Episode - 1-04 (5th in Broadcast Order)
First Aired - September 4, 2004
A mysterious figure emerges from a machine in the Venture lab along with green light and smoke. H.E.L.P.eR moves towards the figure to investigate, but is disabled by a magical gesture. Hank and Dean, playing with a Ouija Board in another room, ask the board if Dean will find true love. The pointer moves to "YES" under its own power just as the mysterious figure enters the room and puts them to sleep with a motion of his hand.
When morning comes, Dean wakes his father to tell him about the mysterious figure. Rusty explains that the figure is someone renting out space on the Venture Compound, as they need the money. He takes Dean to see the man, who reveals himself to be Dr. Byron Orpheus, master necromancer. They also meet Orpheus' teenage goth daughter, Triana. Dean, immediately smitten with Triana, goes off to eat breakfast with her.
Hank, meanwhile, wakes Brock up from a dream about a dead football player named Tommy. Brock reflexively defends himself as he wakes up, nearly strangling Hank before he realizes it. Hank and Brock go to the lab to repair H.E.L.P.eR when Hank notices the machine from the previous night. Drawn to the machine, Hank enters to see a vision of his father offering to play catch and hear the voice of his mother (not seen) offering them grilled cheese sandwiches. Brock stops Hank from fully entering the machine at the last minute, but is then himself drawn to enter it.
Dean and Triana share breakfast while Rusty and Orpheus enter the lab discussing Rusty's newest invention. Orpheus trips over Hank, who is still on the floor after being tackled by Brock. Hank informs them that Brock is now in the machine, which cannot be opened from the outside. Dean, meanwhile, is fantasizing in his room about Triana. Hank interrupts and explains that they have to save Brock.
Rusty explains his "Joy Can" machine to Orpheus, in that it probes the users mind to create hallucinations of his or her deepest desires. Using his magic to scan the machine, Orpheus demands to know if the machine is powered by the heart of an orphan, which Orpheus calls a "forsaken child." (Naming that trope.) Rusty's only defense is that he "didn't use the whole thing!"
Inside the machine, Brock is living his greatest desires. First, he receives forgiveness from Tommy, the deaf quarterback in his dream who is revealed to be a former teammate of Brock's who Brock accidentally killed. Tommy then disappears as Brock transforms into a Native American warrior and ninjas start to rain down from the sky. Cowboys, dinosaurs, and polar bears driving cars with machine guns also join the fight and Brock kills them all. Finally, Molotov Cocktease and a bed appear, allowing Brock to finally consummate their relationship.
While Orpheus and Venture argue, Hank and Dean sneak into the machine wearing tinfoil hats. They wrap a urine soaked shirt around Brock's head to block the machine's effects. Their plan works, but then they cannot find a way back out of the machine. On the outside, Orpheus concludes that "true love" is the key to open the machine, but cannot inspire it. Triana then enters the lab looking for her father, her voice entering the machine and inspiring true love in Dean, which causes the door to open.
Reluctantly, Rusty allows Orpheus to destroy the machine with his magic.
Tropes:
- Bilingual Bonus: Tommy's American Sign Language is largely accurate.
- Cargo Ship: Invoked with Rusty and Brock toward the Joy Can, that "iron cylinder of unearthly delights".
- Dracula: Who the boys mistake Orpheus for when they first see him.
- Expy: Orpheus is quite similar to Doctor Strange.
- Holodeck Malfunction: One can only hope Rusty didn't intend for the machine to be able to trap users inside itself.
- Kissing Warm-Up: Dean practices kissing on his hand. When he later describes it as "practicing being a boyfriend", Rusty mistakes it for masturbation.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: Rusty's invention, the "Joy Can", allows the occupant to experience their greatest fantasies.
- Mistaken for Masturbating: Dean practices kissing on his hand while imagining it's Triana, which leads to a misunderstanding with his father:Dr. Venture: [knocking on bathroom door] Dean, what the hell are you doing in there? I need to take a shower!
Dean: I'm practicing being a boyfriend, pop.
Dr. Venture: [recoiling] Never mind, Dean. - Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Brock's Joy Can vision includes ninjas raining from the sky, cowboys with flamethrowers riding Tyrannosaurs, and polar bears on motorcycles with scuba divers manning machine guns in the sidecars.
- Once Killed a Man with a Noodle Implement: Dean tells Triana about a time that Brock killed a man with a sock full of party snaps, causing his head to explode.
- Ouija Board: Hank and Dean are playing with one at the beginning of the episode.
- Pet the Dog: After being established as a merciless killer for several episodes, Brock genuinely bonds with and compliments the boys both before and after getting trapped in the Joy Can.
- Pineal Weirdness: The Joy Can operates by creating a direct link to the subject's pineal gland.
- Powered by a Forsaken Child: The Trope Naming episode.
- Rule of Funny: In the episode's DVD commentary, Doc invokes Moral Event Horizon regarding Rusty's use of "half an orphan" in the Joy Can, noting that it's way too early to have Rusty cross such a line. However, they went with it anyway for this reason.
- Shout-Out: Many.
- The pajamas Hank and Dean wear are modeled after Aquaman and Spider-Man respectively, right down to the colors.
- Dean wears a Burger King crown in his fantasy of saving Triana.
- Triana mentions that she is going for a "retro Adam and the Ants" look with the skull and crossbones on her shirt.
- Dean watches Kolchak: The Night Stalker reruns.
- Hank and Dean wrap a urine-soaked shirt around Brock's head to stop the effects of the "Joy Can" machine. This is done in Total Recall (1990) with a wet towel for similar effect.
- Brock refuses to listen to Led Zeppelin (specifically In Through The Out Door) because it reminds him of Molotov Cocktease.
- Orpheus resides in the "advanced arachnid research center" of the Venture compound, a reference to the Spider-Man comics.
- Orpheus's cat is named Simba, of The Lion King fame.
- Tinfoil Hat: Hank and Dean each wear one to block the machine's effects. They're not completely effective, but they do work well enough to help them snap Brock out of his own Lotus-Eater illusion.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Orpheus is suitably disgusted when he learns that the Joy Can is Powered by a Forsaken Child and tells Rusty off.
