Episode - Season 4, Episode 1 (Production Code: 4-46)
First Aired - October 18, 2009
Note: This episode is in Anachronic Order, with the point in the timeline of each segment represented by the value of the Marvel Comics #1 Gary gives to Dr. Venture. Brock's segments are in standard chronological order, while the segments involving the Venture family are shown Back to Front. Each scene below is preceded by its actual position in the show (SO for "Scene Order") and by its chronological order (CO) to help keep track.
SO 1, CO 1: A Flashback to the explosion that ended the previous episode. Brock passes out as an O.S.I. soldier checks his vitals. Later, he drifts in and out of conciousness as O.S.I. surgeons rush to save him.
SO 2, CO 13: Sgt. Hatred, wearing a Venture Industries uniform, is lining up a rifle shot on one of the Nazi agents who is holding Dr. Venture captive. Hatred radios to Hank, who has longer hair and is wearing Brock's old jacket. Hank, who also has a rifle, radios to Hatred that he think she has a shot on his target if he bounces his bullet off of his father's belt buckle. Hatred begs Hank not to try that and then radios Dean, asking him if he has killed Hitler (in the body of a dog) yet. Dean responds that he lost the knife and argues against killing Hitler. Unable to convince Dean, Hatred orders H.E.L.P.eR, whose head is now attached to Venture's "walking eye" robot, to kill Hitler. H.E.L.P.eR prepares his weaponry, but Hitler breaks off his leash and escapes. Dr. Orpheus, dressed in ceremonial robes, shoots a magical bolt of electricity from his staff, through H.E.L.P.eR, and into the electrical system of the compound. The blast kills the Nazis but leaves Venture unharmed.
SO 3, CO 2: Brock wakes up in an O.S.I. operating room, wounded and bandaged after the surgery. He sneaks out of the room and overhears two O.S.I. doctors discussing options for killing or memory wiping "him." They decide against those options however, as "he" has a vast knowledge that the O.S.I. wants to use to their advantage. Brock, thinking the doctors are talking about him, sneaks away. It is then revealed that the doctors were talking about Sgt. Hatred, who they give a serum to "make all those little naked boys in your head go bye-bye." Brock hides as an O.S.I. team runs past him to capture an invisible man. A surgeon from the team sees Brock and is glad to see him awake. Brock pins the doctor to a wall, demanding to know what they did to him. The surgeon explains that they brought him aboard an O.S.I. jet in order to save his life. Brock removes the bandages over his chest and reveals H.E.L.P.eR's head embedded in it. Brock decides to escape the jet, landing on an O.S.I. jetpack soldier and stealing his jetpack.
SO 4, CO 12: Dean is applying "warpaint" to Sgt. Hatred, who is seated on a toilet in the bathroom. Hatred and Orpheus discuss their plan for dealing with the Nazis and killing dog-Hitler while Hank reads a comic book. Orpheus explains to Dean, who has taken a liking to dog-Hitler, that the dog is "pure evil" and must be killed with a special golden knife. Dean is reluctant, but Hank says that he will do it. Hatred, who has actually been going to the bathroom while seated on the toilet, asks Hank for his comic book to use as toilet paper.
SO 5, CO 3: Hank, sporting his old hairstyle and clothing, is on the toilet. He shouts to Mr. Doe, who is standing guard outside the bathroom, that he needs toilet paper. Outside, the last of the O.S.I. soldiers leave in the aftermath of the Season 3 finale. Dean and Mr. Cardholder are reading a Giant Boy Detective book of Dean's, much to Cardholder's dismay. Brock sneaks into the compound and knocks out Cardholder. Brock asks Dean where everyone is, with Dean explaining that Hank is upstairs and that Dr. Venture is meeting with the O.S.I. leaders. Doe comes down the stairs and Brock knocks him out with Dean's book. Brock tells Dean that he can't tell anyone that he is alive, and that he only returned to get a few things. He gives his wrist communicator to Dean to give to Dr. Venture and leaves. Hank comes down the stairs shortly after, not believing Dean that Brock was there until Dean shows him Brock's communicator.
SO 6, CO 11: Hank, with longer hair and Brock's jacket, is playing a video game when he hears the X-1 flying overhead. He rushes to the door in hopes that it is Brock returning, but it is not. Gary, the former Henchman #21, steps off with his Live Action Role Playing (LARP) group. The X-1 is covered in graffiti and Dr. Venture is demanding to know what happened to it. Gary dismisses Venture and heads off with "business to attend to." Venture demands that Hatred kill Gary's men, but Hatred refuses, noting that they're only armed with foam weapons. Venture catches up to Gary and explains that he's in trouble with the government after his cloning operation was revealed. Gary is angry with Venture, and says that Venture deceived him after Gary gave Venture a "priceless family heir loom." Gary claims to have business with the local necromancer, Dr. Orpheus. Inside, it cuts to Orpheus explaining to Gary that he cannot resurrect the deceased Henchman #24. Orpheus is interrupted when Dean's dog, which he named "Giant Boy Detective," (and is actually the Hitler dog,) is using a mummified relic that belongs to Orpheus as a chew toy. Orpheus takes the comic book Dean was holding to shoo the dog away, then throws it for the dog to chase after. Orpheus identifies the dog as a "great evil" and claims that he must destroy it. He teleports away to prepare a "cleansing ritual." Gary then asks Dean "what comic were you reading?"
SO 7, CO 4: In a remote jungle in Argentina, Brock has tracked down the surgeon that performed the sex change on Hunter Gathers. The surgeon is talking to a Nazi leader as Brock arrives. He asks the surgeon to perform a surgery on him, and the surgeon mistakenly believes that Brock wants a sex change so that he can kill Gathers. Brock corrects him, saying that he wants the surgeon to remove H.E.L.P.eR's head from his chest. The surgeon asks what is to stop him from killing Brock while he is under anesthesia, so Brock pulls a grenade out of his jacket, pulls the pin, and places it into H.E.L.P.eR's mouth. If anything goes wrong, the grenade will detonate, killing them all.
SO 8, CO 7: Sgt. Hatred is teaching Dean how to clean and reassemble a pistol. Hank walks in wearing Brock's jacket and Hatred demands to know why he isn't in his Venture Industries uniform. Hank says that Hatred isn't his bodyguard, Brock is, and that Brock is the only person he'll take orders from. Hatred explains that he is Brock's replacement and that they must learn to get along. He gives Hank a gun and demands that Hank shoot him, trying to earn his respect. Dean thinks they are fighting and runs out of the room crying. Hank fires several uneasy shots, but doesn't hit Hatred. Finally, one of the shots goes through Hanks comic book, off a table, and grazes Hatred's shoulder. Hatred congratulates and thanks Hank. Dean runs back into the room, being chased by Dr. Venture's "new" H.E.L.P.eR, which is H.E.L.P.eR's head attached to his walking eye robot.
SO 9, CO 8: Several months later, an overweight and bearded Brock is in the home of Steve Sommers and Sasquatch. He is preparing to leave after recovering there. Steve asks him to stay, but Brock says he must finish what he started. The three hug goodbye and Sasquatch presents Brock with a hand-sewn commando mask. Brock gives them a portrait he painted of the pair and leaves.
SO 10, CO 6: In Venture's cloning lab, a group of Nazis meet with Dr. Venture. They want him to use their dog to clone a human Hitler. Venture refuses to involve himself in such a cliched, unoriginal plan. The Nazis warn him that there will be consequences for not helping them. They leave the dog with him to clone as the boys run in. Dean connects with the dog, which poops on the floor. Dr. Venture takes Dean's comic book to scoop up the mess.
SO 11, CO 9: At the headquarters of the Black Hearts, Molotov and Gathers are going over recent operations when Mol reveals to Gathers that she suspects they have a mole in their organization. Gathers stumbles over his words before finally asking Mol how she came to that conclusion. Above them, Brock is crawling through the air ducts. He encounters a SPHINX agent who is also listening in. The two get into a fight and fall through ceiling into the room below. Gathers draws a gun but is shocked when he that it is Brock. Mol has no such reservation and shoots Brock in the chest, causing him to fall out a nearby window. A group of SPHINX agents emerge from a van and pick him up.
SO 12, CO 5: Gary pleads with Dr. Venture to clone 24. Venture explains that he'll start out as a baby and won't have any of 24's memories. (As Venture's clones grow in real time and needed to have memories implanted after being taken from the boys learning beds.) Gary says that he will raise 24 as his own son and presents Venture with a rare copy of Marvel Comics #1, worth half a million dollars. Venture refuses to believe that the comic is worth anything, but Gary insists. He provides part of 24's finger as cloning material and leaves. Hank, with short hair and in his old clothes, enters carrying a box from Argentina. Inside is H.E.L.P.eR's head wrapped in Brock's blue jacket. Venture takes the head and Hank takes the jacket.
SO 13, CO 10: Brock is tied naked to a chair, revealing the metal plate in his chest from where the surgeon removed H.E.L.P.eR (which allowed him to survive Mol's gunshot.) He is being interrogated by SPHINX agents, but insists he knows nothing about SPHINX or the Blackhearts, and no longer works for the O.S.I. The SPHINX agents leave him alone under a spotlight, when Gathers speaks up from behind him. The two argue about Gathers sending the assassins after Brock so Brock would kill them. Gathers explains that he did it to get Brock out of his "babysitting" job and return to his true badass secret agent roots. Brock, with Gathers leading him along in conversation, concludes that Gathers' defection from the O.S.I. and sex change were a ploy for him to become a mole within the Blackhearts. Gathers frees Brock and stands in front of him as the lights come on. Gathers, now a man again, stands in front of a group of SPHINX soldiers as their leader, grabs his crotch, and tells Brock "You don't know DICK!"
The Stinger brings the two timelines together. After Orpheus' electric blast kills the Nazis, he declares the cleansing complete. Orpheus demands that Dean kill Hitler, but Dean says that the dog ran away. Hank, in his sniper position in the hills by the compound, is approached by the Hitler dog. It goes to attack him, but is tackled by a SPHINX agent. Hank tries to call for help on his wrist communicator, but is silenced by Shoreleave/Holy Diver who is in a SPHINX uniform. The SPHINX agent battles the dog, pulls out the golden knife, and kills the dog, causing it to disintegrate. The agent pulls off his mask, revealing that he is Brock, now clean shaven and back in shape. Hank hugs Brock and asks why he left, to which Brock explains that he'll always be there but he has more important business elsewhere right now. Brock and Shoreleave disappear as Sgt. Hatred comes looking for Hank. Hatred asks Hank if he killed the dog, but Hank starts to tell him that it was Brock. Hank stops himself and says that it was an "angel." Sgt. Hatred, disappointed, says that he would have bought ice cream cake for Hank if he had been the one to kill Hitler. Hank quickly takes the credit for the kill, saying he was just kidding about the angel thing.
Tropes:
- Anachronic Order: The part of the story focusing on the Venture family is done Back to Front, starting with the climax of the Stupid Jetpack Hitler plot and running to the start. However, at the same time, we see what's been happening to Brock; his plot is told in normal chronological order and is played in between segments of the Venture family plot. The timeline is established by titles displaying the CGC value of #21's Marvel Comics #1 and by the length of Hank's hair.
- Continuity Nod: Brock staying with Steve Sommers and Sasquatch while he recovers. He helped save them from the government way back in season one.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Hank telling Sgt. Hatred that he isn't his real bodyguard, and that Brock is. This mirrors the feelings of a lot of children towards their step-parents or adoptive parents.
- Easy Sex Change / Magic Plastic Surgery: Gathers plays it more straight this time than the last time.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Subverted by Rusty, who isn't really "evil" so much as a morally ambiguous Nominal Hero, as he refuses to clone Hitler for the Nazis, not because it's wrong, but because it's so cliched.
- I Know Mortal Kombat: Hank tries to justify getting a chance to shoot at Neo-Nazis by referencing his skill in Medal of Honor.
- Magic Bullets: Lampshaded in the conversation between Hank and Hatred:Hank: "I'm gonna take my shot now. I have it figured out that if I can just skim Pop's belt buckle, maybe the bullet will ricochet off it and kill the guy with the gun!"
Sgt. Hatred: "Hank, I will give you so much money to not shoot your dad." - Priceless Ming Vase: The copy of Marvel Comics #1, worth 500,000 dollars, is completely destroyed over the course of its run.
- Putting on the Reich: Dr. Venture accuses actual Nazis of stooping to this "old cliché", mostly due to skepticism over their atrocious German accents.
- Replacement Goldfish: 21 trying to have Dr. Venture clone 24, even after he learns that 24 will be cloned as a baby with none of 24's memories.
- Shout-Out:
- Each section of the episode is prefaced with the title of a story in the real Marvel Comics #1: The Human Torch, The Angel, The Sub-Mariner, Jungle Terror, The Masked Raider, Burning Rubber, and Ka-Zar.
- Molotov mentions "Burgos, Carl" as an assassination target when meeting with Hunter. Carl Burgos is the cartoonist who created the original Human Torch in Marvel Comics #1.
- Orpheus' "cleansing" spell melts the faces off of Venture's Nazi captors in the same way the Ark melts the faces off of the Nazis in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
- When Brock goes to the surgeon to have H.E.L.P.eR removed from his chest, the surgeon at first thinks it is a "robot heart like in the Iron Man."
- After Gary/21 learns that the Venture boys were simply clones, he comments to Hank (who is still unaware of this fact) that "I guess you won't live to see the Quickening afterall..." This doubles as a Continuity Nod, as Gary/21 has previously compared Hank to the Highlander in Tears of a Sea Cow, believing him to be immortal.
- Shown Their Work: An actual "near mint" edition of Marvel Comics #1 is currently valued at $499,000 and tends to hover right around the given "half-million" value seen in the show.
- Worthless Yellow Rocks: Dr. Venture saw the comic as this.
- You Cloned Hitler!: Averted and Lampshaded by Dr. Venture, who refuses to do it and chastises the neo-Nazis asking to have it done by calling it a cliche. Hank later adds:Hank: "Is it me, or does like every Nazi want to clone Hitler? It's like the only thing they think of!"
