Recap / The Venture Bros S 2 E 5 Twenty Years To Midnight

Episode - Season 2, Episode 5 (Production Code: 2-17)

First Aired: August 6, 2006

A spacecraft lands outside of the Venture compound at night. A tall robed figure with a mechanical head emerges from the craft and scans the compound, locating Dr. Venture on the toilet.

Brock is vacuuming when he finds a box full of old junk. After examining the contents, he calls for Doc to join him on his wrist communicator. Venture arrives as the boys dig through the box. Brock (wearing an old shirt of Rusty's he found in the box) gives Doc a Betamax tape from the box. They play the tape, which is a recorded message from Jonas Sr. to Rusty from 20 years ago. Jonas claims to have deciphered a radio signal from out space addressed to him personally. Jonas says that he was ordered to disassemble his "greatest invention," and spread the four pieces which must be reassembled at midnight on a specific date (which turns out to be one "tomorrow.") Failure to do so will result in grave consequences for mankind. He reads Rusty the locations of each piece, the first of which is on Spider Skull Island.

The group turns around to see the tall alien figure outside the window. They head outside to investigate, where the figure introduces himself as the "Grand Galactic Inquisitor" in a booming, crackling voice. He claims he will pass judgement on humanity, specifically on Dr. Venture. A clearly annoyed Dr. Venture tries to tells the Inquisitor that none of them for have time for whatever it is he is doing, but the Inquisitor instructs them to go about normally and to "IGNORE ME!"

The Venture family, along with the Inquisitor, travel to Spider Skull Island where Doc hopes to steal the piece in secret and commandeer the X-2 without alerting his brother, Jonas Jr. Aboard the X-2, Brock and the boys find the pirate captain from Ghosts of the Sargasso, whom JJ has hired to be the captain of the ship.

Rusty is meanwhile spotted trying to sneak into the building and reluctantly explains the situation to his brother. The group watches the tape again, with JJ and Brock forming a plan to recover each piece (much to Rusty's dismay).

Hank and Dean take JJ's new X-X-1 jet to find Colonel Gentleman, who has one of the pieces. They find him (seemingly) dead in his bed. They search for clues for the part's location, with Dean reading Col. Gentleman's journal, but he finds it full of nonsensical ramblings and lists. Hank takes the handle off of Gentleman's cane, finding the part they need in the hollow shaft of the cane. (When it slides out and hits him in they eye.)

JJ and the Captain take the X-2 to a diving bell called "Quest Bell One." They find a drugged up, gun-wielding Johnny Quest (later "Action Johnny") living inside. Johnny believes them to be cops and holds them at gunpoint. The Captain, noticing the empty pill bottles scattered about the room, explains that JJ is a doctor and can write Johnny prescriptions. JJ, confused at first, later plays along and they get what they need after Johnny breaks down "in real pain."

Rusty and Brock are in New York to retrieve the final piece from the Impossible Industries building, formerly the Venture Industries world HQ. Given that Rusty's last dealings with the Impossible family went badly, Brock questions how they will get the piece. Rusty reveals that he has a plan.

Inside, Sally Impossible is packing her bags when she is confronted by Richard Impossible. They argue over Richard's lack of care for their infant son, Rocket. Richard is suspicious as to why she is leaving the building, but finally lets her go to "get some fresh air" after assigning bodyguards to her. She meets Rusty on a subway train while Brock takes out the bodyguards. Sally is glad to see Venture, thinking he has come back to help rescue her from Richard. Rusty plays along, asking her to get him into the Impossible building.

At a nearby park, Rocket plays under the supervision of Hank, Dean, and Ned, Sally's mentally challenged cousin. The group is ambushed by Impossible's men and taken captive. Rocket is left behind and crawls away.

Sally, Rusty, and Brock get in to the building's basement, but they are quickly captured by Richard and taken high into the tower where the boys, Ned, JJ, and the Captain are already being held. Richard explains that he found the piece years ago and that Rusty is unfit to activate it. Sally demands to know where Rocket is, and Richard again shows a complete lack of concern over his son. He and Sally argue loudly while Richard assembles the device.

With Richard distracted, JJ uses a communicator hidden in his collar to order H.E.L.P.eR to disable the building's security. Rusty doesn't like JJ ordering his robot around, while JJ retorts that strapping one's only means of communication to his wrist is a bad idea. H.E.L.P.eR succeeds in disabling the security, but is cornered and taken out by Richard's robot H.U.G.G.I.E, built to take care of Rocket.

The Inquisitor, who had been waiting on the X-X-1, leaves to find everyone else and discovers Rocket. He picks Rocket up and states "Someone lost a baby... IGNORE ME!"

With the building's security disabled, the shackles holding the group unlock. Brock and JJ grab Richard's face and stretch it across a hallway, sticking it to the sides with tools Richard was using to assemble the device. Richard retaliates by expanding his elastic body, pushing everyone out of the windows. Everyone grabs onto Richard's body and lands in the subway below - Sally loses her grip, but JJ uses his jetpack to save her from the fall. Brock ties one of Richard's legs to the back of a subway train which drives off as the group climbs him to the street above. The train stretches Richard to his limit when the handle Brock tied him to breaks off and snaps back to hit Richard in the face, knocking him out.

In the commotion, the completed device lands on the sidewalk just as Brock's watch alarm goes off at midnight. Nothing happens until the Inquisitor arrives on the scene in a cab with Rocket. Sally takes Rocket as the device activates, revealing it to be a gateway. Jonas Venture Sr. steps out of it and dispatches the Inquisitor with one shot of an energy weapon. He turns to leave as Rusty and JJ beg him to stay. Reluctantly, the being reveals that he is not actually Jonas Sr., but an alien who took that form as a disguise. This traumatizes and angers Rusty, who berates the being until it reveals its true form. The group is clearly horrified by the creature's (not shown) true form, so it reverts back to Jonas Sr. and goes back through the device, which collapses into itself, disappearing. Rusty is disappointed that they have nothing to show for their efforts, while Brock reminds him that they did save the world. JJ is happy that they were able to work together as a team.

The Stinger shows a romantic interest between Sally and JJ, while Brock and Rusty wonder if they should help Richard, whose over-stretched body is flapping off of the building in the breeze.

Tropes:

• A Form You Are Comfortable With: The alien takes the form of Jonas Venture Sr., much to Rusty's annoyance. He eventually berates the alien until it reveals his true form, which is apparently very disturbing.
• Break the Haughty / Humiliation Conga: Happens to Professor Impossible. At the end Brock watches him swinging on top of his building like a flag and wonders if they should help him.
• Brown Note: The Grand Galactic Inquisitor's voice is not only extremely loud but it sounds like it's filtered through an old, low-quality speaker. It causes Hank to grab his crotch in pain.
  Hank: "Ugh, I can feel it in my chonies!"
• Brown Note Being: The sight of the alien's true form caused Sally Impossible's cousin Ned to lose control of his bowels. Lampshaded in dialog.
  The alien: Alright, fine, you wanna see? Here! (Peels off his face, revealing his true self, which is shown offscreen, but horrifies everyone else) There! That would have been better? If I showed up like that out of nowhere? Look at you! You practically crapped your pants! Except him, he crapped his pants! (points to Ned)
• Cool Gate: What the disassembled device turns out to be. Once complete, an alien (taking the form of Jonas Sr.) steps out and kills the Grand Galactic Inquisitor.
• Dismantled Macguffin: The device was broken into four parts and must be reassembled.
• Doomsday Clock: The episode title is a reference to the real Doomsday Clock.
• Everyone Has Standards: Despite the eye scream example below, Brock still doesn't like Rusty's plan of getting Sally's hopes up and discarding her when they get what they need. He also wonders if they should help Professor Impossible at the end, as is left helpless and swinging out the window like a flag.
• Eye Scream: Rusty mentions a Noodle Incident in which he watched Brock "rip a guy's eyes from head and make him dance around like a marionette from his optic nerves".
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: "LADYSMITH BLACK MAMBAZO!"
• Interrupted Intimacy: Rusty unwittingly interrupts some... quality time Jonas Jr. was spending with a woman he met in Ibiza while looking for one of the device pieces.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Ungrateful as Rusty was to the alien that just ostensibly saved the human race, he does have a point that showing up as a character from someone's (very traumatic) past is probably not the best way to make your introduction. The alien itself fires one back at Rusty, telling him that at least he didn't show up out of nowhere in his true form, which was apparently terrifying as all heck.
• Nobody's That Dumb: When Jonas appears on the tv, Hank claims at he’s in the Phantom Zone. When Rusty glares at him, he admits he was only kidding and didn’t actually think that.
• No Indoor Voice: The Grand Galactic Inquisitor only speaks at a blaring volume, not helped by his voice sounding like it is coming through an old, low-quality speaker; the irony of the situation comes from his insistence on being ignored by everyone around him.
• Noodle Incident: What Jonas Jr. had to do to get one of the device pieces from Johnny isn't shown, but he clearly wasn't happy about having to do it.
• Ominous Message from the Future: The radio signal from space Jonas Sr. received.
• Running Gag: "IGNORE ME!"
• Shout-Out:
  • As a boy, Rusty wrote a letter to The Herculoids, calling them "hippies for not fighting in Vietnam."
  • Richard Impossible cites Of Mice and Men as the reason he doesn't want the mentally challenged Ned to babysit Rocket.
  • When Rusty first sees the Inquisitor, he shouts the name of the band "Ladysmith Black Mambazo!"
  • The Pirate Captain talks about the band Jesus Jones
  • The Grand Galactic Inquisitor is based on Jack Kirby's Celestials.
    • His rotating eyepiece is a reference to Tri-Klops from Masters of the Universe.
  • The things Col. Gentleman lists in his journal under "Toys Col. Gentleman wishes he had when he was a lad, but they weren't invented yet" are Micronauts, ScoobyDoo monster game, Which Witch?, AT-AT Imperial Walker, and Stay Alive: The Survival Game.
  • The alien taking the form of the protagonist's deceased father is a reference (and possibly a Take That!) to Contact
• Take Our Word for It: The actual form of the alien. Based on everyone's reaction shot, it must be quite horrifying.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Rusty calls out the alien for using his deceased father's appearance.
    Dr. Venture: Why...you SON-OF-A-BITCH! Do you know what you just put me through?! What the fuck were you thinking?! What kind of fucked-up planet are you from, where you think showing up as my dead fucking father is supposed to make me feel any better?!
  • Rusty gets one from Brock when he abuses Sally's attraction to him to get the machine part.