Episode - 1-07 (3rd in Broadcast Order)
First Aired - August 21, 2004
Baron Ünderbheit is in a meeting with his three trusted advisers: Girl Hitler, Catclops, and Manic 8-Ball. Ünderbheit informs them that they've each betrayed him, and that they will all be exiled with a "parting gift" of "tiger balm." The three then realize that Ünderbheit has left the room, and that their gift is actually "tiger bomb," as in exploding tigers. Ünderbheit then informs his servant, Manservant, that his only remaining enemy is Dr. Venture.
Meanwhile, Brock is getting ready to leave for his annual vacation. Rusty begs Brock to stay for a few more days until Rusty can finish up his new compound security system, but Brock leaves anyway. Hank begs to join Brock but is denied. Brock comes upon a soldier who informs him that the area is closed for reasons of national security, but Brock ignores him and proceeds to his camp site anyway.
Rusty falls asleep at his work station where H.E.L.P.eR carries him to bed. H.E.L.P.eR then returns to the lab and sees that Rusty was working on a new security robot named G.U.A.R.D.O, which H.E.L.P.eR mistakes as a replacement robot. Distraught, H.E.L.P.eR gathers a few possessions and runs away from the compound.
Brock is enjoying his peaceful camping trip by the fire when he hears rustling in the bushes. Brock investigates and finds that it is Bigfoot. Brock and Bigfoot battle, then a bionically-enhanced man in a red track suit jumps in to save Bigfoot. Brock defeats him by kicking him in his non-bionic testicles.
While Rusty sleeps, an Ünderland henchman releases a scorpion while Monarch Henchman 24 releases a tarantula into Rusty's room. The two henchman begin arguing over who gets to kill Venture, while Rusty wakes up to the two creatures battling on his chest. Rusty hits a button on his night stand, dropping him and the boys into the panic room while steel shutters cover the doors and windows, locking down the compound. Hank sees the two creatures still on Rusty's back, and hits Rusty with a fire extinguisher. Dean leaves the panic room looking for a first aid kit, but instead finds an activated G.U.A.R.D.O, awakened by the lockdown but not fully programmed yet. G.U.A.R.D.O mistakes Dean for an intruder and chases him back to the panic room, where G.U.A.R.D.O is unable to penetrate the tempered steel door.
Outside the compound, rival groups of Ünderland and Monarch henchmen call their respective bosses, who declare a truce until The Monarch and Ünderbheit can work out a compromise. Ünderbheit goes to The Monarch's cocoon, where the two immediately try to kill each other. Failing to do so, the two begin to discuss which one has the right to kill Dr. Venture. Ünderbheit argues that Venture belongs to him, since he is responsible for the mishap in college that blew off Ünderbheit's lower jaw. Their henchmen, still at the Venture compound, decide to drink beer and discuss their respective bosses.
The bionic man reveals himself to Brock as former astronaut Steve Summers, who was horrifically injured in an accident and saved after the government grafted $6 million worth of bionic parts onto him. The government then expected him to pay back the money by working for them, so he fled into the wilderness where he met Bigfoot. The two have since become lovers. As soldiers begin to come for Steve, Brock agrees to help them escape. They make it back to Brock's car, where the drive past the same soldier from earlier. Brock claims that (the now shaved) Bigfoot and Steve,who removed his bionic parts to look like an amputee, are injured Vietnam War veterans. The soldier lets them pass, then a second soldier points out that "vets" were obviously a shaved Sasquatch and Steve Summers wearing a wig made of Sasquatch hair. As they get away, Steve thanks Brock for the help, but Brock is still disturbed by the fact that Sasquatch is a male.
The two groups of henchman get progressively drunker, then decide to vandalize the Venture compound. Just outside of the compound at a bus stop, H.E.L.P.eR ignores the pleas from Rusty (over his wrist communicator) to help them. They boys force Rusty to apologize to H.E.L.P.eR, who then attempts to rescue the trapped family. In doing so, H.E.L.P.eR accidentally cuts power to the compound temporarily, which resets G.U.A.R.D.O and lifts the lockdown. G.U.A.R.D.O leaves the panic room door and attacks the henchmen outside.
The Monarch and Ünderbheit reach a deal to share the glory from killing Venture, but are unable to contact their henchmen to relay the new orders, as the henchmen are busy being slaughtered by G.U.A.R.D.O.
Brock returns to see the countless bodies of dead henchmen strewn about the compound. Distracted by the carnage, Brock accidentally runs over G.U.A.R.D.O, disabling the robot. H.E.L.P.eR meanwhile prevents the Ventures from leaving the panic room until he receives an additional apology.
Tropes:
- Anticlimax: The Monarch and Ünderbheit trade lasers and daggers when they first meet, apparently getting ready to fight, but quickly peter out because they were just grandstanding.
- Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: Bigfoot is the (male) lover of Steve Summers.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: It's fully expected, being supervillains and all, that The Monarch and Ünderbheit attempt to kill each other when they first meet. It proves futile as they both know it's coming, so they actually sit down to talk afterward.
- Excrement Statement: When the henchmen of The Monarch and Ünderbheit decide to trash the exterior of the compound, two of them can be seen urinating in front of the statue of Dr. Jonas Venture.
- Expy:
- Steve Summers is the The Six Million Dollar Man, Steve Austin. Also references The Bionic Woman, whose last name is "Sommers".
- Baron Ünderbheit is extremely similar to Doctor Doom.
- Failed a Spot Check:
- Played straight by the first soldier standing guard, who doesn't notice that the "vets" are a poorly disguised Bigfoot and Steve Summers. Lampshaded by the second guard who points this out to the first.
- The two henchmen who tried to kill Dr. Venture failed to notice each other until after the scorpion and spider started attacking them, even though they were a few feet from each other at adjacent windows.
- Foreshadowing: Brock teasingly calls Hank (wearing a feather headdress) "Runs With Scissors". In season 2 it will be revealed that running with scissors is one of the ways a previous Hank died.
- Groin Attack: Brock beats the bionic Steve Summers by kicking him in the crotch.
- The Guards Must Be Crazy: The soldiers standing guard as Brock escapes with a poorly disguised Bigfoot and Steve Summers. The second one immediately lampshades it.
- Indentured Servitude: Steve Summers was expected to work off the debt from his six million dollars worth of unasked-for bionic enhancements — an impossible task on a government salary.
- Killer Robot: G.U.A.R.D.O, because he's activated before Rusty can program him to recognize the Venture family as non-intruders.
- Lactating Male: When Dr. Venture and his sons are dropped into the panic room, Hank notices wet spots on Dr. Venture's shirt where his nipples would be. Dr. Venture states that "some men" "lactate". Hank thinks Dean does so as well after seeing the giant pee stain on his pants.
- Noodle Incident: Henchman 21 mentions that The Monarch's guys kidnapped him when he was 14, then he joined afterwards.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: The shaved Bigfoot and Steve Summers wearing a wig made from shaved Bigfoot hair. (It actually works.)
- Ruritania: Ünderland
- Shout-Out:
- Dean and Hank wear Spider-Man and Aquaman pajamas, respectively.
- A shout out TO this episode occurs in Rules of Engagement, when Patrick Warburton (who voices Brock Samson,) mentions a dream where he and Lee Majors (who played Steve Austin on The Six Million Dollar Man), were hunting Bigfoot.
- Sasquatch —particularly his mostly-bald forehead, long "mustache", and human-looking eyes— appears to be patterned after the title character from Harry and the Hendersons.
- Unsettling Gender-Reveal: Brock didn't know Bigfoot was male prior to shaving him. He notes that it's the first time he's seen a Bigfoot, so he doesn't know how to tell the genders apart.
- Visual Pun: Baron Ünterbheit presents three disloyal subordinates with gifts of Tiger Balm, exits the room, then, after the three contemplate Ünterbheit's apparent mercy, sends in killer tigers with bombs.
