Episode - Season 5, Episode 1 (Production Code: 501)
First Aired - June 9, 2013
Breakfast at the Venture Compound is rudely interrupted when a military helicopter lands on the Ventures’ roof and a team of soldiers rappels through the kitchen window. The soldiers hand Dr. Venture a “jPad” (an iPad expy developed by Jonas Jr.), which connects him via webcam to General Manhowers. The General explains that one of the inventions Dr. Venture sold to the military has malfunctioned, and Doc is needed to repair it. As it turns out, the invention is none other than Venturestein from Viva los Muertos.
During this briefing, Hank sneaks a sip of coffee while cleaning the dishes, and immediately goes into caffeine mode.
Dean declines to join in the adventure this time, leaving Doc, Sgt. Hatred, and a very jittery Hank to fly alone to Central America. While en route, General Manhowers explains further that Venturestein and the rest of the undead soldiers Venture created were assigned to infiltrate and destroy a “communist uprising” (actually a shoe factory workers’ strike). However, Venturestein apparently went rogue and deserted. Venture is ordered to either convince Venturestein to return, or destroy him using the jPad’s built-in timebomb app.
The briefing is suddenly interrupted when the X1 is attacked by a giant pterosaur. Hank immediately bails out using a jetpack (having mistaken it for a parachute), and is sent hurtling away. Hatred eventually manages to shoot the pterosaur off with his handgun, causing them to crash land in the rainforest.
Back at the Compound, Dean finds H.E.L.P.eR. moping in the yard, and realizes that he isn't happy with his walking-eye body. Dean decides to restore his original body, but his work is interrupted; first by a campaign visit from incumbent Congresswoman Marsha Backwater (who mistakes Dean for a Latino gardener), and second by H.E.L.P.eR. suddenly bolting out the door in response to a homing beacon that Doc has activated.
Doc and Hatred have survived the crash without issue, but Hank is nowhere to be found. Before they can plan further, a trio of rifle-toting, sneaker-wearing animal-human hybrids emerge from the rainforest to investigate the crash. Hatred and Doc are swiftly discovered and taken prisoner. Meanwhile, Hank awakens from his own crash landing in a nearby coffea plantation. He begins recording a “war journal” while voraciously devouring coffea fruit by the handful.
The next morning, Doc wakes up to find himself face-to-face with Venturestein, whose speaking ability has vastly improved since his first appearance (his penchant for strangling people, less so). Venturestein refuses to return to the military, and describes how he has found a purpose in his ragtag band of mutant misfits, many of whom were liberated from other mad scientists operating in the surrounding rainforest. Venturestein implores Doc to appeal to the rest of the scientific community on their behalf. Doc tries to surreptitiously activate the jPad bomb, but Venturestein is not fooled, and has him and Hatred locked up.
Meanwhile, Hank descends into caffeinated madness and, after discovering a shrine to the Mayan bat-god Camaztotz, fashions himself a crude Batman-esque costume and begins terrorizing Venturestein’s militia.
Using the jPad, Venturestein makes a broadcast declaring the founding of a new “abomi-nation”: United Repressed Grotesque Humanity (or U.R.G.H.). He calls on all mutants and monsters to escape the mad scientists who created them and to come join him. However, many of the other, more militant mutants are openly skeptical of this idea, and are more concerned with what to do about “the Bat” that has been attacking them.
The most vocal of the detractors, a cheetah-man named Karl, declares himself the new leader and leads the rest of the militia into the rainforest to hunt the Bat. Hank handily ambushes the hunting party, however, and doubles back to the mutants’ unguarded compound, where he retrieves both the jPad and, with Venturestein’s help, the keys to Doc and Hatred’s cell. Pursued by Karl and his comrades, the trio flee through the rainforest to the beach. Hank attempts to use the jPad bomb against their foes, but to no avail; as it turns out, the humid rainforest is no place for sophisticated electronics.
Hank finally comes down off his caffeine high and collapses. Surrounded by the angry mutants, Venture pleads for his life, but is rescued in the nick of time by both the sudden arrival of H.E.L.P.eR. and the timely appearance of several boats full of mutants, all come to join U.R.G.H. Venturestein declares the start of a new era of peace for all abominations.
At that moment, Marsha Backwater arrives by helicopter, determined to rescue Doctor Venture and his potential vote. She promptly stumbles upon the discarded jPad, which then explodes in her hand. Doc casually boasts that he can fix her.
The stinger shows a re-animated Marsha Backwater appearing before the United Nations on behalf of U.R.G.H. Meanwhile, Dean has finally restored H.E.L.P.eR.’s old body, much to the detriment of his musical ability. Hank and Dermott are not amused.
Tropes
- Brick Joke:
- When Hatred is being chased by Karl, Dr. Venture tells him to climb a tree since cheetahs can't climb very well due to their non-retractable claws. Later, Karl tries climbing up a tree to pursue The Bat (Hank) and slips down after a short way up.
- During the cold open, Doc references an incident where Hank had some dark chocolate and was kept up for two nights building murphy beds around the compound. A few minutes later, Dean accidentally stumbles across one and gets pinned to the floor.
- The Bus Came Back: Venturestein, having last appeared back in season two.
- Call-Back:
- RICO from A Very Venture Halloween
- During Sgt. Hatred's flashback, General Treister's son appears (courtesy of "Take Your Son to Work Day"). The younger Treister would later administer Brock's O.S.I. renewal exam.
- Flipping the Bird: General Manhowers does this to Rusty after he demands reparations for the Army invading the Venture Compound.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Combined with a Bilingual Bonus. In Sgt. Hatred's flashback we can see a clipboard with his real name on it - C.R. Haine. "Haine" is French for "hatred" (The C., as we learned not long ago, stands for Courtney).
- Guilt-Induced Nightmare: While imprisoned in the U.R.G.H. camp, Sgt. Hatred has a nightmare about the day he was injected with the super soldier serum, which is implied to have also been the catalyst for his pedophilia.
- I Choose to Stay: Upon waking up, Hatred decides he wants to stay with U.R.G.H, as it's a safe haven for those who have been experimented upon like him, with the added bonus of there being no children on the island. However, he changes his mind as soon as Karl commands the gunmen he leads to slaughter the Ventures.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: The U.R.G.H gunmen try and shoot at the Ventures when they escape, but they run past the bullets with little issue.
- Outcast Refuge: "U.R.G.H" is a safe haven for experiments they've "liberated" from Mad Scientists including various mutant Beast Men hybrids and resurrected dinosaurs. By the end of the episode, they are joined by numerous other mutants who arrive by boat and appeal to the United Nations for recognition.
- Sequel Episode: To Viva Los Muertos. Venturestein makes a return while Ted and Sonny, killed in that episode, appear at the U.R.G.H. base.
- Shout-Out:
- Hank's line about "[if] he's in a pair of bicycle shorts talking about'Tears in the Rain'" is a reference to Blade Runner.
- Among the freaks who migrate to U.R.G.H are the Robot Monster and The Human Centipede.
- During Venturestein's speech, Jan from The Brain That Wouldn't Die and her mutant companion are briefly seen.
- Hank dictates into his "war journal" but eventually starts adding stardates to it before he becomes "The Bat."
- One of Hank's Star Dates is 2112.
- Venturestein's militia includes Smokey the Bear, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and a pair of Oompa-Loompas.
- Two of the freaks look pretty similar to Bebop and Rocksteady in the way they dress, except that the Rocksteady lookalike is a hippo instead of a rhino.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Turu the Pteranodon and the Giant Crab are the only Abominations that are killed off and are the least humanoid. Somewhat discussed as Turu is mourned heavily by their comrades.
