Powerless in the Face of Death

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“Powerless in the Face of Death”
The Venture Bros. episode
"I got the stuff. How are you doing with Phase Two?"
Episode no.	Season 2 Episode 1
Written by	Jackson Publick Doc Hammer
Directed by	Jackson Publick
Guest stars	Brendon Small as King Gorilla, Hector and White Noise
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 sequence 3 Cultural references 4 Connections to other episodes 5 Production notes 6 Goofs 7 References

[edit] Plot

Seemingly due to Hank and Dean's deaths, a distraught Dr. Venture flees from the Venture compound to "find himself." He is seen in many locations around the world, consistently escaping the attentions of Brock, who wants him to pay the bills. Venture is eventually tranquilized and captured at a rave.

Other people Hank and Dean have affected are shown. In a montage are views of Triana comforting a distraught Dr. Orpheus, 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 improved in appearance, skills and attitude while his brother Rusty had been off. He's improved his education and finished all but two of Venture's government projects. In the face of Rusty's discontent, Jonas leaves with two women for 'quality time'.

Alone in his old compound, Rusty's investigations find two unfamiliar men, who turn out to be long-time adventuring companions, Hector and Swifty. Despite both of them having gone on adventures with Rusty and his father Jonas, Rusty does not remember them at all. He fires them both. Their project, a teleporter, swiftly malfunctions, affecting Rusty.

The Monarch attempts to send a message to 21 and 24, but it is quickly intercepted by Phantom Limb, who is currently romancing the Monarch's love interest, Dr. Girlfriend.

Back at the compound, Dr. Orpheus becomes confused at Brock's seemingly blasé attitude towards Hank and Dean's deaths. Brock finds that Dr. Venture's torso, except for his right shoulder and arm, is hanging out of a wall, his legs somewhere else. He appears to be just fine; in fact, with his right arm, wherever it is, he can feel something gooey.

Orpheus, still tormented by guilt, decides to use his necromancy skills to resurrect the boys; he even makes a trip to hell. His efforts end in hairless, skinless half-formed versions of Hank and Dean appearing, drooling and mumbling about milkshakes.

In prison, the Monarch attempts to organize his fellow inmates for a breakout. "Tigerrific" 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. The Phantom Limb seemingly corrupts King Gorilla.

Recurring Henchmen 21 and 24 meet outside the confines of working for Monarch and speculate on his return.

Back in the lab, Brock and the head portion of Rusty Venture (his legs are hanging out of a nearby TV) reassure a distressed Orpheus that he did nothing wrong. What he had seen are Hank and Dean's clones; the boys are simply prone to dying. Several flashbacks illustrating some of their deaths are listed below.

The Monarch's plans for escape are ignored by everyone he thought had been involved. Cursing and screaming, the Monarch is dragged to his cell until King Gorilla decides to help. He had been motivated by the Monarch's desire to fight for the love of Dr. Girlfriend and for an attraction he has to Monarch himself. King assists the villain, shoving him into the sewer system.

Back at the lab, Venture finishes explaining how the clones' memories are recorded in the computer and it's no different than the necromancy Orpheus willingly practices all the time. Despite this, Orpheus is horrified; especially when the naked, hairless clones perform a feeble 'Go Team Venture!' barely touching fingertips and slurring each syllable, before collapsing on the ground from the effort, leading into the closing credits.

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 sequence

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 collides with flammable material, followed by 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 their father; a werewolf at the time
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 while following Brock and Dr. Venture
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!" in which both of the boys were murdered by Sonny & Groovy of the 'Groovy Gang' (who are parodies of Scooby Doo and friends), as they had 'freaked' Sonny. This was not referenced in the montage.^[2]

[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 Techno song used during Dr. Venture's trip to "find himself" was "Everybody's Free" by Aquagen, the original version by Rozalla. The cost for the rights for this song was 1/8th of the episode's budget.
• Jonas says he is working for the government to create "a sound that kills", a reference to the Kate Bush song "Experiment IV".
• 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 "rusted-colored" hair (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.
• In the prison escape scene, the Monarch whispers a reference to the betrayal of Julius Caesar: "Et tu, King Gorilla?"
• When Brock brings Dr. Venture's legs into the lab, Dr. Venture references a "Jeff Goldblum movie." This is a reference to The Fly, in which two objects put into the teleporter are fused together.
• 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.
• The Monarch's escape through a sewage line is reminiscent of a similar escape in the film Shawshank Redemption.
• The scene where Jonas Jr. is fitted with a bionic arm is similar to the scene in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back where Luke Skywalker is fitted with a bionic hand.

[edit] Connections to other episodes

• 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.^[3] It is possible that Dr. Venture has encountered Tiny Joseph before, as the dream was populated mostly by people he knew.
• 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.^[4]
• 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.^[5] 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.^[6]
• Phantom Limb would later hire Tiny Attorney to get all of the remaining members of Monarch's supervillain cellmates out of Prison so that he could release them on his grounds, hunt them down and shoot them like animals in front of the Monarch's face, so as to intimidate him for proposing to Doctor Girlfriend; Tiny Attorney himself was among them once his purpose had been served. Monarch seemed unperturbed by this, telling Limb that it was perfectly fine for him to shoot anyone he wanted, as he had despised the villains even more.^[7]
• At the Henchmen Support Group, a visibly shaken person talks about how the villain he fought under - Crimodile, was presumably killed by an enraged Captain Sunshine. Monarch had ordered 21 and 24 to send Captain Sunshine "the charred remains of his beloved Wonder Boy" in "Return to Spider-Skull Island".

[edit] Production notes

• 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, specifically the 2002 Aquagen remix, which played over the opening montage.^[8]
• 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.
• 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 "Powerless in the Face of Death" the credit reads Kimson "President of Calendars" Albert.

[edit] Goofs

• It is never explained in any episode as of the end of season 2 how Dr. Venture escapes from being trapped in the wall in the lab. It is suggested in the commentary that this will be rectified.
• As The Monarch is being dragged away by the guard, his wrist bands made of toilet paper tubes change to yellow for a scene.
• There is a typo in the opening credits. It says "Staring" Dr. Venture and Jonas Venture Jr., rather than "Starring".

[edit] References

Preceded by: "A Very Venture Christmas"

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

Followed by: "Hate Floats"

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