue" he was also able to shove Giles aside when he ran out.

Actually, he kinda strangeled that doctor. That looked painful.

[bunneh]

Ah, when I rewatched this episode the other day I only had it on while doing other things, which means I listened to the scene more than watched. So I was mainly going by what my friend said and thought I'd throw the idea out there. He must have remembered it wrong then. I'll have to ask him about it again next time we speak. =P

Guess that cancels out that theory. Oh well, I stand by my previous statement. ^^

[elenasaur]

I've noticed that too, I'm not sure what it's all about. I guess they could have turned the chip on once he escaped, or maybe he had an adrenaline rush and didn't notice the pain.
Mostly I think the writer's wanted Spike to escape the Initiative, and they thought that fighting his way out wouldn't be a big enough detail to cause any real scrutiny about the chip.

[BuffyisLife]

Jul 16, 2009 17:20:51 GMT -5 Midnight Butterfly said:

Or, maybe it has something to do with his mind. Spike is alloyed to hurt the bad guys. At this point in Spikes mind he is 100% certian that these are the bad guys, and the writers wanted us to think so to a certain extent. If he couldn't punch them then we would know at that moment that they arnt the bad guys after all. And then again I am probably wrong

I had a similar thought. In my opinion, the Initiative are the bad guys. So, it makes since to me that Spike would be able to hurt those guys. However, the problem with that is that the chip was suppose to stop Spike from hurting any living thing excluding demons and the like. Plus, when he hurts on the army guys outside of Willow and Buffy's dorm room, the chip worked just fine.

In the end, I think the writers just need to get Spike out of there and that was really the only way to do it.

[N.D.U.O]

But later in S6 spike couldn't hurt muggers who were about to attack a middle aged couple.

I would call them bad guys.

[Skytteflickan88]

When was that? My memory of season 6 is fuzzy.

[qtip]

I also assumed the Initiative activated his chip after he escaped. Not really any other option.