The Depression Initiative

In *Heart,* Stanley Long and Rob Sanderson, a key donor of Central Michigan University, meet in a small diner to discuss the issue with James revealing too many secrets to Willy Jr.

When Bill decides he's done putting his family on the line, Stanley lays his job on the line by immediately placing a manila folder on front on him on the table--inside is a classified document describing the entire long game of the "Depression Initiative," which is the FBI's plan to eliminate Stacey as a threat and why they chose the router they did.

## Initiative Breakdown

### Part I

This part includes the FBI creating a car crash to kill Rose.

### Part II

Part two included the entire operational plan for getting a sample of Stacey's blood. They couldn't use samples from previous medical visits, as it was thought that it had to be taken after her abilities manifested.

### Part III

This is the most classified part, which included the FBI and other institutions' plans to use the blood to make a clone of Stacey and put it into a permanent state of comatose within a preserving liquid. The reason for this (and for why the FBI didn't just kill Stacey or even try to use the clone to fight her, for example) is that the FBI and higher ups are privy to non public knowledge: The Silent are an alien race that have made an agreement with humanity, causing them to be separate from God but with the possibility to attain godhood. Because people like Stacey are becoming a reality, the Silent would choose to wipe out all of humanity or at least cause huge devastations in an effort to remove each of the 16. The higher ups know this, and have created a clone to act as a replacement for the Silent to wipe out, while the government plans to siphon the 16's energy for their own use.

## Narrative Challenges

There are various narrative issues with The Depression Initiative concept. The first and more obvious is the vagueness of the idea of an alien race, clones, etc., which presents a redundant and tasteless narrative. This in and of itself doesn't work as an interesting storyline and is also too generic to work. Secondly, the idea that The Silent will go after the clone of each of the 16 rather than the real one is based on the idea of the Silent being "non-sentient forces"--or that they don't have minds. Since the clones are identical to the real person, the Silent will pursue the clone just as likely as it will pursue the real person. And so the idea could be presented that the governments, agencies, etc. will make as many clones as possible to divert attention from the sixteen.

However one must consider how exactly The Silent are attracted to the 16. Is it their power? Is it a gene? If it's their power and the clones are not identical in power to the 16, The Silent will seek out the original 16. Supposing the Silent are only after a gene code, which we will assume for now, then the idea works out. Perhaps the agencies could lure in The Silent and then destroy it.

Another issue with the initiative is the idea of getting Stacey's blood. The whole plotline of having to get a blood sample *after* she manifested her powers feels very contrived. Also, there's no point in trying to cut her as is presented in the part of *Heart* where Tobey Shumaker tries to cut her with his keys. Not only would the blood drive be much effective, there are other ways of retrieving a blood sample from Stacey. However back to the concept itself, it simply feels forced. Either science or another dilemma would have to be presented to validate this method and reasoning.

## Possible Resolutions to the Narrative

(Author notes:)

If I were to take an Ockham's Razor approach to the Depression Initiative, I would say that the whole issue with the Silent won't be solved by getting a blood sample, but by just making Stacey too depressed to use her powers. Again the issue is, "Why don't they just kill Stacey," and maybe it's because they want to continue to collect samples from her--from medical visits, for example--so they can use it for scientific purposes. But again, it makes more sense for an agency to just approach Stacey out right and try to work with her and study her in exchange for money. Logically I'd think one would learn more having Stacey perform with her abilities and then watch her, rather than try to use tissue samples for study.