Episode - Season 2, Episode 9 (Production Code: 2-22)
First Aired - September 10, 2006
The space station Gargantua-1 is plummeting towards Earth. On board, Col. Bud Manstrong is panicking while Lt. Anna Baldavich wants to consummate their love before their impending death. Manstrong blacks out as the station crashes in a desert. Doctors can be overheard talking about a microchip implanted in Manstrong's head.
Manstrong survives and is heralded as a hero. He is invited to the White House for dinner, along with the Venture family since it was Rusty's father who built Gargantua-1. Rusty reveals that he has a new invention he wants to show the president while there. Brock is shown to have a rivalry with secret service agent Hauser.
At dinner, Brock is seated next to Manstrong's mother, who is constantly hitting on him and attempts to fondle him under the table. Manstrong is embarrassed by his mother, but she says she is the one who is embarrassed by him, revealing some embarrassing details about him as a boy. Rusty asks Manstrong to put in a good word with President Breyer for him, but Manstrong's mother interrupts, telling Manstrong to "listen to his mother." This statement puts Manstrong into a trance, which is noticed by the ghost of Abraham Lincoln peeking out from his own portrait. Dean sees the ghost and quietly freaks out, unable to get Hank's attention.
Manstrong is invited into the Oval Office, where President Breyer informs him that his administration needs a "squeaky clean" running mate as Vice President in order to have a chance at reelection. Manstrong is happy at first, until the President offers him a cigar and any one of his secretaries, except "the one in blue that smells like this." He puts his finger under Manstrong's nose, explaining how she "literally" has his name on her, as he wrote his name on her dress with "the tip of his..." Before he can finish, Manstrong gets offended and leaves in a fury. The president buzzes his secretary, asking for a blow job.
Hank and Dean prepare for bed in the Lincoln bedroom as the housekeeper takes their clothes (stained with wine from dinner,) to be washed with club soda. Dean is still panicked from seeing the ghost at dinner.
Manstrong meets with his mother, who asks him if he was offered the Vice President job. He says that he was but was so offended by the president's behavior that he ran away. She tells him to "listen to his mother," causing him to enter a trance-like state and seek out the president to accept the job offer.
Rusty is trying to get some time alone with the president to demonstrate his latest invention, a portable force field. Brock is reluctant to help until Agent Hauser shows up to make fun of him. Angered, Brock agrees to help.
Manstrong and his mother are in the Oval Office with the president when a gunshot is heard. Rusty slips in the door while Brock holds off the secret service agents, barring the door from the inside. Rusty quickly sets up his force field device, but as he takes the remote out of his pocket to activate it, Hauser dives in and breaks the remote control, activating the force field. The president, his secretary, Hauser, Manstrong, his mother, Rusty, and Brock are all trapped in the force field inside the Oval Office with no way to shut it off or contact the outside (it blocks off sound.) Hauser, using post-it notes, lets the other agents know to contact the army and a scientist.
In the Lincoln bedroom, Lincoln's ghost reveals himself to the boys. He explains that Manstrong has a microchip embedded in the back of his neck, and that his mother is going to order him to kill the president. They boys don't believe him at first, but Dean finally allows Lincoln to possess his body to stop Manstrong. (Lincoln's ghost is immaterial and can't do it otherwise.)
General Manhowers and Jonas Jr. arrive and discuss their options for taking down the forcefield. Rusty is dismayed to see his brother on the scene. A Lincoln-possessed Dean runs past them but slams into the force field. Dean's body is left behind, but Lincoln's ghost (along with a penny from Dean's pocket,) was able to pass through it. Lincoln realizes that he can manipulate objects that bear his resemblance and can get them through the force field. He sends the boys off to gather all the $5 bills that they can.
The president's secretary finds a bottle of whiskey in his desk, and it gets passed around to those inside the force field. (Except Hauser who is on duty and Manstrong, who doesn't drink.) Brock tries to apologize to Manstrong for sleeping with Baldavich, but Manstrong doesn't accept. Brock refuses to believe Manstrong's "boy scout act," saying that he and Anna had to sleep together at some point, being alone on Garganuta-1 for years. Manstrong gets up to walk away but his mother, who had been resting on his lap, jumps over to Brock's lap. Manstrong sees this and flies into a rage, challenging Brock to a fight. Brock refuses at first, but Manstrong won't back down.
After collecting $5 bills from all around the White House, Hank and Dean paste them onto Lincoln's ghost. Lincoln then runs to the Oval Office, getting through the force field. He grabs Manstrong and shows the president the chip underneath a bandage on Manstrong's neck. Manstrong's mother grabs Hauser's gun and shoots Lincoln through the head, puncturing the $5 bills on his face.
Rusty sees the chip and connects it to his communicator watch, revealing it to be the security footage from Gargantua-1's final moments. It shows Baldavich giving Manstrong a hand job, but Manstrong passes out. On the ground, Manstrong has his hands down his pants, talks about "seeing stars," and passes out again.
The Stinger shows the housekeeper dissolving the force field with club soda, much to Jonas Jr.'s amazement.
Tropes:
- Ambiguous Situation: It's claimed by newspapers that Manstrong crashing Gargantua-1 was an act of intentional heroism, since the space station struck a terrorist hideout upon impact. It's never stated whether this was a complete coverup by the government, or if the crash actually did kill terrorists by sheer luck; the only thing that's known for certain is that it wasn't intentional.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Dean and Hank find it too farfetched that Bud is being mind-controlled by his mother, even though they're being told this by Lincoln's ghost.
- Celibate Hero: Manstrong, so much so it reaches the point of deconstruction. (His girlfriend cheats on him with Brock and he blacks out during a hand job from her when they're about to die.)
- Historical In-Joke: The ghost of Abraham Lincoln pins Colonel Manstrong in a full nelson, referencing Lincoln's past as a wrestler.
- Killed Offscreen: Anna Baldavich does not survive the crash of Gargantua-1, possibly because she unbuckled herself from her seat.
- Momma's Boy: Bud Manstrong, doubly so since she is (seemingly) mind-controlling him.
- My Beloved Smother: Manstrong's mother isn't literally mind-controlling him, she's just very overbearing.
- Mundane Solution: At the end of the episode, the cleaning lady dissolves Rusty's "impenetrable" force field with a little club soda.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Physically and in terms of voice, President Breyer appears to be based on Lyndon Johnson (southern accent, hairstyle), but seems to also have aspects of Bill Clinton (based on his intern choice).
- Orphaned Punchline: Hank tells a fellow guest at dinner the joke about a schoolboy named "Johnny Deeper". You can tell it's surprisingly smutty by Hank standards, even though the show only includes the punchline.
- Our Presidents Are Different: President Breyer is a combination of President Corrupt (his many scandals are the reason he wants the "squeaky clean" Manstrong as a running mate), President Buffoon (he's obviously not the brightest), and President Playboy (he receives sexual favors from his secretary).
- Recognition Failure: Hank doesn’t know who Abraham Lincoln is.
- Shout-Out:
- The title of the episode is a reference to the film Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.
- Manstrong being controlled by his mother and brainwashed into killing the President is directly from The Manchurian Candidate. Lincoln even lampshades this.
- Manstrong's line at the end "My God, it's full of stars," is a reference to Dr. Dave Bowman's final words in 2010: The Year We Make Contact.
- Some Kind of Force Field: Rusty creates a portable generator for one. It actually seems to work just fine, until the remote is smashed.
- Weaksauce Weakness:
- Rusty's impenetrable force field can be dissolved by club soda.
- Lincoln's ghost can only interact with material images that bear his likeness, such as pennies and $5 bills.
