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The Venture Bros./Powerless in the Face of Death
| Powerless in the Face of Death | |
 | |
| Season 2, Episode 1 | |
| Airdate | June 25, 2006 |
| Production Number | 207 |
| Written by | Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick |
| Directed by | Jackson Publick |
| ← Sx01 A Very Venture Christmas |
2x02 → Hate Floats |
| The Venture Bros. — Season Two | |
Powerless in the Face of Death is the first episode of the second season of The Venture Bros., and the sixteenth episode overall. Dr. Venture and Dr. Orpheus deal with the boys' death in their own ways, while the Monarch attempts to escape from prison.
Voice Talent: James Urbaniak (Dr. Venture/Dr. Jonas Venture, Jr./The Phantom Limb), Patrick Warburton (Brock Samson), Michael Sinterniklaas (Clone Slug Dean), Chris McCulloch (The Monarch/Mister Monday/King Gorilla/Henchman 24/Watch/Clone Slug Hank), Stephen Ratazzi (Dr. Byron Orpheus), Doc Hammer (Henchman 21/Tiny Joseph/Ward/Frozen Head in Hell/Prison Guard 3), Brendon Small (Swifty/Hector/Crime-o-dile Henchman/White Noise), Paul Boocock (Tigerriffic/Therapist/Prison Guard 2), Lisa Hammer (Triana Orpheus), Nina Hellman (J.J.'s Ride to the Marina)
Contents |
Plot Overview
Dr. Venture takes off in the X-1 and travels around the world with Brock in hot pursuit. Brock eventually catches up with T.S. at a dance club, where he drugs Dr. Venture and drags him back to the Venture Compound.
Back at the lab, T.S. is not amused to find out his brother Jonas has been handling things just fine in his absence, including getting two doctorates and handling all of the projects addressed to "Dr. Venture." T.S. kicks him out and goes to look at the one uncompleted project, a teleporter. He is surprised to find out that he has a manufacturing wing, complete with staff.
Dr. Orpheus is pretty torn up by the death of the boys, and when he elicits no emotional response from Brock, he ventures into the underworld to find their souls. His search is unsuccessful.
In the manufacturing wing, T.S. meets Swifty and Hector, who have been locked in the wing for twenty years. He barely remembers them, so he fires them both and inspects the teleporter. When T.S. goes to touch it, it shorts and knocks out the power in the compound.
Meanwhile, the Monarch awakens to find himself in the process of being raped by King Gorilla. He is not amused. The Monarch returns to his cell, picking up supplies for his escape along the way. Tiny Joseph prepares a microdot message that the Monarch attaches to a butterfly that he releases. The message is intercepted by the Guild of Calamitous Intent.
Dr. Orpheus is still intent on bringing the boys back, and he casts a spell while trying to reassure Triana. The doorbell rings, and it's hideous pink gooey versions of Hank and Dean.
T.S. Venture has materialized in three pieces. His head is in the lab, his legs turn up embedded in the living room TV. He doesn't know where his arm is, except that it's outside and in sludge. Brock wheels the television set into the lab. Dr. Orpheus emerges from the ceiling, covered in pink goo. He confesses that he brought back the boys as hideous zombies, and can sense their souls nearby.
Dr. Venture finally fesses up to Dr. Orpheus and explains that he's bringing the boys back to life. Their memories are contained in the lab's computers and he's rebuilding their bodies. This explains why Dr. Orpheus could not find their souls in the afterlife, and he is appalled that Brock and T.S. are so nonchalant about the whole thing. Dr. Venture further explains that the boys have died before. Thirteen times before, to be exact.
The Monarch tries to escape from prison, but the other inmates provide no assistance because they've been intimidated by the Guild. As the guards drag Monarch away, he screams about Phantom Limb stealing his girlfriend. King Gorilla relents and helps the Monarch escape by shoving him down the toilet plumbing. When he emerges from the sewer pipe, Dr. Venture's arm is there.
Notes
Arc Advancement
Happenings
- Jonas Jr. halfway completes a teleporter, which malfunctions when T.S. goes to touch it, splitting him into three pieces. While Thaddeus is split into three pieces, Jonas Jr. is off on Spider-Skull Island perfecting sound that kills.
- T.S. begins the process of cloning his death-prone sons. The process is interrupted when Dr. Orpheus attempts to bring them back using magic (not knowing that they're being cloned) and the teleporter shorts out the power in the Venture Compound.
- The Monarch escapes from prison, without the help of the rest of his supervillain cohorts (aside from King Gorilla).
Characters
- Dr. Venture: Following the deaths of the boys, Dr. Venture on a globespanning trip to "find himself." Or, at least that's what he said to Brock. In actuality, his fleeing from Brock was less about finding himself and more about not wanting to interrupt his fun with not being a father for a while.
- Jonas Venture Jr.: In the month while T.S. is away, Jonas gets a robotic arm from Billy Quizboy, earns two doctorates, and completes all but two of the projects assigned to Dr. Venture — a sound that kills and a teleporter. Jonas calls dibs on the killing sound. T.S. kicks him out of the lab, so he heads back to Spider-Skull Island.
- Swifty and Hector: T.S. is surprised to discover that he has two employees working in the manufacturing wing. Swifty is a former middleweight prizefighter who suffered brain damage from too many fights. Hector was a boy that "Rusty" befriended on his childhood adventures. Neither of them have been out of the lab in twenty years, and Hector doesn't even know that Jonas Sr. died. He hasn't kissed a girl, either. T.S. fires them both and kicks them out.
- Dr. Orpheus: The necromancer title isn't just for show. Orpheus' previous clients have included David Blaine, Evel Knievel, and Ronald Reagan.
- Other prison inmates include Tigeriffic, Mister Monday, and White Noise.
- Tiny Joseph: This is the first "real" appearance of Tiny Joseph. He is one of the Monarch's henchmen, previously seen in the dream sequence in A Very Venture Christmas.
- Henchmen 21 and 24: Henchman 21's real name is "Gary", and he was "Scullion Class". He is attending a support group for former henchmen, but he isn't ready to give up the life yet, and suggests becoming a supervillain himself. Henchman 24 is also at the meeting, and both of them are waiting for the Monarch to bust out of prison.
- Hank and Dean: Hank and Dean are in the process of being cloned by Dr. Venture. This isn't the first time they've been killed, but actually the fourteenth.
- Sucked into the X-1's engines
- Killed by a spider robot while they slept
- Tried to smoke cigarettes and Hank stumbled into some propane tanks
- Tried to shoot apples off each other's heads á la William Tell
- Decapitated by a clothesline as they rode their hoverbikes
- Eaten by their own father turned into a werewolf
- Hank dressed up as Batman and tried to fly off the roof with an umbrella
- Killed by a rampaging robot while they slept
- Dean tripped while running with scissors
- Hank was crushed by a falling satellite
- Killed by a gas leak while they slept
- Fell into a pit full of spikes escaping from a villain's lair through the front door
- Burned alive while they slept after the bed short-circuited due to Dr. Venture spilling coffee on it
Referbacks
- 1x13 - Return to Spider-Skull Island: Two items from the Monarch's list of things the henchmen need to do in his absence are mentioned in this episode. First, the cocoon is seen being blown up (this actually happened somewhere in the middle of 1x13) and second, Captain Sunshine is mentioned by one of the former henchmen at the support group. The Monarch wanted the henchmen to send "the charred remains of Wonder Boy" to Captain Sunshine.
Trivia
The Show
- Music: The song used in the opening montage is "Everybody's Free (to Feel Good)" by Rozalla. It cost 1/8 of the episode's budget to pay for the licensing rights.
Behind the Scenes
References & Allusions
- Hungry Like the Wolf:
- Twiki: In Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Twiki was Buck's robot companion who often served as comic relief. The robot, voiced by Mel Blanc was prone to using the phrase "bidibidibidi," which was how writers signified that he was speaking in "robot language."
- David Blaine, Evel Knievel, Ronald Reagan:
- The Fly:
- Mother Theresa:
- Vince Neil and the Surreal Life:
- Herman Miller:
- Jerry Seinfeld: Henchman 21 bears a striking resemblance to Jerry Seinfeld, a stand-up comedian and star of Seinfeld. Like the Kevin Smith comment (see below), 21 doesn't exactly look like Seinfeld, but does have a similar height and haircut.
- Kevin Smith: Kevin Smith is an independent film director who gained acclaim and a cult audience with his low-budget first film, Clerks. He has gone on to write and direct several other movies set in the same universe including Mallrats, Chasing Amy and Dogma. The reference is likely due to the fact that 21 is fat and wears a long coat, like Smith's character Silent Bob.
- Henchman 24: ...and you looking all Kevin Smith like.
- Mowgli: In Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, Mowgli was a human child who was lost in the jungles of India by his parents. He was then adopted by animals in the jungle and raised as a wolf which gave him nearly superhuman tracking skills.
- Stretch Armstrong:
