Powerless in the Face of Death

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The Venture Bros. episode
“Powerless in the Face of Death”
"I got the stuff. How are you doing with Phase Two?"
Episode no.	Season 2 Episode 1
Writer(s)	Jackson Publick Doc Hammer
Director	Jackson Publick
Production no.	2-07
Original airdate	25 June 2006
Episode chronology
← Previous	Next →
"A Very Venture Christmas"	"Hate Floats"

"Powerless in the Face of Death" is the first episode in the second season of The Venture Bros.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Deaths montage 3 Cultural references 4 Trivia 5 References

[edit] Plot

Seemingly due to Hank and Dean's deaths, a distraught Dr. Venture flees from the Venture compound to "find himself." A rapid succession of scenes show him at a Tibetan monastery, prowling through a tropical jungle, and lounging in an opium den; at each of these locations, Venture narrowly escapes detection by Brock. In between these scenes are views of The Monarch looking out his prison window and reaching out for a butterfly (which he promptly eats), Doctor Girlfriend looking ill-at-ease with The Phantom Limb, henchmen 21 and 24 destroying the Cocoon headquarters, and Master Billy Quizboy and Dr. White fitting Jonas Jr. with a bionic arm similar to the one Billy sports (Jonas Jr. has grown his hair longer, wears a jumpsuit, and generally looks much better than when last seen in "Return to Spider-Skull Island"). Brock finally catches Venture at a rave and tells him to come home... because "the bills are piling up." When Venture refuses, Brock tranquilizes him and carries him back to the compound.

Jonas Jr. seems to have lost his fratricidal tendencies and seems quite friendly towards his still-annoyed brother. While "Rusty" was gone, Jonas earned two doctorates and completed all but two of his brother's government contracts. As Thaddeus fails repeatedly to brush him off in anger, Jonas Jr. leaves for Spider-Skull Island with two attractive women to enjoy a little "quality time."

In an increasingly bad mood, Venture sets out to investigate one of the remaining projects, a teleporter. He is shocked to discover one of his old labs has been reopened and manned by Hector (who, despite a lack of recognition from Thaddeus, had accompanied him and his father on many adventures as a young Mexican boy in an apparent parody of Jonny Quest's sidekick Hadji) and Swifty, a former boxer described by Hector as "a little punchy." Venture fails to remember either of them after a brief effort and fires them both. Rusty begins to look over the teleporter, which Jonas Jr. had described as half-finished, and proclaims it done. He attempts to turn off the flashing control panel and disappears in a flash of light.

The Monarch employs a miniature inmate, Tiny Joseph, to paint a microdot containing instructions to his minions about his planned escape. He affixes the microdot onto a monarch butterfly and releases it; moments later, the insect is intercepted by a craft that resembles a robotic eagle. Inside the craft, Tiny Eagle, a member of the Guild of Calamitous Intent, takes possession of Monarch's escape plans and prepares to print it out to relay to Phantom Limb.

While Brock works on his Dodge Charger, Dr. Orpheus dramatically bemoans his perceived responsibility in the deaths of Hank and Dean. Brock dismisses his concerns offhandedly, leading Orpheus to wonder why he and Venture have been taking the losses so well. Walking through the compound, Brock notices Venture's lower half protruding from a television set, then finds Venture's head and left side stuck in a wall in the lab. Venture, who seems to be fine other than the odd placement of body parts, tell Brock that he has no idea where his right side is, except that he can feel something "gooey."

Orpheus, still tormented by guilt, decides to use his necromancy skills to resurrect the boys. Although he searches Hell and other astral locations, he can not find their souls; without souls, their bodies would simply become mindless zombies. As he explains the rituals to an appalled Triana, he pauses to answer the door. Standing on his doorstep are hairless, skinless, half-formed versions of Hank and Dean, drooling and mumbling about milkshakes.

In prison, the Monarch attempts to organize his fellow inmates for the breakout. "Tigeriffic" can not tear the gates open, however, since his strength comes from his suit; "Mister Monday" seems more concerned with occurrences of his favorite day than the escape; and "White Noise" refuses to participate if the scheme involves other races. King Gorilla agrees to provide the required muscle, and the plan seems ready to go for the most part. Shortly afterwards, however, Phantom Limb visits King Gorilla. Limb attempts to coerce Gorilla into betraying The Monarch, but he refuses to respond to threats; knowing his weakness, however, Limb presents Gorilla with a cake. "What is that, marzipan?" the intrigued Gorilla asks. "Tarzipan," Limb replies smugly.

In a support group for recovering henchmen, the former Number 21 misinterprets the counselor's urgings as inspiration to become a supervillain. During a break, 24 approaches him and they laugh about how strange they look without their costumes (21 saying that 24 looks like Jerry Seinfeld with a unibrow, and 24 describing 21 as resembling Kevin Smith and using a pitiful beard to hide the lack of jawline). They speculate on The Monarch's condition and whether he will resurface soon.

To Brock and Venture's bemusement, Orpheus continues to agonize over the boys' deaths. Not only has he has been unable to locate their souls, but he is now convinced that he has turned them into zombies. He notices a talisman that indicates their souls are somewhere within the lab, tracing them to a computer. At Brock's urging, Thaddeus finally informs the necromancer that he is currently preparing clones to replace Hank and Dean. In fact, he continues, this is far from the first time "the boys" have met accidental deaths -- Brock confirms that "this makes fourteen." A humorous montage follows illustrating the many previous deaths of the boys. Some are accidental (a satellite falling on Hank during a game of football), some are the boys’ fault (the boys beheading themselves while riding their hover-bikes and Hank jumping off the roof), and others are the result of various monster/robot raids on the Venture compound. Curiously, on at least three occasions Dr. Venture’s negligence or crimes against nature (he appears as a wolf-man who slaughters the boys) is directly responsible for Hank and Dean’s deaths.

Venture goes on to explain that the "zombies" Orpheus saw were immature clones accidentally released during the power surge when Venture activated the teleporter. The cloning equipment contains basic knowledge and personal memories that are implanted into the clones as they mature. Due to the kids' clumsy and somewhat unlucky natures, their father always keeps a few clones ready in case of emergency.

When the guards call for "lights out" in prison that night, The Monarch makes his play. Leaping from his cell in a costume formed from bent license plates, he waits for his cohorts to leap into action... but nothing happens. As the guards drag him away, he curses his fellow inmates for betraying him. Even King Gorilla is ashamed to meet his eyes, as The Monarch screams that he was trying to win Dr. Girlfriend back. Suddenly, the guards' heads are bashed together -- King Gorilla was moved by the idea of The Monarch fighting for true love. He rips the toilet from his cell and crams The Monarch into the sewage pipe, telling him that it empties out a mile away (the same method of escape used by Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption). Before bidding him goodbye, King Gorilla tells The Monarch to never let his true love go, and then kisses him passionately on the lips.

The final scene after the credits shows The Monarch, covered in filth, splashing into a small pond from a pipe. As he rejoices in his freedom, he takes the hand that is extended before him... which is attached to Dr. Venture's disembodied right side.

[edit] Deaths montage

The montage of death sequences showed 13 instances of at least one of the Venture boys dying. Brock mentions that this was the 14th pair of clones they developed. Assuming that they are only cloned in pairs, this would leave at least one of their deaths open to speculation, since there are three scenes in which only one brother, either Hank or Dean, dies. Since the boys are unaware that they are clones, the difficulties involved in explaining the situation to the surviving brother would be considerable. Jackson Publick notes on the subject, "Ah, but BOTH of them didn't die in every incident. We've still got some unaccounted for...."^[1]

The sequences mentioned in this episode are as follows:

1. Sucked into the X-1's engine turbines
2. Devoured by a giant spider breaking through the floor of their bedroom
3. While attempting to smoke, Dean blinded Hank with a cigarette; Hank stumbled backwards into several containers marked flammable, and caused an explosion in the hangar
4. Shooting apples off of each others' heads with bows and arrows á la William Tell
5. Decapitated by a clothesline while riding their hover-bikes
6. Ripped apart by a were-Thaddeus (a werewolf Dr. Venture)
7. Hank jumps off the roof of the compound while wearing a Batman costume, carrying an umbrella to act as an unsuccessful parachute
8. Crushed by a robot crashing through their bedroom
9. Dean trips while running with (safety) scissors
10. Satellite falling on Hank
11. Gas leak (the silent killer)
12. Falling into a pit of spikes
13. Dr. Venture (accidentally) setting their room on fire (the boys are not seen, but they are trapped inside their beds)
14. The accidental drive-by shooting from "Return to Spider-Skull Island" (not depicted in flashback sequence)

In addition to these, another past death sequence is shown in the episode "¡Viva los Muertos!." Both of the boys were murdered.

[edit] Cultural references

• The tropical jungle scene during Dr. Venture's travels is a reference to a nearly identical scene from the video to the Duran Duran song, "Hungry Like the Wolf".
• The music during the Monarch's entrance is reminiscent of the theme from HBO's prison drama Oz.
• Thaddeus Venture disparagingly calls his brother Twiki and says "biddy biddy" before each statement. He is making fun of Jonas Jr.'s small size in reference to the character in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.
• As the Monarch releases his messenger butterfly, he shouts "let the beating of your wings ignite the hurricane of my glorious second coming" in reference to the chaos theory concept of the Butterfly Effect.
• The scene in which Dr. Orpheus talks to heads embedded in the ground is similar to a scene in the film What Dreams May Come. It derives from the lowest (and freezing) level of Hell in Dante's Inferno, as does the head calling Dr. Orpheus "pilgrim".
• The manner in which Dr. Orpheus asks the heads about the Venture boys is similar to the questioning technique of Mr. Dark in Something Wicked This Way Comes. The image of each boy is drawn on his hands and he describes Dean as having hair "red as rust" (Nightshade's hair in the movie was hair "dark as night") and Hank as "towheaded" (same as Halloway).
• In both this episode and next ("Hate Floats"), 21 is seen wearing a t-shirt that reads "Porkchop Sandwiches," a reference to the redubbed G.I. Joe shorts of Eric Fensler.
• Several of The Monarch's fellow prisoners seem to be based on (or partially inspired by) characters from comic books or other television shows.
• When Dr. Orpheus falls through the roof later in the episode, he is covered in a pink goo. This is reminiscent of the movie Poltergeist.
• Hector and Swifty are nods to the roles of Hadji and Race Bannon in Jonny Quest.

[edit] Trivia

• An eighth of the budget of this episode was spent on licensing for the song Everybody's Free (To Feel Good) by Tim Cox and Nigel Swanston featuring Rozalla, which played over the opening montage.
• While The Venture Bros. generally maintains a strong continuity amongst episodes, Dr. Venture's teleporting accident may be considered the first "major" event that is resolved without comment by the next episode, while it is possible that either Dr. Orpheus or Jonas Jr. could have fixed him.
• The opening credits for this episode featured a gawky Dr. Venture and a diaper-clad Jonas Jr. replacing Hank and Dean as the titular Venture brothers. Dr. Orpheus and H.E.L.P.eR. were listed for the first time as supporting characters.
• Tiny Joseph, the minuscule convict who paints a message-bearing microdot for The Monarch, was first seen in the short holiday episode "A Very Venture Christmas." His appearance in that episode, however, took place in an extended dream sequence.
• King Gorilla's speech to the Monarch just before his escape is nearly identical to Dr. Girlfriend's words to The Monarch about Hank and Dean in "Dia de Los Dangerous!," specifically "you love (her / them) and you never let go." The parallel is heightened by the similarity between the characters' voices.
• Note that since Jonas Jr. "earned two doctorates" while Thaddeus was gone, he may be the only one qualified to be called "Dr. Venture;" in the episode "The Incredible Mr. Brisby," Roy Brisby claimed that Thaddeus had never finished school and was therefore not an actual doctor; Venture himself never confirmed nor denied the accusation. According to another episode, Thaddeus' father Jonas Sr. died during his senior year at university, but he claims that at least one professor gave him a sympathy passing grade as a result. This however took place during the football season and so Thaddeus may have dropped or flunked out in his final semester. He may also have graduated with bachelors but failed to complete a doctorate program. He also could have gotten an honorary doctorate or, like Dr. Orpheus, he could have gotten his title "from a higher power."
• The World Leaders Entertainment logo for this episode is a caricature of Fidel Castro. For each second season episode, the ending logo portrays a different world leader from the past or present (The show's production company changed its name from Noodlesoup Productions to World Leaders Entertainment between seasons). In addition, each world leader says a variation of Noodlesoup's old tag line, "That's good soup!" Castro says "¡Que sopa mas buena!" which is a rough Spanish translation.
• 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 preceding episode. For "Powerless in the Face of Death" the credit reads Kimson "President of Calendars" Albert.

[edit] References

Preceded by: "A Very Venture Christmas"

The Venture Bros. episodes original airdate: June 25th, 2006

Followed by: "Hate Floats"

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