Recap / The Venture Bros S 4 E 10 Pomp And Circuitry

Episode - Season 4, Episode 10 (Production Code: 4-48)

First Aired - September 19, 2010

Hank and Dean are being taught their final lesson in their learning beds. They are then congratulated by Jonas Venture Sr. and the original Team Venture in the video on graduating (with Rusty's voice superimposing their names over his own in the video.) The boys awaken, Hank sleeping the other way around while wearing earplugs and a sleeping mask, to find Dean's diploma printing out of his bed.

The Council of 13 is discussing trying to find a replacement member for Councilman 8 (Dragoon.) He, now sharing a screen with the attached Councilman 3 (Red Mantle,) argues that he is still present and doesn't need to be replaced. The Council argues that his screen is blank, however, and it makes them look bad. As they argue, the camera pans down into the depths of the council hall where a limbless and bearded Phantom Limb is having a conversation with Wisdom, a previous broken coffee mug that he at some point glued back together. Two guards enter his cell and take the cup away, back to a filing cabinet with his other possessions, including his missing limbs. Limb, who is apparently able to control his severed invisible limbs telepathically, uses them (along with Lady Nightshade, the shoe, and Chuck, the toaster) to kill the guards. His limbs return to his cell and reattach to his body, still leaving him without one arm and one leg (previously lost permanently in Showdown at Cremation Creek Pt. 2.) His escape goes undetected, due to Watch and Ward, who were tasked with watching the cameras, being terrorized by a large flying bug.

Billy Quizboy is working with Hank and Dean in the Venture kitchen, prepping them for college. He has them each write out a list of "dream jobs," but Hank's are mostly impossible or stupid. Dr. Venture enters the kitchen and tries to pressure Dean into the family career as a super-scientist. Billy explains to Venture just how unprepared the boys are for life in the real world, and, reading the learning bed transcripts, discovers that Hank didn't graduate. Venture, enraged, demands that Hank go back to his bed until he graduates, but Hank instead decides that he's going to run off and join the army. Hatred congratulates him and says that joining the army will be the best choice he ever made, but Hank says he's not joining "that army."

In New York City, outside of the Impossible building, several homeless people are seen, including a disheveled Baron Ünderbheit with Manservant. A security guard moves in to shoo them away when one of them, Phantom Limb, jumps up and kills him. Limb disguises himself as the guard to sneak into the building. Inside Prof. Impossible's office, the professor is stretched all around the room and stopped working in despair of losing his wife. Limb enters and tries talking Impossible into a partnership between them when Impossible's arch, a villain named Phineas Phage, attacks. He tries to talk Impossible out of his slump in order to fight him, but then sees and recognizes Phantom Limb. Phage tries to escape to alert the Guild of Limb's whereabouts, but Limb has Impossible launch him like a slingshot in order to stop Phage. Afterward, in slightly better spirits, Impossible agrees to help Limb.

Hank enters the SPHINX headquarters looking to sign up. Brock is on a SPHINX mission beneath Vatican City with a rookie agent for a partner. The rookie botches the opening of a security door, and the duo is set upon by "Vatican Karate Gorillas." Hank accidentally cuts off communication between Gathers and Brock, leaving Brock alone to deal with the gorillas. Gathers berates Hank and dismisses him as a recruit. Hank gives an impassioned speech detailing his exploits as a boy adventurer qualifying him to join, so Gathers relents and allows him to train.

Dr. Venture and Dean are on their way to State University to enroll Dean, while Prof. Impossible and Phantom Limb are on their way there as well to recover the blueprints for the machine that gave Limb his powers originally. A montage plays of Hank passing all his tests at SPHINX headquarters interspliced with Phage, who apparently survived, giving testimony to the Guild about Limb.

Venture and Dean are in the office of the college dean, trying to get Dean enrolled as a "legacy" student. The dean explains that since Venture didn't graduate, Dean doesn't qualify. He also mentions how Venture blew up a building while in college and that he never received Dean's application, which Venture didn't bother filling out.

Brock returns from his mission, covered in blood, berating the rookie for nearly getting them killed. Shoreleave and Gathers joke that they are training his new partner right now and point to the memory wiping machine. Inside is Hank, supposedly having his memory wiped after surprisingly passing all of SPHINX's tests. However, he reveals that he used a tin foil hat to prevent his mind from being wiped.

A new building is being dedicated on campus and Impossible, who was not expected to attend, arrives to give a speech. First, he visits the bathroom to free Limb, who was absorbed in Impossible's stretch body. Impossible gives the speech to distract everyone while Limb searches for the blueprints, which he finds. However, the Guild's "Diamond Dogs" have caught up with him. They play a projected message from the Sovereign telling Limb to surrender, but he refuses. He takes out the Diamond Dogs as a group of Guild Strangers arrives. Despite having only one good arm and one good leg, Limb is able to fend them off in a large battle. Outside, Impossible uses his stretching powers to distract the crowd as the battle rages behind him. Limb manages to escape with the blueprints and is absorbed by Impossible, who flees.

The Ventures are being escorted from campus, with Dean having been rejected, when the new building is blown up as a result of the Limb/Guild battle. Venture claims that "it wasn't me this time."

Back at the compound, Brock consoles a sobbing Hank who has been rejected by SPHINX. Brock explains that Hank shouldn't want his life, and that he's taken a lot of mental and physical abuse over his years a secret agent. He also says that a high school diploma is required to join SPHINX. Hank bangs his head on the printer part of the bed, causing his crumpled-up diploma to print out. Hank excitedly shows it to Brock, but Brock adds that you also have to be 18. Hank goes back to pounding his head as the credits roll.

The Stinger shows Phantom Limb, all four of his limbs restored by Impossible, congratulating the professor on their success. Impossible is in a new black suit and reveals his new moniker: "Professor Incorrigible." Limb tries to dissuade him from using that name while Impossible thinks up some alternatives, each beginning with the letter "I." Limb talks about starting their own organization of supervillains when Baron Ünderbheit enters and asks to join them.

Tropes:

• The Bus Came Back: Baron Ünderbheit in the Stinger, having last appeared back in season two.
• Cargo Ship: Invoked between Phantom Limb and "Lady Nightshade", one of Dr. Mrs. the Monarch's high-heeled shoes with which he has "conjugal visits"...
• Continuity Nod: The list of villains under Freeze-Frame Bonus is almost entirely comprised of villains who have been seen or mentioned at some point on the show.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Hank passes every test SPHINX throws at him.
• Detachment Combat: Phantom Limb can apparently control and reattach his limbs when severed.
• Early-Bird Cameo:
  • See those three guys in suits on the stage behind the speakers at the university representing the General Consolidated Insurance company? Yeah, they're going to become important soon.
  • For the villain names listed under the Freeze-Frame Bonus who aren't Continuity Nods, most will appear in upcoming episodes.
• Evil Costume Switch: Professor Impossible changes the color of his regular suit and paints his eyes to match the Phantom Limb's. He also replaces his Distinguished Gentleman's Pipe with a skull one.
• Face–Heel Turn: Prof. Impossible
• Fastball Special: Phantom Limb launches himself from the stretch Prof. Impossible to catch up to and stop the fleeing Phage.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: A list of names on the wall of the Guild filing room can be seen very briefly. The names include: Manaconda, Laser Zeppelin, Crime-O-Dile, Omega Ape, Half-Jackal, Skorpio, Stormfront, Dr. Mrs. the Monarch (handwritten over a crossed out Dr. Girlfriend,) Phantom Limb, Suggesto, Iron Anvil, Mommy Longlegs, Tigerriffic, Flying Squid, King Gorilla, Perhiphero, Phage, Baron Ünderbheit, Nat King Cobra, Human Zoo, Mr. Plygamy, Fat Chance, Vain Gloria, Tiny Joseph, Laser Floyd, Helicoptro, Tiny Eagle, The Zoocreeper, Sgt. Hatred, Rick Danger, Franklin Mint, Unicornelius, Notorious Headface, Troublemaster, The Living Hell.
• Handicapped Badass: Phantom Limb, with just one arm, one leg, and one testicle, goes up against an army of robotic Diamond Dogs, Guild Foot Soldiers, and 15-foot robots. It doesn't end well for the army.
• No Historical Figures Were Harmed: Professor Impossible's mental breakdown strongly recalls Howard Hughes.
• Not Me This Time: While meeting with Rusty and Dean, the dean of the school states that he still believes Rusty is responsible for blowing up a building while in college. (The same incident that blew off Ünderbheit's jaw that was really the Monarch trying to kill Rusty.) When the fighting between the villains blows up another building, Rusty quickly tells this to the dean.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Phantom Limb makes such a reference when convincing Richard to join him as a supervillain. Limb was once a "goodie two-shoes scientist" before the accident that gave him his powers, much like Richard, and Limb even points out that, thanks to Richard's For Science! attitude, he wasn't all that far off from being a villain anyway.
• Obfuscating Insanity: Phantom Limb reveals that he was merely waiting for the best chance to strike before escaping the Guild's prison.
• Shout-Out:
  • Phantom Limb mentally controlling his severed limbs from a distance echoes the ability of Marvel villain Doctor Octopus and one of the ways he escaped from prison when it was assumed simply removing the belt containing his mechanical arms would depower him.
  • Billy describes the information taught by the learning beds to be "more dated than Funk and Wagnalls," an out-of-print encyclopedia.
  • When Hank shows up in the SPHINX hideout, Gathers shouts "this ain't the Honeycomb Fucking Hideout!" A reference to the home of the Honeycomb cereal mascot.
  • Gathers also calls Hank "Heidi" when he accidentally cuts communications with Brock. This is a reference to the infamous "Heidi game," a National Football League game in 1968 that NBC cut away from in the final deciding minutes to show a made-for-tv movie version of Heidi.
  • When Billy tells Dr. Venture that the boys have no real-world experience, Venture replies that they've been "around the globe more times than Gaetan Dugas." Dugas was a promiscuous homosexual flight attendant who was thought to have been largely responsible for the spread of HIV among the North American gay community (although more recent research has shown that the idea of Dugas as "Patient Zero" was based on misunderstood science).
  • When Phantom Limb asks David Bowie "who died and made you Sovereign?," Bowie says that it was his predecessor, Force Majeure, which is a reference to the Tangerine Dream album of the same name.
  • When Brock is chewing out Gathers for the incompetence of the "new recruit", he asks if the recruit came from the Albert Merrill School, which offered computer, electrical, and engineering training to individuals without a high school diploma. The school was successfully sued for admitting students it knew could never pass its courses (such as those who did not speak English).
  • Phineas Phage is named after Phineas Gage. Gage is famous for surviving an unlikely accident which destroyed much of his brain. The details of his recovery (and subsequent personality changes) provided compelling evidence for the theory that regions of the brain are specialized for particular functions.
• Start My Own: Phantom Limb creating his own supervillain group with Prof. Impossible and Baron Ünderbheit to compete with the Guild.
• The Bus Came Back: For Baron Ünderbheit, who last appeared some 29 episodes ago in Season 2.