The Venture Bros: ¡Viva los Muertos!

(S02E11) This was, without a doubt, the bloodiest, sickest episode of The Venture Bros. yet. Even the bit before the title sequence was distinctly dark, but it wasn't until the very end that I realized the cause behind this dramatic shift in tone... This episode was penned by the one an only Ben Edlund (from The Tick fame). He contributed that shitty "Guess Who's Coming to State Dinner?" story (sorry, that was such a downer on the season) but I think he really redeemed himself here.

Personally, I prefer the pop culture reference-laden episodes by Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer, but Edlund did a fair enough job here, offering his own take on the Venture world. Very enjoyable (and gross) indeed.

The episode began with the Monarch's henchmen storming the Venture compound, seen from the red-tinted eyes of a newbie-number. There's normally nothing funnier than watching a faceless drone getting slain, but seeing a fight against Brock from a redshirt's point of view is really fucking scary. Like, holy shit. Forget the fact that Brock snapped the neck of our newbie (which was horrifying, by the way... the way we could see his twitching back and his wings), he killed a guy by putting a lawn mower on his chest! A lawn mower! Jesus Christ.

After the title sequence, we returned to the numberless henchman's POV, but without the red tint. Doc Venture was crying in the background, "Power! I need more power!" I immediately thought back to the title of the episode and, I don't know why, but I got all excited because I was going to get a full half-hour of zombie goodness. It ended up being a Frankenstein parody, but I guess that's okay too. Anyway, Doc reanimated the corpse of the henchman with the broken neck, much to the shock of Brock and the boys. I loved that the top of the monster's head was black -- I mean... African-American. Doc affectionately named his creation...

Hank: Venturestein!
Doc: You like that?
Hank: Sure do, Pop!
Doc: Good boy, Hank! Dean, right now Hank is better than you.

While the Ventures dealt with the increasingly annoying Venturestein (well, Brock found him annoying, anyway), a couple of weirdos in a psychedelic van ran out of gas outside of the compound. A freakin' full-on Scooby Doo mock-up. Good lord. I've seen a lot of funny takes on the Mystery Machine gang, but this has got to rank pretty high. Fred was actually Ted (reference to Bundy, probably), a creepy fellow who had full control over his captive girlfriend, the Daphne-ish Patty (reference to Hearst, most likely). Stockholm Syndrome's a bitch. The Velma character, Val, kind of reminded me of a grungy Jarvis Cocker, but she was most likely a take on uber-feminist Valerie Solanas. Now, the Shaggy and Scooby team was hilariously demented. Sitting in the back of the van, Sonny begged Groovy to speak to one of the other people just so he wouldn't think he was crazy for hearing a dog talk. Groovy, a kind of fucked-up dog with a heavy German accent, angrily refused and shouted at Sonny a bit. Who knew a Son of Sam situation could be so funny? Oh, and the incorporation of the original Scooby Doo sound effects was awkward enough to skip "terrible" and jump right back to "funny". Nice.

Back in the house, Orpheus, like a good little tenant, stopped by to inform Doc about a small gathering that he was going to be hosting. Noting the frustration/irritation in Brock's eyes (he had been feeling slightly "off" since the henchmen stormed the compound), Orpheus invited him to come along, but Brock refused. Orpheus' exit from the kitchen was pretty bad-ass... Only that man could pull off purple smoke. Anyway, Brock soon left because he was fed-up with the increasingly irritating monster ("Brock baaad!"). He went off to practice knife-throwing just as the boys started loudly imitating Venturestein.

Okay, here's the part that kind of surprised me... The messed up Scooby Doo folks managed to sneak into the compound with no troubles at all, but the Monarch, with his massive army, still can't get past the garage without having half of his men killed by Brock? I mean, I know the henchmen aren't exactly top-notch, but that's still pretty wild. Anyway, while the gang was exploring the compound, they saw Orpheus at his door, complaining about junk mail. It's kind of sad that I still laugh whenever someone calls Orpheus "a dracula". Intrigued, they decided to poke around a little more. Meanwhile, Hank and Dean stood by as Venturestein occupied one of their learning beds, watching a video about child labor. Growing somewhat restless for adventure, they hopped at the chance to explore when they noticed some activity over where the Scooby Doo people were. Hank's very mention of astronaut ice cream sent me into a fit. What memories! My friends and I were wild for that stuff... We pretty much emptied out that entire section at the gift shop every time we visited the Kennedy Space Center. If you don't know what astronaut ice cream is, look here.

Brock wasn't doing so hot with his knife-throwing, so he finally came to terms with the fact that there was something bothering him. He joined Orpheus' mystical get-together to try to work things out. The spiritual flow was briefly interrupted when Doc dropped a call, asking Brock to help him get more dead people (organizing an army of the dead for the US military, of course). Brock, intent on sorting out his thoughts, refused and tried to focus on the gathering. An old, "dried-up Keebler"/shaman gave Brock some strange liquid to drink and then offered an anecdote about fucking a dolphin (excuse me... a hot dolphin). Brock was ready to give up on the bullshit when he suddenly collapsed and went on a serious trip. In a pink sea with a pink sky, there was a pink dolphin. A naked Brock rode upon the pink dolphin's back, learning about empathy and how he should end his killing ways. And then the cute little dolphin was harpooned in the head by a massive Hunter Gathers (complete with his brand-new boobies!), who yelled at Brock for pretty much being a pussy. After Brock realized that his point in life was to be a killing machine (to get to Special Ops heaven), he snapped out of his trip and wandered off to kick some ass. Oh, and was it just me, or did one of Orpheus' buddies look like the Angry Kid? I don't know, I'm probably going crazy. After all, I did say that Val looked like Jarvis Cocker.

Sonny and Groovy accidentally ran into Hank and Dean, so they freaked out and ran away. Sonny distinctly remembered killing Hank and Dean out of fear, when they met two years ago in Baha. Holy fuck, the flashback was really bloody and terrible and gross and ew. The rest of the gang didn't believe Sonny... until they saw Hank and Dean again with their own eyes. Ted thought that they may have been ghosts, so he pulled out a gun to make sure. The boys spazzed and ran into the nearest room... which happened to be the lab holding their numerous clones. AHHH! The Scooby Doo people saw the containers and freaked out. The boys freaked out (and fainted). Venturestein popped up and freaked out. The Scooby Doo people saw Venturestein and freaked out. Brock came out of nowhere, saw the Scooby Doo people, and freaked out (and broke Ted's arm, causing Ted to accidentally shoot Sonny). More blood and more gore and more freaking out. I think this was the part that best used the Scooby Doo sound effects. I laughed a little too loudly when Venturestein slipped on one of the slimy clones and slid across the floor.

Doc wandered in as soon as the commotion was over, only to find dead bodies everywhere, and the boys in fetal positions on the floor.

Brock: The boys saw their own clones! I think they're in some kind of saw-your-own-clone coma.

I thought something crazy was going to happen here but Doc fixed the problem in the most anticlimactic way possible... by telling the boys that the clones were actually meant as an upcoming Christmas present. "You've ruined the surprise!... Now I'll have to think of something even better!" The boys happily called Doc "the best dad ever" and went off to play. Oh, man. Freakin' brilliant. The moment was only topped when Doc almost automatically turned to the life-support plug for the clones, ready to cut it off to add to his army of the dead.

Credits. Brock took Venturestein out for some prostitute-fun.

What the hell's going on with Soulbot's little casting call for a new General Bot? It's like a whole separate storyline being resolved three-seconds at a time.