Recap / The Venture Bros S 2 E 13 Showdown At Cremation Creek Part 2

Episode - Season 2, Episode 13 (Production Code: 2-26)

First Aired - October 15. 2006

The episode begins with a series of flashing clips from part 1, ending with Phantom Limb's ultimatum.

Chaos ensues as the wedding guests flee the Cocoon. The Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend refuse to comply, so Limb orders two of his inside operatives to attack. It turns out that Klaus Nomi and Iggy Pop were double agents working for Limb and begin to attack. David Bowie attempts to stop them but is seemingly destroyed by one of Iggy's attacks. Only a pack of cigarettes falls from where Bowie was after the attack. Dr. Girlfriend faints while The Monarch asks for Brock's help to stop them. They are quickly subdued, and Dr. Girlfriend is kidnapped. Iggy takes the cigarettes that fell from Bowie.

Dean, locked in the engine room of the Cocoon, attempts to call for help on his communicator watch but no one responds. After searching the engine room, he finds a soda can tab and puts it on his finger. A mysterious voice tells him that he found "the ring of power" and Giant Boy Detective, a character from the books Dean reads, appears (looking and sounding a lot like Billy Quizboy.) He tells Dean that he is going to "save the kingdom" and rescue "Princess Tinklepants," who looks and sounds like Triana Orpheus. Giant Boy Detective leads the way with his magic flashlight.

At the compound, the Order of the Triad prepares the X-1 to rescue the Venture family. Orpheus and the Alchemist debate putting Nien Nunb, who they summoned from a trading card, out of his misery. However, the Star Wars character proves to be capable of flying the X-1.

Brock starts giving orders, telling The Monarch to fly the Cocoon itself away from Phantom Limb's armada while he assembles a strike force to rescue Dr. Girlfriend. The Monarch is irritated and insists he should be giving the orders, but then orders what Brock ordered anyway.

Phantom Limb tells Dr. Girlfriend to change out of her wedding dress (which he calls a "white lie,") and into her Queen Etheria costume. She refuses and tells him that the Sovereign will end his career for this. Limb, Iggy, and Klaus all laugh at her, while Limb states that the Sovereign won't mind because he (Limb) IS the Sovereign. He orders the armada to open fire on the Cocoon, but the Cocoon takes off and evades.

21 and 24 have assembled the henchmen and put Brock in charge of leading them. Brock gives a rousing speech about putting aside their difference and focusing on recusing Dr. Girlfriend. When they tell Brock they have no way to fly to fight the armada, one of the henchmen realizes that their wings are actually functional flying devices. Hank begs Brock to go along but Brock refuses.

In Dean's adventure, the Princess calls Dean the "savior of our world" as Deanis taken to meet The Great White Oracle, who resembles Pete White. The Oracle doesn't believe that Dean is really the chosen one, and a giant rat-man, who looks like Dr. Venture, agrees.

Brock is sending the henchmen out to fight in waves when he is approached by Hank, wearing goggles and his fake beard, pretending to be an exchange henchman from Russia. Brock smokes a cigarette as he talks with the "exchange henchman," and then sends him off into battle. Hank plummets towards the ground until Brock saves him, discovering that it is really Hank. Brock shouts orders to the formations of henchman as the battle rages in the sky.

Dr. Girlfriend still can't believe that Phantom Limb is the Sovereign, and points out that she has seen Limb get chewed out by the Sovereign over the holographic TV. She then realizes that Bowie was the real Sovereign, and that Limb's plan was to kill him and usurp his position. Meanwhile, Iggy is forced to go outside the command ship to smoke a cigarette. As he goes to grab one out of the pack, Bowie's face appears on it and knocks Iggy off the ship.

Dean launches a strike on a child labor camp run by the Insect King, a mutant insect with the same voice as The Monarch. Dean slays the Insect King and destroys his machine, which is revealed to actually be the engine of the Cocoon (and that all of this is just a stress-induced fantasy of Dean's.) With the Cocoon going down, The Monarch and Dr. Venture flee to Monarch's escape cocoon.

Bowie, shapeshifted into Iggy, sneaks back onto Phantom Limb's ship. He quickly dispatches Klaus and battles Phantom Limb. He is apparently immune to Limb's "death touch," with the touch only causing him to shapeshift erratically instead of killing him.

Meanwhile, Brock, Hank, 21, and 24 have landed on top of Limb's ship. Brock futilely tries to cut through the roof of the ship with his knife while berating 21 for not bringing the bolt cutters. 21 replies that he had to "drop ballast" as he couldn't keep altitude due to his weight. (He also kicked off his shoes and dropped the mints out of his pocket.)

The Monarch and Venture escape in The Monarch's escape cocoon while Dean is still in his imaginary world. He makes out with the princess and a Luckdragon lands to tell Dean that he loves him. Cut to reality, and the Luckdragon is revealed to be the X-1, which has been piloted straight into the Cocoon. Nien Nunb was killed in the crash, while Orpheus and the Alchemist rescue the still-fantasizing Dean.

The Monarch's escape cocoon crashes into Phantom Limb's ship, sending everyone crashing into the river below. The henchmen's wings also double as flotation devices while Hank excitedly screams "Again! Again!" The Monarch grabs who he thinks is Dr. Girlfriend, but actually turns out to be a shapeshifted David Bowie. He finds the real Dr. Girlfriend pinned under one of Phantom Limb's severed invisible legs. The Monarch declares that Limb is now his new arch enemy, but Bowie tells him not to worry about it, as he will sic his Diamond Dogs on Limb. Bowie transforms into an eagle and flies away while 21 and 24 discuss his music.

Brock finds Dr. Venture, who swallowed a gold filling in the crash. Orpheus arrives, carrying Dean, as Venture sarcastically thanks Brock for keeping track of Dean. The Alchemist finds another unspecified piece of Phantom Limb and decides to keep it. (It's implied to be his penis.)

The Stinger shows The Monarch and his new wife aboard the escape cocoon, enjoying some honeymoon sex. Dr. Girlfriend reveals that she has something tell The Monarch that "might change things." She takes a deep breath and announces "Monarch, I'm..." The scene moves to outside the cocoon as the Monarch screams "WHAT!!!???"

Tropes:

• Awesome, but Impractical: Subverted by the wings on the Monarch henchmen uniforms, which 21 believes are just for show. It turns out they are actually functional and allow the henchmen to assault Phantom Limb's armada.
• But You Were There, and You, and You: Dean's hallucination features warped versions of Billy, White, Triana, Rusty, and the Monarch.
• The Chosen Zero: Dean's mental breakdown has him imagine himself as the chosen one of a fantasy world. The ruler of the fantasy land is not impressed and assumes that it's some kind of a joke.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Subverted with the eponymous battle. By all rights, Phantom Limb with a surprise attack and jets full of Guild Strangers should have stomped all over The Monarch and his piddly henchman army. The henchman wings actually being functional, having Brock on-hand to lead them, and the Sovereign not actually being dead combine to defeat Limb.
• Dutch Angle: Giant Boy Detective◊ in Dean's hallucination first appears this way, to add to the hallucinatory weirdness.
• Enemy Mine: The Monarch teams up with Brock and the Ventures out of necessity. Brock later leads the Monarch henchmen in their attack.
• Energy Ball: Iggy Pop's superpower. They can be caught safely, but explode when he shouts "POP!"
• Hallucinations: Dean has a complete (peaceful) breakdown where he imagines that a trek through the inside of the cocoon's engine room is a magical adventure with his childhood hero, Giant Boy Detective, and he is The Chosen One. It's basically an extra-Freudian Never Ending Story.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Klaus is killed by Bowie holding his mouth shut while attempting to use his Super-Scream, causing him to blow up like a balloon and pop.
• Mixed Metaphor: Phantom Limb (his own Punny Name an example being both a medical condition affecting amputees and him being a man with invisible limbs) says one:
  Phantom Limb: Let the rats desert the ship. It's the big-fish-rats we're after.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: David Bowie is able to No-Sell Phantom Limb's Touch of Death. Rather than killing him, it just forces him to cycle through his shapeshifted forms.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Hank again fools someone (Brock) with a fake mustache, goggles, and an awful Russian accent.
• Previously on…: Instead of the series usual Cold Open, this episode begins with a quick recap of the events of part one, ending with Phantom Limb's ultimatum.
• Rousing Speech: Brock gives a pretty good one to the Monarch's henchmen before deploying:
  Brock: '''You! Are! Murderflies!
• Shout-Out:
  • MANY to Star Wars:
    • Brock says "Great shot kid, that was one in a million!" to Hank after he shoots down a Guild Wasp, quoting Han Solo from A New Hope.
    • While watching Bowie and Phantom Limb fight, Hank says "it's like watching Dracula and Yoda fight in there!"
    • The sound of the Cocoon's engine failing is the same sound as the hyper-drive failing on the Millenium Falcon in The Empire Strikes Back.
    • The character the Order of the Triad summons from a trading card is Nien Nunb, a pilot from Return of the Jedi.
    • The "Insect King" in Dean's fantasy looks like a cross between General Grievous and Zorak.
  • Dean's fantasy adventure is based heavily on The Neverending Story.
  • When David Bowie transforms from the pack of cigarettes, he shouts "Make way for the Homo Superior!" A line from his song "Oh! You Pretty Things". (The same song also gives us the name for the Guild Strangers.)
  • Dr. Girlfriend calls Iggy and Klaus Phantom Limb's "Stooges." Klaus says that he was not in The Stooges. (Iggy Pop was.)
  • When Bowie is supposedly killed, Klaus says "Ding, dong, the queen bitch is dead." This references Klaus' song "Ding, Dong", Bowie's song "Queen Bitch", and the song "Ding, Dong, the Witch is Dead!" from The Wizard of Oz.
  • Iggy references two of his songs as well. Prior to his fight scene, he says "now you're gonna be my dog," a reference to The Stooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog". He tells Bowie that for thirty years, he has been playing the idiot (a reference to Iggy's solo album The Idiot). He has also received extensive help and support from Bowie throughout his real life career. He later quotes lines from his songs "Search and Destroy" and "Raw Power".
  • Hank calls David Bowie "the guy from Labyrinth."
  • The Monarch calls Klaus "Taco" and Iggy "Spicoli," a reference to the Sean Penn character in Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
  • When Dean swings into the Insect King's lair, he shouts "Yo Joe!"
• The Starscream: Phantom Limb tries to usurp Guild leadership from Sovereign/Bowie in one fell swoop.
• Super-Scream: Klaus Nomi's superpower. They're so loud they basically immobilize whoever they are directed at.
• Try Not to Die: Brock says it word-for-word during after his Rousing Speech to the Monarch henchmen before deploying to fight Limb's forces.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: David Bowie's primary superpower.
• Wasn't That Fun?: After fighting off Guild Wasps, having the X-1 crash into The Cocoon, and the whole lot of them winding up crashed in the Grand Canyon, Brock plucks Hank out of the water. The first thing Hank says?
  Hank: :Again! Again!"
• Zerg Rush: How the Monarch henchmen fight the Guild Wasps. The ones they are seen taking down are thanks to either sheer luck, suicide attacks, or by piling onto it so the pilot can't see and crashes.

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