Episode - Season 5, Episode 3 (Production Code: 502)
First Aired - June 16, 2013
Act 1
The Cold Open begins with Gary, formerly Monarch Henchman #21, intercepting a tractor-trailer speeding down a desert roadway. Despite being only one man, he manages to do quite well, incapacitating the driver, stopping the truck, and gaining access to the contents of the trailer...much to the ire of Brock and Shoreleave, who turn out to be disguised as two of the henchmen in the back. As it turns out, they were deep undercover in an OSI sting operation to determine the secret hide out of the villain organization Long Division, the leader of which Gary just killed with the corpse of the only guy who knew the hideout's location. Gary retorts that he is only trying to carry on the legacy of SPHINX, of which he is the last remaining member after the others left to rejoin OSI, but Brock and Shore-leave remain unimpressed, with Brock confiscating Gary's crossbow.
Later, back at the Venture compound, Gary coaches Sgt. Hatred through neutralizing another one of Monarch's attacks, as Dr. Venture and Dean, still sullen over the discovery made during the Halloween Special, look on. Dr. Mrs. The Monarch suggests to the Monarch that #21/Gary may be responsible for the sabotage, but the Monarch remains adamant that 21 would never betray him, and orders the Cocoon's lunch room jettisoned in a panic, an opportunity that Gary uses to loot the discarded items for the Cocoon's apparently "awesome" buffalo wings. Meanwhile, several prospective new SPHINX members take notice of a recruitment ad Gary wrote up and posted online, including the former leader of the "old" SPHINX himself, and Hank, whose conversation with Gary over the phone about his "destiny" is mistaken for him scoring a date by Hatred and Dr. Venture. Venture, while proud that Hank apparently scored a girl, balks at "her" name, believing Destiny to be a "stripper's name" and that he is too young for her. The Monarch, wearing the face of an elderly, bald man, also takes notice of the ad, but fails to recognize Gary's penmanship despite the prompting of Dr. Mrs. The Monarch, who has also disguised herself in preparation for the Monarch's latest plan to sneak into the Venture compound and plant explosives.
The next scene is split between General Hunter Gathers and Gary giving a pep-talk to the new OSI and SPHINX, respectively. The new members of SPHINX also choose their code names: "Viceroy" (Gary), "Destiny" (Hank), "Windsong", "Diamond Backdraft", and "Daddy Warlord" (the former SPHINX Commander himself, and whom originally wanted to be called "SPHINX Commander" but was shot down to avoid being confused). With both Hunter Gathers' and Viceroy's orientation concluded, both speakers end with a promise to "fight the good fight!"
Act II
As the disguised Monarch and Dr. Mrs. The Monarch begin their infiltration of the Venture compound, posing as, er, "beaver inspectors," Hatred gets into an argument with Gary over the so-called Destiny that Hank has been speaking of. At Hatred's expressed desire to meet this "Destiny character", Gary calls "her" front-and-center, revealing a masked figure in very...feminine armor (and whom is actually Hank, though Hatred fails to realize this), along with the other fully suited-up SPHINX members. At Gary's incredulity at the sudden appearance of all the equipment, Windsong reveals they took it from the "Command-Gear Hold", which Gary had never heard of. Meanwhile, Hunter Gathers debriefs Brock and Shore-leave over the undercover operation that Gary accidentally blew. Despite the sting's failure, Brock does admit that they managed to take out "Short Division" (the child that Gary accidentally killed) and hobbled Long Division's operations fairly severely regardless, and admits Gary is surprisingly capable even solo. However, Gathers still orders SPHINX to be eliminated, as it is a threat to OSI operations.
Besides Hank, Gary's assembled team displays a remarkable proficiency and experience with SPHINX hardware; when they explain this away has having fought in the Pyramid Wars, Gary assumes they must be ex-OSI. Below the Venture compound, The Monarch and his wife continue their "beaver inspectors" charade, convincing Venture that the explosives they are planting are actually ultrasonic "deterrents" to ward off critters. Hatred, disheartened at Gary's apparent successes at being a better protector of Venture than he is, tries to talk it out with Dean, only to be interrupted by Gary "upping his game" and taking off in the SPHINX airship. However, all is not well aboard the airship, as the SPHINX crew stages a mutiny against Gary, revealing themselves to be the old SPHINX members from before the Pyramid Wars. As Gary kicks himself for not realizing sooner, the new Old Sphinx Commander takes his place at the command seat, he assures his "sweet Countess" (Hank/"Destiny") that "everything will be just as it was!"
As Hatred and Dean investigate the tunnels under the compound due to explosive sensor activations, Hatred tries to talk to Dean about "addictions," despite Dean's reassurances that he is fine and not doing anything unhealthy to cope with his current issues. Hatred's scanner detects the Monarch's explosives, and, explaining that the Monarch (and his henchmen) would often steal his equipment and repaint it as their own, assumes that Gary is the culprit as, in the skies above, Brock and Shoreleave detect the SPHINX airship headed towards the OSI base and move to intercept, wondering just what the hell Gary is thinking but unaware that he is no longer leading the operation.
Dr. Venture has meanwhile been regaling the "beaver inspectors" with old photos, until Hatred bursts in and requests to speak with Venture in private, leaving the Monarch and Dr. Mrs. The Monarch alone with the album. The Monarch takes the moment to flip through the album and make fun of Dr. Venture's embarrassing photos, but then comes across a photo that causes him to shout in outrage, at the same time that Venture shouts in outrage over the "explosive" discovery, which prompts Dr. Mrs. The Monarch to have them both flee.
Aboard the SPHINX airship, Windsong reveals to a captured Hank and Gary how they came across Gary's ad, and that their plan was prompted by their SPHINX cyanide implants expiring, reckoning they have less than a year before they activate and kill them and any other surviving members of the old guard for good, and they plan on going out with a bang by doing a suicide attack on the OSI base. He then explains that the SPHINX Commander may have gone a little...off the deep end after the original "Countess" broke up with him, explaining his strange behavior towards Hank in his strength armor, which used to belong to the Countess. However, this just reminds Hank that he's wearing strength armor, which he uses to help himself and Gary escape so that they may sabotage SPHINX's suicide run against OSI, with Gary going to find and hopefully shut down the engines while Hank confronts the Commander. On the ground, Hatred has an almost helpful talk with Dean regarding growing up and moving on with life regardless of its difficulties. He and Hatred plant the discovered Monarch explosives at the door to the SPHINX base. As Dr. Mrs. The Monarch prepares to detonate the explosives, the Monarch is still obsessing over the picture he found. He reveals that it is a picture of him; or rather, a much younger him, playing with an equally young Rusty as his and Rusty's parents look on. Even more distressingly, the Monarch says that he has absolutely no memory of this.
Brock and Shoreleave successfully intercept the SPHINX airship, landing aboard it. While Shoreleave rounds up the SPHINX Commander's cohorts, Brock goes to the bridge, where he finds the Commander with Hank, still in the golden Countess armor, sitting on his lap. The Commander, who is completely delusional by this point, explains that he has overridden the "Countess'" strength armor controls so that the wearer (in this case, Hank), is unable to attack him and is helpless in his clutches as a, uh, companion and human shield. Thankfully, Brock is able to defuse the situation with a well-placed crossbow bolt, killing the Commander and ending the SPHINX attack for good. After the battle, as Shore-leave hauls the captured SPHINX hijackers away to OSI custody, Brock approaches Gary, who is despondent over his part in the attack and his inability to contribute to thwarting it. Feeling sorry for him, he gives Gary his crossbow back, staying that he uses it better than he would.
The Stinger has both OSI and the Monarch counting down, with the former counting down to scuttling of the SPHINX airship, and the latter counting down to the detonation of the explosives they planted. When they hit zero, the airship is destroyed to the celebration of OSI (and the dismay of Gary), and the Monarch and Dr. Mrs. The Monarch look on in confusion as the only thing on the Venture compound that is destroyed is the old SPHINX headquarters on the corner of the property, both events signaling an end to SPHINX once and for all.
- Affectionate Parody: G.I. Joe. (McCulloch even tops it off with a decent high-and-raspy Cobra Commander impression.)
- Answer Cut: When Gary helps Sgt. Hatred thwart the Monarch's impending attack, he speculates (based on the time of day and entrance trajectory), that the Monarch is going to do something with "acid or a magnet". It then cuts to the Monarch commanding "READY THE ACID MAGNET!"
- Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Gary, as the sole remaining member of SPHINX, predicts to Sgt. Hatred The Monarch's new weapon gimmick based on his apparent tactics. He guesses that it's either something with acid or some kind of magnet. Cut to The Monarch, ordering his minions to "ready the acid magnet!"
- Butt-Monkey: Gary. The main theme of the episode is that he genuinely has at least Sgt. Hatred levels of badass, but can't put it to any good use. Brock does let him keep the crossbow at the end.
- Cyanide Pill: Old team SPHINX have cyanide implants in their heads. And they have maybe a year before they expire and kill them.
- Death of a Child: Played for laughs, as is par for the show. Gary (accidentally) kills an 8-year-old with the corpse of another guy in the Cold Open. The kid is a villain and, per Shoreleave, went through five packs a day and was "an a-hole".
- Forgot About His Powers: When locked up by the old SPHINX members, Hank is reminded that he is wearing the Countess' "strength suit" and then easily rips the door off of the cell.
- I Have You Now, My Pretty: The SPHINX Commander does this to Hank, having completely soared off the deep end and, having deluded himself into thinking Hank is the Countess, his ex-girlfriend, disabling Hank's strength armor and making him sit in his lap.
- Meaningful Name: Gary chooses "Viceroy" as his codename. A viceroy is a species of butterfly which looks virtually identical to the monarch butterfly.
- No Indoor Voice: SPHINX Commander only speaks at a shouting volume, even when spying on his ex:Bypasser: You're waking up the whole block with that screaming. What are you doin'?
SPHINX Commander: MY GIRLFRIEND LIVES THERE!
Bypasser: Why are you still screaming? - Powered Armor: The SPHINX "Countess" suit that Hank takes. It enhances his physical abilities, like being able to rip a cell door off its hinges.
- The Punishment Is the Crime: Brock and Shoreleave decide this applies to Gary's bad decision to re-revive SPHINX.Shore Leave: Wow, it's so depressing, just look at him. I suddenly get why my dad used to say, "I'm not gonna punish you. You've punished yourself enough."
- Single-Target Sexuality: SPHINX Commander has an extreme case of this for the Countess, to the point that he treats Hank as her because he's wearing her armor.
- Spanner in the Works: Gary compromises a deep-cover OSI mission in the Cold Open. (Their cover isn't actually blown, but they couldn't complete the mission.) Afterwards, he instructs Sgt. Hatred on how to disable the Monarch's Cocoon from the outside with a rifle and later attempts to stop the SPHINX attack on OSI.
- Villainous Breakdown:
- The Monarch finds a picture in Doc's photo album showing them playing together as children that... really throws him for a loop. Enough so that Dr. Mrs. The Monarch has to take over command for him.
- SPHINX Commander seems to have absolutely nothing left in his life anymore except this, and apparently has been going through an extended one ever since the Countess left him.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Gary thinks that owning SPHINX makes him some kind of Action Hero, but Shoreleave only expected him to use the hot tub or something.
