TV Recap: ‘The Venture Bros’, “The Revenge Society”

I recall an online discussion a few weeks ago about the fate of the O.R.B. It’s significance seemed to hold special significance for The Guild. The Ventures, even O.S.I. But many have said it was just another deep part of the show’s history and nothing to take too seriously. Tonight’s episode proved them wrong (suck it, nerds).

Phantom Limb finally makes a return to the show (along with The Intangible Fancy, a favorite small character from Season One) finally inacting his revenge under the name…Revenge. Again P.L./Revenge is a badass at villainy who’s just really lame at heart. This is the man who can kill by touching you but would rather be selling fine art and giving himself a horrible new name. Revenge breaks into The Guild’s headquarters and takes out two of the Council’s members, combining them into a two-headed monster courtesy of a kidnapped Billy Quizboy. As we learn the rather lame history of Revenge’s grandfather Phantasmos, Billy drops that he knows the location of the O.R.B. It’s not long before Strangers and Guild Wasps are covering the Venture Compound. How exactly did they get called? It’s not particularly established other than Watch and Ward announcing to their leader that they have a problem. We get more Dean bonding with Doc Venture and Hatred trying to bond with Hank.

The last part of the episode seems to resolve way too quick for all the balls that should be up in the air: O.R.B., Phantom’s return, The Sovereign’s rematch, etc.

Dean becoming the heir to The Sovereign seemed to come out of nowhere and was extremely rushed. There was a 30-second period that I thought we might have just thrown Dean into exactly what we need. He’s been a flat whiny baby this season, and it would’ve been great to see him in charge of the villains. But why was the “rightful” heir even necessary? This was already common knowledge before, and it’s unlikely it would stop the Guild from taking out Phantom Limb. The biggest reveal of all is O.R.B. It turns out that Sandow didn’t kill Great Grandpa Venture after all, merely the device itself. Considering Kano seemed to hint that he didn’t kill Jonas Venture Sr. either…the O.S.I. haven’t been placing good bodyguards for this mission. While everything matches as a story, it cheapened some earlier episodes in the show. I had really been looking for Phantom Limb’s return, as well as the fate of O.R.B. that I foresaw being a huge part of the show’s arc. I’m hoping that this was Doc and Jackson simply wanting to move onto new story ideas.

Grade: B

Things I Liked

- “Why can’t I hear them?” “Because you are sane”.

- Crazy Action Man story told by Rusty. (“Not today, Rusty. Not today”)

- Bowie’s fakeout as Future Rusty might have been made SPECIFICALLY for the Season 4 teaser at Comic-Con

Note

Tonight’s episode of “Metalocalypse” proved that this season is going to at least be developing the story every episode. I’ll start recapping it as well.