The Venture Bros.
Season 2, Episode 2: “Hate Floats,” 2006
Dan Says:
I shout my out my love for this show – about middle-aged
super-scientists, supervillains and superheroes living in denial of their
constant failure – on a fairly regular basis. Season 2 cemented it firmly in
the pantheon of my all-time favorite series, and this episode was the mixer.
All parties and plot points converge on the local mall. Doc
Rusty Venture, boy adventurer turned scientist living off the estate of his
dead father, has come to buy his younger son, Dean, a speed-suit, aka a hideous
jumpsuit he sees as the uniform of a proper super-scientist. His longtime
archnemesis, the Monarch, has come to stalk his ex-girlfriend, the aptly named Dr.
Girlfriend, who is currently dating another supervillain, Phantom Limb, who’s
come seeking supplies for a dinner party.
The Monarch’s henchmen, freshly recruited from the inner
city, shoot up the place, kidnap Dr. Venture and overthrow the Monarch and his
two remaining original Henchmen, 21 and 24. The Ventures’ bodyguard, Brock
Samson, gets shot but is rescued by Phantom Limb, who tends to Brock’s injuries
and suggests a team-up to retrieve the Ventures and Dr. Girlfriend, whom they
believe to be kidnapped. Dr. Girlfriend, however, has escaped the melee with
the Venture boys and are figuring out their own plan to save the others.
There’s a lot of people believing the wrong people have been kidnapped, and in
the end all parties reconvene at the Monarch’s flying cocoon base, Brock and
Phantom Limb kill a bunch of goons and everyone turns out fine.
In between, though, there is a lecture about the proper heft
and serration of kitchen knives that will be referenced again nearly 10 years
later in the Gargantua II special, the Venture boys wonder whether Dr.
Girlfriend is their mommy (Spoiler: She’s not), and Henchmen 21 and 24 become
two of my favorite characters on the show with their bickering beta-bros
schtick.
