Line #17 Recap/TheVentureBrosS3E3TheInvisibleHandOfFate


1	Episode - Season 3, Episode 3 (Production Code: 3-27)
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3	First Aired - June 15, 2008
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5	While reaching for a new roll of toilet paper (and berating Pete White for not replacing it in the first place,) Billy Quizboy slips and falls in the bathroom, hitting his head. A flood of long-forgotten memories returns to Billy who begins explaining them to White. When Billy remembers White being there in his past, he starts shouting accusations at White. White uses the gaming console he was playing to knock Billy unconscious and then calls someone with the code name "Goldilocks," revealing that Billy ("Little Nemo") has recovered his memories.
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7	In a {{Flashback}}, Billy is the reigning champion on the game show "Quizboys," with Pete White (in a wig and makeup to hide his albinism) as the host. During the final round, Billy writes down the wrong answer to a question. However, when it is displayed on his screen, it is the correct answer. Billy wins, but one of the other contestants accuses him of cheating. After the show, Billy is in White's dressing room where White reveals that he is to blame for the cheating. White reveals his albinism to Billy, saying that "we freaks have to stick together," and promises to set things right as White is a friend of Billy's idol, Rusty Venture.
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9	Meanwhile, the O.S.I. wages a war on the criminal organization SPHINX. Aboard the O.S.I. helicarrier headquarters, a team of O.S.I. agents (who look a lot like the Music/VillagePeople,) comes aboard to poke fun at Colonel Hunter Gathers and Brock Samson for not participating in the battle, preferring to chase around a shadowy organization known as "The Guild of Calamitous Intent." Col. Gathers tells them not-so-politely to fuck off, and reveals that they're close a breakthrough in their investigation.
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11	Billy and White make their way across the country on White's scooter, earning money by participating in underground quiz show competitions. (Billy's winnings were frozen by the FCC after he was accused of cheating.) They finally arrive at the Venture compound just in time to see a crazed Myra Brandish being hauled away by O.S.I. agents. Rusty gives a statement to the O.S.I. agents while H.E.L.P.eR is seen in the background holding a baby Hank and Dean.
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13	Brock and Hunter Gathers are now driving across the country in civilian garb to their next mission, investigating a suspected Guild operative at State University.
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15	After being told that Rusty is "all staffed up," Billy and White continue their trip. White signs Billy up for what he believes is another quiz competition, but it actually turns out to be a dog fight. Billy loses an eye and his hand, and is disqualified when White jumps in. White reveals that he bet all their money on Billy, so now they're broke. Billy demands that White drop him off and never bother him again.
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17	Billy, injured and alone in the desert, is approached by Hunter and Brock. They replace his hand and eye with robotic versions in a plan to use him to infiltrate the Guild. They reveal that a Professor Fantomos at State University is recruiting students into the Guild. Billy is enrolled in Fantomos' class, discovering that his classmates also suffer from major deformities, including Fantomos' assistant. However, the classwork overwhelms Billy.
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19	Billy finds that his roommate Stevie, who is Fantomos' lab assistant, has committed suicide. Billy is too busy talking to the police about the suicide to write his term paper, so he seeks out Fantomos for an extension. When Billy arrives at Fantomos' office, another student (a young Dr. Girlfriend,) is being denied an extension, but her demeanor and rapid gracious departure implies this was probably a sudden switch to cover for a more intimate topic of conversation. Before Billy can explain the situation, Fantomos surprises Billy by offering him the position of lab assistant based on the excellent paper Billy submitted. Billy tries to explain that he never wrote the paper but Fantomos sweet talks him into accepting the position, revealing that Fantomos himself is a "freak" like Billy, having malformed limbs from birth.
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21	Brock and Hunter, when meeting with Billy, reveal that the O.S.I. had Creator/StephenHawking write the paper for him. They also reveal that Stevie was their other man on the inside, and they believe that Fantomos killed him because he was getting too close. They tell Billy that his new eye and arm are actually recording devices, and that he is providing them with valuable intel. Tired of being used, Billy punches Brock in the balls and flees to Fantomos' lab where Fantomos is preparing an experiment to restore his limbs.
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23	Fantomos has Billy run the machine, but it soon malfunctions. In a panic while trying to fix it, Billy reveals that he didn't write the paper and isn't qualified to help Fantomos. The machine sucks out Billy's eye, causing an explosion that seemingly kills Fantomos. Fantomos survives, but his limbs have now turned invisible and are capable of killing with just a touch, transforming him into the villain Phantom Limb.
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25	For their failure, Brock is being chewed out by an O.S.I. superior, who is really Sgt. Hatred acting as a Guild spy within the O.S.I. He reveals that Col. Gathers has been transferred to Guam and that Samson is being reassigned to bodyguard Dr. Venture. Billy's memory is wiped by the O.S.I. and Brock delivers him to Pete White, who has taken up residence in a trailer not far from the Venture compound.
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27	The {{Stinger}} shows Billy waking up in the present time at the Venture compound. An attempted memory wipe has failed, leading Billy to attack Brock. White hits him over the head again with the gaming console to knock him out.
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29	!!Tropes:
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31	* AcronymConfusion: Fantomas reveals he's finally able to complete his experiment thanks to funding from the Guild. Billy assumes he means the Guild of Calamitous Intent, but Fantomas claims he means the "Guild... of Collegiate Investors."
32	* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: Phantom Limb calls Billy his "prodigiously perspicacious protégé."
33	* BreakingInOldHabits: Gathers seems to have the idea of robot-hand masturbation on his mind, considering he refers to Billy's new hand as a "pud-puller", although otherwise averted. And that might be how Gathers would refer to any hand if he felt like it. He's really got a way with words.
34	* ContinuityNod: Several, as is par for the course with Venture Bros. flashbacks:
35	** [[WesternAnimation/JonnyQuest Race]] [[Recap/TheVentureBrosS1E7IceStationImpossible Bannon]] is shown aboard the O.S.I. headquarters torturing a SPHINX agent, [[Series/TheSixMillionDollarMan Steve]] [[Recap/TheVentureBrosS1E3HomeInsecurity Summers]] is seen aboard the helicarrier as well.
36	** [[Recap/TheVentureBrosS2E10IKnowWhyTheCagedBirdKills Myra Brandish]] is shown having her nervous breakdown and being taken into custody by the OSI.
37	** Phantom Limb identifies Billy's arm as being based on one of [[Recap/TheVentureBrosS1E11PastTense Mike Sorayama's]] designs.
38	** Continuing from her backstory in ''[[Recap/TheVentureBrosS3E1Shadowman9InTheCradleOfDestiny Shadowman 9: In the Cradle of Destiny]]'', a young Dr. Girlfriend makes a brief cameo as one of Phantom Limb's students requesting more time on a paper. (Incidentally, this is the first time we learn that her real name is Sheila.)
39	* EarlyBirdCameo: Shoreleave, who becomes a major character in season 4, has his first appearance here trading barbs with Col. Gathers at the O.S.I. headquarters.
40	* EmbarrassingNickname: Gathers reveals that Stevie was their guy on the inside: Codename "Pussyface"!
41	-->'''Billy:''' [[DeadpanSnarker Is that why he killed himself?]]
42	* {{Expy}}: A very obvious one with O.S.I. as ''Franchise/GIJoe'' and SPHINX as COBRA. There is even a satirical version of the ''[[WesternAnimation/GIJoeARealAmericanHero G.I. Joe]]'' theme song and the "Yo Joe!" battlecry is replaced with "YO!S.I.!" Although they're also a parody of S.H.I.E.L.D.
43	* FlashbackEpisode: The bulk of the episode shows the origins of Billy and Phantom Limb, sandwiched between current-day bookends of Billy regaining his memory and Pete taking him to have his memory wiped again.
44	* FreakLabAccident: How Phantom Limb got his invisible limbs and DeathTouch, with the help of Billy who didn't actually write the paper on the subject that Limb thinks he did.
45	* FreezeFrameBonus: Below Fantomas' name on the Science Department door, the facilities worker is just beginning to scrape away Richard Impossible.
46	* FunctionalAddict: White has spent most of his savings on cocaine, but for a brief time he's more successful than he'll ever be again! A deleted scene implies he gets high before doing the ''Quizboys'' show, so it's very much part of his routine. On the one hand, "functional" might be debatable considering the terrible decisions he makes, but, on the other hand, responsible decision-making is never one of his strengths even when he's apparently sober.
47	* GenreDeconstruction: The sequence with the OSI fighting SPHINX is this to their roots as a ''Franchise/GIJoe'' pastiche. What happens when professional soldiers with all the attitude and bloodlust of the American military go up against ineffectual Saturday morning cartoon villains, freed of the restrictions of children's broadcasting? Well, five or six war crimes later, the cartoon villains get completely slaughtered.
48	* InadequateInheritor: It's revealed that this is Phantom Limb's motivation: he came from a long line of master thieves and adventurers, but he was also born with a withered body that made it impossible for him to assume the lifestyle.
49	* InsultBackfire: The exchange between Gathers and Shoreleave's O.S.I. crew:
50	-->'''Shore Leave:''' [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayland_Flowers Wayland Flowers]] called, he wants his Madame back. Boom!\
51	'''Col. Hunter Gathers:''' Oh yeah? Well, the Music/VillagePeople called, and ''THEY WANT YOU TO FUCKING KILL YOURSELF, YOU PRANCING BASTARD!''
52	* MeaningfulEcho: White's "Us freaks have to stick together," and "The invisible hand of fate has pushed us to this point, Billy," are echoed by Professor Fantomos (note that they both do some pretty terrible things in the episode, ''and'', as Billy points out when White tries it, the "freak" solidarity doesn't work too well when they're both a lot better at passing as normal than he is):
53	--> ''The invisible hand of fate has brought us together, Quizboy. We freaks -- if you’ll pardon the crude vernacular -- must work in tandem.''
54	* NeverSuicide: It's implied Fantomos knew Stevie was TheMole for the OSI, killed him and made it look like a suicide.
55	* NoodleImplements: The O.S.I. helicarrier has "The Nozzle", an odd device with what appears to be a scanner on a gyroscopic, telescoping arm. It really seems like it is going to perform an OrificeInvasion on Billy, but simply stops and vanishes after "calibrating". No one, not even Hunter, has any idea what it does.
56	-->'''Master Billy Quizboy:''' What the Hell was that thing?\
57	'''Col. Hunter Gathers:''' I have no idea.
58	* OverlyLongGag: The "Nozzle" sequence is quite long and ultimately doesn't contribute anything to the plot.
59	* RayOfHopeEnding: Fantomos plans to become a supervillain, Sgt. Hatred successfully wards off any suspicion the OSI has over the guild for the time being, Brock and Gathers fail their mission and get reassigned to different missions. Billy's life and reputation is destroyed, and he is left amnesiac under the care of Pete White... who is overjoyed to reunite with his friend.
60	* ReassignedToAntarctica: For their parts in botching their mission (and to keep them off the Guild's back,) Gathers is reassigned to Guam while Brock is made the bodyguard for Dr. Venture.
61	* RegainedMemoriesSequence: In the ColdOpen, Billy recovers several lost memories after slipping in his bathroom and falling, revealing events that transpired in which Billy took part but also others that were happening or were a result of those events.
62	* RidiculousCounterRequest: In a conversation between Billy Quizboy and Col. Hunter Gathers:
63	-->'''Col. Gathers:''' Congratulations lad, you're a fully matriculated student at State University.\
64	'''Billy:''' I kinda wanted to go to MIT.\
65	'''Col. Gathers:''' And I wanted to be born with ''big, beautiful tits!''
66	* ShoutOut:
67	** When using code names at the start of the episode to report that Billy has regained his memories, White calls himself [[WesternAnimation/CasperTheFriendlyGhost "Casper"]], Billy "ComicStrip/LittleNemo", and Brock Literature/{{Goldilocks}}.
68	** Shoreleave and his team of O.S.I. soldiers are dressed like the Music/VillagePeople.
69	** Gathers at one point calls Billy "Theatre/{{Woyzeck}}".
70	** Billy hitting his head in the bathroom to recall his wiped memories is similar to how [[Film/BackToTheFuture1 Doc Brown]] got his inspiration to build the flux capacitor.
71	** "Quizboys" is pretty clearly based on ''Series/{{Jeopardy}},'' complete with answers in the form of a question and a final round where the contestants write down their answers. And a cheating scandal like ''Film/QuizShow''
72	* SoundtrackDissonance: The OSI fighting SPHINX is overlaid by an upbeat theme about fighting evil, even while it depicts OSI troopers gunning down SPHINX operatives in bloody detail.
73	* StartOfDarkness: Fantomos/Phantom Limb's is shown in this episode.
74	* TitleDrop: White says it to Billy before setting off to get jobs from Rusty. It also doubles as a clever pun, since this episode also reveals how Phantom Limb got his ''invisible hands'' (and other limbs.)
75	* UrbanLegends: Billy was granted an automatic 4.0 GPA for a semester of college because his roommate committed suicide.
76	* WholeEpisodeFlashback: Most of the episode is a {{Flashback}} seen through the view of Billy Quizboy, revealing how he got his robotic hand and lost his eye. (It also indirectly reveals how Phantom Limb came to be.)
77	* XCalledTheyWantTheirYBack: Shore Leave says this to Col. Gathers. Gathers' comeback is unconventional:

Context Recap / TheVentureBrosS3E3TheInvisibleHandOfFate