To avoid mouse-overs.
“Do you guys need a bible? I have one on tape. Read by Mr. Darth Vader.” - Dean
(That would be so cool!)
I enjoyed the trip through Rusty’s mind. Id, Ego, Superego. Being haunted by all his dead sons. The post-credit story also helped explain why he’s so broken, although we’ve seen in the past that his father really really SUCKED at being a father.
21 and Dr. Mrs. The Monarch - both the scene when the moppets busted in and when the Monarch woke up. Well, especially the first one.
We really hadn’t seen The Monarch since the sub fell on him.
I think the last three episodes of the Venture Brothers have been brilliant. Some of the best of the whole series.
The bumpers for the episode said it was actually the second one produced for the second half of the season, so it was apparently aired out of production order. Wikipedia confirms this, giving the production code as 4-49, which puts it in between “Pomp and Circuitry” (4-48) and “The Diving Bell Vs. the Butter-Glider” (4-50, where the sub fell on the Monarch) in production order.
I’ve been enjoying them a great deal this season, and yes, the last few have been a joy. I don’t watch a lot of TV, but this is a show I won’t miss.
“I hope you relish it as much as I.” 
It can be yours!
If he doesn’t do the voice of I AM THAT I AM in Vader-mode, then we live in a nasty, horrible universe that hates us.
Pretty good episode, all in all, although I don’t have much to say about it. The conflict between Brock and Sgt. Hatred was cute; I don’t think they’ll have time to explore it more fully before the end of the season (and possibly the series). I vaguely wish this half-season had been a little more plot heavy but I’m probably in the minority there.
I wish they’d go out and have another Adventure or three before the show is over. That is, after all, what the show was originally a parody of.
To be honest, and this isn’t a fully formed idea, but I’d like it to go another two seasons and end with Rusty’s death, either at the hands of The Monarch, or by sheer accident (overdose?), leaving the Monarch frustrated even then.
Why is there almost never a thread on this show? It’s definitely one of the best things on TV in years.
Does anyone have any idea the as to whether or not this is going to be the last season? I sure hope not, but Adult Swim seems to have always treated this show as the red-headed stepchild…shit time slots, delayed and stretched seasons. Rebroadcasting the same half of the season premiere show twice on the west coast.
Brilliant show that never got the attention it deserved. Deserves. Not dead yet, eh?
Maybe it’s because I’ve watched them too much, but the only complaint I have about the show is the recycling of the voice talent. The guy who does 24/Billy/etc does a great job doing the various voices, but he never changes his cadence and speech patterns, so it’s always obvious (to me) when it’s him.
-Joe
Last I heard—no citation at hand, sorry—the creators would be perfectly happy to do another season, but there wasn’t much indication as to whether they’d receive the go-ahead. I do hope they’re able to keep it going; I agree that it’s one of the best things on television.
Oh, God, yes, I agree. Hammer’s good but untrained and painfully overstretched—I can hear him everywhere; he and McCulloch (whose recycling is perhaps a bit less obvious to me) simply can’t do everything properly by themselves. (Edit: Combine that with James Urbaniak, who does Rusty and the Phantom Limb, and you have three actors doing nearly every important character.) I guess voice talent is expensive.
(And jerkish. I lost a bit of respect for Stephen Colbert, who originally voiced Dr. Impossible, when I learned that he pretty much shooed them off like flies after he made it big.)
To be fair to Urbaniak, I can’t hear any of Rusty in Phantom Limb.
The Colbert thing was disappointing to me too. It’s not like Venture Bros. was a major commitment or anything.
-Joe
I loved Dr. Mrs. The Monarch’s little cheer for #21 when he was feeling really down about his life. “Gimme a G! Gimme an A! … .” The evolving and unexpected rapport between those two is really interesting.
I also particularly enjoyed it when Rusty’s Id explained how “The Rusty” almost made it with Lindsay Wagner.
I was going to put that in my last post and forgot.
Interesting that it is little (young) Rusty as the Id with all the women The Rusty “could have any time if he just put in the effort!” Molotov Cocktease? Yeah, right.
I was going to say that I was the only person who ever started VB threads, but then I did a search and found 25 of them, of which only 5 (including the most recent 4) were started by me. Hypno-Toad and Tuckerfan have both started more than me.
Well, according to Doc Hammer the main theme of the entire series is failure. Rusty is coping with failure in a pretty typical way - “I could have succeeded if I’d really wanted to and had really tried”.
-Joe
I found it telling that among all of Rusty’s Ladies we didn’t see Nikki Fictel. Did that mean he honestly knew he screwed up so bad with her that he could never have made it work? Because he had genuine feelings for her and she was given a different place in his subconscious? Or had he just forgotten about her entirely?
Yeah, I think we saw Myra Brandish (the psycho bodyguard was was Dean and Hank’s mother), but I’m not 100% sure. Or did we only see the ones he WANTED to score with an didn’t?
From looking at the episode list, I see that we get one more episode next week, then a break until 11/21 when we get an hour long season finale.
From what was said above about production order, either it was to keep us from seeing the twist, or because the writers hadn’t thought of her yet.
Nikki looked pretty good for 35.
Speaking of which, was crazy lady (the boys’ real mother?) in that group? No, right?
Actually, thinking further, isn’t it likely all the women in that bunch were women Rusty hadn’t banged? But, you know, he totally could have.
-Joe
No, Myra was there … interestingly enough, looking like she does now, not like she did when she and Rusty were actually together.
I took the collection to be the women that Rusty fantasizes about. So it includes near misses (Sally Impossible, Dr. Quymn) as well as complete impossibilities (Molotov, Dr. Girlfriend). Nikki might have been absent simply because she’s not part of his internal “dream girl” file.
I thought the young version of Nicki Fictel was on the bed. You could only see her for a few seconds, but I’m pretty sure she was there in her Rusty Venture shirt.
As far as Rusty knows he did bang Dr Mrs The Monarch.
I have a question. Why is there bondage gear/ black leather apparel in 21’s size just hanging around the Monarch’s bedroom?