Recap / The Venture Bros S 7 E 10 The Saphrax Protocol

Deep inside Guild Headquarters, the Monarch and 21 face their ultimate ordeal; the Venture brothers confront one of their own.

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Tropes:

• Adventures in Comaland: Turns out that Hank, Phage, and Action Man, all share one together, and it happens to be a pastiche of Barbarella and The Empire Strikes Back.
• Blood Knight: After his relative passiveness in the previous season and his nonchalant behavior while protecting the teleporter a few episodes back, we finally see Brock REALLY cut loose on an unfortunate Guild strike team. He breaks the leader’s windpipe and then gives him an impromptu tracheotomy by non-fatally stabbing him in the throat while brutally killing his subordinates and teleporting their corpses to the guild. He also reacts with frustration when a guy chooses to kill himself via cyanide pill over being brutalized by Brock (based on Brock's comments, a few other did so before him). Lastly, he takes a moment to thank the strike team for infiltrating the building and giving him a chance to kill them so horrifically that the Guild will tell stories about it.
• Batman Grabs a Gun: Attempted when a heavily armed Guild kill-team attempts to neutralize Brock Samson, only Sgt. Hatred neglected to keep one hidden under the front desk, which Brock chastises him for.
• Character Development:
  • The Monarch goes through more. Not only is he self aware enough to realize that he can't do villainy without help from his friends, but he even admits to everyone that 21 is his best friend.
  • Dean tells the comatose Hank that he misses being close to him, is tired of all the changes that have happened in his life, and wishes he could just go back to when it was just the two of them in the compound.
• Cliffhanger: The season ends with the Monarch finally finding out that he's related to Rusty, while Hank comes out of his coma and runs away from home. This appeared to be a case of Left Hanging with the series' cancellation, but there is a movie set after the events of the season.
• Cluster F-Bomb: The Monarch is not amused when the Guild springs some surprise twists on him at his tenning ceremony:
  [Y]ou guys are fucking dicks. I come here to get my Level Ten, and and you give my henchman Villain status and give me the opportunity to kill my sworn enemy? It's a total mindfuck! [...] Fuck it. Fuck it. Fuck it. Sure, let 21 be a villain. I-I'm done. What, you think I can do this shit alone? I'm too old to start again. And now that you guys have my wife and — and my best friend and — No! Fuck it! Fuck it, and fuck you! Guild wins. Monarch out.
• Continuity Cavalcade: Dean's list of "how much of a crap brother he is" is chock full with references to previous episodes.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Dr. Venture's teleportation technology that fell into the hands of The Monarch has since become The Guild's, and has become the go-to method for the Council to travel to the Meteor Majeure.
  • New York is still covered in snow due to the last episode.
  • The way the Monarch cusses out at the Guild closely resembles 21's Screw This, I'm Outta Here moment at the end of Operation: P.R.O.M.
• The Creon: During the ceremony where The Guild had managed to promote Henchman 21 to Full Villain status, The Monarch saw this as a form of personal betrayal^note due to how the Guild managed to have already promoted his wife as one of the Guilds' high-ranking leaders beforehand and with the loss of both his Flying Cocoon and the deaths of the Fluttering Horde that left The Monarch with barely anything to establish himself as much of an actual Villain, only for Henchman 21 to turn down the offer when The Monarch threatened to quit the Guild as well.
  Henchman 21: I don't want to have to be a villain without him, I don't have that kind of grudge. I just want to help my best friend with his hate. Fuck you guys, Monarch Crew: Hench For Life!
• Distant Reaction Shot: How the Monarch learns of his relation to Rusty.
  The Monarch: (while Meteor Majeure is shown from the outside) ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • No matter how much he hates Rusty, the Monarch cannot go through with killing him, even when he has the perfect chance to do so.
  • Similarly, the guild itself did not intend for him to do so, and the things they did that seemed to ostentatiously ruin his relationship with 21 are actually a Secret Test of Character.
• Exact Words: Rusty and the Monarch are referred to as being "blood-related", the term being specific. Because they are almost exactly identical in blood, as the movie reveals.
• Foreshadowing: Hank, Action Man, and Phage’s limbo is compared with the ice planet Hoth from The Empire Strikes Back. The same movie is famous for the reveal of Darth Vader being Luke Skywalker’s father. Just like in the movie, the Monarch discovers that his archenemy is his blood relative.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: Saphrax and Alatheus were Greuthungi chieftains charged with protecting Vithericus, the young heir to the Gothic king Vithimiris, and equal partners in Real Life. In the world of The Venture Brothers, they were respectively the first supervillain and first henchman. On the other hand, they chose to spare Emperor Flavius Valens instead of stabbing him in his tent, while the real Valens was killed by the two in combat.
• I Gave My Word: Brock crushes the windpipe of the leader of the black ops team the Guild sent to Venture Tower and then says that if he tells Brock how many men he has, he'll save his life and spare him. After getting the info, Brock gives him a quick tracheotomy with his knife and then advises he not put his fingers in the hole or it will get infected. Given that Brock absolutely relished killing of the man's team and had no reason to spare the leader, it goes to show that Brock is a man of his word.
• Knight's Armor Hideout: Brock hides in the samurai armor hanging on the wall, then jumps out and kills one member of the Blackout team with the sword included with it.
• Mid-Battle Tea Break: During the VenTech Tower raid, Brock offers a temporary ceasefire for a bathroom break. The two fighting him then agree, mostly because they were dumbfounded Brock knew exactly where they were (and that one of them had to reload).
• No Longer with Us: The nurse accidentally gives Dean the impression that Hank died, but he just left.
• Out of Focus: Rusty only gets one line in this episode before getting bound and gagged by the Guild.
• Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: Hank thinks the afterlife is Hoth from The Empire Strikes Back, while Action Man thinks they're on the alien planet from Barbarella. Neither recognize each other's movie reference.
• The Reveal: According to Action Man, Hank and Dean's mother is a former actress named Bobbi Saint Simone who Rusty obsessed over until she stopped taking his calls, skipped town, and changed her name.
• Secret Test of Character: During the ceremony, 21 is awarded the rank of a level 4 supervillain and Monarch is given the chance to murder a bound and gagged Dr. Venture with a sword. Monarch pulls a Screw This, I'm Outta Here with 21 in tow, seemingly about to start operating as a freelance villain like in the beginning of the series, but it turns out he was expected to do this. The "first villain" Saphrax, whose life the ceremony was a stageplay of, made a similar decision to let his nemesis live and continue hating them.
• Series Fauxnale: Subverted. It was the last episode before Adult Swim reneged on a previously approved eighth season and the show was quietly cancelled. However, a movie was released that, as confirmed by the creators, takes place after the events of this episode and serve as a true series finale.
• Shout-Out:
  • The purgatory Hank, Action Man, and Phage are in is a mixture of Hoth from Star Wars (specifically The Empire Strikes Back) and Wier from Barbarella.
  • The post-credits scene with Hank is also a reference to the ending of Darkman.
• Sitcom Archnemesis: Hatred considers the hospital receptionist who won't let him see Hank because it's after visiting hours and he's not a blood relative the "Moriarty to his Sherlock".
• Take That!: At one point, Action Man, despite his bizarre fondness for Barbarella, goes on a brief rant about how the Mathmos is "completely unnecessary to the plot" and how he still has no idea what it's supposed to be despite having seen the film thirty times.
• Teleporter Accident: The teleporter pad didn't take well to Dr. Phineas Phage's mechnical augmentations. What specifically happened to him is unclear, but he appears in whatever liminal space the comatose Hank and Action Man are in.
• Terror Hero: Brock Samson is this throughout the entire episode and it reminds the audience how much of a living Mook Horror Show he used to be in the earlier seasons. He kills the strike team that infiltrated into the Venture Building in horrific manners and flat out admits that he’s relishing the chance of murdering them. He also takes the time to make a chilling speech about what atrocities he would inflict on the intruders. It comes to the point where mooks start killing themselves via cyanide pill over being killed by Brock.
• To the Pain: Brock gives a monologue over the P.A. system telling the Guild's team that they're gonna die, accomplishing nothing but sating his bloodlust:
  Brock: Testing, testing - hello, idiots. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for accepting this suicide mission. Your target, a one Brock Samson, has been really bored lately and will enjoy the shit out of this. Each one of you fine soldiers will be sacrificed for his amusement. Your unavoidable deaths will become the stuff of legend. Every new recruit will hear the story of the time the Guild Blackout team got locked in the VenTech Tower, behind seven-inch bombproof steel doors, and were killed one by one in glorious service to this dumbass Guild you joined. Good luck out there, and thank you for your service.
• The Unreveal:
  • Watch and Ward's data reveals that Dr. Venture and The Monarch are blood related, seemingly confirming the implication that Jonas impregnated Mrs. Fitzcarraldo. However, their non-specificity with the actual nature of the relationship and "nothing is ever what it seems" nature of the show's universe make it hard to take at face value.
  • In context with the previous episode, we never find out who Scare Bear really is, why he even decided to save Hank, and how he knew about Sirena's affair.
• True Companions: 21 and the Monarch have firmly cemented theirs, with both threatening to leave the Guild when they find out that they can no longer work together.
• Undying Loyalty: Henchman 21 refuses to leave the Monarch to become his own villain, just like Alatheus.
• Ur-Example: In-Universe, Saphrax and Alatheus were the first supervillain and the first henchman respectively.
• Wham Episode:
  • The Monarch is a level 10 villain and knows he and Dr. Venture are related, while Hank has run away from home to find himself. The audience and Hank also finally find out the supposed identity of Hank and Dean's mother.
  • Dean knows all about Dermot and his mother. Rusty told him in a drunken rant.
• What the Hell Are You?: Pretty much said word for word by the mook that Brock corners when Brock lets him shoot him in the chest only for Brock to get up (Brock saw that he was aiming at his chest where there is a metal plate so he knew the bullet would just bounce off) and tell him how he's going to shove a katana up somewhere....sensitive. Cue the guy taking a cyanide pill to avoid that horrible fate.

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