I Know Why the Caged Bird Kills

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The Venture Bros. episode
“I Know Why the Caged Bird Kills”
"This is my magic murder bag."
Episode no.	Season 2 Episode 23
Writer(s)	Jackson Publick Doc Hammer
Director	Jackson Publick
Production no.	2-23
Original airdate	24 September 2006
Episode chronology
← Previous	Next →
"Guess Who's Coming to State Dinner?"	"¡Viva los Muertos!"

"I Know Why the Caged Bird Kills" is the tenth episode in the second season of The Venture Bros.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cultural references 3 Trivia 4 Goofs

[edit] Plot

The Monarch makes a bloody raid on what he thinks is a secret Venture compound only to find out that he has nearly destroyed his own accountant's building instead. Before leaving, however, he has his henchmen take numerous office supplies and orders them to post the video of his grand entrance on his website by the next morning.

As Dr. Orpheus pets his cat Simba, he is interrupted by an angry Dr. Venture, who complains of an Oni hanging above his head after a recent trip to Japan. He is relieved to know that Dr. Orpheus can also see the Oni, since Brock was convinced it was merely a side effect of Dr. Venture's "diet pills". Orpheus's initial attempts to exorcise the demon fail, and the oni angrily pulls Venture about Orpheus's den. After a quick visit to the underworld to check with his master for advice (who is now a horse and readying himself to re-enact the supposed bestiality incident of Catherine the Great with the help of his multi-faced assistant, Ms. Manyface) Dr. Orpheus tells Venture that the two are bonded and that perhaps he has a certain unfinished business to make up for. Meanwhile, Hank and Dean are practicing their driving by the compound's hangar, running over all the safety cones, only to find a broken-down car and a mysterious woman apparently unconscious out nearby. When the boys get close to her, she suddenly gasses them both and knocks them out.

The Monarch has in the meantime gotten a new "number two", Dr. Henry Killinger, who has begun to implement new reforms into the Cocoon and attempt to turn around their spectacular failures. He most notably has a "magic murder bag" containing various unknown items and "black guards", former henchmen who are now given much more scary uniforms and weaponry and seemingly better training. Both 21 and 24 begin to feel that Killinger is a fraud and doesn't respect the rules of supervillainy, but when #24 denounces Killinger's policies, Killinger merely requests to have some time alone with #24 rather than listen to the Monarch's angry orders of torture.

Doctors Orpheus and Venture eventually find the Oni dragging them both to a Venture Industries car, Brock mockingly shrugs them both off as he goes off to find the boys from their driving lesson. Dr. Venture quickly tricks the oni into the trunk, but it controls the car and begins driving it, pulling Venture along on the ground. Orpheus, however, takes it as a sign that the demon wishes to have them get in the car and begin traveling.

Brock drives with H.E.L.P.eR., and they debate the merits of Led Zeppelin (who H.E.L.P.eR. dismisses as "jock rock") as they follow the boys' wristband signals, but Brock eventually finds both of them in a dumpster (although promising to resume the debate later). Tossing away the debris, he finds the watches tied to an explosive with the message THE BOYS...ARE MINE... flashing across both and begins to realize who took them. Just before the dumpster explodes, Brock notes, "Myra's back." Brock is saved by H.E.L.P.eR. in the nick of time, and the two begin flying off.

The boys wake up in a crummy motel in the desert, bound with rope on a dirty mattress. A sinister muttering in the next room turns out to be a crazed-looking, leather-clad, buxom woman, her lined and aged face in contrast to her physically fit form. She reveals that she is their mother: after graduating from the Office of Secret Intelligence, she was assigned to protect Dr. Venture and began to fall for him, aggressively flirting with him. After saving his life during the showing of a new invention, she has sex with him in the car. Eventually, however, she grew too clingy and addled for his liking and was sent away. Enraged for being abandoned by him, she is also angry that he erased all memories of her from the boys and that they don't even remember their proper age (apparently confirming an earlier problem in the boys' ages noticed by Hank). She plots to take them both away from Venture Industries and be a happy family together.

Doctors Orpheus and Venture have meanwhile unwittingly taken up in Myra's motel, due to the Oni's finally ending its travel there, and after an accusation that Orpheus is gay and wishes to bed Dr. Venture the two make up and decide to rent a porno to pass the time. Meanwhile, Myra introduces her numerous cats to Hank and Dean as their "brothers and sisters," and tells the boys that the cats are hungry. Worried that the boys might also be hungry, Myra pushes her breasts to their (traumatized) faces in an apparent attempt to breast-feed them.

#21 manages to convince the Black Guards to let him through to see #24 in his prison cell, who is happily reading porno and tells #21 that Killinger is actually a great guy. #21 swears he'll not fall for the tricks and soon uses silly string mockups of Spider-Man's web-shooters to attempt to take the magic murder bag, only to be taken away by #24 in the new Black Guard outfit. He manages to escape, eventually recruiting Dr. Girlfriend to help him infiltrate the Cocoon. She deftly gets through the laser alarm systems (which she installed) with able gymnastics, but #21's girth and lack of flexibility trips the first beam and alerting Black Guards. Dr. Girlfriend easily takes them out and, leaving the hapless #21 behind, enters the lair. Inside, an exasperated Monarch reacts incredulously to Killinger's plans for a summit meeting with Dr. Venture in the spirit of detente and realpolitik. After a moment of alarm at Dr. Girlfriend's dropping from the ceiling, Dr. Killinger quickly calms the two down, opens his magic murder bag and produces a bouquet of flowers, which he hands to the Monarch so that the Monarch can give the flowers to Dr. Girlfriend (though the Monarch fails to do so). Killinger also produces the Monarch's journal for Dr. Girlfriend, which he says "has his love for you written on every page." He tells the two that he has locked them in, presumably to talk things over. Taking his bag and umbrella, he flies out a la Mary Poppins, and tells the duo to have hope for the future...only to get caught in the Cocoon's ceiling.

Dr. Venture and Dr. Orpheus are woken up by the oni (still in the car trunk) ramming the car against the wall of their room, and Orpheus goes to check out of the motel. The motel attendant turns out to be Myra, who, upon noticing Dr. Venture in the car outside, proceeds to beat Dr. Orpehus senseless, while Dr. Venture sits in the car listening to the radio, oblivious. She then quickly grabs the boys and gets into the car with a tied-up Dr. Venture, ready to drive off with them all. At that point Brock and H.E.L.P.eR. arrive on the scene, and she angrily runs Brock over. Brock quickly gets up and walks into the road so that Myra can see him in the rearview mirror. As Myra turns the car around to run him down again, Brock calmly positions himself so that with a quick leap back he smashes through the windscreen and into the driver's seat, squashing Myra and assuming control of the car.

Brock and Venture tell the kids that the woman is Myra Brandish, formerly Powerkat on American Gladiators, who was put into an insane asylum once the show was ended and she became obsessed with Dr. Venture. When Dean questions why they don't remember her Brock nearly mumbles they wouldn't due to their being clones (quickly trailing off with Thaddeus before the word is fully said). When the boys keep asking questions, Dr. Venture finally admits that the two had sex ("OK...So I f*cked her! What of it!?"). The oni meanwhile escapes from the trunk to Killinger, who is flying overhead. As the oni slips into the magic murder bag, Killinger says that while it failed to re-unite them, it managed to save the boys. "Compromise," he says, "is the essence of diplomacy, and diplomacy is the cornerstone of love." Killinger then flies off, singing "sweet love."

[edit] Cultural references

• The title of this episode references the title of Maya Angelou's 1969 autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. H.E.L.P.eR. apparently quotes Angelou (at some length) in the episode itself, and which Brock initially mistakes for a work by Shel Silverstein.
• Dr. Henry Killinger is a cross between the diplomat Henry Kissinger, the magical nanny Mary Poppins, and Death.
• The round table that The Monarch, Killinger, and his henchmen sit at is similar to Dr. Strangelove. Also, #24 and #21's phobia against the foreign Killinger is similar to George C. Scott's phobia against the Soviet ambassador in the film.
• Myra quotes the tagline from the movie The Bodyguard when discussing her relationship with Thaddeus: "Never let him out of your sight. Never let your guard down. Never fall in love", the opening verses to the Spandau Ballet song "True" when talking to the boys about her love for Dr. Venture; "So true, funny how it seems, always in time, but never in line for dreams" and "I bought a ticket to the world, but now I've come back again", and finally Darth Vader's line from The Empire Strikes Back "Search your feelings; you know it to be true" after the boys deny the claim that she is their mother, mirroring the scene in Empire where Luke denies Vader's claim that he is Luke's father.
• #21 also makes two references to A New Hope. First when he tells Dr. Girlfriend that she is their only hope. Second when he quotes C-3PO in saying "Thank the maker" after releasing flatulence.
• The Black Guards bear a striking resemblance to "G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero"-era Cobra Commander, Battle Android Troopers, Iron Grenadiers, or the third incarnation of the the Interrogator figure.
• #21 yells "semper fidelis tyrannosaurus" (Always faithful tyrant lizard) when he tries to kill Dr. Killinger. This is a hodge-podge of Semper fidelis (Always Faithful), the motto of the United States Marine Corps, and Sic semper tyrannis (Thus always to tyrants), the phrase John Wilkes Booth supposedly said just after shooting Abraham Lincoln. Killinger's translation, "Always faithful terrible lizard", mixes up the words "Tyrannosaurus" (which means "tyrant lizard") and "dinosaur" ("terrible lizard").
• Myra's costume bears a resemblance to that of Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman costume from Batman Returns. Both are black vinyl with white stitches where the costume was hastily pieced together. Further parallels to Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman include her overall psychotic behavior, her shrill and unstable voice, her short blond hair, and the presence of several cats living with her. Towards the conclusion of the episode, Brock reveals to the boys that Myra used to be known as "Powerkat", an additional reference to her Catwoman-esque character.
• The line "He knows nothing of honor or living by the sword!" is spoken by the Dracula character in the movie Blade: Trinity.
• #24 mentions the fighting game Tekken 3.
• The Led Zeppelin song that Brock and H.E.L.P.eR. argue about in the car, which apparently mentions Hobbits, is presumably either "The Battle of Evermore" or possibly "Ramble On," although it sounds more like "When The Levee Breaks" than anything else. The resemblence is, however, imperfect.
• The song that Dr. Venture listens to in the car is "Mitre Storm" by Jasper McVain.

[edit] Trivia

• This is Jackson Publick's favorite season 2 episode as stated on his Live Journal.
• The famous Wilhelm scream can be heard during the raid at the beginning.
• Myra claims that Hank and Dean were born 19 years ago, although they state that they are only 16. This could be explained by the time spent regrowing clones after their numerous deaths. In "Hate Floats" Hank does point out that his supposed age (as told to him by Dr. Venture) doesn't match the age printed on his ID card, but his father quickly changes the subject.
• H.E.L.P.eR.'s weapons system is noted as being offline. This is a reference to his dismemberment in "Victor. Echo. November."
• This episode illustrates that Doctor Girlfriend has exceptional fighting skills, at least against the Monarch / Killinger's elite Blackguards. However, as the less-than competent #24 was allowed to become one, their exact level of skill is perhaps questionable.
• Doctor Girlfriend also seems able to store items in the brassiere of her Queen Etherea costume, despite it apparently being part of the sheer body-stocking.
• Based on Dr. Venture's statement at the end of the episode, the boys are unaware that they are clones and that either some of their memories have been lost or they were not recorded (or were edited) prior to their restoration. It is also possible that many of the Myra events occurred during one or more of the Venture boys' many restorations when no new memories could be created.
• #24 seems to have gotten his car back from the prostitute that stole it in "Fallen Arches", as #21 is seen driving it.
• The car that the boys are driving in the beginning of the episode bears a striking resemblance to a SAAB 96. The car is also seen at various other times throughout the show.
• In the flashback when Myra is fighting the Monarch he is wearing a uniform that is very similar to what he wore in the series' pilot episode, "The Terrible Secret of Turtle Bay".
• If Myra is indeed the boys' biological mother, her tendency towards insanity might explain some of Hank's wild, nonsensical theories and ideas. Also, early in the episode Dean is chanting "10 and 2, 10 and 2!" nervously while learning to drive and placing his hands on the wheel and later Myra does the same thing.
• Myra has blonde hair (like Hank) and a slightly upturned nose (like Dean).
• The license plate on Myra's car reads: PSSYKAT
• One of the animation directors (Kimson Albert) gets to have a "nickname" inserted into his credits. The nickname is an unusual line or word from the episode. For this episode the credit reads Kimson "Magic Murder Bag" Albert.

[edit] Goofs

• Dr. Orpheus's cat now has dark purple fur whereas she was black when first introduced in Eeney, Meeney, Miney... Magic!
• When the figureskate wearing Henchman walks in he is wearing his wings, but when he kicks the dummy the wings are gone.
• The bottle of Mercurochrome that Dr. Orpheus gives to Dr. Venture appears to be reverse threaded, as Dr. Venture turns the cap clockwise in order to open it.

Preceded by: "Guess Who's Coming to State Dinner?"

The Venture Bros. episodes original airdate: September 24th, 2006

Followed by: "¡Viva los Muertos!"

The Venture Bros.
Episode Guide
Pilot	The Terrible Secret of Turtle Bay
Season 1	1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13
Season 2	1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13
Specials	Christmas
Other	Phone Calls