Recap / The Venture Bros S 2 E 3 Assassinanny 911

Episode - Season 2, Episode 3 (Production Code: 2-16)

First Aired - July 9, 2006

A young Brock Samson walks into the O.S.I. office of Col. Hunter Gathers, reporting for duty. The jumpy and Properly Paranoid Gathers immediately questions Brock. He asks Brock if he's "ready for anything," and after Brock replies "yes" twice, Gathers bashes him in the knee with a steel baton. Gathers then burns Brock's file, telling him that he belongs to the O.S.I. now. He tosses Brock a jet pack and, in welcoming him to the O.S.I., opens a door in the back of his "office" and flies out of the jet they are on.

In the present, Brock is getting the boys ready for his upcoming absence. As a favor to Brock, Molotov Cocktease is going to bodyguard the Venture family while Brock is away on an O.S.I. mission. Mol is disgusted by Brock's nanny-like behavior, and proposes that he join her as a freelance mercenary. Brock declines.

Dr. Venture is questioning Brock's choice in replacement bodyguard, believe that Mol is simply one of Brock's floozies. When a Manaconda attacks out of the X-1, Mol demonstrates her abilities by jumping in and slicing it in half. (Babies crawl out of the dead Manaconda's body, revealing it to be, in Hank's words, a "Womanaconda.") Brock leaves with the O.S.I. as Mol turns towards the Ventures, revealing that while Brock is gone, she is going to "turn them into men."

Brock is briefed on his mission: tracking down a rogue agent. The agent turns out to be Brock's mentor, Col. Hunter Gathers. After turning down some James Bond style spy gear in favor of his trusty knife, the car is driven into the ocean where Brock rendezvous with a submarine. There, Brock learns that Gathers was last seen kidnapping the enemy's top plastic surgeon and has been tracked to "Macronesia." Too far to travel quickly by submarine, Brock is launched in a "Man-Missile" pod to the island.

Back at the compound, Mol is teaching the Ventures to dodge bullets by shooting at them. She then demonstrates "the maimers," a set of hand-to-hand combat techniques. Hank and Dean then spar, with Dean initially getting the better of Hank. Mol chastises Hank, who grabs a pencil and stabs Dean in the foot, causing him to pass out. Mol praises Hank's improvisation but then reprimands him, as they are not up to weapon training yet.

Inside the missile pod, Brock gets a call on his wrist communicator from Mol. Brock assures her that she should be able to handle anything that comes up, but Mol reveals that they are under attack by Native American spirits, angry since the X-1 hangar is built on top of their burial ground. Brock instructs her to contact Dr. Orpheus to take care of it.

Brock's "Mn-Missile" then explodes open, dropping him towards the ocean. His tuxedo then inflates to cushion his fall, while a propeller on the suit kicks on to take Brock to the nearest island. There, Brock is greeted by a local operative, an attractive native girl. He'll have to wait until morning to search for Gathers, so he plans to spend the night with the girl, who has a 6-pack of beer and quickly removes her top.

Dr. Orpheus has driven off the spirits, sanctifying the hangar for another year. He attempts to strike up conversation with Mol, but is quickly dismissed by the jealous Hank, who is in love with Mol. Doc tries to hit on Mol as well, but she blows him off.

The following morning, Brock contacts the Ventures and learns that things are going as well as they can be at the compound. Brock reminisces about a stake-out he was on with Gathers. Gathers instills a philosophy in Brock that he was never to kill women and children, no exceptions.

Mol's training continues with the boys. Hank is swimming laps while Dean, nursing the foot injury from before, is given a copy of the Spetsnaz manual and a knife to study. Triana and Kim arrive to ask if they can use the pool, but Dean tells them no, explaining that he thinks Molotov is trying to kill them. Meanwhile, Mol is putting away groceries in the kitchen, which shares a glass wall with the pool. Rusty startles her and gets kicked across the room. Hank dives down to look through the window and sees Mol with Rusty. He sees blood on Rusty' shirt, which he mistakes for lipstick. Hank goes crazy with jealousy and passes out due to a lack of oxygen. Dean signals to Mol, who revives Hank with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. This gives Hank an erection, which Dean mistakes as the Indian ghosts returning ("a teepee in your trunks!") Hank runs around screaming that his pants are haunted.

Brock wakes up in the jungle to find the native girl he was sleeping with presumed dead. "No more secrets" is written across her stomach. He takes this as a sign that Gathers has turned, since he wouldn't violate his "no killing women" policy otherwise. He takes off to find Gathers. The native girl wakes up a short while later, revealing that she was just asleep.

Mol is in Brock's room back at the Venture compound. She finds that he has kept her eye in a glass jar by her bed and sniffs his pillow. She reminisces about the time she met Brock, when they were both on a mission. Hank is in Mol's room, sniffing her clothes. When he turns the heel of one of her boots overs, a blade comes out and stabs him in the neck. This causes him to hallucinate about Mol, who tells him that his father is standing in their way of being together. He grabs a machete off the wall and goes to the lab to find Rusty. Rusty, looking into a microscope, just blows off Hank's threats as childish playing. Mol tries to stop Hank but is too late, Hank starts hacking at Rusty with the machete.

Brock enters an ancient temple where he believes Gathers to be hiding. He finds Gathers on an operating table under a sheet and is about to kill him when the plastic surgeon stops him. The surgeon reads a message from Gathers, who knew Brock would be coming for him. Gathers is tired of playing the game and all of the secrets. Brock doesn't care, and plans to finish his mission. When Brock pulls back the sheet, he sees that Gathers now has giant breasts. Brock reveals that Gathers was like a father to him, which the surgeon responds to by saying to think of him more like a mother now. Brock slaps the weeping surgeon around and remembers the "no women, no children" lesson Gathers taught him. Brock starts to leave, but returns and lifts the sheet further down, needing to be sure.

The Stinger shows Brock loading a box full of jeans into Mol's car as she tries to convince him to go with her. Brock denies once again, and she leaves. Rusty reveals that Hank is grounded for attacking him with a papier-mache sword while sleepwalking. "So I didn't miss much?" replies Brock.

Tropes:

• Double Reverse Quadruple Agent: Discussed in a flashback by Brock, when testing the limits of Gathers' "no women, no children" philosophy.
  Brock: What if she's an enemy agent? ...An assassin?
  Hunter: No.
  Brock: A double-agent assassin who just shot the president?!
  Hunter: No, sir. Non-lethal takedown only. President's not the president anyway, you know that.
• Easy Sex Change / Magic Plastic Surgery: Played with by Gathers. It's quick compared to real life, in that he just kidnaps a top plastic surgeon to perform it in an ancient temple. But the work done is shown in the scars, stitches, and medical tape on Gather's body from all the incision sites.
• Indian Burial Ground: The X-1's hangar is built over one. Apparently, every year on the anniversary of the battle where they were killed, their spirits return to attack the compound. Dr. Orpheus notes that he usually comes over to handle it, but this was a leap year and shifted the date by one.
  Orpheus: "Sorry, I forgot it was a leap year and well, the Apaches didn't have those..."
• Kiss-Kiss-Slap: A flashback to the first meeting between Brock and Molotov sets the pattern for their future relationship. During their passionate makeout session, Molotov stabs him with her stiletto heels, then pins his shoulders to the bed with a pair of sais and sets the room on fire. Brock is still turned on, only getting pissed when he realizes she took his cigarettes.
• Monster Is a Mommy: How they know that Manaconda is actually Womanaconda.
• Mushroom Samba: Hank gets pricked in the neck when he accidentally discharges Molotov's poisoned boot heel spike. The resulting hallucinations convince him that killing his father will allow him to be with Molotov. He may have been more successful had his weapon of choice not been a papier-mache model sword...
• Shout-Out:
  • The episode title is a play on the TV show Nanny 911.
  • Col. Hunter Gathers is based on Gonzo journalist Hunter Thompson, with elements of Nick Fury. His training of Brock by forcing him into a dangerous situation involving a swimming pool references a real life incident where Thompson strapped Bill Murray to a chair and threw him into a pool, only saving him at the last second before Murray drowned.
  • Brock turns down a collection of James Bond style gadgets in the O.S.I. limo.
  • The book Molotov gives Dean to read in the pool is GRU Spetsnaz, the training manual of the elite special forces in the old Soviet Union.
  • The ending scenes with Hank attacking Rusty and Brock searching for Gathers parallel a similar scene in Apocalypse Now and The Doors song The End, particularly Hank's lines of dialogue.
  • Molotov's "Serpentine! Serpentine!" references Alan Arkin and Peter Falk in The In-Laws.
  • The Brock-surgeon slap scene ("He's your mother! Your father! Your mother!") references Chinatown.
• Sink or Swim Mentor: Literally with Gathers to Brock, as part of Brock's training involves throwing him into a pool after Brock says he can't swim. Also, Gathers is throwing grenades into the pool, while Brock also has to fight off frogmen and a shark.
• That Man Is Dead: Invoked by Hunter when initiating Brock into the OSI.
  Hunter: *reading from personnel file* Samson, Brock. Born Omaha, Nebraska to a single mother. Half Swedish, quarter Polish, quarter Winnebago. You lost your virginity at 14, have one brother and you enjoy motocross. *burns the file with his cigarette* The Brock Samson you knew and were is dead. Happy birthday, Frankenstein! You’re OSI’s baby now.
• Training from Hell: What Molotov puts Hank and Dean through. Also the training Gathers puts Brock through as a new O.S.I. recruit.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Hunter had no problem with killing a female vampire, as they are undead, and by his logic no longer a woman. Also, he regards them as fictitious.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Gathers instills a philosophy of not killing women or children in Brock. He later takes advantage of this to avoid being killed by Brock.