| "Dia de Los Dangerous!" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| The Venture Bros. episode | |||
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| Episode no. |
Season 1 Episode 1 | ||
| Directed by | Jackson Publick | ||
| Written by | Jackson Publick | ||
| Production code | 1-01 | ||
| Original air date | August 7, 2004 | ||
| Episode Chronology | |||
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| List of The Venture Bros. episodes | |||
Dia de los Dangerous! is the first episode of Season 1 and the overall first episode of The Venture Bros.
Plot
Dr. Venture is appearing as a guest lecturer at a Community University in Tijuana, Mexico, although his audience consists only of a few bored students. Venture concludes his presentation and finds that the low turnout may be because today is the Día de los Muertos traditional holiday (also known as "Day of the Dead"). Brushing off the apology, he asks for his fee, is pleased with the number but is disappointed to find that it is in Mexican pesos. Stepping outside, Venture finds that even his bodyguard Brock Samson is indifferent to his "speech thing." Hank Venture and Dean Venture, his annoyingly perky fraternal twin sons, approach and enthusiastically point out the sombreros and sugar skulls they have acquired.
A seemingly innocuous butterfly that settles on Venture's shoulder is actually a tiny robotic spy drone for The Monarch, the super-scientist's self-avowed archenemy. The villain complains to Dr. Girlfriend, his second-in-command and romantic interest, that Venture must have followed him to Mexico in hope of foiling his latest plan, and that one of his henchman must have betrayed him. Without any proof, The Monarch tranquilizes and fires Henchman 37. The Monarch then orders a young henchman-cadet named Speedy (his henchman ranking unknown) to lead a group (which includes Henchman 24) in observing Dr. Venture. Eager to earn his wings, Speedy is further delighted to be entrusted with the keys to the "Monarch-mobile."
Dr. Venture gives his sons some money and tells them to buy fireworks (or anything else to get them away from him) and sets off on his actual goal of acquiring questionable prescriptions. The doctor he finds is reluctant despite his run-down office, and Venture offers him $100 American dollars as a bribe.
On their own for the day, Hank and Dean decide to take H.E.L.P.eR. to a car-painting garage. Speedy, impatient to prove himself to his boss, urges his fellow henchmen to capture the teens. They knock out Hank and Dean with tranquilizer darts, but Brock spots them loading the unconscious teens into The Monarch-mobile. The panicked henchmen shoot the enraged, charging bodyguard with dozens of tranquilizers, but they seem to have no effect on him. He grabs the closest henchman, who happens to be Speedy, and begins strangling him one-handed. In desperation, The Monarch-mobile's driver throws the vehicle into reverse and slams into the enraged Samson, finally knocking him down. Brock has maintained his iron grip around Speedy's throat, however; when his fellow henchmen are unable to free him, they shoot Speedy in the neck with a dart to quiet his doomed struggle.
Back in the Cocoon lair, The Monarch is initially furious that his henchmen defied his orders. He then asks where Speedy is. One of the henchmen sadly reveals that he died during the ambush. The Monarch (along with the other henchmen) is saddened after hearing, but is still angered that they defied him and explains to them that Samson would find them and kill them all. His anger turns to delight when they inform him that Brock Samson is now dead. Without Dr. Venture's "Swedish murder machine" to worry about, The Monarch can demand anything he wants from Dr. Venture using his sons as hostages. He takes one of the boys' satellite-linked Communicator Watches and attempts to contact his foe. When Dr. Venture does not answer, The Monarch records a message.
After having a nightmare in which another embryo annoys him in the womb, Dr. Venture wakes up in a bathtub full of ice with a note taped to his chest and bandages around his midsection. The note tells him that he should seek immediate medical attention, and he discovers that one of his kidneys has been stolen. Upon reflection, Dr. Venture realizes that this is the second kidney he has lost to theft, leaving him without kidneys entirely. When Brock fails to answer his communicator watch, Dr. Venture summons H.E.L.P.eR. instead, who now has a number of Hispanic-flavored automotive decorations. The doctor clambers onto the robot's back and tells it to take him to the X-1, where he modifies H.E.L.P.eR. to act as a dialysis machine. Meanwhile, in the Cocoon, Hank and Dean are confronted by The Monarch, but are uncertain to who he is, as they thought that Baron Ünderbheit was their father's nemesis; this only serves to annoy The Monarch. When Dr. Venture attempts to locate Brock again, he notices the dozens of messages The Monarch has left describing his abduction of Hank and Dean. Using the signal from Brock's watch as a beacon, H.E.L.P.eR. carries Venture through the Mexican desert. The doctor is horrified to find that the indicator leads directly to a shallow grave marked only with Brock's combat knife.
Lying in bed (but still in full costume), The Monarch displays clear signs of agitation, prompting Dr. Girlfriend to ask him to talk to her. At first he vents about Venture's seeming indifference towards his sons, but Girlfriend senses something deeper and asks about The Monarch's own parents. The anguished villain finally tells her about the plane crash in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey that killed his parents, leaving him orphaned as an eight-year-old. He became enchanted by The Monarch butterflies in the area and began imitating them. One day, he awoke to find his "adoptive family" gone. He confesses that his current "scheme" is a sham excuse to search for what he considers his foster parents. Dr. Girlfriend urges The Monarch to try to be a father to Dean and Hank rather than searching for the butterflies (which only live for nine months).
Sobbing over the loss of his bodyguard, Dr. Venture guzzles tequila and builds a small shrine over the grave. As he babbles drunkenly, Brock emerges from the ground still clutching the neck of Speedy's corpse. Brock chugs the rest of the tequila and demands to know where the boys are. Back within the Cocoon, The Monarch brings the boys cookies. They jump him, but he thinks their feeble attacks are good-natured horseplay. As Brock and Dr. Venture near the cocoon in the X-1, Brock disconnects Dr. Venture from his robotic kidney so that H.E.L.P.eR. can continue to pilot the jet. He hustles Dr. Venture towards the rear of the plane, where his Dodge Charger is stowed. After a brief altercation with a chupacabra hiding in his car (ironically, the main purpose Dr. Venture was in Mexico was to give a lecture on how science proves chupacabras are a myth), Brock loads the doctor into it and before Dr. Venture can object, opens the cargo bay door and backs the car out of the jet in mid-air, briefly deploying a parachute. He releases the parachute and the car plummets towards The Monarch's lair.
The Monarch is still wrestling with the boys when Brock's Charger crashes through the ceiling. Brock orders Dr. Venture to get out and take care of the boys. He exacts his revenge on the henchmen by running over dozens of them. The Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend flee in an escape pod as Brock continues to slaughter his goons. Dr. Venture lethargically shuffles towards the boys, who render a joyous Team Venture salute. Back on board the X-1, Dr. Venture explains to his sons that he will need a kidney transplant from one of them. The boys play Rock, Paper, Scissors to decide who the donor will be, but they wake up to find that Dr. Venture has taken one from each of them; as it turns out, they tied with "rock."
Episode Cast
- James Urbaniak: Dr. Venture
- Michael Sinterniklaas: Dean Venture, Monarch Henchman 3
- Patrick Warburton: Brock Samson
- Chris McCulloch: Hank Venture, The Monarch, Mexican Wrestlers, Monarch Henchman 1 & 2, Dr. Guevara
- Doc Hammer: Dr. Girlfriend, Speedy
- Nina Hellman: Tijuana Prostitute
- Richard Liebmann-Smith: Mexican University Administrator
- Miguel Martinez-Joffre: Mexican Gangster, Mexican Student
- Soul-Bot: H.E.L.P.eR.
First Appearances
- Baron Ünderbheit (mentioned only)
- Chupacabra
- Dr. Guevara
- H.E.L.P.eR. (Humanoid Electric Lab Partner Robot)
- Henchman 24
- Henchman 37
- Luchador in Red
- Mexican Gangster
- Mexican University Administrator
- Mexican Wrestlers
- Speedy
Episode Transcript
See: Dia de los Dangerous! (transcript)
Connections to Other Episodes
The Terrible Secret of Turtle Bay (pilot)
- Dr. Venture, Brock Samson, Hank, Dean, The Monarch, and Dr. Girlfriend were previously introduced in the pilot episode The Terrible Secret of Turtle Bay.
- The Monarch first mentions his parents' plane crash in this episode, which he believes killed both of them. In season 7's Arrears in Science he finally learns that his father was actually saved by Jonas Venture Sr. and turned into the cyborg Venturion, who eventually became the supervillain Vendata.
- Hank claims "Monarch was getting all creepy uncle on us." in this episode. In season 7's The Saphrax Protocol we learn that Dr. Venture and The Monarch are actually blood related, meaning it's possible that The Monarch actually is Hank's uncle.
Cultural References
- The Argentinean Ernesto "Che" Guevara, regarded as a key commander in Castro's revolution in Cuba and considered a revolutionary martyr after his execution by U.S.-backed troops in Bolivia, was also a medical doctor.
- The chupacabra or "goat-sucker" is a legendary creature in Latin American folklore. The name comes from the animal's reported habit of attacking and drinking the blood of livestock, including goats.
- The scene where Brock Samson tosses his shirt to the dejected Luchador in Red is a parody of a 1979 Coca-Cola commercial wherein Pittsburgh Steelers player "Mean" Joe Greene tosses his game jersey to a young fan after the boy gives Mr. Green his bottle of Coca-Cola.
- The title of this episode is a reference to the Mexican holiday Día de Muertos (which translates to "Day of the Dead", and is frequently called "Día de los Muertos" in Anglophone countries.)
- The background music heard at several points in the episode, played on harmonica, is a reference to the 1964 Clint Eastwood western, A Fistful of Dollars, with soundtrack by composer Ennio Morricone. The movie is set in a Mexican border town.
- The Monarch calls his time with his monarch butterfly family in the New Jersey Pine Barrens his "halcyon days", a phrase dating back to ancient Greece that refers to a period of tranquility and peace in the midst of adversity.
Memoirs of a Geisha (1997)
- Dr. Girlfriend can be seen reading the novel Memoirs of a Geisha while in bed with The Monarch.
- When Dr. Venture is mourning at the grave of Brock Samson, he is seen swigging from a bottle of Mezcal, a Mexican liquor distilled from the agave plant, as evidenced by the presence of a worm in the bottle.
- Dr. Venture's archnemesis The Monarch explains that his obsession with monarch butterflies began when he was only eight years old and a family of monarchs adopted him following his parents' death in a plane crash.
- The Monarch's parents' plane crashes in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, killing them both. A young Monarch is then raised for several months by his adopted family of monarch butterflies in the Pine Barrens.
- Dr. Venture becomes the victim of what is known as organ theft when he awakens in a back alley in a bathtub filled with ice with a note taped to his chest stating that his kidney had been removed and advising him to seek immediate medical attention. Organ theft is the forcible removal of a person's organs to be used as transplants and sold on the black market. While some supposed cases of organ theft are urban legends, others have been found to be true. It is also a commonly used trope in science fiction.
Production Notes
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Dia de Los Dangerous! |
- One of the animation directors (Kimson Albert) has a "nickname" inserted into his credits. The nickname is an unusual line or word from the preceding episode. For this episode, the nickname provided is Kimson "Don Alberto".
- When Rusty finishes his mobile dialysis setup with H.E.L.P.eR, he is first shown to be still wearing his fake Turtleneck collar. The collar vanishes without explanation once he disconnects from H.E.L.P.eR, and is not seen again.
- Writer Richard Liebman-Smith, who voiced the Mexican University Administrator, used to work on The Tick (both the 2001 live action series and the 1994 animated series) with Jackson Publick.
External Links
| Preceded by: "The Terrible Secret of Turtle Bay" |
The Venture Bros. episodes Original Airdate: August 7, 2004 |
Followed by: "Careers in Science" |