History Recap / TheVentureBrosS5E3SphinxRising

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 [[CloningBlues 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 ColdOpen 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 Shore-leave, 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 re-join OSI, but Brock and Shore-leave remain unimpressed, with Brock confiscating Gary's crossbow.

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!"

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 orders SPHINX to be eliminated regardless, 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 Dr. Mrs. The Monarch continue their "beaver inspectors" charade, convincing Venture that the explosives they are planting are actually ultrasonic "deterrents" to ward the critters off. 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!"

Brock and Shore-leave successfully intercept the SPHINX airship, landing aboard it. While Shore-leave rounds up the SPHINX Commander's cohorts, Brock goes to the bridge, where he finds the Commander with Hank, still in the 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.

* DeathOfAChild: Played for laughs, as is par for the show. Gary (accidentally) kills an 8 year old with the corpse of another guy in the ColdOpen. The kid is a villain and, per Shore-leave, went through five packs a day and was "an a-hole".
* ForgotAboutHisPowers: 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.
* IHaveYouNowMyPretty: The SPHINX Commander does this to ''Hank'', having completely soared off the deep end and, having deluded himself into thinking Hank is his ex-girlfriend the Countess, disabling Hank's strength armor and making him sit in his lap.

* WrongGenreSavvy: Gary thinks that owning Sphinx makes him some kind of ActionHero, but Shore Leave only expected him to use the hot tub or something.

* NoIndoorVoice: SPHINX Commander only speaks at a shouting volume, even when spying on his ex-wife.
--->'''Bypasser:''' You're waking up the whole block with that screaming. What are you doin'?\\

* DeathOfAChild: Played for laughs, as is par for the show. Gary (accidentally) kills an 8 year old with the corpse of another guy in the ColdOpen. The kid is a villain and, per Shoreleave, is "an a-hole".

** SPHINX Commander seems to have absolutely ''nothing'' left in his life anymore.

Brock and Shore-leave successfully intercept the SPHINX airship, landing aboard it. While Shore-leave rounds up the SPHINX Commander's cohorts, Brock goes to the bridge, where he finds the extremely deluded Commander, with Hank, still in the Countess armor, on his lap. The Commander, still extremely deluded, explains that he has overridden the "Countess'" strength armor controls, rendering the wearer (in this case, Hank), helpless in his clutches as a 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.

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 [[CloningBlues 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 it 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.

Later, back at the Venture compound, Gary coaches Sgt. Hatred through neutralizing another one of Monarch's attacks on the compound, as Dr. Venture and a sullen Dean 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 it 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.

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 [[CyanidePill 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, which actually helps Dean reconcile a little with the big secret he discovered during the Halloween special. 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.

Our adventure 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 Shore-leave, 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 re-join OSI, but Brock and Shore-leave remain unimpressed.

Later, back at the Venture compound, Gary coaches Sgt. Hatred through neutralizing another one of Monarch's attacks on the compound, as Dr. Venture and a sullen Dean 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 it 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.

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 orders SPHINX to be eliminated regardless, 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 Dr. Mrs. the Monarch continue their "beaver inspectors" charade, convincing Venture that the explosives they are planting are actually ultrasonic "deterrents" to ward the critters off. 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!"

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 [[CyanidePill 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. On the ground, Hatred has an ''almost'' helpful talk with Dean regarding growing up, which actually helps Dean reconcile a little with the big secret he discovered during the Halloween special. He and Hatred plant the discovered Monarch explosives at the door to the SPHINX base.

%%(will continue this in a few hours, don't touch!)

* ButtMonkey: 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.
** ThrowTheDogABone: Brock lets him keep the crossbow at the end.

* DeathOfAChild: Played for laughs, as is par for the show. Gary (accidentally) kills an 8 year old with the corpse of another guy in the ColdOpen.

* VillainousBreakdown: The Monarch finds a picture in Doc's photo album that... really throws him for a loop. Enough so that Dr. Mrs. The Monarch has to take over command for him.
** He's got nothing on SPHINX Commander, though, who seems to have absolutely nothing left in his life anymore.

* InfantImmortality: Averted for laughs, as is par for the show. Gary (accidentally) kills an 8 year old with the corpse of another guy in the ColdOpen.

* ButtMonkey: 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.

* GenreSavvy: Gary knows the Monarch's MO inside and out. Even Doc thinks he's more effective than Hatred at dealing with him.

* AffectionateParody: WesternAnimation/GIJoe
* ButtMonkey: 24.
* SpannerInTheWorks: 24 compromises a deep-cover investigation in the ColdOpen.
* WrongGenreSavvy: 24 thinks that owning Sphinx means that he's some kind of ActionHero, but Brock only expected him to use the hot tub.

First Aired - June 16, 2013