Episode - Season 5, Special 03 (Production Code: S-3)
First Aired - October 28, 2012
A series of Flashbacks show the previous three Halloweens at the Venture compound. Hank and Dean attempt to scare their father and Brock first as vampires, then as mummies, and then finally by pretending to be dead after a bookcase falls onto them. Dr. Venture isn't the least bit scared at any of the attempts (and the boys are especially concerned by his failure to be scared at their apparent death. He simply leaves to fire up more clones.)
In the present, Hank calls Venture to the computer where he says his father's test results are in and that he has a "malignant melanoma." Dean then shouts from the bathroom that it stings when he pees and that he "shouldn't have slept with her." Venture starts to become enraged as Sgt. Hatred enters the room claiming that there are leaking pipes in the kitchen. As Venture starts to break down, Hatred and the boys reveal that they were joking and finally managed to scare him.
After a Halloween themed opening credits, Dr. Venture is sitting in his kitchen with Dr. Orpheus who is requesting permission to hold a "little get together with the magical community" known as the Brimstone Assembly. Dermott enters in his Halloween costume (the Crow) while Venture berates him for just letting himself in. He and the Venture boys then plan their nights activities.
In Orpheus' apartment, he and the other members of the Triad of preparing for the party. Red Mantle and Dragoon arrive early, with Dragoon in blackface as part of his costume. He and Jefferson Twilight (who has white paint on his face from painting a magical symbol on the floor) discuss this.
Dermott and the Venture boys are planning acts of Halloween vandalism. Hank then suggests spending a night in a "real haunted house," which Dean knows means "Old Man Potter's" place. Their father told them never to go there, but after some goading from Hank and Dermott, Dean agrees to go along.
Sgt. Hatred is preparing some candy to hand out to children for Halloween. Venture berates him for purchasing king-sized candy bars, to which Hatred argues that if kids can get past the compound's electric fence and laser defense system, they deserve the king sized bars. They agree to wager on if any kids can actually make it to the front door when the doorbell rings. Hatred, thinking he won the wager, opens the door to find Pete and Billy there in costume. They then get in on the bet as well as Doc and Hatred agree to triple it.
Meanwhile, the guests are Orpheus' party are taking turns performing acts of magic. Orpheus and Jefferson lift a guest off the floor with "magic," which Dragoon thinks is the work of the devil while Red Mantle is unimpressed.
At the "haunted house," Hank and Dermott convince Dean to go inside alone. Inside, Dean finds the walls lined with the taxidermied animal heads covered in cobwebs. As he says "screw this," and turns to leave, he's attacked by a small, hairy humanoid creature. Things go black for a second, then the scene is shifted to a first-person view of Dean on an operating table. An old scientist in a surgical mask is studying Dean's body while the small creature attempts to sniff Dean's crotch. The scientist then chases the creature off.
Dragoon is calling the other party goers "blasphemers" as it becomes Red Mantle's turn to perform magic. Red Mantle claims that he is going to actually pull a rabbit from a hat, totally for real, while the others in attendance mock him.
Venture, Hatred, Pete, and Billy are in the compound's security control room watching as trick-or-treaters attempt to get to the door through the compound's laser security grid. Billy wins $10 from each of the others as one of the kids is hit by a laser turret.
Outside the "haunted house," Hank and Dermott discuss going to get Dean. Inside, Dean wakes up and the scientist explains that he was out for hours on just one hit of chloroform. The scientist introduces himself as Ben, and explains that he has been watching Hank and Dean grow up ever since they were little. He's rather surprised that Rusty never told them about him. Dean explains that their father told them to stay away from the "Potter House," and Ben realizes that he is talking about "Potter's fields," the fields outside the house which are a mass grave for everyone who has ever died at the compound. (And between Jonas Venture Sr. and Rusty, there have been "hundreds" of deaths.) The small creature comes back to sniff Dean's balls so Ben shoos it away. He says that the creature is named "Rico" and is apparently an early evolutionary form of human. As Dean asks Ben why he cares about them, Ben says that he cares because he helped bring them into this world.
At the party, the Outrider is without skin and hanging from the ceiling in some sort of alternate dimension while attempting to solve a Rubix Cube. A strange being whose faces splats out "pleasure toast" stands in the center offering ultimate pleasure. Outrider finally solves the cube and the setting returns to normal, with most of the guest rather horrified. Orpheus comments that he hopes that type of magic doesn't go on in their home, as his daughter now lives with the Outrider. The Alchemist then steps in to take his turn while Orpheus goes outside to cool off. With Orpheus out of the way, the Alchemist tells the other guests it's time for some real fun: a spell to raise the dead.
Hank and Dermott are outside, laying in the field and making fart jokes. Suddenly, hands start reaching up from under the ground so they flee.
Back inside Ben's home, Dean is having a breakdown as Ben revealed that he and Hank are both clones, made with cloning technology that Ben and Jonas Sr. invented back in the day. Dean is freaking out, but Ben explains that he is the real Dean, and was originally conceived normally and has a mother. He explains to Dean that his father created the clones of his sons out of love, because he couldn't bear losing them, showing that Rusty really does care about them. To help calm him down, Ben offers Dean a beer. Suddenly, a bright light starts shining in through the window...
Outside, hundreds of zombie corpses (mostly Monarch henchmen and a few Hank/Dean clones,) rise out of the ground and begin marching towards Ben's house. Suddenly, the light in the sky takes the form of Santa Claus and blasts the zombies into ash.
At the compound, Venture, Hatred, Pete and Billy are watching as a group of kids attempts to get past security. Hatred is rooting for them as he has money on it that they'll make it to the door. Finally, a few of them do.
"Santa Claus" then appears inside Orpheus' apartment and reveals himself to be The Master. He puts Dragoon (a "normal") to sleep and explains that he took the form of Santa because there weren't a lot of other options. He explains that they've "lost the true meaning of Christmas" and that he had to put down an undead army. After trick-or-treaters visit Orpheus outside, he goes inside to get them treats. The Master explains the situation to him, but tells him to go easy on his friends. Orpheus gives a speech about how Halloween is the night "we all discover who we really are" as the scene shifts to Dean as he returns to the compound.
The Stinger shows Dean sitting on the roof of the compound as he is joined by Hank. Dean explains that he "learned" something in the Potter house, but doesn't tell Hank what it really was. Instead, he says that he learned that "beer tastes like pee pee."
Tropes:
- Because You Can Cope: Subverted, as Dean decides to withhold knowledge that he and Hank are clones from Hank.
- The Bet: Rusty and Hatred have one regarding how many trick-or-treaters can make it to the door through the compound's variety of defenses.
- Bland-Name Product: The bowl of candy bars Rusty and Hatred are handing out clearly resemble Three Musketeers, Baby Ruths, Snickers, and Nestle Cruches in terms of font and coloration, but have generic names like "Mellow Crunch", "New Betcha", and "Superchunk".
- Clone Angst: Dean learns that he and Hank are clones from Ben and does not take it well, going into a Heroic BSoD state only mildly helped by Ben offering him a beer. He chooses not to tell Hank to spare him from similar angst.
- Clothes Make the Superman: Red Mantle's magical powers come from his...Red Mantle.
- Failed Attempt at Scaring: The episode opens with a series of flashbacks showing Hank and Dean trying to scare their father and Brock on three different Halloweens. First as vampires, then as mummies, then by faking their deaths by pretending a bookcase crushed their heads. Dr. Venture isn't the least bit scared by any of these, and on the last attempt is more annoyed that he has to get their clones ready again, much to the confusion of the boys.
- Foul First Drink: Dean learns that he and Hank are clones from Ben, who also gives Dean his first beer to help cope with the revelation. Later, Dean tells Hank he learned something important, but he decides against telling Hank about the cloning and instead says that "beer taste like pee-pee".
- Go-Karting with Bowser: The Brimstone Assembly includes heroes and villains alike, ranging from the Order of the Triad and the Outrider to Guild Councilman Red Mantle (who has to bring Dragoon with him) and recurring Guild villain Kurse.
- Halloween Episode: Duh.
- Heroic BSoD: Dean has a minor one after he wakes up on Ben's exam table, who reveals that he is actually a clone. Ben helps to talk him through it though.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Dean takes up Ben’s offer of a beer after learning that he and Hank are clones.
- Muggles: Dragoon is one, and The Master is not happy that Red Mantle brought him to a magical gathering. (Not that he had much of a choice).
- Mundanger: After seeing a series of flashbacks where Hank and Dean fail to scare their father with Halloween pranks, they change it up in the current year by faking a cancer scare, Dean getting an STD, and a burst pipe in the kitchen, all of which upset Rusty far more than their previous attempts.
- Precision F-Strike: Hank offers a variant on one of his signature catchphrases when he and Dermott find themselves being surrounded by hundreds of zombies.Hank: Super fucking run away!
- Remember the New Guy?: Justified with Ben, as he has never been mentioned despite working with Jonas Sr. and Rusty to create the cloning technology. Rusty told his boys to stay away from Ben's house, likely because Ben has no issue with telling the boys that they're clones. (Also, his front yard is a mass grave.)
- Santa Claus: The Master takes the form of Santa, because he doesn't have a lot of options to choose from when it comes to Halloween mascots.
- Shout-Out:
- Dermott is dressed as The Crow (1994).
- Pete is dressed as David Bowie, another of the many shout outs to Bowie in the series.
- The Outrider's demonstration, with the puzzle box (a Rubik's Cube instead of the Lament Configuration, but same idea), the Flaying Alive, the demon with the "pleasure toast" promising unholy pleasures, is a big shout out to the Hellraiser franchise.
- When Red Mantle calls the event a "Magical Gathering", Dragoon mishears him and thinks they're going to play Magic: The Gathering.
- Strapped to an Operating Table: Dean in Ben's lab. Subverted when he is just given a medical check-up and then released unharmed.
- Synchronous Episodes: This episode takes place entirely within the first "commercial break" of What Color is Your Cleansuit?
- Wilhelm Scream: One of the zombies emits one as the Master's spell disintegrates the zombie horde to nothing.
