¡Viva los Muertos!

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“¡Viva los Muertos!”
The Venture Bros. episode
"Prostitoo!!"
Episode no.	Season 2 Episode 24
Written by	Ben Edlund
Directed by	Jackson Publick
Production no.	2-24
Original airdate	1 October 2006
Episode chronology
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"I Know Why the Caged Bird Kills"	"Showdown at Cremation Creek (Part I)"

"¡Viva los Muertos!" is the eleventh episode in the second season of The Venture Bros. This episode is written by Ben Edlund, creator of The Tick and friend of the creators of The Venture Bros.

The title is rough Spanish for "Long live the dead!". The correct way of writing it would be "¡Vivan los Muertos!".

[edit] Plot

The episode begins from the first-person visual perspective of one of the Monarch's henchmen as the Monarch is preparing to storm the Venture compound yet again. As the henchmen rush in amongst a swarm of butterflies, the whole ordeal collapses almost immediately as the henchman comes upon corpses with butterflies stuffed in their mouths. The henchman finally sees a blood-drenched Brock in the process of destroying his comrades; he attempts to escape, but his head is twisted completely around as Brock snaps his neck and the screen goes black.

After the title sequence, the show continues on through the perspective of the henchman as he is resurrected as a Frankenstein-esque monster, reanimated by none other than Thaddeus Venture himself. As he becomes aware of what has happened, he (afterwards known as "Venturestein") attempts to strangle Dr. Venture out of horror, and is subsequently re-killed by Brock and subsequently re-resurrected. Meanwhile, outside the Venture compound, a van containing a quartet of aging hippies and large dog comes upon the Venture compound. The newcomers resemble the cast of the Scooby-Doo series, as well as celebrated criminals of the late twentieth century (see "Trivia" below). Ted, overbearing and something of a bully, decides the place must be haunted and that there is a mystery to be solved (simply on the basis that if they stopped here, there has to be a mystery to solve), and forces everyone else to investigate. Everyone else seems uninterested, as Val spouts radical-feminist vitriol such as how a man is an incomplete woman, Patty just wants to go to her parents' house, as she has for the last 10 years, and Sonny is repeatedly ordered by the dog Groovy (possessed by a German-speaking demon whom only Sonny can hear) to kill everyone. Ted eventually bullies everyone into coming with him, except for Groovy and Sonny, whom he orders to go search for clues on their own by shaking a pill bottle of "groovy treats."

Inside the compound, the Ventures are eating in the kitchen with Venturestein, and Venturestein learns he now has an "African-American" cranium complete with Afro hairstyle. Dr. Venture explains his experiment: he can put corpses and dead people to good use as manual labor and keep them productive even after death. The zombie, meanwhile, seems perturbed by Brock's presence, who is genuinely put off by Venturestein, but the zombie begins to cheer up when the boys teasingly tell him that 'Brock bad' for killing him. Dr. Orpheus arrives and informs Dr. Venture of his plans to have a get-together in his portion of the compound. Orpheus is suspicious about the resurrected corpse, and invites Brock, who he suspects is troubled, to the event which he promises will be both spiritual and therapeutic in nature.

Later, Hank and Dean are distraught when they can't find "African America" on a map, and mention that they can't get into their "learning beds" because Venturestein has been put in one to learn how to "socialize" (though actually he is learning how to be a child laborer, watching old training films produced in the 1960s). Upon hearing odd noises in the hallways they leave to investigate and Venturestein, upon hearing the word "zapato" (shoe) from the phrase "Viva los zapatos" which means "Long live the shoe," he smashes out of the bed and crashes around the compound hoping to find one.

Meanwhile, the hippies come across Dr. Orpheus and Venturestein and assume that the compound is a Dracula/Frankenstein factory. Sonny and Groovy come upon Hank and Dean and Sonny is scared out of his wits: in a flashback, we see that he and Groovy had murdered the boys two years earlier in a cave (Sonny "freaked out" after bumping into the boys. Groovy tore Hank's throat out and Sonny beat Dean's head in with a flashlight; Ted had helped to toss the boys' corpses into a mine shaft. This also accounts for the forgotten deaths of the boys.) Sonny's conclusion: Hank and Dean are "g-g-g-g-GHOSTS!!!" Ted comes across Sonny and Groovy who explain the grisly homicide. Rather than kindling ethical outrage Ted sees the murder of Hank and Dean as bringing unwanted attention to their itinerant lifestyle. Ted sadistically eyeball's Sonny who cringes anxiously. Ted explains that the death of the boys threaten to "harsh Ted's mellow!" as completed by a cowering Sonny.

Brock is now clearly in a funk, and after several failed attempts at throwing knives for target practice, decides to go to Dr. Orpheus' party after all. Meanwhile, Dr. Venture is thrilled to find that the military wants to use his reanimated corpses as soldiers, figuring that a much more lucrative business deal. When confronted with the shortage of corpses around the compound, he blithely asks Brock to go kill some people; Brock refuses.

Brock attends a special meeting hosted by Dr. Orpheus. An amazonian mystic speaks to Brock through an interpreter about his erotic encounter with a pink dolphin. Brock dismisses the old man's story.

After introductions of the other attendees (including the Order of the Triad and an Amazonian mystic), Dr. Orpheus passes a round of drinks made from psychotropic plant vines (similar to a ritual DMT ceremony). The mystic excitedly relates the story of his sexual encounter with a dolphin as Dr. Orpheus and the others begin vomiting with the onset of the hallucinatory effects. Brock knocks back the strange brew and complains of the wretched taste. In a moment of pre-hallucinatory regret Brock admits that he feels bad about killing the henchman that became Venturestein; he had already thrown his gun down and was running away, but Brock killed him anyway just for the hell of it. Brock vomits, accuses the Amazon shaman of poisoning him, then collapses to the floor. Brock's hallucination begins by riding nude on the back of a pink dolphin in the middle of a vast, pink ocean. The dolphin tells Brock that the path to happiness is through empathy; however, the dolphin is soon harpooned by Hunter Gathers (post-op, but with pre-op face). Hunter blasts into the air with Brock, telling him (while he is hugging onto Hunter's breast) that he's working for the government and that his entire job is to hunt and kill people, and that "You can't teach a hammer to love nails. That dog don't hunt." Brock then awakens from his trip, and charges out of the party in a homicidal rage.

Sonny in the meantime has told Ted of the resurrected Venture boys; the arrogant Ted doubts him until the boys find the hippies in a dark corridor. Ted produces a gun, intending to put those 'zombies' out for good, and the hippies pursue the terrified boys. Hank and Dean run into a dark lab room... only to find many life-support tubes holding their many yet-to-be-animated clone-slugs. In their terror, they break open a tube and a lifeless Hank-slug falls out. Both boys fall to the floor and curl up in the fetal position, whimpering. The hippies run into the clone lab and Ted prepares to shoot the brothers, just as Brock and Venturestein also come in. Brock begins to strangle Ted, then kills him with a head butt; during the struggle Ted's gun goes off and kills Sonny. Venturestein strangles Groovy (Val and Patty—who took no part in the attempted murder of the Venture brothers—manage to escape.) Brock snaps out of his rage when he see the boys on the floor, and realizes the shock of seeing their clones has sent them into a catatonic state.

Dr. Venture comes in the room, and with unusually quick thinking, tells his sons the clones were supposed to be their Christmas present: a whole army of them, thinking the boys the best, doing their chores and dangerous missions, etc. The boys leave, happily and oblivious to the nature of the clones. Dr. Venture counts the new corpses, and briefly contemplates killing the clones for his death quota before Brock stops him.

After the credits, Brock is seen driving Venturestein (wearing Hank's Batman mask) to buy him prostitutes' services as a way to make up for his murder. Venturestein thinks he can pay for their services with a shoe made from Groovy's severed paw, but Brock assures the monster that the hookers are on him. Venturestein, now obviously over his fear of Brock, cries out 'Brock good!'

[edit] Cultural references

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

¡Viva los Muertos!

• #21's insistence that the Monarch henchmen "stay frosty" before going into battle might be a reference to the film Aliens (as #21 is a sci-fi geek).
• The resurrection scene is a homage to the movie Robocop.
• The name "Venturestein" and the concept of the reanimation of the dead is an allusion to Frankenstein and Frankenstein's monster.
• The opening dialogue spoken by Dr. Venture to Brock during the resurrection is similar to that of Dr. Frankenstein in the 1931 film, Frankenstein.
• The line "Brock bad" is reminiscent of the line "fire bad" of Phil Hartman's recurring Frankenstein character on Saturday Night Live.
• The scene in which Brock shows up to Dr. Orpheus' party drenched by rain alludes to a similar scene in American Beauty.
• The group of vagrants who show up at the Venture compound parody the characters of Scooby-Doo and infamous killers and/or radicals:
  • Ted (Fred): Ted Bundy, with Charles Manson and David Koresh's charisma and manipulative abilities.
  • Val (Velma): Valerie Solanas
  • Patty (Daphne): Patty Hearst
  • Sonny (Shaggy): David Berkowitz (The "Son of Sam")
  • Groovy (Scooby): Harvey, the dog from the "Son of Sam" case.
• Both David Koresh and Patty Hearst have been mentioned in previous episodes.
• When experiencing his vivid drug trip Brock meets Colonel Hunter Gathers (who is now a woman) and is told "you're Beyond Good and Evil, Superman," making reference to the concept of the ubermensch or Superman, a concept of a strong-willed individual, who seizes his or her own destiny, and doesn't adhere to the herd mentality-morality of the masses; created by German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche. This is implying that because of his training and his personality and such, Brock can be seen as a superman of sorts.
• Before he dies, Sonny utters "I'm so cold; I'm so [bleeped]ing cold," a reference to Snowden from the book Catch-22.
• Ted calls Dean and Hank the "boys from Brazil"; this is a reference to the novel and film The Boys from Brazil, which is about an attempt to clone Adolf Hitler.
• When Dr. Orpheus passes around the cups of Death Vine Extract, Brock asks, "Is this some kind of Jonestown deal?" He is referring to the Jonestown Cult suicides in which members drank poisoned Flavor Aid.

[edit] Connections to other episodes

• The Scooby-Doo franchise was created by Hanna-Barbera (the predecessor to Cartoon Network Studios, which airs The Venture Bros.). This allowed them the use of the zany sound effects found in the Scooby-Doo series, just as it allowed them the use of characters from Jonny Quest in previous episodes.
• Another death sequence of Hank and Dean is revealed in this episode. Two years before the events of this episode, they were murdered by Sonny and Groovy in a cavern somewhere in Baja California. This was not referenced in the list of Hank and Dean's deaths in "Powerles In The Face Of Death", as neither Brock nor Doctor Venture had been around to see how they died and so would obviously be unable to give an explanation of how it happened to Dr. Orpheus. This may or may not be the first of their deaths. ^[1]
• One of the henchmen being killed by Brock in the opening scene is one of the Henchmen recruited in "Hate Floats."^[2]

[edit] Trivia

• Ben Edlund previously helped develop the stories for the episodes "Careers in Science,"^[3] written by Doc Hammer, and "Guess Who's Coming to State Dinner?"^[4] written by Jackson Publick.
• Henchman #21 refers to the doomed POV Monarch henchman as "Texas." It is uncertain if this is really his name, or if #21 is using the informal army practice of referring to a new recruit by nicknaming him after his place of origin (often because they don't remember the name). #24 tells #21 not to bother talking with the new guys a la Flight of the Intruder saying that new guys never last.
• This episode shows that, at present, Doctor Venture has at least four "clone slugs" in waiting for each of the boys.^[5]
• One of the animation directors (Kimson Albert) has a "nickname" inserted into his credits. The nickname is an unusual line or word from the preceding episode. For "¡Viva los Muertos!" the credit reads Kimson "Quiet Desperation" Albert.

[edit] References