| "Victor. Echo. November." | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| The Venture Bros. episode | |||
 | |||
| Episode no. |
Season 2 Episode 6 | ||
| Written by | Doc Hammer | ||
| Production code | 215 | ||
| Original air date | August 13, 2006 | ||
| Episode Chronology | |||
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| List of The Venture Bros. episodes | |||
Victor. Echo. November. is the sixth episode of Season 2 and the overall nineteenth episode of The Venture Bros.
Synopsis[]
Dr. Girlfriend, the Monarch, Phantom Limb, Henchman 21, Henchman 24, and Jollyrancher82 end up at the same restaurant as Hank Venture, Dean Venture, Triana Orpheus, and Kim. Phantom Limb puts a hit out on the Ventures to impress Dr. Girlfriend and shame The Monarch.
Plot[]
Hank and Dean are getting ready for a date with Triana and Kim. Dean is shaving most of his skin off while Hank is dressing as The Bat. Dean gets angry and calls Rusty, who upon seeing Hank, calls Brock. Dean thinks he is home free and that he doesn't have to take Hank, but Brock tells him to change or walk to the date.
Meanwhile, Dr. Orpheus tells Triana about the birds and the bees, albeit in rather archaic terms. Triana tells him he doesn't have to worry because she's going on a date with The Venture Brothers!
At Location B, Phantom Limb is trying to sell a stolen Rembrandt to a Mafioso Art Enthusiast. Dr. Girlfriend complains that what Phantom Limb is doing is lame, and Phantom Limb says he doesn't have a trust fund like her insect ex-boyfriend, and that he won't go back to a life of ramen noodles and Spaghetti-O's and driving a Honda Accord with a ghost on the hood. He gets pissed and just to show her he's still evil, offs the mafioso but then worries about the corpse getting blood on his fine rug. Dr. Girlfriend reminds him that they have dinner plans with The Monarch and goes to change out of her Queen Etheria costume.
In the cocoon, 21 and 24 are beatboxing and The Monarch comes in and tells them he needs a ride, but the only car they have is 24's powder blue Stanza. At the Venture compound, Rusty is all hot and bothered because he's going to watch The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.
Triana and Kim are discussing the boys on their way to the restaurant; Triana says Dean is kinda cute because he dresses like Buddy Holly, but he might do it accidentally. Hank is more athletic and blond, but dresses like Fred from Scooby Doo.
The Monarch is being driven by 24, and 21 in the backseat tells The Monarch to pop in his mix tape "Chillin' With My Peeps and My Main Man The Monarch" The Monarch says he needs to stop and pick up his date who he met on "the Livejournal" and that he is going to use jealousy to his advantage.
Brock, in the Charger, is giving Dean a basic etiquette lesson. Hank asks if he can give him any pointers to score, to which Brock says do not use the term "score" or use the seafood joke.
In Phantom Limb's car, not much conversation goes on, as Dr. Girlfriend is giving Phantom Limb the silent treatment.
In the restaurant, Hank is telling Dean to tell some fake stories about him being an Evil Knievel type stunt man and to call him the Hankenator. The girls get there and Dean starts to freak out but Hank calms him down and scopes out his date while pretending to check out his communicator watch.
In another booth, The Monarch sits down with his date, Jollyrancher82, and tells the henchman to go sit elsewhere and pretend they don't know him. Phantom Limb and Dr. Girlfriend arrive, and The Monarch tells his date that Phantom Limb used to be a scrawny kid in college, but that he had his 12-year old room mate (Billy Quizboy) create a machine that accelerated his muscle growth, but backfired making the molecules in his extremities go faster than the speed of light and become invisible, with a side effect of messing up anyone he touches with his bare hands. At the bar, 24 asks 21 how Phantom Limb floats like that. 21 explains that Billy invented a time machine, but that it was broken and Billy's hand and Phantom's limbs all got stuck in the future. Then Kim sees Phantom Limb and asks why he's just a torso, and Hank explains that Phantom Limb used to be a magician and that while performing for the Queen of England, he accidentally made his limbs disappear and now they are on the moon along with all the rabbits and pigeons and the other crap magicians make disappear. Then he chopped off the hand of a kid and ate it, oh yeah, the same kid that operated on Dean's balls. Needless to say Dean is totally embarrassed at this point, only to have the "Hankenator" tell the girls that he needs to take Dean to the bathroom. Meanwhile, the Monarch is buying an insurance policy that lets him take down Venture and covers his henchmen (a #38, with Henchmen). The Monarch then just blows up and says Phantom Limb is the lamest villain ever, selling insurance and wearing granny glasses. The Monarch dares him to take down the Venture family so Phantom Limb calls Watch and Ward and puts a Blackout on the Ventures.
At the compound, the alarm goes off and the compound goes into lock down. Rusty is exasperated because he thinks he's close to seeing the goods on Dolly Parton. Brock walks in, naked with a severed head in his hand to "prey on their fear." The lights go out, both regular electricity and back up generator. Brock tells Rusty to go into the panic room and that he'll try to take care of the intruders, even though they might not make it this time. He gets on his communicator watch and instructs H.E.L.P.eR. to escort Rusty to the panic room. Brock walks up behind a Stranger and sticks his knife between his kidney and spleen, which isn't fatal, and asks the guy for the target, and he tells Brock. Brock pulls the knife out but the Stranger wants Brock to hold him, because he's pretty sure Brock hit the kidney, and then asks Brock to sing "Move This." Brock grudgingly complies. He calls H.E.L.P.eR. on the communicator watch but H.E.L.P.eR. is in several pieces on the lab floor next to Rusty's severed arm. He gets in the Charger and goes after the boys.
The Monarch is pretty pissed, back at the restaurant, because even though he's back in The Guild, Phantom Limb believes he killed the Venture family. Phantom Limb excuses himself to go to the Mens' room, and when he gets there, walks in on the boys, Hank giving Dean some much needed love advice. Dean notices that Hank has a wet spot on his pants and tells him about it. hank improvises and straddles the hand dryer in an effort to dry his pants.
In the meantime, Brock is driving to the restaurant and gets a call from Rusty on the V-Con. Rusty tells Brock to come back, because most of his blood is on the floor and he's using a Christmas tree stand as a tourniquet for his severed arm. Brock tells him he needs to go rescue the boys, and Rusty fires him. The Monarch is alone in his booth eating soggy steak fries but decides to go to the bathroom. Brock calls the boys and tells them to stay where they are, while Hank dries his pants with the hand dryer. 21 and 24 notice that the Monarch isn't in his booth and decide to go to the bathroom before going to look for him. Hanks pants catch on fire and Dean start whaling on his junk to put the fire out. All the stalls are full, one stall containing Phantom Limb, the next one occupied by The Monarch and the last one with both 21 and 24 in it. Phantom Limb calls the Blackout team off, intending to finish the boys off himself. Brock listens in through the dead Stranger's headpiece and steps on it.
In the girl's bathroom, Kim is told by Dr. Girlfriend that yes, she belongs there, she just has a deep voice. Then Kim asks her what lipstick color she's wearing, which she names Pink Poodle. She gives Kim a card and tells her to call her and takes off. Kim's excited because Dr. Girlfriend was hitting on her but Triana tells her to look at the card and when Kim reads it, she says she is "so going to do this."
In the mens' restroom, Brock jumps in, naked, through the window. He gets into 21 and 24's stall and they tell him to check the next stall. In that stall he meets The Monarch who tells him he had nothing to do with the current situation, and to check the next stall. In there, Phantom Limb explains the situation, but Brock starts to tell him the next time Phantom Limb tries any of that crap- but before he finishes, Phantom Limb says he gets the picture and that he won't do it again. They agree to shake hands and leave as enemies. The boys go back to their booth with Kim and Triana without incident. Kim says she is going to be a supervillain, and Hank says he is going to be Batman. They Team Venture! each other, and Kim says she thinks she found her first arch-enemies.
After the ending credits Billy tells Rusty not to lift anything heavy, as he calibrates a mechanical hand, or his arm will fall off. Rusty's arm is in a sling and Billy is recalibrating his own mechanical hand because it gets buggy when he does delicate work.
"How did you get that thing?" asks Rusty.
"Excellent question, I have no idea," says Billy.
Episode Cast[]
- James Urbaniak: Dr. Venture, Phantom Limb, Mafioso Art Enthusiast
- Patrick Warburton: Brock Samson
- Michael Sinterniklaas: Dean Venture
- Chris McCulloch: Hank Venture, The Monarch, Henchman 24, Watch, Guild Commando
- Doc Hammer: Dr. Girlfriend, Henchman 21, Master Billy Quizboy, Ward
- Steven Rattazzi: Dr. Orpheus
- Lisa Hammer: Triana Orpheus
- Nina Hellman: Kim, Jollyrancher82
- Soul-Bot: H.E.L.P.eR.
First Appearances[]
Connections to Other Episodes[]
- After the Venture brothers learn of the existence of their uncle, Jonas Venture Jr., in the episode Return to Spider-Skull Island, Hank says to Dean "Every Christmas, he’s probably gonna give us a Jōvan Musk gift pack." While preparing for his date with Triana, Dean uses Yohan Musk, a parody of Jōvan Musk.
Powerless in the Face of Death
- Hank puts on his best "outfit" for his date with Kim, which is the Batman Halloween costume we first saw him wear in a flashback in Powerless in the Face of Death.
- Phantom Limb's muscle growth accelerator technology was first seen in Hate Floats, where he used it to help Brock Samson heal from a gunshot.
- Kim first appeared in Assassinanny 911, visiting the Venture compound with Triana when Dean and Hank were in the swimming pool.
- In the post-credits scene Billy Quizboy is unable to remember how he acquired his robotic hand. In the Season 3 episode The Invisible Hand of Fate he finally remembers how he lost his hand (and eye), and why the O.S.I. gave him a robotic replacement.
- Phantom Limb's muscle growth accelerator technology is seen in detail in The Invisible Hand of Fate.
Cultural References[]
- Hank is once more seen in his Batman costume. Later episodes will establish that Hank's obsession with Batman and show him fashioning his own superhero identity, "The Bat", after the DC Comics character.
Bean (1997)
- Hank Venture attempts to dry his wet pants with a hand dryer in a nearly identical manner to Mr. Bean in the 1997 Rowan Atkinson feature film Bean.
Card Sharks (1978-1981, 1986-1989)
- Henchman 21 erroneously refers to Billy Quizboy as a "weird midget who won a bunch of money on Card Sharks". Card Sharks was a televised game show based on the card game Acey Deucey.
- Jollyrancher82 is surprised that "The Monarch" is her date's real name, as she merely thought he was into cosplay. The Monarch sets her straight: "I am into costumed business, not costumed play."
- Henchman 21 informs Henchman 24 that he has to defecate by telling him he needs to "take a Count Dooku." Count Dooku was a Jedi Master turned Sith apprentice played by Christopher Lee in the Star Wars films Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.
- While preparing for his date with Triana, Dean uses Yohan Musk, a parody of the low cost cologne Jōvan Musk.
- The Monarch says he met his date, Jollyrancher82, on "the LiveJournal". LiveJournal is a blog-based social media network that was popular from 1999 through about 2006 in the United States. In 2007 the network was sold to a Russian company and in successive years it has become an almost exclusively Russian blog service.
- Dr. Girlfriend tells Kim that her lipgloss is "Pink Poodle" from MAC Cosmetics. She also states that Guild of Calamitous Intent members get a discount from MAC.
- The Mafioso Art Enthusiast is not interested in the Rembrandt van Rijn painting Phantom Limb tries to sell him, instead stating his preference for the Mona Lisa.
- In the NATO Phonetic Alphabet the episode's title "Victor. Echo. November." spells "V. E. N.", presumably The Guild of Calamitous Intent's identification code for Dr. Venture.
- Henchman 24 offers to drive The Monarch in his powder blue Nissan Stanza, as the Monarch-Mobile is no longer available.
Real Genius (1985)
- The Monarch's distorted account of the origins of Phantom Limb and Billy Quizboy may draw slight inspiration from the 1985 film Real Genius. Billy, who was allegedly twelve at the time, stands in for Mitch Taylor, the second-youngest student ever admitted to Pacific Tech.
- Phantom Limb attempts to sell the Mafioso Art Enthusiast the 1633 painting Christ in the Storm on the Lake of Galilee by Rembrandt van Rijn. The painting is famous for being among a collection of thirteen valuable artworks stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston on March 18, 1990. The pieces were stolen at an estimated loss of $500 million, making the robbery the largest recorded private property theft in history. The crime was never solved and the paintings have never been recovered.
- The Monarch says when he first met Dr. Girlfriend she looked like Saffron, the Nigerian-born singer with red-streaked hair from the English alternative rock band Republica.
Star Trek: The Original Series (1966-1969)
- Dr. Venture telling Brock that he's fired is a reference to James Kirk "firing" Scotty on various episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series. The 1967 episode "The Apple" is the definitive episode for such "you're fired!" conversations between captain and engineer.
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
- Billy's recalibration of his mechanical hand is reminiscent of the scene at the end of The Empire Strikes Back, where the Rebellion's medical droid, 2-1B, is checking the nerve connections in Luke Skywalker's artificial hand.
- After Brock Samson fatally stabs a Guild Commando, the dying Commando asks Brock to sing him something by Belgian electronic music act Technotronic. Brock grudgingly obliges by singing part of Technotronic's 1992 hit song "Move This".
"Teh Sex"
- The Monarch says he met a girl on LiveJournal who described him as "foine" and "teh sex", both compliments using internet slang from the mid-'00s.
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982)
- Dr. Venture watches the 1982 film The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, which he learns to his disappointment is not a "skin flick" from early in Dolly Parton's career, but a musical comedy based on the 1978 Broadway musical of the same name.
- Ward asks Watch how many Yaz albums he has on his iPod. Yaz is, for legal reasons, the North American name for the British synthpop duo Yazoo.
Production Notes[]
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Victor. Echo. November. |
- One of the animation directors (Kimson Albert) has a "nickname" inserted into his credits. The nickname is an unusual line or word from the preceding episode. For Victor. Echo. November. the credit reads Kimson "Heat Incarnate" Albert.
Goofs[]
- Kim appears to have no knowledge of the Venture brothers, despite having visited the Venture compound and met Dean in Assassinanny 911. This unintentional continuity error was the result of the script for Victor. Echo. November. being written first but Assassinanny 911 being aired before it.
- In their first scene of the episode, Henchmen 21 and 24 frequently switch between their older, less-defined season 1 designs and their more-defined season 2 designs.
| Preceded by: "Twenty Years to Midnight" |
The Venture Bros. episodes Original Airdate: August 13th, 2006 |
Followed by: "Love-Bheits" |