Yep, I'm going with the super soldier theory.
But my question is, what was she going to do with the super soldiers? I mean, I always assumed she only went after demons so that she could collect their parts in order to create her soldiers. If she had built them and collected the demon parts she needed, would they have gone after demons to fulfill their assumed purpose (to help humans) or would she have created an evil, apocalysey army?
I think her intentions were basically good. They weren't just stealing demon parts. They were also trying to modify demon behavior so as to render them harmless to humans. I think the super soldiers were intended to neutralize the demon threat, but yes, I also think they were intended to gain an advantage in regular human warfare, as well.
Like so many scientific advancements or inquiries, Maggie Walsh's inventions and discoveries were morally ambiguous and potentially dangerous. Certainly, they could be used for good. Taming demons like Spike and amping up soldiers like Riley (in order to better defend the country -- from demons
or humans as well as to risk the lives of fewer soldiers) are more or less noble causes, at least in theory. In practice, though, there were unforeseen variables and ethical issues that cropped up. This is what always happens with science. New discoveries and innovations shake things up as people struggle to deal with the fallout.
The Initiative was really sort of a neat exploration of science run amok, even if it was a little too obviously derived from and based upon Frankenstein. It asks a lot of neat questions, many of which we struggle with currently with regard to issues like stem cell research, cloning, animal testing, etc. How far is too far? What are the boundaries between humans and demons (or, in real life, humans and animals)? What should the ethical treatments of demons entail? Where is the line between human intelligence, animal intelligence, and artificial intelligence? Are we too reliant upon technology? Etc. Etc. It didn't really provide any hard answers, but it did explore the "other" side of a lot of issues. For example, it was neat to see Spike all pathetic and neutered and to question -- from the predator's side -- whether or not it was ethical to defang a predator.
I think Maggie's story is ultimately one of hubris. Her intentions began as noble. Eventually, though, she got so caught up in what she
could do that she forgot to think about what she
should do. She forgot to think of her subjects and subordinates as
people first and as the amazing bits and pieces that make up the human machine second. She forgot that people are more than just the sum of their parts, and she didn't realize that that applies even if they're demons (like Spike, Oz, and even Adam). There's a variable there -- one that science has yet to classify or quantify -- that results in free will. Call it the soul or humanity or maybe something even less grand like chance or circumstance or maybe even some mystical force, but there is a gray area there that can't be named or explained with facts, and that's what Maggie missed out on. That's why it's so fitting that she met her end at the hands of her own creation and why she, herself, became reanimated as part of an unethical experiment who could move and act and operate, but lacked that certain spark that made her
Maggie... that made her alive. There was a certain poetic justice to it. In the end, Maggie became the experiment instead of the scientist.
