Set two months after "Arrears in Science", the Monarch struggles to find funding for his henchmen army. Meanwhile Dean moves into his college and Rusty ends up in the hospital.
Tropes:
- Actor Allusion: Dean's college roommate, Jared (Brown Widow) has a Canadian flag hanging above his bed. Jared is voiced by Nathan Fillion, who is proudly Canadian.
- Armour-Piercing Question: Dean directly asks the Monarch 'why' he hates his dad so muchnote , and if he even remembers the reason. The Monarch very pointedly avoids the question.
- Badass Pacifist: Dean actually saves the day and the Monarch’s life from Victor von Helping in this episode. He first protects the Monarch to prevent his professor from falling to his level. He then calls out the Monarch for harassing his family and even asks him the reason for his grudge before concluding the Monarch doesn’t even remember. Afterwards, he bribes the Monarch with 1 million dollars to leave.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Victor Von Helping is a pacifist... to a point. Once he's pushed too far by the Monarch threatening Dean and Sirena, he reveals his true form and the Monarch has to be saved by Dean.
- Book Ends: The episode begins with the Monarch daydreaming about stealing a crate-load of Handy Dandy pomade, and then he gets a container of it for free in The Stinger from Dr. Z as a reward for becoming a Level 6 villain again.
- Breather Episode: After the tense trilogy of Wham Episodes, this episode comes up as way more lighthearted.
- Bullying a Dragon: Despite being provided with his file, the Monarch completely underestimates Victor Von Helping, who proves to be a lot more powerful than he can handle.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The Brown Widow subjects the Monarch to one of these when the latter attempts to rob a bank. Later, the Monarch nearly receives a lethal one from Victor von Helping after threatening Sirena if not for Dean’s intervention.
- Daydream Surprise: The episode opens with a scene of the Monarch and his army with souped-up outfits and technology looting a Venture-owned cargo ship covertly smuggling Handy Dandy, the styling cream Monarch uses. Turns out this was a daydream he entered when Dr. Z asked him why his facial hair wasn't gelled during a surprise inspection.
- A Day in the Limelight: A rare episode where Dean is the main focus of the episode.
- Destination Defenestration: Rusty demonstrates his "new" invention (really just the belt thruster JJ used to float around) by jumping through a skyscraper window. Unlike most examples, he immediately starts bleeding from all of the glass cuts and has to be hospitalized.
- Expy: Victor Von Hellfire is clearly inspired by Victor Von Doom, though more closely the versions transformed into living metal, not wearing a suit of armor.
- Friendly Enemy:
- One-sided with the Monarch to Dean. The Monarch affectionately says hello to Dean while arching his new college professor. Dean, on the other hand, is utterly dismayed to be unable to escape his prior life.
- Stars and Garters visits Think Tank at the hospital, even singing to him in his comatose state in the hopes of aiding his recovery (of course, in their civilian identities they are colleagues at the university and might not even consider themselves enemies).
- Game Face: Victor von Helping looks like a handsome university professor, but after his students are threatened, his face melts to reveal a robotic and threatening visage underneath as Victor von Hellfire, son of legendary Guild member Vigo von Hellfire.
- Groin Attack: The Monarch tries to do one on Victor von Helping but fails horribly.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Dean is absolutely done with Super Science now but both Rusty forcing him into science classes and the Monarch storming in during a lecture shows that it's not happening any time soon.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Rusty may be a bit cruel to Hank and not let him use any of their massive fortune, but he makes a point that Hank has to act more mature now.
- Not Quite Dead: Think Tank is still just barely alive in the hospital.
- Papa Wolf: Victor von Helping is a sweet man who wants to help Dean find his place in the world, and he enjoys teaching botany to him and Sirena. However, he becomes enraged when the Monarch threatens Sirena, and nearly burns him to a crisp until Dean defuses the situation.
- Pet the Dog: Dr. Z, after making a mockery of the Monarch in the Cold Opening, is the one to finally give the "Handy Dandy" facial cream for the Monarch's eyebrows in The Stinger.
- Poor Communication Kills: Hank never notified anyone that he was renting his room out, which lead to Brock and Hatred believing the tenants were intruders.
- Rank Up: The Monarch's threat level ascends from Level 4 to Level 5 after a surprise inspection by Dr. Z at the beginning of the episode. By the end of the episode, the Monarch earns a Villain of the Month Award and reclaims his original Level 6 threat level.
- Riches to Rags: The Monarch spent the remainder of trust fund on renovating the house in Newark and has been left with little aside from his wife, Gary, and a handful of migrant workers posing as henchmen at the start of the episode.
- Seen It All: Nobody is surprised by the Monarch barging into the class. Dean, Sirena, and Victor (the first being the son of Rusty Venture and the latter two having notorious supervillains for fathers) are at most, annoyed by his entrance and want him out.
- Ship Tease: Despite Sirena being Hank's girlfriend, she gets teased with Dean in this episode, as they turn out to be taking the same class, bond over their frustrations with their controlling fathers, and at the end of the episode, she gives Dean an affectionate kiss on the cheek (which causes him to blush and get an erection, much to his dismay).
- Shout-Out: Two to Dune (1984). Gary compares the Monarch's unkempt eyebrows to Piter de Vries. A moment later he describes Dr. Von Helping as looking like Paul Atreides.
- Soft Glass: Played straight and then subverted. Rusty manages to break through glass by jumping through it and seems fine afterwards...only for his face to spontaneously sport numerous glass cuts and for a shard of glass to be imbedded into his leg.
- The Unfavorite: Discussed and deconstructed when Hank visits his unconscious father in the hospital, where we see just how much his status as this affects him. Hank notes that he knows Dean is Dr. Venture's favorite, but wishes Rusty weren't so obvious about it. He also laments that it's hard to keep up a positive attitude when Rusty is constantly negative towards and critical of him, and expresses frustration that Dean is allowed to do and have practically anything he wants despite doing his best to distance himself from the family, while Hank feels he's being punished for loyally sticking around.
- Vertigo Effect: "That account is... overdrawn!"
- Walk-In Chime-In:Professor Von Helping: Ah, well. Looks like it's just the three of us, then.
The Monarch: [smashes through the glass window] Not anymore! The Monarch is auditing this class!
