The moment we’ve all been dreading has finally come. Season 6 of the Venture Brothers has finally come to a close. However, instead of mourning the end of new Venture episodes, I would much rather celebrate the glorious episode that we all had the pleasure to watch.

An unfamiliar man slowly opens his eyes. He is in a dark and filthy bathroom wearing soiled clothing, one ankle chained to a pipe. “What’s going on? Let me out of here!” he begs, his voice rising into hysterics.

He wheels around and spots a fellow prisoner also chained to a urinal. “Oh geez, what are you screaming about?” he asks, rubbing his eyes. He suddenly realizes his pants are gone and joins his cellmate in screaming. “Help! Let us out of here!”

21 is washing the Morpho Mobile in the Morpho cave when his boss enters, offering good news and bad news. The Monarch’s bad news is that his marriage is falling apartment and he’s jerking off to hentai because he’s lonely and unable to connect with real people. The good news is that the Guild is in sequester so the Blue Morpho can strike again!

21 doesn’t want to do any more Morpho arching, as he is still injured from their last few adventures. Monarch says that there are only two more villains left between them and their sole Venture arching rights, so they must persevere.

One of those two remaining villains is Red Death, whose is known for his lethal once-a-year arching missions and terrifying demeanor. 21 insists that they won’t be able to take down such a legendary villain, and the Monarch angrily tells him he will just do it himself.

A familiar face sits on a bench in Central Park. Hunter Gathers, whom we haven’t seen in a long while (and who I’ve missed dearly), is feeding the birds when he is approached by Dr. Mrs. the Monarch, badly disguised in a black trench coat, beret, and sunglasses. (Can I just say how much I’ve missed the MAC Pink Poodle lipstick on her? I love the new dark red, but the pink is such a Sheila classic.)

The two exchange some strange back-and-forth before getting confused and giving up on the code phrases they previously emailed about. Dr. Mrs. asks him if he is willing to agree to their deal, and Hunter agrees that the OSI will help the Guild with their sting as long as their help stays off-the-record.

Brock lowers the newspaper from his face from his seat on the other side of Hunter on the bench. “You guarantee the Venture’s safety?” he asks. “One-hundred percent guaranteed,” Dr. Mrs. the Monarch promises. She shares with the men that the Morpho’s next target is Red Death, as he is the next villain scheduled to arch Venture. Phantom Limb approaches the bench speaking in code, and Brock compliments him on his hat, which is the same as his.

The prisoners in the bathroom try to use broken pipes to break their chains. While aiming for the chain, one prisoner accidentally hits his cellmate’s hand with the pipe instead and breaks one of his fingers. The victim insists that he pull on his dislocated finger to reset the bone, and he resists because he thinks its a setup to a fart joke. He eventually agrees to pull the finger to fix the break, and the pain of having his finger reset causes his cellmate to fart. Of course.

Nearby at the playground, a “Best Dad”-hatted Monarch approaches Red Death on the bench as he watches his daughter play. Red Death points out his daughter, the only child in the park who also has a skull face and bright red skin.

The Monarch slowly takes a gun out of his diaper bag when Red Death suddenly addresses him by name. “You know who I am?! You’ve heard of the Mighty Monarch?!”, the Monarch asks eagerly. Red Skull tells him that he is a big fan of his arching work, and the Monarch is flattered.

Red Skull grips Monarch’s shoulder and warns him to keep his work separate from his personal life. He threatens that a man can do terrible things when he’s lost his way.

In the lobby of the Venture building, Hatred yells at a crowd of Guild and OSI members to go no further. They ignore him and continue to the elevators. Hatred’s injuries prevent him from doing anything other than beg the intruders to stop. Brock tells him to lock up and take the day off.

21 is sitting at the Monarch mansion dining room table, checking his phone repeatedly. The Monarch walks through the door and 21 scolds him for being late for supper. “Who eats dinner at 4?” the Monarch asks. “Supper! Not dinner! Supper! I said supper!” 21 yells angrily. It was not surprising to see this husband and wife dynamic between the two, as Monarch and 21 grew closer while Dr. Mrs. the Monarch was away on Guild business, and their marital bickering showed just how much the Monarch household has changed.

21 cannot stay angry with his boss after hearing that he spent the afternoon talking to Red Death. The Monarch says that Red Death is both terrifying and an incredible guy, so there is no way they can kill him.

When finding out he has to climb the stairs to go to the bathroom, Monarch pisses in the sink. Again. For the second time today.

Dr. Venture proves that he will never in his life learn to take a hint as he yet again flirts with Dr. Mrs. the Monarch. She ignores him and yells for the OSI/Guild combo team to remove the civilians.

Watch and Ward are dressed up to be the Hank and Dean decoys for the sting. Hank doesn’t approve of their “Grand Funk Railroad”-esque Venture costumes, and instead gives them the iconic blue neckerchief and maroon sweater vest outfits – “Classic model Hank and Dean!”

Brock and Shore Leave are playing rock-paper-scissors to see who has to guard the Venture boys for the night. Shore Leave loses because Brock insists that rock conquers both scissors and paper. Shore Leave is dressed up as Brock, complete with blond mullet wig, black polo shirt, and green pants, giving me a visual I never knew I needed.

Rusty, Pete, and Billy leave to go to Billy’s mom’s house for the night. Billy tells Rusty that he can smuggle him out if he’s “feeling blue”, meaning that even after the God Gas wore off, Billy’s belief that Doc is the Blue Morpho did not.

In the bathroom, the two prisoners argue over whether or not they should eat the chicken dinner given to them. The blonde prisoner insists that the food is poison. He reveals that he has been trapped there for weeks and survived by eating the butt meat of the corpses of the other prisoners. You read that right. The butt meat. He just ate their butt cheeks.

In his bathroom, Red Death gets ready for his once-a-year arching. His wife packs his dinner to-go, including a brownie.

Shore Leave (dressed as Brock) tries to take the Venture boys to a night club but finds that it has been changed into a mall. “Okay, plan B: We’re going to CBGB’s!”

Red Death flies across the sky above them on his satanic horse, screaming “Die, Dr. Venture!” Shore Leave is beyond jealous that Brock gets to kick the legendary villain’s ass when he’s on babysitting duty and wonders, “How come even when I am Brock I still wish I was Brock?”

“That is something I have been living with my whole life,” responds Hank.

The Monarch and 21 disguise themselves as Guild henchmen and make a visit to Red Death’s house. They tell his wife he has been compromised and she and her daughter should go to her mother’s house.

On the Venture compound lawn, a young Rusty Venture giggles and pulls the Action Man’s finger at his request. Action Man tricks Rusty and shows him that he pulled a pin out of the grenade he is holding instead of his finger. Action Man throws the grenade towards Rusty’s dog Scamp and Rusty throws himself on top of it to save his pup. The grenade isn’t real and only releases a flag, but the flag somehow goes right through little Rusty’s body, hitting his kidney.

The story is being told around the table at Billy’s mom’s house, where Doc, Billy, Pete, Rose, Action Man, and Colonel Gentleman are eating veal piccata.

At the Venture penthouse, all team members on the Guild and OSI teams are in position. Red Death arrives at the rooftop, and is greeted by a decoy Team Venture – Watch and Ward as Hank and Dean, Hunter Gathers as Dr. Venture, and best of all, Phineas Phage as HELPeR. Watch and Ward sneak in a classic “Go Team Venture!”, the only one of season 6. Brock plays himself.

The two prisoners in the bathroom are drinking coffee and trying to figure out how they recognize each other. They discover that they are both supervillains, although only one of them has real powers.

When it is clear that the Blue Morpho isn’t going to show, the OSI and Guild teams, decoys, and Red Death stop acting and talk casually. Red Death receives a call from the Blue Morpho telling him that his wife and kids have been kidnapped. He responds with a terrifying and spot-on impression of Liam Neeson’s Taken speech, which scares the Monarch so much that he can only respond, “Oookay?” and hang up the phone.

At Rose’s house, Colonel Gentleman tells Billy and Dr. Venture stories about the original Blue Morpho. He confirms that the first Morpho is definitely dead. Both Gentleman and Rusty refer to Pete as Billy’s “boyfriend”. (This caused me to AWW just as loudly as it did in the season 5 finale.)

The blonde prisoner has finally turned on his new cellmate. He thinks this is what his captors want him to do. He kills him with a metal pipe so he can feed on his butt.

Red Death bursts through the wall of the Morpho cave on his horse. 21 and the Monarch are hiding in their costume pods, and Red Death finds them immediately. They immediately reveal that his family is at his mother-in-law’s and beg him not to kill them.

“So why doesn’t the Monarch tell me everything,” Red Death says. “From the beginning.”

Dr. Venture exits the elevator to his penthouse as Dr. Mrs. the Monarch gets in. She is absolutely furious that the Blue Morpho stood her up and made her a fool in front of the Guild and the OSI. “I am going to go look for the Blue Morpho. I will find him and I will kill him MYSELF.”

Unfortunately, Dr. Mrs. forgot to press the elevator button, so the doors don’t close after her speech and her dramatic moment is ruined.

Dr. Venture walks out onto his deck to see that a volleyball tournament of a good guys vs. bad guys is occurring in his pool. Hank is on the bad guy team as Phantom Limb’s replacement. Doc offers to make Doctails for everyone. Both teams cheer.

The Monarch talks to Red Death about his intense hatred for Venture. Red Death tells Monarch he needs to follow the rules, but then also confesses that the only way he could get over his obsession was to finally kill his arch nemesis. It will be interesting to see how this talk affects the Monarch’s actions and motivations in season 7.

21 asks Red Death if he ever feels guilt for killing people, and reveals that he has not actually been killing the supervillains on the Venture arching list. He shows Monarch and Red Death the bathroom where he locked them all up, and finds that the remaining prisoner has killed all of the others and ate their butts. Red Death kills him.

Monarch is angry at 21, but not because he didn’t kill the villains. “Why didn’t you tell me we had a bathroom down here?”

Up on the highest rooftop overlooking the pool, an OSI and a Guild sharpshooter have been talking all night. In the post-credit scene, they confess their love for each other. The OSI agent takes off their helmet to reveal that they are actually female. The Guild agent takes off his hat to reveal that the top of his head is removed and covered with a plastic dome with tubes coming out of it.

The extremely talented Clancy Brown voiced Red Death in this episode. You may know him from the recent film Hail Caesar or from one of his many voice acting roles, and you’ll definitely recognize his face.

At first, I was disappointed to see that so little was resolved in this season finale. What about Hank and Sirena?! How is Dean doing in school?! Is Dr. Mrs. really going to kill her husband?! WHY IS THERE NO WARRIANA IN THIS EPISODE?!

However, I’ve found some comfort in the abundance of loose ends. The lack of resolution means we are definitely getting another season and that some of that season is probably written already! Someone on Reddit pointed out that one of the reasons for the long wait between seasons 5 and 6 was due to the change in scenery and all of the new backgrounds and character designs that were needed. I don’t know if this is accurate, but if so, maybe it will be a slightly shorter wait between seasons 6 and 7.

I’m not a Venture fan who complains much about the long wait. There are always ways to keep busy in the Venture fandom. Not only do we now have an entire new season to rewatch to our hearts’ content, we also have new DVD commentary to look forward to in the future! Just think of all the new Venture cosplays that we will see from this season! There’s so much Venture goodness to look forward to in the future!

I’m going to write another post about my overall feelings about season 6, so be on the lookout for that!

Most of you know how much The Venture Brothers means to me. I’ve made so many friends and had so many incredible experiences through this show. Its a cliche, but I can honestly say that I would be a very different person without the influence of Team Venture (or at the very least, I wouldn’t have a busty butterfly-themed supervillainess tattooed on my leg forever.)

When I looked at my blog stats, I was shocked to see that so many of you visited yesterday, assumedly to read my recap of the finale. It has been SO much fun writing about Season 6 and discussing it with all of you. I love this show and I love this fandom. You have all made the 6+ hours I spend on these every Monday completely worth it. Thank you for reading.

Team Venture forever.

PS: My personal favorite Shirt Club shirt this season is available this week! I might be slightly biased because I’m a Brock fan, but its a really great design. It will be the last shirt of the season so if you’re one of the people who missed all of the other shirts you should definitely grab this one before its gone!

Hey everyone!

Just wanted to let you know that the finale recap won’t be up until tomorrow night. As luck would have it, I have my first day at my new job tomorrow, so my recap will have to wait until after work!

See you then, Venturoos! Enjoy the finale tonight!!!!

I was traveling last night and intentionally booked a flight that would get me to my destination with plenty of time before midnight. So naturally, my flight was delayed and I didn’t get to my destination until 12:10. Which means last night’s episode was the first new Venture episode I haven’t watched live since season 4.

And what an episode to miss.

Last night’s “A Party for Tarzan” has already been described as “the best episode ever” by many fans online. It was different, it was riveting, and it was just damn good.

The episode opens on a lunar eclipse. Dr. Venture stands on his roof in the Blue Morpho suit. (You can see that it is Doc and not Monarch by the bald head peaking out of the bottom of the fedora.) He is covered in what looks like blood.

We see Dr. Venture through the crosshairs. Dr. Mrs. the Monarch is on the other end of the gun, finger on the trigger. Wide Wale tells her to take the shot.

She shoots Dr. Venture. He falls backwards onto the ground and is still. The Morpho mask falls off, revealing his glasses.

“What?! I know! Crazy! How did this even happen?” says the omniscient voice of 21 as the bloody Venture logo appears and the five theme notes play.

21’s voice-over narration continues as he tells us his Henchman origin story. During a class trip to Washington DC, the Monarch’s henchmen confused him for the Senator they were assigned to kidnap and bring him to the cocoon. There, the Monarch makes him sign a law that makes the Venture surname illegal, so that when Dr. Venture does anything involving his name (such as cashing a check or ordering a pizza), he will be arrested.

21 signs it, and the Monarch yells “Who the hell is Gary Fisher?!” This is awesome both because it is a callback to the “Who the fuck is Gary?” line from Season 5 finale and because Gary’s name is clearly a homage to the great Carrie Fisher, adding to the show’s long list of 21/Star Wars crossovers.

After realizing that they’ve kidnapped the wrong guy, they recruit 21 as a henchman. He never finished the 8th grade, but got his GED later, just in case henching didn’t work out.

“I WILL GET YOU…” yells the fluffy-costumed Monarch of the past. “…DR. HINEY!” finishes modern-day Monarch in a yellow and red tracksuit.

It is a lame threat, and the Monarch’s heart isn’t in it. In their living room, Dr. Mrs. the Monarch and 21 convince the Monarch to “thwart” Dr. Hiney to work on bumping up his Guild level.

Dr. Mrs. warns her husband to be careful, because the Blue Morpho is still on the loose.

Her voice-over begins, and we see that this isn’t just Gary’s story, but everyone’s. This voice-over narration style seems to be a reference to the classic movie Goodfellas.

Dr. Mrs. the Monarch talks about how the new Council of 13 was making a lot of progress until the Blue Morpho appeared on the scene. Watch and Ward are forced to sit at a kiddie table during Council meetings because they are not technically members.

Phantom Limb says that the Blue Morpho was killed in 1976, which many fans online have been quick to point out is the same year that Vendetta’s file lists as his creation date. This fact seems to further support the theory that the Monarch’s father/the original Blue Morpho became Vendetta.

Dr. Z tells a story of “performing every known sexual act” with tennis star Billie Jean King in 1973, only to watch her take off her mask to reveal the Blue Morpho’s face underneath. The Morpho was sent there by Jonas Venture. Venture would send Morpho to do his dirty work so he could preserve his good name.

At the Venture penthouse, Dr. Venture has his two bodyguards, two sons, and two Venture Industries employees (Pete and Billy) lined up. He tells them they have to help him with his special guest.

Doc starts to narrate the episode. He tells a story about sneaking into a swanky party full of wealthy people with Pete and Billy to try to make some connections. Dr. Venture manages to introduce himself to Christopher Lambert, who is the the most important person at the party.

The Monarch and 21 suit up for their arching plans. The Monarch is disappointed when he realizes he has to wear his classic Monarch attire instead of his Blue Morpho suit. 21 tells him that he sent the Morpho suit to get cleaned at a place that specializes in antagonist/protagonist costumes.

Their plan is for 21 to kill the next villain on their list, Wandering Spider, at the same time as Monarch arches Dr. Hiney. That way, the Monarch will increase his arching level and end any suspicion that he has anything to do with the Blue Morpho.

Dr. Venture and Dean go to Enzo’s shop in Little Italy, where Doc requests a speedsuit called “The Patriarch”, the same one Christopher Lambert was wearing at the party. Enzo refuses to make one for Doc, because it is “a bitch” to make, and says he will make him a custom tuxedo instead.

Enzo goes into the back room to get started, and when he is gone Doc steals the freshly-cleaned Blue Morpho suit off of the rack next to the desk and runs out with it.

21 is watching a man as he drinks at Battleaxe’s bar. After he leaves the bar, 21 asks the man to help him get a couch into his car. His arm is in a fake sling. He makes the man get in the car to pull the couch inside. “You’re like what, a Wandering Spider or something?” 21 asks in a low voice. He knocks the man out with blue gas from a Morpho gun. I loved this Silence of the Lambs reference. It is SO like 21 to use a classic movie scene for henching inspiration.

The Monarch’s voice-over begins as he sits on the subway in full costume on the way to arch Dr. Hiney. He explains the Guild levels. The Guild-assigned EMA level means “Equally Matched Aggression” level, and it was created after an altercation with the original Dr. Venture.

As Team Venture was supervising construction on the front lawn of the original Venture Compound, a villain named Turnbuckle appears with Rusty, asking for a fight. It is obvious that Turnbuckle wants a classic hand-to-hand fight, but the Action Man is incredibly aggressive and pistol whips him into the ground with the butt of his gun, blood spraying everywhere, before shooting him in the brain.

After this incident, the Guild created the EMA levels to ensure a fairer arching hierarchy. Now that the Monarch no longer has his cocoon, army of henchmen, or even his number 2, he is only a level 4 arch because he is not a significant threat.

Dr. Z tries to convince Dr. Mrs. to throw out the Guild protocol and go rogue on Dr. Venture. He has figured out that the Morpho is specifically going after the villains in line to hench Venture.

21 takes back the narrator position and talks about “earning his wings”, which is henchmen slang for your first kill. He talks about coming face-to-face with an arch who could have killed him on the spot, but who instead died of happiness at that exact moment.

In Dr. Hiney’s waiting room, Dr. Hiney sees that his secretary was shot with a dart gun. He spots the Monarch in one of the chairs, and the Monarch says menacingly, “I have a huge pain in my ass, Doctor.”

Dr. Mrs. the Monarch is taking the Guild limo to Wide Wale’s place. Her voice-over talks about how the old-time villains love to scrap protocol and go crazy every time something goes wrong, and she can’t help but want to do the same.

Pete and Billy have decorated the Venture penthouse for the eclipse party Doc is throwing for Christopher Lambert. Dr. Venture complains that the decorations “look like a baby shower for a teen mom.”

Deep in the woods, 21 drags a passed-out Wandering Spider out of the car and accidentally deploys his robot spider legs. He pokes him to see if he is awake, and by doing so accidentally shoots himself in the crotch with a dart.

Christopher Lambert does not show up to the party. Pete and Billy are getting drunk at the bar where Hank is bartending. As always, Hank has embraced this new job wholeheartedly, wearing an old-school bartending outfit and a fake mustache. Doc shows him how to make one of his disgusting “Doc-tails”, the Ruddy Bottom (grenadine, tomato juice, and rum).

Dr. Hiney is lying on his stomach, strapped to his patient table. He struggles against his restraints as a laser beam slowly moves towards his ass. The Monarch tries to take a selfie with the setup to send to his wife. He complains that the Doctor doesn’t look scared enough in the photos.

At the Venture penthouse, Billy is very drunk. He falls off of his stool and spills a Ruddy Bottom onto Doc, soaking him in red liquid (remember the blood from the beginning of the episode?) Dr. Venture goes outside to watch the eclipse alone.

21 wakes up Wandering Spider and hands him his phone. He tells Spider to call the Guild and tell them that he’s about to be executed by the Blue Morpho. Dr. Mrs. the Monarch’s compact phone is on vibrate and she does not answer. 21 forces his hostage to leave her a message.

At the exact same time, as they planned, Monarch sends his wife his henching selfie.

Across the street, Wide Wale, Dragoon, Red Mantle, Dr. Z, and Dr. Mrs. the Monarch watch as Doc walks across his roof. They see the spilled Doc-tail and assume he has killed again and that they are catching him literally red-handed.

Wide Wale pressures Dr. Mrs. the Monarch to shoot Dr. Venture, telling her to stop being a coward, begging her to end the madness. She does.

The camera follows the bullet in slow motion as it leaves the gun and crosses between the rooftops. It flies in front of the red moon.

As we follow the bullet, the voice-overs continue.

Dr. Mrs.: “Sometimes you do something and you know that second you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.”

21: “But you had to make that choice! You saw no other way! You’re a tiny part of a big machine.”

Dr. Venture: “And you feel.. small. Like you don’t matter. But its so beautiful, you’re okay with it.”

The bullet hits Dr. Venture in the chest. He lays motionless on the ground.

The Monarch’s voice-over narrates to end our story. He tells us that Dr. Venture died, and no one cared; not his friends, family, bodyguard, or even his robot.

Dr. Venture’s eyes open. He leaps up and throws off the suit jacket. The Monarch’s omniscient voice laughs. “Please! I’m kidding!” The Blue Morpho jacket has a bulletproof lining. Doc is unharmed. He assumes that the jacket pocket blew up, and because he stole the jacket from a supervillain tailor, he was too ashamed to tell anyone what happened.

Dr. Venture ended up paying for the Monarch’s dry cleaning. Dr. Mrs. received both her husband’s selfie and Wandering Spider’s call for help. 21 did his job and killed Wandering Spider. The Monarch ends with “This.. This is a happy ending!”

In the post-credit scene, the Council of 13 is getting into the limo outside Wide Wale’s building. She pauses. “Did you see that? Right over there!” She motions to the Venture building across the circle. “Is that Christopher Lambert?” Indeed, Doc’s guest of honor is trying to get into the locked Venture building. I guess he showed up after all.

Bonus: I grabbed this screenshot in case any of you out there are as Warriana/Brock obsessed as I am:

That was quite an episode. Doc and Jackson have really mastered how to pack in the action while maintaining comfortable pacing. This episode was a prime example of that balance. Not only was our current story advanced, but we also got 21 and Guild backstory and a brand-new narration style all in the same episode. It was really such a joy to watch.

Doc and Jackson recently revealed that “A Party for Tarzan” is the more action-packed of the final two episodes of season 6. They even considered switching the order of the two, but realized it would mess up continuity. So remember that there isn’t going to be a big dramatic finale next week. It will be more like the ending we got in season 5.

I got this information from an interview with Doc and Jackson over at ScreenCrush that was published a few days ago. We also learned from that interview that there may be another mid-season special à la Gargantua 2 before season 7 premieres, which reveals most importantly that THERE WILL BE A SEASON 7. I’m pretty sure that this is the first confirmation we’ve had that season 7 will actually exist. Get excited, Venturoos.

And as always, here is your weekly Shirt Club plug. This week pays homage to Enzo, tailor to the stars (and by stars I mean supervillains).

Oh hey Sally.

See you next week for our SEASON FINALE!!

Andy Warhol was one of my first loves. I’m from Pittsburgh, where we are taught about Warhol from a weirdly young age because he was born here. His museum has been one of my favorite places since grade school. It was way later, when I was reading his books in high school, that I even realized how many drugs they were doing.

So obviously, I adored this entire episode.

“It Happening One Night” opens with another Super Friends monologue. Out of the murky waters of the Gowanus Canal rises a purple mushroom-shaped fortress, the headquarters of the New York crime collective the Doom Factory.

The Doom Factory is an obvious homage to Warhol’s factory and to the Legion of Doom: the villains we see all seem to reference one of Warhol’s famous muses and one of the Legion, including “Eenie-Meenie” (Edie Sedgwick/Toyman), “Serpentine” (Ondine/Copperhead), “Ultra Violent” (Ultra Violet/Star Sapphire) and “Billy Maim” (Billy Name/Cheetah). Their leader, Wes Warhammer (Warhol/Lex Luthor), suggests rather casually, “Uh, guys.. We should get Dr. Venture.”

At the Venture penthouse, Brock is showing Dr. Venture and the boys a strange video that was sent to the Venture Industries building in a white, blue, and red box labeled Doom! (based off of Warhol’s Brillo boxes). “So you thought it was a good idea to just open up a box marked ‘DOOM’ in my house?”, Doc asks. The video is a creepy mashup of red and black photographs with the text “Venture tonight you meet your doom!”

Hank teases Dean about his college vocabulary, and Dean threatens not to help Hank with his plan later that night. When questioned, the boys lie about their plans, saying that they’re just redecorating Hank’s room. Brock tells the Ventures not to leave the penthouse tonight.

Dr. Mrs. the Monarch is sitting in the living room of her new home, hologramming into a meeting of the Council of 13. She is warning the Council about the Blue Morpho and his killing spree, insisting that they cancel the Doom Factory’s arching plans for that night. The other members of the Council do not take her seriously. They dismiss her concerns about the Blue Morpho, who she believes to be Dr. Venture, telling her that her husband’s obsession with Venture has rubbed off on her.

The Monarch descends the stairs while talking to 21 on the phone. 21 was in the Morpho cave when Dr. Mrs. began her conference call in the outside room, so he has been stuck there for two hours. 21 insists that the Monarch get his wife out of the room so he can get out of the cave.

Dr. Mrs. rants angrily to her husband about the Council’s decision to fight the Blue Morpho with wanted posters instead of real action. To distract her and free 21, the Monarch kisses his wife passionately. 21 finally escapes.

In Central Park, Hank and Sirena are taking a romantic evening ride in the Go Pod. Hank is attempting to woo Sirena with a romantic monologue about the night air, but she interrupts him by saying, “Uh, okay. So I’ve waited, and since you’re not going to say anything about it clearly, uh, what is with your outfit?” Her question is understandable as Hank is dressed rather strangely in a black coat and pants covered in buckles.

“Isn’t it the Bad outfit?”, she asks, referencing Michael Jackson’s Bad music video. “No, this is the good one!” Hank responds cluelessly.

They stop the car and Hank uses his communicator watch to alert Dean that they have arrived. Dean, who is hiding behind a nearby tree, tells Pete that he is up first. Pete comes towards the couple with a knife pretending to mug them. Hank pushes Sirena behind him, and his wardrobe choices are made clear when he does a spot-on Michael Jackson dance that scares the mugger/Pete away. Sirena takes the knife from him.

The couple suddenly hears bongo sounds, and walk over to a nearby Dean. He is sitting cross-legged and playing the drums while dressed in all black, complete with a black beret, sunglasses, and goatee. Next to him plugged into an amp ‘happens’ to be Hank’s bass, which Hank quickly grabs and uses to serenade Sirena.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to catch her attention for long, as she walks away while Hank is playing. The boys decide to scrap the ‘lost baby’ gag and move onto Phase 2. At hearing this news, the nearby baby carriage opens to reveal Billy with a bonnet wrapped around his huge head. “Thank you! I feel like an idiot!”, he whines.

Dean says that he has already procured reservations at the restaurant where his friend Brown Widow works, which he declares très Hank.  Sirena is sitting on the Go Pod, using the knife to remove the tracker her dad put in her arm.

Back at the Venture penthouse, Brock sees that both of the boys are gone and tells Doc to get into the panic room. Doc resists, insisting that he can’t stop his important scientific work at a moment’s notice. We see that this “work” is actually playing Team Fortress 2 with Hatred.

Hatred is still swollen and bruised with his neck in a brace and his arm in a sling, but he is back at work in the Venture lobby, playing Doc on the security computer. He admits to Brock that the boys are in Central Park on a date.

The floor in the lobby has finally been fixed. Immediately after Brock leaves the building, Hatred is stabbed with some kind of syringe by Eenie-Meenie, and passes out.

In the park, Brock locates the Go Pod. Sirena’s bloody tracker is on the seat. Rocco, Sirena’s bodyguard, appears on the scene at the same time as Brock. Brock calls Rocco a pussy for using a powersuit, and the two bodyguards start to fight.

At the Monarch mansion, the Monarch enters his bedroom to find Dr. Mrs his Wife dressed as a farm girl, complete with a blonde wig and Daisy Dukes. She crawls onto the bed as the two begin to role play, and the Monarch shoots her in the ass with a Morpho dart.

He returns to the Morpho cave, where 21 debriefs him on Warhammer and the Doom Factory. He tells the Monarch that he won’t kill anyone anymore, and starts to talk about the book he is reading titled Blood on My Hands, Grief in My Heart. The Monarch slaps the book out of his hands, yelling, “Will you stop with the PTSD nonsense? So you killed a guy! You’re a super villain! TO THE MORPHO SCOOTERS!”

The Morpho’s theme music plays as the Monarch struggles to steer his scooter out of the lab.

Back in the park, Brock and Rocco seem to have arrived at a stalemate. They compliment each other on their fighting styles. In my favorite line of the night, Rocco says, “Look, we can play Rock’Em, Brock’Em Robots all night long, but it ain’t gonna bring those kids back.” The two agree to team up to find their missing kids.

Sirena and Hank walk around the city, playing “King for a Day”. Hank says he would outlaw yellow candy because it always tastes the worst, and Sirena says she would outlaw men in sandals, or sandals with socks, or Rocco wearing Sandals, or Rocco’s mother so he would never have been born.

As they start to enter a building, Dean and Pete hop out from behind a dumpster, with full 1950s reporter garb and cameras. They pretend to be paparazzi, yelling things like “Shazam! How’s about his new gal pal?” Hank pretends to get angry at the invasion of privacy, and he and Sirena enter the building.

They descend a flight of stairs and enter a dark room that looks like a dungeon. They are surprised by a ninja, who pretends to stab Hank. It seems that the place Dean deemed très Hank is a ninja-themed restaurant.

In the Venture Industries building, Dr. Venture gets out out of the elevator to see his front hallway has been redecorated. There are Doom! Brillo boxes everywhere and colorful pop art prints of Doc’s face on the wall. He enters his living room to see even more, including Warhol’s Silver Cloud balloons floating around the apartment (which are on display at the Warhol Museum IRL!)

Many of the villains of the Doom factory are lounging in the living room. Frigid (Brigid Berlin/Captain Cold) sorts out pills on top of the coffee table, as Gerard the Gorilla (Gerard Malanga/Gorilla Grodd) makes screenprints on the floor. No one seems to mind Dr. Venture. He runs upstairs to find Wes Warhammer waiting for him with a camera and backdrop.

The Doom Factory member with a camera for a head films Doc as he sits on a stool in front of a white background. He tells Doc to just be himself, but Doc says that isn’t completely possible when “Myself would be running out of here screaming and most likely calling my bodyguard to beat you up. So.” They respond by asking him to take his shirt off. “Weirdest. Arching. Ever.”

Brock and Rocco drive towards the kids in Brock’s Charger. Rocco complains about the smell of Brock’s Marlboros and Brock responds by complaining about the smell of Rocco’s Axe body spray. Rocco asks Brock if he was frozen by the OSI in 1979 or if he is some kind of time traveler, because that would explain Brock’s choice in cars, clothes, music, and “Tennessee Top Hat” hairstyle. Brock stops the car and angrily tells Rocco not to touch his hair.

At the restaurant, Hank and Sirena seem to be hitting it off. Sirena complains about her friends thinking her blog was stupid, and Hank tells her that he thinks she would be a great ‘bloggeress’. (From now on this will be the only title I respond to, so please take note.)

Their waiter falls from the ceiling of the booth (because ninja) to take their order, and we see that he is Dean’s friend the Brown Widow. It is awkward between him and Sirena because they used to date. Sirena is not interested in discussing their former relationship and tells the Brown Widow to take his drama elsewhere.

The Monarch and 21 ride their Morpho scooters on the Gowanus Canal. 21 starts to tell the Monarch to keep his mouth shut because the canal water is disgusting, and at that moment the Monarch wipes out and falls into the water. A dolphin corpse floats past him. The Doom Factory headquarters rises from the water.

The Monarch and 21 get inside to fuck up the lair. That way, their Guild rank will go down so that the Monarch will be ahead of them in line to arch, and 21 won’t have to kill anyone. When 21 asks him how he intends to actually do this damage, the Monarch responds, “The same way I do everything amazing: by blowing my inheritance.”

Back in the Venture penthouse, Doc is starting to embrace his role as Warhammer’s muse as he plays it up for the camera. He realizes that Warhammer isn’t even in the room anymore.

Outside, Doc’s home has been transformed into a party. The room is flooded with changing colored lights. Doc walks past the silent Murder Bear from season 4 and a man dressed in an identical speedsuit. We also see some other familiar background villains at the party, including Vain Gloria, Brick Frog, the Plug Face guy, and the flower-themed villainess who attempts to hit on Shore Leave at Don Hell’s nightclub in season 5.

Dr. Venture asks around for Wes and Serpentine tells him that he’s old news, and that Warhammer has already moved on to new muses. Doc’s feelings are clearly hurt. He suddenly realizes that members of the Doom Factory are stealing all of his super science equipment in the middle of the party.

Brock and Rocco pull up to the ninja-themed restaurant. They mistake the ninja waiters for real ninjas. Brock admits that his gun isn’t loaded, so they’ll have to use their hands. Rocco tells Brock that he knew a man like him in his unit in Afghanistan, and he starts to recommend the same book that 21 was reading earlier in the episode. Brock is not interested in his advice and gets out of the car.

Inside the restaurant, Sirena attempts to reason with a pouting Hank. “Come on, you’re not the first good guy I’ve dated. Get over it!” Hank admits that her dating other good guys doesn’t bother him, but he worries that she’s only interested in him because it will make her dad angry.

Sirena tells him that she really likes him, and that she is impressed with the skits he had planned throughout their date. She says that guys usually only want to get her drunk and mess around. “I don’t believe in doing that,” Hank says honestly. “What do you believe in?”, Sirena asks him, smiling. Hank gives a speech about his beliefs à la Crash Davis in the Bull Durham, ending with, “And I believe in long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days – stopping only to go to the bathroom, obviously.”

“Do you want to do something crazy?” Sirena asks. “Sister, you had me at ‘crazy’,” Hank responds.

Back at the Doom Factory lair, the Monarch and 21 are duct taping explosives to the poles in the building. The Monarch wants to set off the explosives right as they jump out in order to look as cool as possible. 21 protests, but the Monarch presses the detonator button anyways. They grab Silver Cloud balloons and jump out of the window.

21 lands smoothly on his Morpho scooter, but the Monarch’s coat tails get stuck in the lair window as he tries to jump. Thankfully, the explosives only release tiny clouds of smoke instead of actually detonating. Immediately after, the Doom Factory lair rises off of its stand in the water and flies away, the Monarch still stuck in the window. 21 and the Monarch yell “DUDE!” at each other as the Monarch flies away.

Inside the restaurant, Brock and Rocco disguise themselves as fellow ninja waiters and start to beat up another waiter, still unaware that it is just a restaurant. They are stopped by the Brown Widow, who shows them to the couple’s booth. They are both gone.

Brock and Rocco run out of the restaurant, where Pete and Dean start to take their photo, still playing their paparazzi roles. Brock punches Pete in the face before realizing who they are. He tells Dean to wait in the car. As the bodyguards run away, Billy, who is dressed as a homeless vet, asks, “Why didn’t we get to be ninjas?”

Sirena dives into the New York Bay, the Statue of Liberty far behind her. She reveals that her skin has to get wet every six hours. After some encouragement, Hank cannonballs in after her. He yells about how cold the water is, which the nearby bodyguards hear, and Sirena dunks his head to shut him up. She kisses him under the water.

The Monarch is inside the Doom Factory as it flies over the city. It stops at the Venture rooftop and a ramp lowers down so that the Factory members can haul their stolen goods inside.

Dr. Venture is talking to Warhammer, asking him if he intends to steal everything and leave him with nothing. Warhammer says that Eenie gave him a watch that allows him to talk to God, but he doesn’t have anything to say. He gives the watch to Doc, who realizes that it is just his communicator watch spraypainted gold.

“That Eenie’s a little thief, is what she is! You ALL are!” Doc yells angrily as Warhammer climbs up the ramp into the Doom lair. Warhammer looks at Doc weirdly and responds in an obvious tone, “Um, yeah.”

As the Doom lair flies away, the Monarch finally jumps off of it and lands near Doc. “Good evening, citizen!” he says to his nemesis. The detonator falls out of his pocket and lands on the button. The Doom Factory explodes in a massive ball of fire.

Hank and Sirena are locking lips as the explosion lights up the sky behind them. “Fireworks,” Hank sighs dreamily as they pull away from each other. The camera pans out to show Rocco putting a coat on Sirena’s shoulders, and Brock lifting Hank by his underwear.

In the post-credit scene, Dr. Mrs. the Monarch wakes up in her farm girl outfit on her bed with a Morpho dart sticking out of her butt. She sits up and sees the Monarch lying on the floor with a Morpho dart coming out of his shoulder. She runs to him and holds her husband in her arms.

The compact phone rings, and Dr. Mrs answers it to find that Phantom Limb is on the other line. “You were right, Councilwoman. He struck again. What do you need to stop him?”

The pacing of this episode was slower than most of season 6, so it felt somewhat more like previous Venture seasons. It was probably the lack of Council drama that caused the slower pace. I don’t mind the episodes that pack more in, but it was definitely nice to have some focus on the Venture brothers themselves.

We were all looking forward to Hank’s date, and it did not disappoint. I love Hank. Even when dressed exactly like Michael Jackson, Hank is constantly and unabashedly himself. His little skits for Sirena were heartfelt and embarrassing, just like him. I also loved that Hank wasn’t the first good guy Sirena had dated – it takes away the ‘princess locked in a tower’ angle to their relationship and gives their relationship normality and realism. Unlike Hank and Dean, she is not sheltered and naive; she’s had real life experiences. I can’t wait to see what she teaches Hank.

Jackson and Doc have truly outdone themselves in character references in this episode. The amount of brainstorming, research, and character design that must have gone into creating the Doom Factory is unbelievable. Researching the Legion of Doom and Warhol Factory members to figure out each character was so much fun.

I have so much respect for Doc and Jackson and for the amount of work they put into this show. This episode – and this entire season – is a reminder that the Venture Bros is a labor of love. If you’re one of the people who constantly complain about the wait between seasons, I invite you to rewatch this episode in particular to see just how much work goes into the Venture Bros.

Remember those posters I keep talking about? It seems that the second two may not be released on AsSeenOnAdultSwim.com after all. Today Adult Swim released the .jpg files of all four posters on their Facebook page, inviting us to print ’em out or use them as a background. The files are extremely high res, so if you missed the first two or are interested in completing your collection, you could easily take these files to a print shop and get them printed. The first two were 18″ x 24″ and printed on 100 lb. uncoated cover stock.

This week’s Shirt Club continues the Warhol theme. It features the Brillo Box parody we saw in the episode, and it is one of my favorites so far (but, as you can tell, I’m pretty biased towards all things Warhol!) Check it out here!

Special thanks to the Venture Bros subreddit for the help with the Legion of Doom references! As always, please let me know in the comments if I missed anything, as this episode was extra packed with references that I probably missed.

Happy Wednesday everyone! Here are my pulls for this week!

• Black Canary Vol. 1 Trade (DC Comics)
• Batgirl #49 (DC Comics)
• DC Bombshells #10 (DC Comics)
• A-Force #3 (Marvel)
• Black Widow #1 (Marvel)

Marriage problems! Guild widows! Customer service! Butt stuff! And SO MUCH MORE!

Dr. Mrs. the Monarch stomps around her bedroom as she gets dressed in her Guild best for another day at work. Her noise wakes up her husband, who lovingly tells her good morning. She does not return the greeting. Overwhelmed and exhausted with her new job, Dr. Mrs. rips into the Monarch for sleeping in late and not working. To be fair, she still doesn’t know that her her husband has actually been very busy with his new double life as the Blue Morpho.

Dr. Mrs. the Monarch doesn’t think that supervising the house construction is an adequate job replacement for full-time villainy. She criticizes the Monarch for not making any effort to raise his villain level from his current 4. The Monarch tells her that marriage is “for better or worse, not better than 4.” His wife responds that she married The Monarch, but that she doesn’t even know who he is anymore. She slams the door on her way out. 21 offers his boss a hug.

Brock wakes up in an unfamiliar bedroom, naked and face down in a pink pillow. He starts to move, and winces. “What the fuck?” He gets on his hands and knees, and sees that there is a dildo with a cord sticking out of his ass.

Brock quietly opens the bedroom door, now dressed with his shoes in his hand. He tries to sneak out, but Warriana hears him from her desk where she is working on her laptop and tells him that there is coffee in the kitchen. Brock starts to talk about his sneakiness and about last night, but Warriana interrupts him to ask why he’s still there. She tells him to take his coffee to go.

In the Venture lobby,Dr. Mrs. the Monarch and a Guild team are retrieving Harangutan’s body and analyzing the crime scene. Dr. Venture predictably can’t help himself from hitting on Dr. Mrs., even after years of repeated rejection and even attending her wedding. She is having a very bad day. She tells Venture he is in big trouble with the Guild for Harangutan’s death.

At that moment, Brock enters the Venture lobby with sunglasses on and a coffee in hand. He is clearly still in pain from the rough sex the night before. When he finally notices the crowd of Guild employees in the lobby, he tries to take out his knife but drops it on the floor.

Dr. Mrs. asks Brock if he killed Harangutan, but he collaborates Doc’s story that he had nothing to do with it. She asks for the security tapes, and Brock refuses and tells her, “You touch our tapes and they’ll be pulling you out of that hole next.” Dr. Mrs. turns around angrily and runs directly into Dean, who is carrying a bouquet of flowers. She misinterprets the gesture as being for her, and smacks them out of his hands. “Those were for Uncle Hatred!”, Dean says sadly.

Dr. Venture signs some papers for Watch and Ward, and they insist that he keep the pen, “courtesy of the NEW Guild of Calamitous Intent!” They also give him a business card with a phone number for customer service.

The Pirate Captain meets Dr. Venture and Brock in the lobby with some bad news. A video of Billy eating fast food while under the influence of the God Gas has gone viral, resulting in a PR nightmare for Venture Industries. Of course, the person responsible for the update is Pete, who never considered the implications for his employer when presented with an opportunity to embarrass Billy.

Billy wakes up to find Pete showing the video to his mom, Action Man, and Colonel Gentleman. (It seems that Billy and Pete might be living with that group during their contract with Venture Industries.) The door bell rings, and Rose calls from the front door, “Billy, there’s a Nazi here to see you!” Dr. Mrs. the Monarch enters, and she is pissed.

In the City of Newark Mayor’s office, a maintenance man is vacuuming the carpet when a phone starts to ring somewhere in the room. It seems to be coming from a Haynes statue on the desk. When the maintenance man touches the statue, the head springs up to reveal a red phone that clearly hasn’t been used in a long time. He answers, and on the other line 21 hangs up the same red phone in the Blue Morpho cave. “What the eff!”

The Monarch is playing with all of his dad’s old gadgets as 21 reads off the list of villains currently in line to arch Venture. The “Blue Morpho’s Pyramid of Peril” features Wide Wale as Venture’s primary arch, but Wale has also given sub-arching rights to other level-10 villains, who then in turn gave rights to lower villains.

21 disagrees with the Monarch’s plan to kill all other villains on the Pyramid, insisting that there must be another way to get them away from Venture. The Monarch insists that murder is the only way that the villains won’t talk. After debating different methods of Morpho transportation, the two resign themselves to using their Metrocards.

Up in the Guild space station, Dr. Mrs. the Monarch is hollogramming in to a meeting to inform the Council of her progress. She tells them Billy’s story about the Blue Morpho saving the day. The Council discusses the possibility that there might be a new Blue Morpho, or that Billy was just hallucinating or lying.

Dr. Mrs. the Monarch complains about not being able to acquire the Venture security tapes. Hologram Wide Wale offers to retrieve them for her from the surveillance he installed during his first arching. “The Ventures can’t hide nothing from Wide Wale!” he boasts, as his waiter, Hank disguised with a mustache, pours him another glass of wine. Hank is still employed at the Italian restaurant that Wide Wale frequents.

Dr. Mrs. has to face her first time informing a Guild member of their spouse’s death. Watch and Ward talk about how bad their previous experiences have been, and she tells them to stay in the limo. She enters a pub where a Scottish redhead is tending the bar. (Also at the bar is Brick Frog, our second sighting this season, as well as the Apache Chief who stood on his tiptoes during his Revenge Society audition, and an antlered villain named Jägermeister who I don’t think we’ve seen before.)

The redhead is Harangutan’s widow, and she tells Dr. Mrs. to call her Battleaxe. Battleaxe starts to complain about her husband, but when Dr. Mrs. informs her of his death, she drops the glass she is cleaning and bursts into tears. However, she recovers quickly when a villain at the bar requests a round on the house in Harangutan’s memory. Battleaxe is not interested in Dr. Mrs.’ condolences, just the keys to her husband’s Harangutank.

Next, we finally have our first scene as Dean as a college student. He sits in his psychology class next to his old friend the Brown Widow. His professor, Dr. Nidaba, has a giant head and uses a floating chair for transportation. In the middle of his lecture, Dr. Nidaba receives a message on his Guild of Calamitous Intent pocket watch that Harangutan has been compromised, and that he is officially cleared to arch Dr. Venture. He dismisses class immediately, and tells them to return to their lives of “gravity bongs, ceaseless Tweets, and date rapery.”

As the students file out and leave their papers on his desk, Dr. Nidaba stops Dean to tell him his paper is terrible. He uses his impressive intelligence to “interpret the data” and analyze Dean’s current life situation. He guesses the hole in the lobby from the soot on Dean’s shoe, and Dean’s earlier visit to Hatred in the hospital from the scent of antiseptic on his clothing and the pollen on his sleeve. Dr. Nidaba tells Dean to avoid extra stress in his life and avoid his home for the evening. He does not want Dean to be present for his arching.

When Dean leaves the room, the blackboard raises, revealing Dr. Nidaba’s secret identity as Think Tank.

Dr. Mrs. the Monarch does not have the keys to the Harangutank. After doing research on her laptop, she finally discovers that the tank was impounded by the NYPD. Dr. Mrs.’ guilt causes her to offer to escort the widow to the impound garage, and Battleaxe accepts her offer with excitement. As the widow gets ready, Dr. Mrs. receives an email from Wide Wale with the security footage from the Venture compound.

At the impound garage, the Monarch and 21 as the Blue Morpho and Kano shoot the security guard with tranquilizer darts when asked for license and registration. They use a Morpho gadget to unlock the doors into the garage.

The Pirate Captain is on a program called WMNews to do damage control after the viral video of Billy. The host of the show, Alexis Warrington, looks very familiar to a certain female member of the Crusaders Action League.

Dr. Venture is yelling at Billy on the phone as he looks over that day’s stock reports with a glass of red wine. He blames Billy and Pete for the 50 point drop in Venture stock that happened after the video. In classic Doc fashion, he rejects any responsibility for the fiasco. He notices Think Tank’s reflection in his wine glass.

The Monarch and 21 run around the impound garage looking for the Morpho Mobile. In the lobby, the security guard wakes up from the tranquilizers only to immediately see Battleaxe breaking his window and knocking him out with her axe. Dr. Mrs. the Monarch exasperatedly yells, “What is wrong with you?! All you had to do was pay the ticket!” Battleaxe simply responds, “I hate fucking coppers.”

Think Tank blasts a cannon through the windows and wheels himself into Dr. Venture’s living room. He apologizes for the dramatic entrance, and challenges Doc to a battle – a battle of wits. Eager to finally have an adversary that matches his intellect, Think Tank place a chess board on the table between them.

Think Tank is predictably disappointed when Dr. Venture says that he doesn’t play chess. “More of a Parcheesi man.” Doc is annoyed with how many arches he has faced in a single week, and calls the number on the Guild business card to complain to customer service (which is just Watch and Ward waiting in the limo for Dr. Mrs.) Brock faces off with Think Tank as Doc goes onto the porch to complain.

Dr. Mrs. the Monarch and Battleaxe find the Harangutank in the garage – which is not a tank at all, but a pimped-out camper. Battleaxe opens the door to reveal a terrible smell and a floor completely covered in a variety of alcohol bottles. Battleaxe admits that the tank is actually her and her late husband’s home.

Outside the tank, the Monarch causes a ruckus when he trips over a beer bottle, and when he stands back up is spotted by his wife. “YOU!”, Dr. Mrs. yells, pointing at him. He runs away from her immediately.

Brock has that classic season 1 bloodlust in his eyes as he fights Think Tank. He has one arm inside Think Tank’s force field trying to cut the villain’s face with his knife. Think Tank is offended when Brock deems the situation a stalemate, and points out that he has a cannon pointed at Brock’s chest. Brock smiles wildly and cockily declares that he can dodge it. He does not dodge it.

Brock opens his eyes after the high-velocity cannon blast to his chest to a moving aerial view of the city, and he realizes he is laying over Warriana’s shoulder. “What, are you stalking me now?” she teases. Brock starts to protest, and she tells him that she is just messing with him. Warriana apologizes for being weird that morning, and blames it on her busy life. Brock is understanding, and says that he also has a lot happening in his life, including Think Tank, who is still at the Venture building.

“Whoa, whoa, Think Tank?!”, Warriana interrupts. “Oh, do not even tell me that pompous son of a Gorgon is messing with MY MAN!” (It is at this moment that I squealed so loudly that I woke up my cat.)

Dr. Mrs. the Monarch is trying to find the Blue Morpho in the lines of cars in the garage. “I know who you are!”, she yells. “You coward!” In the Harangutank, Battleaxe starts snooping through Dr. Mrs.’ laptop, and discovers the Venture security footage of her husband’s death.

Dr. Mrs. finds the Monarch easily, as he and 21 are hiding in the car that literally has the Morpho logo on the hood. They start the car, but there is still a boot on the wheel. Dr. Mrs. holds a gun to the windshield and gives them three seconds to come out. As this is happening, Battleaxe sees Dr. Venture’s face on the security footage and thinks that he is the Blue Morpho, and therefore responsible for her husband’s death.

Dr. Mrs fires a warning shot, causing the Monarch to duck his head and accidentally hit a red button on the car’s dashboard. The car turns into a hoverplane and the two escape, with Battleaxe in the Harangutank hot on their tail. Dr. Mrs. gets picked up by Watch and Ward in the limo, and she tells them to follow the Morpho Mobile.

Doc finally gives up on his customer service call, and walks back inside his living room to find Brock and Warriana teamed up against Think Tank. The villain angrily calls their teamwork an “unsanctioned team up” and threatens to report them to the Guild.

Warriana proposes that she and Brock take their “unsanctioned team up” back to her place and make it official. Brock timidly requests “No butt stuff this time, okay?”, but Warriana lassos him, forcing him to admit the truth that “I liked it!”

This screenshot may or may not also be my new Twitter banner.

In the flying Morpho Mobile, Monarch celebrates their amazing getaway, and tells 21 to fly over the Venture building. 21 is understandably freaked by their encounter with Dr. Mrs. the Monarch, and wants to go straight home. The Monarch insists that they do a fly-by of the Venture home so he can take an evil, mighty push right into their pool, just like old times.

The change in direction turns out to be a great idea, as the Guild limo was hot on their trail when the Mobile was making a straight path back home. She is shocked to see the car turn around and head for the top of the Venture building. Dr. Venture looks out his now broken windows to see the Morpho Mobile fly low to the roof in a quick swoop and drop a poop in the pool.

Yes, I screenshotted the poop.

Battleaxe speeds towards the Venture building in the Harangutank, swearing to avenge Dr. Venture for her husband’s death. She drives into the traffic circle outside the Venture building at the same time as do Hank and Dean in the Go Pod and Dr. Mrs. the Monarch in the Guild limo.

Hank and Dean are distracted by the sight of Dean’s professor trying to hail a taxi outside of their building, and Hank accidentally steers the Pod into the path of the Guild limo, which swerves into the Harangutank’s lane. Battleaxe swerves the tank to avoid hitting the limo and drives straight into the Venture lobby, running directly into Think Tank and driving them both into the hole in the lobby. There is an explosion from the pit. The Death Pit claims two more victims.

On the roof, Doc is scooping the shit out of the pool with a net. The explosion from the lobby causes the entire building to shake and Doc to sigh, “Now what?” He looks over the side of the rooftop to see the damage down below, and at the same time Dr. Mrs. the Monarch sees him in her binoculars from the traffic circle below. She never saw the Morpho Mobile fly away from the building. She frowns. It seems that she too has mistaken Doc to be the Blue Morpho.

In the post-credits scene, Dr. Mrs. the Monarch finally returns home early the next morning after a long and awful day at work. She opens the front door to see that the foyer is finally finished in beautiful purples and reds reminiscent of the interior of their old Cocoon.

Dr. Mrs. goes upstairs and tells her husband “Someone had a very busy day!” The Monarch is lying in bed, terrified that his wife has figured out his secret identity. “The vestibule looks great, honey,” she says, spooning his back. She apologizes for her behavior that morning, and admits that he is not the enemy. He kisses her.

Dr. Mrs the Monarch rolls over in bed. “I know who my enemy is,” she growls. The Monarch is terrified.

We heard some new voices in this episode. Think Tank was voiced by Jeffrey Wright, an actor who’s recent work includes Valentin Narcisse in Boardwalk Empire and Beetee in The Hunger Games. Battleaxe was voiced by Barbara Rosenblat, who you might recognize as Miss Rosa in Orange is the New Black, and who voiced the Titmouse bird at the end of the episode: “Chirp, you slut.”

As always, I am completely delighted with every single moment of Brock and Warriana. Holy shit. This plotline is basically tailor-made to my interests. Brock has always been my favorite character, and strong ladies are my favorite thing in the world. I haven’t gotten that intense heart squeezing feeling over a fictional couple since LOST was still on the air (Sawyer and Juliet forever, y’all). As Doc explained to Jackson in the season 6 commentary, I “ship” it. I ship it SO HARD. AHHH.

There is a lot of speculation online as to the pit in the lobby doing the Monarch’s work for him at killing off the Pyramid of Peril. So far, three out of three villains have died in a hole ironically made by the prime arch. Will we see more Guild members meet the same fate? I really hope Brock’s comment about putting Dr. Mrs. the Monarch in the hole wasn’t foreshadowing for her, but possibly foreshadowing for many of the villains she represents.

This episode may be slightly overwhelming to new viewers as it had a faster pace than its predecessors, but its clear that these episodes are an immediate continuation of the previous week. They’re telling one season-long story. As I’ve said in previous recaps, its just very different from the pacing of previous seasons, so it takes some adjusting. I don’t feel that the classic Venture jokes and tropes have been sacrificed in the change of pace. Its still the same show we all love.

Dr. Mrs. the Monarch is another favorite of mine, and I’m really happy to see her in a position of power that honors her skills and intelligence. She was always too good to just be a number 2, even if she did it for love. It will be interesting to see if her hatred of Dr. Venture will actually bring her and the Monarch closer together – that is, until she inevitably discovers that the real enemy is actually her husband.

I’ve also been loving all of the details that come with the Venture family finally joining the 21st century, like Dr Mrs. the Monarch on her laptop and Brock using an V-Pad. There was some really fun stuff in the incredibly detailed electronic screens that we saw in this episode. I screenshotted some of them below for your viewing pleasure. Check out Dr. Mrs.’s inbox and all of the listed nicknames for Brock!

As always, here is your plug for this week’s Shirt of the Week Club. I personally do not know if I will be buying this week’s shirt as I have a huge Dr. Mrs. the Monarch pinup tattoo on my thigh, and wearing this shirt might be Dr. Mrs. overload (if there even is such a thing?) But Dr. Mrs. shirts are pretty rare, as we haven’t had one since the first Shirt Club back in 2011, so if you love her like I do make sure to grab it sometime before 11:59 next Sunday!

Also, if you missed the Patrick Leger posters on AsSeenOnAdultSwim.com last week, keep your eyes peeled on Venture-related social media, as I have a suspicion that they will release the other two sometime as well.

See you next week, Venturoos!

Happy Wednesday y’all! Here are my pulls for this week!

• Patsy Walker AKA Hellcat! #3 (Marvel)
• Jem & The Holograms #12 (IDW)
• Faith #2 (Valiant)
• Silk #5 (Marvel)
• Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #5 (Marvel)
• Orphan Black Helsinki #4 (IDW)
• Saga #34 (Image)
• Angela Queen of Hel #5 (Marvel)
• Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #4 (Marvel)

To be honest, I was kind of dreading this episode. That’s because last night’s Rapacity In Blue is the halfway point of season 6. Only four more Sundays before we all cry and wait impatiently for the DVD release to devour the commentary (you guys do this too, right?) Its pretty wild to consider all that has occurred in the Ventureverse in just four episodes – and especially with what happened with the Monarch in last night’s episode.

We open on a gorgeous bird’s eye view shot of the rooftop of the Venture building. It is 7am, as Dr. Venture is informed when his late brother’s alarm goes off in his room and the blinds are raised. The alarm projects a hologram of Jonas Jr. himself, reminding Rusty that he only has three more days until his presentation at the Science Now conference before ranting off a long list of reminders about how wonderful life is. Irritated and now wide-awake, Doc grumbles that he really needs to figure out how to turn that alarm off.

Down in the Venture lab, Pete and Billy are awake and suited up for super science. Tongue sticking out in concentration, Pete using tongs to grab something wrapped in foil out of a metal machine. “Breakfast burrito?”, he asks Doc.

Billy rides towards Dr. Venture in a segway, which Doc thinks is a new invention. He says he’s going to militarize it, paint it in Venture blue, and call it the Zip-Arounder. Billy tells Doc that the segway was invented a long time ago. He is frustrated with Doc’s ignorance and says that Dr. Venture really needs to update himself on what has occurred in super science since he was last relevance.

Doc tells his team of two that they need to help him invent something amazing for the Science Now conference. “Weren’t you banned from that conference ’cause ya showed a vacuum cleaner that leaked radiation?”, Pete asks. Apparently the conference is giving Rusty a second chance because they “know a good thing” and he as a good thing.

In the Monarch mansion (still under construction), Dr. Mrs. the Monarch is in the shower, thinking she is talking to her husband, but the bedroom is empty. “Sweetie?”, she asks, as she realizes he isn’t there.

The Monarch is down in his new secret cave in the basement with 21. 21 is trying to convince his boss to take up the mantle of the Blue Morpho in order to take out the villains on the Dr. Venture arching list, leaving them to be Venture’s only remaining nemesis. The Monarch refuses because he is a supervillain at heart, not a good guy. “I laugh at regular jokes like this!” he exclaims, throwing his head back to release a classic villain cackle. The camera pans out as he laughs, and his theme plays in the background. The camera zooms back in and the discussion continues as usual. The Monarch again refuses to take his father’s place, instead planning to make the lab into his new Monarch headquarters, which he calls “the Egg Sack”.

Manolo calls down to let them know that his wife is coming downstairs. They sprint up to the living room, and when Dr. Mrs. looks over at them, they awkwardly start to tango to hide that they just came out of a secret door in the wall. 21 covers by saying that “A good henchman-villain relationship is a dance of death!” She seems to buy their excuse, and tells them that she is defending him to the Guild later that night. The Monarch is initially upset that she is missing their usual date night, but when she offers to cancel he quickly insists that she go, so he and 21 don’t need to sneak around. She leaves in the Guild limo with Phantom Limb.

Dean is getting dressed in his room while talking to his brother. Hank asks Dean for advice on how to satisfy women because he is nervous for his upcoming date with Sirena. Dean asks why Hank would think he knows anything about satisfying women, and tells him to ask their dad. Hank has already asked his dad but Doc was predictably unhelpful and just gave him a pamphlet on the dangers of chlamydia from his wallet.

Down in the lab, Pete and Billy are giving presentations to Dr. Venture on possible products for the Science Now conference. Pete suggests a silent washing machine and a pair of magnetic boots that generate power – although only enough power to run a small pencil sharpener. Doc rejects both of these proposals. Billy presents a serum that can regenerate a liver – however, it can’t stop, and continues to regenerate multiple livers.

Billy mentions something else he’s been working on called God Gas, which immediately catches Dr. Venture’s interest. Doc is very excited about the implications of the gas, and tells Billy to be a man and say them out loud. Billy resists because he thinks that Doc’s idea is a stretch. Pete asks them what they are talking about. “Mind control gas!” Rusty and Billy say in unison. “You guys are so cool sometimes,” Pete says admiringly. Dr. Venture tells them to make the gas.

The Monarch enters his living room in overalls and a bucket of paint. He is confused at the sight of 21 in his Jedi garb. 21 tells him there is something down in the lab that he must see alone, and Monarch reluctantly descends the stairs to see. “He has much anger in him, like his father,” 21 says wisely, quoting Yoda. “Was I any different when you taught me?” responds the incorporeal voice of Henchman 24 (Obi Wan). This was surprising as we have not heard 24 since Gary told his ghost to leave in the season 4 finale. It feels less like the dramatic return of 24 and more that Doc and Jackson just wanted to reference the iconic Star Wars scene. I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t hear from 24 again after this episode.

The Monarch approaches the giant monitor in the lab, on which a black-and-white video is paused, and starts the video. The video shows his father and Jonas Venture Sr. talking into their brand new recording technology that “fits in your car’s trunk”. The two men joke back-and-forth about the papers calling the Blue Morpho “unhinged” and “bad guy” as Jonas goes to answer the doorbell. “Let them think what they want!,” jokes the Blue Morpho, as he puts on his mask. “Whatever! Then I’m a bad guy! There! I said it!” He looks directly into the camera. “The Blue Morpho is a bad guy!”

The Monarch is amazed, and calls up to 21 asking what is on the rest of the tape. 21 tells him he doesn’t want to know (and 24’s voice insists that he does). The Monarch starts the video again. Two women enter the room and Jonas and the Blue Morpho joke about the women being evil-doers with a growth ray before pulling down their pants in unison. The recording equipment was clearly set up to record the orgy. “They are not my mommy!” cries the Monarch. “I am like 80 percent positive that is Jill St. John and Stella Stevens!” responds 21.

In the lab, Billy sprays the mice test subjects with the God Gas. Dean analyzes the mice’s feelings and Pete asks him why he’s in the lab. “I don’t have class till 1:30. And Hank is following me around looking for advice on how to score with women.” “Do you.. Know anything about that?” teases Billy. “If I did, would I be down here?” Dean sasses back. Dean’s comment also tells us that he has officially started to attend university.

In the kitchen, Hank has finally found someone who can give him advice on women (you have to wonder why he checked with his dad and brother – both of whom have little to no romantic experience – before going to an expert). Brock answers Hank’s questions about kissing, and tells him to keep his eyes open and lean towards her slowly, “like a cobra”. Hank being Hank asks what he should do if he needs to pee, and Brock sighs and tells him to just assume that he will have an empty bladder. Brock gets a call on his watch from Hatred, who is being held hostage by a new villain.

In the lab, the mice that have been sprayed by God Gas are going through different religious events in history, starting with the Egyptians, then crucifixions, then the Protestant Reformation.

The Monarch sits on his front steps asking Manolo for advice on his predicament. Manolo responds, “You know, I’m not Mr. Feeny from Boy Meets World. I don’t really care about this. Do what you want.” The Monarch interprets this as more wise advice. He answers a call from his wife, who rattles off a list of Guild forms that the Monarch needs to fill out and email to her. She is putting on a Guild spacesuit as she is on the phone, and realizes it is not her suit as it has two head holes. The forms (and not wanting to fill out the forms) are the tipping point for the Monarch. After he gets off the phone, he stands up dramatically and declares, “I’m the Blue Morpho!”

On the sidewalk outside the Venture Industries building, Hatred is on his knees as the new villain Harangutan holds a gun to his head. Brock offers to fight the new villain instead of Hatred, and the new guy agrees, but only after headbutting Hatred so many times he knocks him out. Brock and Harangutan start to threaten each other dramatically, inching closer and closer but not actually getting physical. Warriana happens to be flying through on her invisible chariot and spots them down below. She lands her invisible horses and walks up behind the villain, punching him in the back of the head. He is out cold immediately.

Brock is pissed that he was robbed of a good fight. “You can’t just fly in and do that! There’s like a code.” Warriana angrily responds, “I heed not your bro code! Justice has NO gender!” Her and Brock start verbally sparring, their faces getting closer and closer together.

Monarch enters the lab and tells 21 that they’re going with his idea. “Kano, its time to suit up!” Enter another incredible opening theme, similar to the Billy Quizboy and the Pink Pilgrim one we saw a few weeks ago. A dramatic voiceover reminiscent of the old Super-Friends cartoon tells their story with rainbow backgrounds and transformation scenes: “The Monarch, a down-and-out supervillain, claims his birthright as the Blue Morpho, who may or may not be a good guy! Along with his faithful bodyguard and chauffaur Kano, who isn’t actually an Asian! Their mission: to beat up on villains that beat up on Dr. Venture till they alone beat up on Dr. Venture!”

There is a short break in the theme song as 21 and the Monarch realize their costumes do not fit, but then we return to the theme song, where the announcer narrates 21 using home ec skills to tailor the costumes. They hop in the Morpho Mobile and drive into the city, unfortunately getting stuck in rush hour in the Lincoln Tunnel.

Brock lays in his bed with his arms behind his head and stares at the ceiling, clearly upset about something. Hank enters the room and asks Brock how to get a sports bra off of a girl. Brock angrily says, “You wanna know what you do? You do nothing!” He starts to rant about how he didn’t make a move on Warriana earlier that day and how he knows nothing about getting a woman to understand him. Brock gets louder as his frustration grows, and he starts to yell, “All you wanna do is BEND HER OVER and ARGH!” Hank misinterprets Brock’s rant as Brock saying that only lady bodybuilders wear sports bras.

While stuck in the Lincoln Tunnel, 21 convinces the Monarch to trim his beard in order to look less like “the Monarch at a Mad Men party.”

Pete and Billy show the completed God Gas gun to Dr. Venture, who wants to try it immediately. Billy insists it needs more testing, which is proven by the mice tank catching on fire seconds later. Doc decides to advance to human testing anyways. Brock asks Doc what they should do with Harangutan, the villain from earlier, and Doc tells him to hold him in the lobby until they get there, as he has just found his first human test subject.

Dr. Venture tells Billy to shoot the villain with the God Gas, but when he pulls the trigger the compartment holding the gas explodes, covering not only Harangutan but also Brock and Billy with the pink gas. The whites of their eyes turn pink. Dr. Venture tests the mind control gas on Harangutan by telling him that he is now Doc’s slave and that he will do Doc’s bidding.

This backfires as the villain is hallucinating from the gas and sees Rusty and Dr. Venture as devils in hell. He picks up Billy above his head and threatens to throw him into the giant hole in the lobby (created by Wide Wale’s henching a few episodes ago). Billy is also hallucinating, and he sees Doc as his childhood hero Rusty Venture, Boy Adventurer. Under the influence of the gas, Brock runs out of the building. Rusty runs after him, yelling at him to come back.

The Monarch and 21 run arrive in the Venture lobby as the Blue Morpho and Kano. Billy recognizes them from the Rusty Venture show. “Kano” rescues Billy from Harangutan and tosses him into the safety of the Blue Morpho’s arms. “You’re all safe now, little citizen!” the Monarch says. While looking into the Morpho’s eyes, Billy suddenly seems to recognize the man under the mask.

Harangutan lunges towards 21, and 21 punches him hard in the chest, causing him to fall backwards into the giant hole in the floor. “Dude! I’m like 90 percent sure I just punched a guy to death!” 21 yells as the two flee the scene.

Dr. Venture is forcefully escorted out of a high-scale apartment building by a doorman as he yells that his bodyguard is inside. Doc angrily warns the doorman that his speedsuit is made of rayon and it wrinkles. “Next time you trespass on private property, wear something else!” the doorman says before he throws Dr. Venture on the ground.

“Need a hand getting up, citizen?” asks a familiar voice. Doc takes the stranger’s hand, but seems shocked to see the blue mask of his late father’s friend. “You’re..” he starts to say, but the Monarch finishes his sentence, excitedly yelling “The Blue Morpho!!! 21 facepalms in the background, looking embarrassed at his boss’ enthusiasm.

Upstairs in the apartment building, Brock is walking down a hallway, his eyes bright pink from the gas. A doorman follows him asking for ID, and Brock grabs him by the neck and uses him as a human doorknocker on the door of apartment 12-B. Warriana answers the door in lingerie and a towel around her hair, and she frowns when she sees that Brock is her caller.

Brock starts to rant about Warriana’s power and beauty and asks her to take him. “Let me worship at your alter! Let me know the pleasure of a real woman!”, he begs as he sinks to his knees before her. Warriana pauses and looks up and down the hallway to make sure no one is watching. She picks Brock up off of his knees and brings his face close to hers (no small feat, considering how huge Brock is). “I’m gonna tire you out”, she warns, carrying Brock inside.

“What was all that about?” Dr. Venture asks Pete and Billy back in the Venture lobby. Billy stares at Doc intensely and when Doc questions him, Billy winks and says, “Your secret is safe with me… Blue Morpho.” The title card plays. It will be interesting to see if Billy remembers everything after the effects of the gas wear off.

After the credits, the Monarch and 21 are getting off of a New Jersey bus in front of their mansion. “That was the most fun I have EVER had!” the Monarch exclaims. Unfortunately, the Morpho mobile was towed because the Monarch did not put enough money in the meter, but not even that can harsh their excitement over the day’s events.

Monarch and 21 enter the front door and see Dr. Mrs. the Monarch sitting on the stairs. They try to cover with dancing again, but it doesn’t work the second time. She says she knows what they are doing. “You went out on date night with 21 to spite me!” The Monarch is so happy that she doesn’t know the actual truth that he tells her she is right. Dr. Mrs. walks up the stairs angrily, and 21 and Monarch high five behind her back.

I am now forced to admit that many of you were right to predict that Monarch would take up the Blue Morpho mantle (although I don’t think anyone predicted 21 as Kano) It explains the first season 6 promo we got wayyy back in August 2014 that most of us seemed to have forgotten about. I suggest rewatching it if you haven’t recently, as reveals some of where season 6 is headed.

Back when that trailer was released, fans saw the short goatee and guessed that the man under the mask was Rusty. From Billy’s reaction in this episode its clear that was exactly what Doc and Jackson hoped we would think. This similarity, with the addition of the orgy scene in this episode, has brought back the seasons-old fan theory that Dr. Venture and the Monarch are actually brothers.

The Monarch becoming the Blue Morpho also raises the question: Where will Dr. Mrs the Monarch’s loyalties lie? We did not receive an explanation for her new outfit in this episode, but it looks as if Dr. Mrs. has been made the new Sovereign. Although he may not have been caught in this episode, the Monarch’s will not be able to hide his secret identity from his wife for long. How will she choose between her husband and her new position of power? Someone on the Venture subreddit noticed that there is an 3rd costume case next to The Blue Morpho and Kano’s. Is that foreshadowing for what is to come?

My personal favorite part of this episode was the advancement of the Brock/Warriana subplot. I’ve always hoped that Brock would one day have a healthy relationship with someone who wasn’t constantly betraying him and breaking his heart, and Warriana seems like a perfect match. Okay, so maybe going to someone’s hotel room under the influence of mind-control rays isn’t the most ‘healthy’ start to a relationship, but I’m really excited to see where things go with them.

Speaking of which, I was also happy that Hank saw typically confident Brock agonizing over doing something stupid in front of a girl. Brock’s father figure moments are always touching, but teaching Hank that vulnerability is okay (even if it wasn’t completely intentional) is important as Hank goes on his first real date. I’m glad the boys have Brock to ask for advice, because as we saw in this episode, they’re very aware that their father isn’t the all-knowing man he thinks he is.

As with every episode in season 6, I adored every single minute of Rapacity In Blue and I look forward to seeing what else Doc and Jackson have in store for us. In previous seasons, we’ve seen mostly one-off/”monster of the week” episodes where the adventure is started and completed within the episode, and in season 6 we’ve had episodes that continue the same few adventures/story arcs over the whole season. With some shows this can feel too strange or sudden, but with the Venture Brothers is just seems like the natural next step for a show that’s aired for 13 years. I for one am really enjoying the change.

As always, here is your weekly plug for the Venture Bros Shirt Club! I think this week’s Blue Morpho shirt is my favorite so far!

Also, if you need even more Venture in your life, two of the gorgeous Patrick Leger posters for season 6 are finally available for sale for the very reasonable price of $7.50 for both posters! I have the Brock one and I absolutely love it. Check it out here!

Art by Patrick Leger

Happy Wednesday y’all! Here are my pulls for this week!

• Bitch Planet #7 (Image)
• Batgirl Vol. 2 Trade (DC Comics)
• I Hate Fairyland #5 (Image)
• Lumberjanes #23 (BOOM)
• Poison Ivy: Cycle of Life and Death #2 (DC Comics)
• Sex Criminals #14 (Image)
• The Mighty Thor #4 (Marvel)

What other titles should we be picking up that we should be adding to this list or don’t know about? Let us know in the comments or at thegeekgirlgang@gmail.com!

Jackson and Doc promised us that Season 6 would be different, and this episode proves just how different it is. I, for one, am loving the change. Faking Miracles brings some brand new revelations and challenges for Team Venture and Co.

The new episode opens on the original Team Venture. A giant robot spider descends towards Colonel Gentleman, Action Man, and Jonas Venture Sr., who are caught in it’s giant web. Jonas yells the cliché “You’ll never get away with this, Scaramantula!, and Scaramantula predictably responds, “Ah, but I already have, Doctor Venture!” The giant robot’s claws approach Colonel Gentleman’s face, but the arching is suddenly interrupted when a classic blue car flies through the wall, taking out multiple henchmen as it spins in amazing 3D. (Note: they’re assumedly being held captive on Spider Skull Island, which means that the feat of driving a car through a wall is extra badass.)

The blue vehicle features a butterfly-shaped M logo on the grill and hood and shoots at the henchmen through guns inside it’s headlights. A familiar figure exits the vehicle: gentle giant and martial arts master Kano, wearing the same M logo on his jacket and hat. Surprisingly, he is not there as a member of Team Venture (which is how we’ve always seen him previously), as the men stuck in the web do not seem to know who he is. Dr. Venture ominously declares, “I don’t think he’s on our side..”

Kano beats up the remaining henchmen. When he is finished, another man exits the car in a blue suit, fedora, and mask, matching blue gun in hand. Scaramantula addresses the stranger in blue as “The Blue Morpho”. (He seems to be somewhat of a parody of the Green Hornet.) The Blue Morpho shoots Scaramantula with a dart gun, Kano breaks the robot spider, and the two untie Team Venture from the spiderweb. Jonas does not trust his rescuers, and bends the Morpho’s arm behind his back as Action Man holds Kano at gunpoint.

Some notes on car stuff (if you’re not a car fan, skip ahead past the photos to return to the recap):

Although only seen briefly, I fell in love with Blue Morpho’s car. If you know creators Doc and Jackson at all, you know that they never do anything without copious amounts of research. I knew that Morpho’s incredible ride had to be a real model. I sent some screencaps to my dad, a connoisseur of all cars, and he informed me that it is a Mercedes 300SL Gullwing. They were manufactured in the mid-’50s, just around the time that the pre-Rusty Team Venture was adventuring. The Gullwing, named for the way it’s curved doors open upward, is a rare find. They go for about $2 million in good condition today!

The Mercedes 300SL Gullwing

The 300SL Gullwing interior

The Mercedes 300SL Gullwing

The Blue Morpho’s Mercedes

Isn’t she gorgeous? Anyways, back to the recap:

The scene freezes and the camera pans out, showing the freeze frame as a panel in a comic book. “But after that, they become like, friends and stuff,” explains 21, holding the comic up for the Monarch to see. The Monarch plays dumb, saying he still doesn’t understand why the Blue Morpho’s stuff was in his basement.

21 exasperatedly yells, “Don’t you get it?! Your dad was the Blue Morpho!” (This was pretty clear even before 21’s official reveal, as the Blue Morpho shared his son’s affinity for butterfly logos and dart guns.) The Monarch continues to resist the truth, insisting that his dad was just a boozed-up socialite who collected butterflies. When 21 uses the S-word to describe his dad, Monarch slaps him in the face with the comic book. 21 still argues: “Millioniare playboy is like, the number one superhero alter-ego! Come on!”

“What the fuck is a morpho?” screams Monarch angrily. Once learning that it is a type of butterfly, he finally accepts the truth and apologizes for hitting 21. “Did Blue Morpho ever have.. his own comic book?” Monarch asks shyly. “Cancelled after six issues. Not Kirby’s best work,” 21 says.

The classic final five notes of the Venture theme play with the blood-splattered logo that we’ve come to accept as the short version of the Venture opening theme. The scene opens on a park in NYC, where Hank and Brock are jogging. Brock tells Hank “for the last time!” that he cannot take anabolic steroids to get fit, because its cheating. If he wants muscles, he needs to work for them by running. Dean finally catches up to them, panting and sweating profusely. Dean wore his normal dress shoes to go running, which Brock just notices.

As Brock helps Dean, a familar girl runs past Hank in all pink running clothes and Hank runs after her. Before he can catch up to her, Hank is taken down by two of Wide Wale’s henchmen, proving the theory that the girl with gills is Wale’s daughter. As this happens, Hank yells “Don’t harpoon taze me, bro!” (Remember when that was a huge cultural reference in 2007 and it was on shirts sold at mall stands and stuff?) The henchmen address the girl as “Miss Ong”, also confirming that Wide Wale is the brother of Dr. Dugong from season 3 (and who the Monarch cruelly murdered). Brock tackles the henchmen who are holding Hank.

Meanwhile, back at the Venture building, the Captain is showing Dr. Venture, Pete, and Billy around the super science lab, which has not been used for a while as Jonas Jr.focused on consumer electronics in recent years. “This is where we’re gonna make the miracles,” declares Doc.

Billy drives around the lab in the “Go Pod” a floating zero-emissions vehicle that uses electromagnets. The Captain reveals that it hasn’t been put into production because it caused infertility and heart murmurs in monkey test subjects, and also because it doesn’t break well (which Billy learns the hard way as he crashes it into the wall).

During a guild meeting at Wide Wale’s apartment, Dr. Mrs. the Monarch checks her compact phone obsessively. The Monarch has not responded to any of her texts. The Council of 8 is voting on new council members, and they vote to invite Dr. Phineas Phage to rejoin their ranks. They have 5 more spots to fill – or 4 if they can find Vendetta, who hasn’t been seen since his disastrous date with Ghost Robot at Don Hell’s nightclub in season 5.

Wide Wale’s daughter returns home from her run, angry at her dad’s henchmen and her complete lack of privacy. The lone remaining henchman tells his boss that his two coworkers were killed after some kid in the park got too friendly (we can assume by Brock).

Back at the Monarch mansion, Monarch and 21 plan a new coat of paint for his dad’s old Mercedes. Their plans are interrupted when the Monarch receives about a dozen texts and then a call from Dr. Mrs. His Wife, who wants to know why he isn’t getting ready for Wide Wale’s party. He says he has no intention of going because he hates her coworkers. She begs him to make an appearance and turn on “the old Monarch Charm”.

21 tells Monarch he should go to the party because the villains ahead of him on the list to arch Venture will probably be there. The Monarch excitedly asks if he can bring 21, but no henchmen are allowed. “She wants me to bring wine,” whines Monarch. “I should piss in it!” 21 sighs, “There’s that Monarch Charm.”

In the Venture Industries super science lab, Doc, Pete, and Billy are looking through all of the Venture tech in the lab. Dr. Venture admits he’s been out of the super science game for a while, so he’s a little Rusty (get it?). Billy accidentally drops and breaks a vial of silver liquid, which puddles on the floor and then moves on its own. They can’t find where the mysterious substance has gone.

Dean is showering upstairs when the silver liquid comes up through the drain. It crawls up Dean’s leg and apparently enters him through his penis, as afterwards he asks Brock if candiru are native to New York (the fish that enter the body through the penis, as we saw in season 1 episode Are You There God? It’s Me, Dean). When Brock doesn’t know what Dean is talking about, Dean brushes off the problem and asks Brock if he will still help him study for the SATs.

At the birthday party for Wide Wale’s daughter, there are both Guild and civilian guests. We see the members of the council in civilian clothing, including Dragoon/Red Mantle in a double turtleneck. Dr. Mrs. the Monarch is at the bar, upset that the Monarch is not at the party yet. Her worrying is interrupted by a Dean Martin lookalike in a magenta tux who hits on her with old-fashioned smooth talk, calling her “Stardust” and “Bright Eyes”. She dismisses him by mentioning that she is married, but he shows her his Guild logo cufflinks and says he is there to talk business. His name is Copycat, and he’s interested in joining the council.

Wide Wale’s daughter pouts at her party, still angry that she has no privacy from her father’s henchmen. He offers to cheer her up. The episode cuts to a pizza place called Vincenzo’s, where the familiar voice of Steven Rattazzi (who also voices Dr. Orpheus) takes Wale’s order for a pizza. He sends his new delivery boy – Hank Venture. Hank drives the Venture Go Pod we saw Billy crash into a wall earlier to deliver the pizza.

The Monarch joins Hank in the elevator ride up to Wide Wale’s apartment. He clearly did not get the memo that the party is half-civilian, as he is wearing his Mighty Monarch costume. The butler tries to prevent him from entering the apartment, but the Monarch shoves past him. Hank sees that his pizza recipient is the girl from the park, and drops the pie in excitement. Before he can collect the payment, Wide Wale’s henchman from earlier sees him and chases him through the apartment.

Spot the Presidential candidate in the background!

Wide Wale is furious when he sees that Monarch came in costume. Copycat offers to take the Monarch to his downstairs apartment to change and as they are leaving, he splits into two, showing the reason for his name. One of him leaves the party with the Monarch, and one goes back inside.

Brock reads over Dean’s college admission essay and sighs. He tells Dean that his essay reads like a suicide note and he needs to be more positive. “You’re supposed to be selling yourself to these people!” Dean says that the changes are lying, and Brock argues that it isn’t lying, its just spin: “I know what I’m talking about. I work for the government.” Dean reveals that the SATs are the next morning, and asks Brock to help him study.

In Copycat’s apartment, Monarch takes off his costume to borrow one of Copycat’s suits. Copycat puts on the Monarch’s costume and shoots him with one of his own butterfly darts.

In the lobby of Venture Industries, Sergeant Hatred sits at the front security desk reading a magazine. Copycat comes through the front door in Monarch’s costume and walks towards Hatred with a jazzy gait, snapping his fingers and shaking his hips. Hatred realizes that he isn’t the real Monarch when Copycat multiplies himself by a dozen.

Downstairs in the lab, Pete finally locates the silver liquid’s file on the Venture Industries computer database, and finds out that the mysterious substance is actually nanobots. They play around with what they think is a tutorial for the nanobots, and find out that the tech was created to go inside a human body and fix health problems.

Pete runs the bots around the intestines on the computer program, unaware that they are really inside Dean’s intestines. This causes Dean to vomit on Brock, who is helping him study. Pete decides to go even further with the nanobots and uses them to stimulate the muscles and give the body superstrength. Dean’s body reacts to this change by picking up Brock with one hand and throwing him across the room.

Billy argues that this raises ethical questions – for example, you could just stop the person’s heart. Dean collapses in his room. As Brock performs CPR, Pete says that the bots could merely start the heart up again. Dean sits up, suddenly back from the dead. Billy tries hooking the nanobots up to the Internet to see if they could cause someone to speak a new language. Dean starts to babble in Babylonian.

Back at the party, Copycat approaches Dr. Mrs. the Monarch on the balcony. She rants to him about the Monarch’s jealousy and passive-aggressive ways. He tells her to come look through the telescope, where she sees the Monarch pissing on the Venture’s couch in the opposite building. Of course, this is not really the Monarch, but one of Copycat’s clones in the Monarch costume. Dr. Mrs. calls her husband, and watches the Monarch-Copycat ignore her call. Upset, she leaves the party.

Brock is extremely worried about Dean. He calls Dr. Venture on his communicator watch and tells him to call Dr. Orpheus, because he thinks Dean is possessed. When he hears that Dean was speaking Babylonian, Doc finally realizes what happened to the nanobots.

Down in the street, the Monarch wakes up from his dart-induced stupor in full costume. He catches his wife as she leaves the party, unaware of the events of the night and of his wife’s anger. He tries to explain himself, but pauses to answer a call from 21. While he’s on the phone, Dr. Mrs. the Monarch leaves without him in the limo.

Wide Wale’s daughter is pouting in her room when she sees Hank out on her balcony, hiding from the henchman. She recognizes him from both the park and when he was outside her window. Hank is confident and smooth with the girl, who reveals her name to be Sirena. (Not only does “sirena” mean “mermaid” in Spanish, someone on Reddit also pointed out that “sirenia” is the taxonomic name for sea cows.)

When Hank goes to leave, Sirena teases him for not being willing to risk his life to go on a date with her. Hank grins at her and jumps off of the roof. The romantic moment is interrupted when the henchman who was chasing Hank all night breaks down Sirena’s bedroom door. “I was just getting some fucking air!” she screams. He apologizes and leaves awkwardly.

She runs to the edge of the roof and Hank floats upwards in the Go Pod, leaning back and smiling confidently. “So, do we have a date?”, he asks. I loved this reference to Aladdin jumping off of Jasmine’s balcony. (Some people on the forums said it was a reference to Back to the Future 2, but the romantic aspect makes me think its more Aladdin/Jasmine than Marty McFly/Biff Tannen.) There was also an undeniable Romeo and Juliet vibe from the balcony plus the whole “my dad is your dad’s arch nemesis” kind of thing.

End credits roll, revealing that Cristin Milioti (from multiple Broadway productions as well as the Mother from How I Met Your Mother) was the voice of Sirena and Thrilling Adventure Hour cast member Paul F. Tompkins was the voice of Blue Morpho. Mark Gagliardi (also of TAH fame), who voiced Stars & Garters and speedsuit tailor Enzo in the season 6 premiere, was in this episode as Rocco, the henchman who protects Sirena.

In the last scene of the episode, Dean is in extreme pain in the bathroom, passing the nanobots the same way they entered. Dr. Venture reveals “That’s not all you passed!” and tells Dean that he was accepted into Stuyvesant University. We cut to Doc as he sits at the desk in the lab. One of his computer screens displays the Stuyvesant U website, and the other shows the nanobot program, with multiple bots in Dean’s brain. This suggests that Doc connected the bots to the Internet while Dean was taking the SATs so that he would know all of the answers. Dean seems unaware of this.

“Gentlemen, I think we just made our first miracle,” Doc declares proudly. Brock and Pete cross their arms and nod, smiling, and Billy yells “High five!” in the robot suit, raising the robot arm.

Fan theories abound after this episode. When Copycat removed the Monarch from the party, he winked at Wale, making us think that Wale was in on Copycat’s plan to make Dr. Mrs. angry with her husband. After the confirmations about Wide Wale’s last name, most of us assume that he procured the henching rights to Dr. Venture as a step in a larger plan to take revenge on the Monarch for killing his brother.

The specific mention of Vendetta during the Guild Meeting has made many fans believe that he and the Blue Morpho are the same person. The theory that Vendetta is the Monarch’s father existed before season 6 premiered, after the Bot Seeks Bot episode of season 5. Many fans online have been suggesting that the Monarch will take up his father’s mantle and don the Blue Morpho costume, possibly in order to kill the rest of the members on the Venture arching list. The Monarch’s interest in his dad’s old lab and car further supports this theory; however, I personally doubt it. Doc and Jackson like to intentionally make fans predict that something will happen, and then squash that theory, like having the Sovereign shape-shift into Jonas Venture Sr. before revealing that he’s not Jonas or anyone else.

Faking Miracles is one of those special episodes where we really notice just how much the Venture unit has changed over the seasons. Dr. Venture willingly accepts help from Pete, Billy, and the Captain, and for once does not pretend to have all of the super science answers. Even after his long absence, Brock returns to his role as bodyguard and father-figure with ease, which shows that he never stopped considering the Ventures as his family. We see the most growth in Hank and Dean, who have developed from the goofy and naive twins we met in season 1 into unique individuals. Hank’s interactions with Sirena have shown that he’s learned how to have Detective-hat confidence without wearing the hat. Dean is very aware of how strange his life as been, as we see from his college application essay, but he is finally taking control of his own future by applying to college.

There was some complaining on the forums about how this episode was only filler. I do not share this complaint; this episode was hands-down my favorite of the season so far. I have to wonder if those complaining have not made any emotional ties to the characters and only watch the show to see Brock punching people and the Monarch being a dick. I can’t imagine that anyone who really loves these characters will dismiss this episode as only filler. Watching Brock patiently help Dean study for the SATs and Hank flirt smoothly with Sirena, I am filled with that weird sense of pride you get f0r a fictional character even though you know they aren’t real.

If you are like me and are also emotional about the character development of Hank and Dean, you might like this week’s Shirt of the Week Club that features Dean’s upcoming alma mater.

The shirt translates to something like “I have suffered from a wooden leg”, a reference to Peter Stuyvesant

See you next week, Venturoos!