Recap / The Venture Bros S 3 E 11 ORB

Episode - Season 3, Episode 11 (Production Code: 3-29)

First Aired: August 10, 2008

In what appears to be another of the show's many Flashbacks, Jonas Sr. is badly injured and strapped to a chair in the lair of the supervillain Half-Jackal. Nearby, taking cover from behind some rocks, a young Rusty Venture sits on top of Kano's shoulders holding a sniper rifle while the badly injured Colonel Gentleman lays nearby shouting instructions on where to aim and how to hold the gun. He tells Rusty that he is going to "see a man die today," and if he doesn't want it to be his father, he needs to pull the trigger. As he does, the scene rewinds and then pauses, revealing a code in the smoke.

It turns out that Billy Quizboy is watching an episode of the old Rusty Venture cartoon, looking for clues he believes will lead him to a treasure. He calls for Pete White to join him and explains that the code is dimensions for a cylinder. He wraps a thin strip of paper covered in letters from another clue around a toilet paper tube the exact dimensions given in the code and, voila...more code. Billy thinks it's gibberish as he reads it to White, who informs him that it's a URL address. (Which at first, Billy doesn't believe because the Rusty Venture cartoon is from the 1970s.) They type it into White's computer, and it brings up a map, pinpointing a spot on the Venture compound.

At the compound, Billy gives a slideshow presentation of clips from the Rusty Venture cartoon where he found all the clues. Venture cuts him off, not taking him seriously, by complaining that he hasn't seen "dime #1" from the sales of his cartoon's DVD. Then Billy goes to another slide, which is the map of the compound pinpointing the exact spot of the last clue. Brock realizes that is his herb garden and that he isn't going to dig there, as he was given exact orders when he took the Venture bodyguard assignment to keep an eye on that spot.

Ignoring Brock, Rusty and the others dig there anyway. Rusty sits in a lounge chair drinking while the others do the actual digging. Hank finds something, but it turns out to be the Venture's old dog from the pilot episode, Scamp. Dean runs off crying at this revelation.

Brock is in his room, laying on the bed reading a magazine and listening to music. Suddenly, a bunch of dirt comes pouring through Brock's ground level window. It turns out it was a cave in caused by the digging. Rusty and the others come sliding through the window holding their findings. Rusty gives one box to Brock, saying it "came from the past." Billy has another box, the one he thinks they've been searching for. Brock kicks everyone out of his room.

In the kitchen, everyone but Brock is around the table waiting to open the box. Rusty hopes it is something of monetary value his father left to him while Hank suggests that it could be full of poison gas. Billy opens it to find another thin strip of paper. He instructs the boys to go get him a roll of toilet paper.

Brock's box contained an old gramophone cylinder and a manual reading "Orders Regarding Bodyguard, Termination Clause." The voice on the gramophone is Victorian era bodybuilder Eugen Sandow, who tells the tale of a mysterious device known as "ORB." Sandow reveals that he was the bodyguard to Col. Lloyd Venture, Rusty's great-grandfather, and he was assigned to stop him from ever activating the ORB.

As Sandow tells the story, the scene flashes back into a sepia tone scene during the Victorian Era. A large zeppelin with a dragon emblem on it is under attack. Inside, Fantômas is telling Lloyd Venture that they must activate the ORB in order to win the battle. The two begin to argue, at which point Mark Twain interjects. He argues that perhaps they should activate the ORB, but Venture argues that they should proceed slowly with it. Fantômas argues that the guild was founded to do what is best for mankind, while Oscar Wilde argues that the ORB needs to be tested, and that they are not a "Guild of Calamitous Intent." Finally, Aleister Crowley stands up and takes the ORB, saying that he will test it. Sandow leaps across the table and takes the ORB from him, throwing it back to Venture. Sandow then carries Crowley away to be thrown off of the blimp. The blimp takes a direct hit as "Tesla and the Avon Ladies" attack, sending everyone but Venture and Sandow scrambling for their escape gliders. Venture considers using the ORB, while Sandow pleads with him not to.

The cylinder runs out in the middle of the story and Brock checks the box for another, only to find it missing.

Upstairs, the rest of the family is deciphering the final clue: "In Minuit's bargain, sits the house that coke built, in a loud room of quiet whistlers, behind the Wilde gray gentleman sits the 221210." White enters the clue into a search engine and learns that "Minuit's bargain" is the island of Manhattan. He also figures that "the house that coke built" must be Studio 54. With that, Rusty and Billy take the X-1 to New York with the toilet paper roll code.

After they've left, Brock asks the boys if they've seen his missing (gramophone) cylinder. Assuming he means the toilet paper roll, they tell him that their father and Billy took it to New York. Brock then leaves for New York, initially leaving White in charge of the boys, but then reconsiders, asking Dr. Orpheus to do watch them. In his car, Brock activates a computer in the dash and requests information regarding his current assignment and the "termination clause" that was dug up with the gramophone cylinders. After reading off a certain identification code, the car engages autopilot and locks Brock inside. The computer informs Brock that he is to be terminated. Brock manages to kick out the window and escape. He goes to the strip club where his old mentor, Col. Hunter Gathers post-sex change, now works as a dancer. Brock shows Gathers the "termination clause" manual, which shocks Gathers. ("Sweet lord! That hack actually found it!?") Gathers explains that Brock's mission was never to protect Rusty, but to protect the ORB. He circles the first letter of each word on Brock's assignment ("Orders Regarding Bodyguard" and then "Operation Rusty's Blanket") to prove it. Gathers explains that Jonas Sr. hid the device from Rusty and that if Rusty tries to activate it, Brock must kill him. Gathers suggests that Brock see another Venture bodyguard for more information.

Orpheus, now in the Venture living room, explains that the box they found is from the Victorian Era and that the "house that coke build" probably isn't Studio 54. He informs the boys and White that he knows an expert on the 19th century and astral projects to contact him.

Brock follows a signal on his wrist communicator to an apartment, where Kano attacks him from out of a closet. Brock manages to bring Kano down face-first onto the floor, bloodying his nose. Kano speaks for the first time, surprising Brock, and revealing that he thought Brock was there to kill him. Kano says that he took a vow of silence as penance for "taking from this world a great man." Kano, shocked that Rusty actually figured out the clues to find the ORB, retrieves the 2nd gramophone cylinder for Brock.

Rusty and Billy have made it to the Studio 54 bathroom, believing that they've figured out the final clues. This leads them to a baby changing station; they believe the treasure they are seeking is hidden in the wall.

Orpheus returns with the Alchemist, where he discovers that Dean and Hank toilet-papered his corporeal body while he was astral projecting. The Alchemist is told why he has been summoned, to "solve the mystery of the box we found in Brock's garden."

Picking back up in the 19th century Flashback, Sandow and Col. Venture are alone aboard the Zeppelin as the attack outside continues. Sandow begs Venture not to activate the ORB, while Venture argues that they have no choice as people are dying over it. He explains that the ORB has passed from Archimedes to Leonardo da Vinci to Galileo to Isaac Newton and countless other artists, poets, scientists, alchemists, and philosophers in between. Each added their genius to the ORB, though the device's true purpose remains unknown. Many believe it to be a powerful weapon, but Venture explains that he believes it is a powerful engine, and that he is "a man of hope." Sandow pleads one final time to no avail as Venture goes to activate the device. The camera moves close up to Sandow's distraught face as the sound of a neck breaking is heard...

Kano removes the needle from the cylinder and explains that is where the story ends. The rest of the cylinder is just Sandow listing chocolate recipes, which is why he kept it. Brock asks Kano if he, too, had to kill the man he was assigned to protect (Jonas Sr.,) but Kano just goes silent again. With that, Brock leaves to find Rusty, knowing what he must do.

The Alchemist explains to White and the boys that everything they figured out after "Manhattan" was unbelievably wrong. He has White get a dictionary and read the definition for "coke," which is a residue left after the distillation of coal. Al explains that they are looking for the house of a coal tycoon in Manhattan.

In the Studio 54 bathroom, Billy is exploring a hole in the wall they made behind the baby changing station. A security guard walks in and Rusty quickly explains that he is simply changing his son's diaper. Billy reluctantly plays along and gets in position to be changed as the guard watches. Just then, Rusty's communicator wristwatch lights up, with Hank saying, "Studio 54 is not the coke house" and that they should go to the Frick museum. The incredulous guard asks about the watch, which Billy explains is his "Nintendo DS Lite... goo goo gah gah."

Brock contacts Hank and asks where Rusty is. He asks Hank to tell White to book him a flight to New York. The Alchemist then solves the rest of the riddle, which is that the treasure is behind the portrait of Montesquieu in the Whistler wing of the Frick museum.

At night, Rusty and Billy break into the Frick museum. Billy wants to tear down the painting, but Rusty, regaining some of his boy adventurer enthusiasm, says that they should check the office behind the painting before they "destroy a priceless masterpiece." As they enter the room, Brock is shown sneaking into the museum behind them.

Inside, Rusty figures out the rest of the clue. "221210" is a substitution cypher, so he pairs the numbers with the corresponding letters in the clue, revealing that they are looking for an "ORB." Brock, hiding in the shadows, overhears this and draws his knife, realizing that he must kill Rusty.

Venture, remembering a quote from his father that the best place to hide something is in plain sight, notices the ORB being used as a paperweight. He picks it up and begins fiddling with it, refusing to let Billy hold it, as Brock prepares to move in for the kill. However, at the last second, Rusty stops and decided that his father must have hidden it for a good reason. Rusty decides that they'll study it carefully rather than attempt to activate it, quoting his father (and apparently, his great-grandfather) that they are "men of hope." (Billy cuts off the last part, saying it himself, as it was said in "like, every episode" of the cartoon.) Brock is satisfied with this, puts his knife away, and slinks back into the shadows. Billy begs Rusty for a "Go Team Venture!" salute, which Rusty reluctantly performs.

The Stinger shows Rusty putting the ORB in a hidden wall safe. Hank walks in and asks what the treasure was, which Rusty says was only a note from his father. In the hangar, Brock drops out of the landing gear compartment of the X-1, where he hitched a ride home. Once out, his car (still on autopilot,) moves in to run him over.

Tropes:

• Ancient Conspiracy: The origins of the mysterious ORB date back to at least Archimedes, though it's true purpose and nature are never revealed.
• Author Appeal: According to co-creator Jackson Publick on the DVD commentary, this episode (written by co-creator Doc Hammer) is just a "long list of stuff Doc likes."
• Continuity Nod:
  • The Venture family dog, Scamp, is dug up in the back yard when searching for the treasure.
  • Rusty's low danger rating for giant spiders is given more context when Billy's slide show briefly shows him being attacked and almost eaten by one as a child.
  • Jonas Sr.'s death, a series-long mystery whose fine details are still ambiguous, was strongly implied to be the result of Kano killing him to prevent him from activating the ORB (although this ended up being a Red Herring).
• Decon-Recon Switch: This episode marks a point where the show veers noticeably towards reconstruction; after spending three seasons deconstructing the idea of the Science Hero (with Rusty mocking his father's catchphrase several times in this episode alone), at the end he says it unironically, making it clear that for all his father's many serious failings, his ideals still had value:
  "We are not only men of science: we are men of hope."
• Doomsday Device: Fantômas believes the ORB to be one and wants to use it to defend the Guild. The O.S.I. (or whatever precursor Sandow works for) believe that this is a real enough possibility that they've ordered Sandow to kill Lloyd Venture should he try to activate it.
• Embarrassing Slide: When Billy gives a presentation about what he's discovered, there's a slide mixed in there of "a shirtless drunk albino": Pete White on spring break, taking off a "Cancun" t-shirt (possibly because the sun is setting) to reveal t-shirt-shaped sunburn lines. Billy yells at Dean to switch to the next slide.
• Generation Xerox: The Venture family, from great-grandfather Lloyd to Jonas Sr. to finally Rusty, are all globe-trotting adventure-scientists. Each has a badass bodyguard (Sandow, Kano, Brock Samson) and a team of talented associates (the original unnamed Guild, the original Team Venture, and finally Rusty's associates.)
• Get Out!: As more people keep entering his room through a "door" from outside, Brock keeps telling everyone to leave. It takes a few tries.
• Good News, Bad News: Gathers to Brock at the strip club:
  Gathers: "Do you want the bad news or the good news first?"
  Brock: "I don't know...the good news?"
  Gathers: "THERE IS NO GOOD NEWS! Just bad news and weird news..."
• Historical Domain Character:
  • Aside from Colonel Venture (based heavily on Theodore Roosevelt), other members of the original guild include occultist Aleister Crowley, authors Samuel Clemens and Oscar Wilde, and Colonel Venture's bodyguard is "Father of Bodybuilding" Eugen Sandow. Their rivals include inventor Nikola Tesla and his army of Avon Ladies.
  • And Half-Jackal, in the Rusty Venture cartoon, is actually half of Venezuelan terrorist Carlos the Jackal.
• Jar Potty: Billy, in Conspiracy Theorist mode, apparently can't be bothered to walk a couple yards to the bathroom, so he accumulates a small collection of piss jars. (Observe also: takeout containers, empty bottles of wine, stubble, eyebags...)
  White: Ugh, that's unsavory...
• MacGuffin Title: The episode title, "ORB."
• Mix-and-Match Critters: The villain Half-Jackal is, well, half-human and half-jackal, split right down the middle of his body. (The human half being based on notorious terrorist Carlos the Jackal.)
• Motionless Makeover: Hank and Dean cover Orpheus in toilet paper while he's astral projecting, which freezes his body.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Col. Lloyd Venture is basically Theodore Roosevelt in everything except for name.
• Perpetual Motion Machine: Lloyd Venture believes the ORB to be some kind of unlimited power source and wants to use it help humanity.
• Shout-Out:
  • The Alchemist's reaction to White's preference for the internet over a dictionary is that he "doesn't want to play "World a' Warcraft.
  • Studio 54 was an immensely popular night club in New York City from 1977 to 1981, an era where cocaine use was very popular. (Hence White's mistake of believing to be "the house that coke built.")
  • Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray is cited by the Alchemist when figuring out where the treasure is hidden.
  • "Tesla and the Avon ladies" attacking the Guild zeppelin, and the Guild, in modern times, is run by David Bowie? Sounds familiar...
  • There is a Minnesota Vikings logo on the headphones Brock is listening to in his room when the others bust through his wall.
  • The Yu-Gi-Oh! card "Ancient Gear Fist" that Hank found is an actual card from the game, though it's green rather than rust-colored.
  • The other item Hank finds is a Slammer Pog. (Rusty mistakes both the Yu-Gi-Oh card and the pog as items associated with gambling.)
• Shown Their Work:
  • Eugen Sandow listing chocolate recipes. (In Real Life, he tried and failed to open cocoa factories in the 1910s.)
  • Averted, however, when Lloyd Venture states that Sir Isaac Newton added the lenses to the ORB and Galileo the prisms. This is actually reversed, as Newton was known for his work with prisms (using them in his research on color) and Galileo for his work with lenses (constructing and refining them for use in his telescopes.)
• Small Reference Pools: Up to 11. While the show is usually chock-full of obscure references, this episode in particular really takes it up to 11. For example, French novel character Fantômas as a founding member of the Guild? Victorian era bodybuilder Eugen Sandow along with the Historical In-Joke about his failed forays into the chocolate industry? Reportedly, Publick actually had to talk Hammer down, since his initial suggested lineup would have been even more obscure.
• Thrown from the Zeppelin: Literally with Aleister Crowley, being thrown from the Guild zeppelin after he tries to activate the ORB.
• Wham Episode: This episode reveals, among other things:
  • In addition to guarding Dr. Venture, Brock is also expected to kill him if he finds and activates the ORB.
  • The Guild of Calamitous Intent began as a group of powerful people guarding the ORB, and Dr. Venture's grandfather was one of them. A lesser point is that Phantom Limb's grandfather was also part of this group.
• Wham Line: Oscar Wilde reveals (to viewers) what The Guild eventually became:
  "For shame! This guild was founded to protect and serve man at his best, not to be a Guild of... Calamitous Intent!"