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Recap / The Venture Bros S 1 E 2 Careers In Science

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Episode - 1-02

First Aired - August 14, 2004

The Venture family, along with Brock and H.E.L.P.eR, are on a spacecraft bound for Gargantua 1, a space station built by Jonas Venture Sr. in the 1970s. Neglect has left the space station in need of repairs, and it has fallen on Dr. Thaddeus Venture to make them. Once aboard, the family is introduced to Colonel Bud Manstrong and Lt. Anna Baldavitch, the only staffers remaining on the station. Brock immediately starts flirting with Anna. When she removes her helmet, she is met with a look of disgust from Brock and the boys. While Bud leads Dr. Venture to the source of the issue (a red "PROBLEM" light,) he shares a story from his days as a paperboy aboard the station about a deranged employee nicknamed "Phantom Spaceman" who went mad and ejected most of the station's employees out the cargo bay doors to their death.

After urinating on himself, mistakenly believing that his space suit has a waste collection feature, Dr. Venture sends the boys off to find him a new spacesuit. Meanwhile, he accidentally opens the doors to the cargo bay, where Brock and H.E.L.P.eR are located. H.E.L.P.eR is ejected into space while Brock holds on for dear life. The incident is witnessed by Anna, who leaves Bud to rescue Brock. This causes Bud to believe that Brock has stolen Anna from him.

While continuing to tinker with the station controls, Dr. Venture turns off the artificial gravity. He quickly turns it back on, but falls from mid air knocking himself unconscious. The boys reach the cargo bay in time to see Brock, frozen but alive after nearly being sucked into space. They mistake him for the Phantom Spaceman and flee back to their father, who they find unconscious and believe to be dead. H.E.L.P.eR meanwhile crashes into a satellite orbiting the Earth.

Dr. Venture wakes up to a hallucination of his father, and the two immediately argue over whose fault the problem aboard the space station is. Brock wakes up in the care of Anna, and the two have sex with the condition that Anna keep her helmet on. The boys witness the sex and mistake it for Brock fighting the Phantom Spaceman until Anna's helmet is knocked off. Realizing that it was Anna and not the Phantom Spaceman, they believe the Phantom Spaceman could still be on the loose.

H.E.L.P.eR manages to get back aboard the space station, puncturing the hull as he does, which causes the problem light to flash. Dr. Venture, frustrated by the light, takes more of his pills, which cause his father's hallucination to disappear. H.E.L.P.eR ends up covered in a sheet with a bucket on his head after the crash, roams the hallways looking for help when he runs into the boys. The boys immediately attack him, believing him to be the Phantom Spaceman, and eject him into space once again.

Bud admonishes Anna over her sexual encounter with Brock, but Anna walks away. Dr. Venture announces the hull breach over the sound system, so Brock and Bud are sent to repair it. Dr. Venture meanwhile investigates a puddle of goo leaking from the computer console, and discovers it to be a melted cowboy toy from his childhood aboard the station. He removes the toy and the problem light turns off. The boys find their father alive and Dr. Venture changes into a clean spacesuit.

Outside the station, while Brock is repairing the hull breech, Bud admits that he has lost Anna to Brock and places his hand on Brock's shoulder. Reflexively, Brock attacks Bud and leaves him in the vacuum of space. He begs Anna to haul him back in, but Anna demands an apology first.

As the Ventures fly away, urine starts leaking from Dr. Venture’s old spacesuit onto the computer console, causing the problem light to turn turn back on.

Tropes:

  • Actually, That's My Assistant: On first meeting, Bud addresses Brock as "Dr. Venture."
  • Age Cut: The filmstrip introduction to Gargantua 1 dissolves from a shot of young Rusty to the present-day Dr. Venture, demonstrating how cruel the passage of time has been.
  • Butter Face: Lt. Anna Baldavitch, though we never actually see it.
  • Celibate Hero: Deconstructed with Bud Manstrong, whose sexually repressed nature has ruined with relationship with Anna, who ends up cheating on him with Brock. Later on, Bud admits he wasn't attentive to her needs.
  • Dead Person Conversation: Dr. Venture’s argument with his hallucinated father over whose fault the problem aboard the space station is.
  • Foreshadowing: The "Movie Night" incident in which most of the crew of Gargantua 1 was sucked into space plays a major role in The Rorqual Affair, some 6 seasons and 14 years later.
  • Innocuously Important Episode: A silly, lightweight episode that subtly foreshadows The Morphic Trilogy, a three-part episode that occurs all the way in season seven!
  • Shout-Out: The movie the crew was watching during the "Movie Night" incident was Sharky's Machine.
  • Space Is Cold: Played straight with Brock when sucked out of the cargo bay doors.
  • Space Station: Gargantua 1.
  • Spirit Advisor: Jonas Sr. appears to Rusty in this fashion (it's really a hallucination either because of his "diet pills" or because they're wearing off). It does, however, give Rusty the revelation he needs to fix the problem.
  • Take Our Word for It: Lt. Baldavitch's face.
  • Toilet Humor: No, Dr. Venture, your space suit does not have a waste collection pouch.

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