Part one, of "The Morphic Trilogy". The Venture compound is apparently haunted by ghosts, leading Dean to summon the Order of the Triad for help. Meanwhile Hank is harassed by Wide Wale's guards for dating Sirena.
- Alternate History: Per Hatred's comments while giving the museum tour at the beginning, Col. Lloyd Venture (Rusty's grandfather) was the actual first person on the moon way back in 1902.
- And I Must Scream: Jonas Sr.'s mind was conscious the whole time inside the "Problem Light" from Gargantua-1.
- The Big Rotten Apple: Jefferson complains that his blood-eye has been going off since they hit Jersey, indicating that New York is swarming with Blackulas (or vampires of other races, too).
- The Bus Came Back: After being absent for all of season 6 and having little to no appearances in season 5, the Triad makes their grand return.
- Butt-Monkey: Both Dean and Brock suffer the most during the night of hauntings while Rusty deals with more mild annoyances than the sheer terror everyone else goes through.
- Call-Back: Hank revives his criminal persona Enrico Matassa from Momma's Boys.
- Cerebus Call-Back: The Problem Light from Careers in Science turns out to be a life prolonging device carrying the body of Jonas Venture the entire time. When it lit up, it indicated that Jonas was regaining consciousness.
- Chekhov's Gun: The "Problem Light" from Careers in Science.
- Cliffhanger: The episode ends after Pete White hysterically severs Jonas' life support with an axe causing an anguished response that shakes the whole building. Orpheus divines that he's trying to run away.
- Comically Missing the Point: Sgt. Hatred's main concern upon the reveal of the true nature of the Problem Light is that his tour script will need to be completely re-written.
- Demonic Possession: H.E.L.P.e.R. is victim to one.
- Double-Meaning Title: "The Haunted Problem" refers to both Team Venture dealing with a seemingly paranormal haunting and the PROBLEM light from Gargantua-1.
- Hollywood Hacking: Discussed and mostly averted. White troubleshoots the Ventech system by plugging in a thumb drive, which runs a program which he points out is gonna take such a long time you might as well leave and get lunch. Much hacking, very drama. (But by the end of the episode, things get much more dramatic when he does some literal hacking.)Billy: Boy, hacker movies always make this seem way more exciting.
Pete: Yeah, without the dramatic close-ups and, like, a booming techno score, real-life hacking is just… typing. - Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In a fit of panic, Pete White severs Jonas Sr.'s body, causing the whole building to go haywire.
- Oh, Crap!: The second Billy mentions Sharky's Machine, Old Team Venture realize shit is going down, even Misha.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Billy promptly leaves the compound once he realizes that ghosts really are haunting the building. He comes back later though.
- Seriously Scruffy: After getting knocked out by a possessed H.E.L.P.e.R. and then apparently going back to doing some counter-hacking while possibly concussed, White reappears with Exhausted Eye Bags and frizzy hair, and he's wearing a sweaty undershirt with his jacket tied around his waist. All the better to look really feral while charging in with an axe.
- Shout-Out:
- When attempting to source the apparent hack, White mentions the characters "Acid Burn" and "Zero Cool" from Hackers.
- Sharky's Machine and the song Street Life by The Crusaders
from its soundtrack are mentioned repeatedly. The first is a Cerebus Call-Back to Careers in Science as the movie playing on Gargantua-1 during the "movie night massacre". - Jonas Sr.'s preserved head and the innards of the PROBLEM machine are visually based on the android Ash in Alien.
- Tranquilizer Dart: Col. Gentleman's cane can fire them. He uses one on Rose when they realize the source of the problem Billy is describing.
- Wham Episode: The episode ends with the reveal that Wide Wale has finally captured the Monarch/Blue Morpho, and the Ventures find out that the source of their ghost problem is Jonas Sr. who's still alive.
- The Worf Effect: Brock is scared-shitless about their paranormal sightings and is completely incapable of dealing with them. Dean lampshades this when talking to Orpheus.Dean: That's how serious this is! It's scare-a-Brock spooky!
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Just when it seems like Rusty and Jonas Sr. are finally about to reunite after thirty years, Pete White storms in with an axe.
