Recap / The Venture Bros S 3 E 2 The Doctor Is Sin

Episode - Season 3, Episode 2 (Production Code: 3-28)

First Aired - June 8, 2008

Rusty Venture is on the phone with his brother, Jonas Jr. Rusty is bragging to Jonas about having a meeting with military leader General Manhowers to show off some of his inventions. For JJ, meetings with Manhowers (and other investors) are routine, but JJ congratulates his brother anyway. JJ gets a call on the other line and puts Rusty on hold. The call is from Hadji, of Jonny Quest fame, who now works for JJ. He calls with bad news about Jonny being in a "bad, bad way," due to drugs. JJ remembers Rusty was on the other line, but Rusty is gone when he tries to switch back.

Rusty had to rush off to prepare for Manhowers. Hank, Dean, Brock, Dr. Orpheus, and Triana are in various outfits and costumes, pretending to be employees, investors, and foreign dignitaries. Despite his efforts, Rusty is unable to impress Manhowers, who sees that all of Rusty's inventions are just leftovers from his father.

After Manhowers leaves, Dr. Henry Killinger arrives out of the sky. He offers to work pro-bono (free) in order to help return Venture Industries to its former glory. He hires a staff of "Venchmen," using a government work program, to work for Rusty. When the heads of the "Super Science Workers Union" complain, Killinger invites them to a meeting and then kills them by turning them to dust. Killinger also absorbs Billy Quizboy and Pete White's "Conjectural Technologies" business for Venture Industries. Killinger then evicts Dr. Orpheus, revealing that Rusty has given him power of attorney. Orpheus, suspicious of Killinger, attempts to probe his mind but fails. Killinger is immune to his magic.

Orpheus and Triana are forced to move in with the Alchemist. Brock arrives later with a housewarming gift, looking glum. He explains that Killinger has put a stop to the supervillains tormenting Dr. Venture, so Brock doesn't have anything to do anymore. Killinger is great with the boys, helping Dean with his studies and training Hank to fight, and he is now charging Brock rent, but also explained to Brock that by doing so, he'll get even more money back from the IRS. Orpheus convinces Brock and the Alchemist to help him stop Killinger.

Meanwhile, with Venture Industries doing better than ever, Killinger tries to fix Rusty's emotional demons and "repair his soul." He has Rusty step into his "magic murder bag" and flashes him back to a childhood incident where his father, Jonas Sr., accidentally exposed his genitals to Rusty during breakfast. It was in that moment that Rusty started having feelings of inadequacy compared to his father. He tells Rusty that he must stop crying out for his father when he is in trouble, instead taking responsibility himself. He must also stop allowing his brother, JJ, to steal his legacy.

Orpheus, Brock, and the Alchemist storm the compound. They are caught on security by the Venchmen, but Orpheus uses his magic to help them escape. They acquire costumes and weapons before seeking out Killinger.

Killinger has gotten Rusty a new uniform with goggles and pockets for his "diet pills." He draws up an arch-enemy contract for Rusty, with Jonas Jr. as his arch. Rusty says that JJ isn't a villain and can't arch him...then realizes that Killinger has set Rusty up to become a supervillain.

Brock, Orpheus, and the Alchemist try to break down the door of the lab as the shot cuts to Rusty signing a document. Brock finally kicks it in after the other attempts fail, but they see that they are too late. Killinger points towards them and shouts "Venchmen!" The Venchmen start marching towards the trio. Brock prepares for battle (while the Alchemist ducks behind him) but the Venchmen simply walk past peacefully. Killinger departs, with Rusty having signed his "severance agreement," refusing the to sign the supervillain contract.

Venture, now naked, asks Brock "Am I a bad person?" Brock hesitates and shrugs, signifying that he can't really disagree. Rusty asks Brock to "hold him" while Brock petitions Orpheus and the Alchemist for help. Outside, Killinger's face is in the stars. He quotes Shakespeare's "all the world's a stage," then General Manhowers joins him and attributes it to The Bible.

The Stinger shows Rusty going through his mail. He opens a package (with a note from The Monarch) to find a snake ready to strike. However, the snake falls to dust as Rusty sees the package is from June 6, 2003. He mutters that he needs to get his shit together...

Tropes:

• The Ace: Dr. Killinger again takes this up to 11 while playing it straight.
• Affably Evil: Killinger once again. For someone trying to turn Rusty into a supervillain, he's incredibly reasonable and polite about it. He even allows Rusty to call off becoming a supervillain with a severance agreement and thanks him for his time. That being said, Dr. Killinger still gets up to some shady things with killing some union leaders, organizing a hostile takeover of Conjectural Technologies, evicting Dr. Orpheus, and encouraging Hank and Dean to follow darker impulses. He also starts charging Brock for room and board and presents him with a retroactive bill, but then showed him how to write it all off for the IRS, so that he's now actually getting money back.
• Bait-and-Switch: Brock, Orpheus, and the Alchemist try to reach Dr. Venture before he can sign the supervillain agreement and think they are too late... but then they discover that he was actually signing Killinger's severance agreement, having passed on the offer.
• Break the Haughty: After Killinger trying to make him into a supervillain gives Rusty a Heel Realization, he starts to clean up his act, at least a little bit, through the rest of the series (while still being more than a little selfish).
• Cain and Abel: Killinger tries to invoke this by signing Rusty to arch his brother, even referring to this trope by name. Rusty has a deep-rooted hatred for Jonas since he believes Jonas is supplanting him as his father's successor and is doing so without enduring the trauma and hard-work as Rusty did. However, Rusty ultimately subverts the trope by refusing to sign the arch-enemy contract against Jonas, when he realizes that his resentment against his brother could make him become just as bad as their father was.
• The Corruptor: Killinger acts as this for Rusty, Hank, and Dean. The majority of the episode is him molding Rusty into a supervillain, while he subtly encourages Hank and Dean towards some more murderous and selfish ways.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The Alchemist straps a very phallic laser ray to his lower half. When the laser ray fails to blow open a door, he comments about how this has never happened to him before.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Right when Rusty realizes just what Killinger is molding him into by offering the arch-enemy pact with Jonas Jr.
  Rusty: What!? My Brother!?
  Killinger: Bingo. Isn't it perfect? It's a classic Cain und Abel story.
  Rusty: Well...but...But he can't arch me. He's not even a super...Oh my god.
• Evil Costume Switch: Dr. Killinger attempts to give Rusty one as part of his intended Face–Heel Turn into villainy.
• Heel Realization: Rusty learns that he may not be as good as a person he thinks he is, Killinger reveals that Rusty has a deep-rooted issue with his brother that can turn him into an effective supervillain.
• Journey to the Center of the Mind: A brief one with Killinger sending Rusty back to a certain morning in his childhood where his "feelings of inadequacy" toward his father first came to be.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Killinger is again implied to be Dr. Henry Kissinger. This time, he even mentions that he worked directly with Richard Nixon, giving Nixon his first "power tie."
• No-Sell: Killinger is completely immune to Orpheus' magic.
• Psychic Nosebleed: Orpheus gets one when he tries (and fails) to read Killinger's mind with magic.
• Shout-Out:
  • Rusty's supervillain outfit is inspired by one that Lex Luthor wore and the goggles are reminiscent of DC Comics villain Captain Cold.
  • The scene where Killinger turns the union leaders to dust is a reference to Batman: The Movie.
  • Rusty explains that without an arch-enemy (The Monarch was forced to stop henching him at the end the previous season,) he says he is being attacked by every "Tom, Dick, and Skeletor."
  • When Rusty asks Dr. Killinger what is in his magic murder bag, Killinger replies "only what you take with you."
  • When Killinger takes blood from Rusty to sign his contract, Rusty says that he "took enough blood to make a KISS comic book." An actual KISS comic book was made with the band members' blood mixed into the ink.
  • Killinger quotes William Shakespeare's As You Like It at the end.
• Sleep Learning: Killinger takes a more active role in Hank and Deans usual usages of this, doing in person follow ups. That being said, we also see he's shifting the lessons slightly, encouraging Dean to take what he wants even if it belongs to others or if lethal force is needed.
• Sky Face: Dr. Killinger at the end, reciting Shakespeare's "all the world's a stage," then General Manhowers joins him and attributes it to The Bible.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Killinger's second major appearance so far in the series, and in it, he completely turns Venture Industries around overnight and nearly succeeds in making Rusty into a supervillain. No less impactful is him giving Rusty a much needed Heel Realization.
• Unions Suck: Rusty reveals that the "Super-Science" Laborers Union has been on strike for years, further crippling the already nearly bankrupt Venture Industries, who wouldn't be able to meet their demands anyway. A union forcing its members out of work for so long with no hope of actually accomplishing anything qualifies as "sucking". Dr. Killinger murders their leaders and hires a bunch of prisoners as scabs as part of a "work release" program, getting Venture Industries back up and running as part of his plan to convert Dr. Venture into a supervillain.
• What the Hell, Hero?: After receiving several prominent versions of these speeches in the series so far for some seriously reprehensible actions, Rusty could genuinely be seen as a Nominal Hero or even Villain Protagonist. Dr. Killinger tries to get him to take the next logical step by becoming a full-blown supervillain. Rusty turns it down, receiving a Heel Realization in the process.
• Who Writes This Crap?!: Quoted directly by Triana when rehearsing the lines Rusty wrote to impress Manhowers.
• You Got Murder: Lampshaded in The Stinger. Rusty is going through some old mail when he opens a large box containing a death threat from The Monarch, including a cobra jumping out of the box to bite him... except not really.