It’s finally happening, the date night filled with ninjas, beatniks and an albino showing up more than three times. After taking notes and seeking some wise advice, Hank has enlisted some help from Dean and Billy/Pete to woo the mobster daughter from next door, Sirena.
While the boys are out on the town, Rusty is getting arched by the Legion of Doom meets Pop Art known as the Doom Factory. Of course, this is another group of villains that are on The Monarch’s revenge list and despite Gary having some PTSD issues from the pit incident that led to Haragantaun’s death, their plan is to blow up the Doom Factor’s base in dramatic fashion.
The other minor subplot that ties into the date night is Brock and Rocco (the over protective bodyguard that showed up from the birthday party episode) having an truce team up as well as another spot of Nathan Fillion reprising his role as the Brown Widow.
Starting off the episode is a total throw back to Super Friends as the Doom Factory does a roll call of all their members. Some of them are pop art influenced like the pillow balloon woman or just lame parodies like Billy Maim, a claw wielding guy. The central figure is Wes Warhammer that despite being a clear reference to Andy Warhol, his physical appearance isn’t nearly as close as I thought it’d be in terms of likeness.
The full role call breaks down like this:
The characters are all based on Andy Warhol (Warhammer) and his Factory Superstars and hangers-on: Frigid (Bridget Berlin), Serpentine (Ondine), Eenie-Meanie (Edie Sedgwick), Gerard the Gorilla (Gerard Malanga), Black Maria (Paul Morrisey), Trashenstein (Joe Dalessandro), Ultra Violent (Ultra Violet), Shehemoth, Billy Maim (Billy Name), Hard Candy (Candy Darling).
After this introduction, the plot begins to unfold as The Ventures receive a very artsy threat videotape in a Warholesque box marked Doom. Dr. Mrs. The Monarch tries to convince the Council that the Blue Morpho is Dr. Venture, and that he is killing off villains, but they do not believe her.
Now in previous episodes, Dr Mrs Monarch had been occupied with her duties with the Guild in order which allowed The Monarch to carry out his actions as Blue Morpho but as he soon finds out with Dr Mrs Monarch going full out sexy time LARP with cowgirl outfit, he makes a tough call by tranquilizing her while she’s not looking.
This shouldn’t come off as much of a surprise considering that he’s straight up murdered someone when his rights to arch Venture were removed (incidently, the victim being Dr Duogong which leads to previous stated theories for this season), his obsession with arching Venture is also wearing off on Gary as he’s reading a book to deal with his possible PTSD but there’s no time for that, it’s off to sabotage The Doom Factory’s lair while their occupied with Rusty.
Meanwhile, the date night with Hank and Sirena is pretty damn adorable. Hank is really dead set on impressing her, getting Pete to stage a fake mugging while Hank fends off his attacker with some dance moves that consign with his attire of Micheal Jackson’s BAD look. There’s even a guitar conveniently left behind with a beatnik (Dean in disguise with french hat and a pencil thin mustache) as Hank woos Sirena with a song, the kid has pluck and it’s so goofy but very natural for something only Hank or Dean would think is impressive.
The main highlight though is the restaurant that Dean recommends that Hank should take Sirena to. With a secret back entrance, Hank is suspicious of the location and as it turns out, it’s a ninja themed sushi restaurant (loosed based off a real location in NYC). There’s a brief moment of awkwardness at times as at one point, Sirena digs the knife that Pete left behind during the mugging skit into her arm to remove a tracker as Hank looks on with mix of dismay/respect to her toughness as Sirena admits that she’s having fun, much to Hank’s delight.
The other part is that Brown Widow aka Jared happens to be their waiter but also had a fling with Sirena as it prompts Hank to deliver silly speech but with tons of heart, prompting the two of them to sneak out as Brock and Rocco get ready to throw down with some ninjas before Brown Widow intervenes to explain the situation.
While that’s going on, the Blue Morpho and Kano are on their way to secret base of The Doom Factory as The Monarch strings up a bunch of grenades, planning to set them off as Gary and him jump out as the place explodes behind them, making them look like bad asses.
In true fashion to the nature of the show, just as The Monarch is about to leap out the window, his jacket gets stuck in the window entry and without warning, the base starts to separate as it lifts off. At this time, Rusty is dealing with The Doom Factory and while before he’d simply be annoyed with the process, this time he feels a bit more threatened at first at the amount of villains that are hanging out in the Venture pad, let alone Brock not responding to his call for back up.
Things get a bit kinky as the Black Manta inspired villain starts filming Rusty as Wes coaxes Venture to ditch his speedsuit and do some poses. After awhile, the novelty begins to wear off as Rusty leaves the room to find out that a rave like party is going on as some familiar other villains (BRICKFROG!) are seen doing some pills as members of the Doom Factory are casually walking out some Vantech equipment.
Wes begins to dismiss his previous allure to Rusty as it being all a big setup to pull off a mere simple act of theft as it leaves Rusty Venture feeling a bit used. As the Doom Factory’s ship begins to hover off into the night, The Monarch managed to get free as he tries to play it cool with Venture and he accidentally sets off the explosives, getting that cool dramatic moment to bask in even if it’s with his arch nemesis.
The real highlight for this episode was the date itself. While the mysteries of women have alluded Hank before, it’s nice seeing that the boys are maturing as time progresses and considering that Hank actually isn’t a virgin (having had a fling back in Everybody Comes to Hank’s that got mindwiped), his plan of action is pretty endearing and totally befitting for his character. The other side to it is the Brock/Rocco follow along as in similar fashion to Sirena/Hank, they’re both similar people that have come together to achieve one goal as they riff off each other for mutual shared experiences (slight gag as Rocco recommends the same book Gary was reading earlier) and of course, Brown Widow showing up was kinda funny.
There were a lot of other clever gags as the entire episode riffed on Andy Warhol in different aspects but also the Super Friends throw back as the intro was done in the same fashion as the Legion of Doom being revealed. There was even a reference to Team Fortress 2 as Rusty tells Brock he needs a few minutes before heading to the panic room as he’s playing a match with Sgt Hatred, team killing him much to Hatred’s dismay.
Quick mentions:
– Here’s a clip of Hank’s speech
– Knife Bear was lurking in the background, the plug suit guy and Brickfrog were also at the party
– Dr Mrs Monarch as Daisy Maes – HOT DAMN
– Adult Swim did a promo for Venture Brothers that featured gear inspired by Venture Brothers for characters to wear in Team Fortress 2. There’s also two profiles that were created for the show to record footage, both seem inactive now however.
– T-Shirt club of the week is the stylish Doom Factory logo on a plain white T-shirt. –
Episode Six! It Happening One Night
– Fireworks as The Monarch gets his big cool explosion just as Sirena and Hank part lips from their steamy underwater kiss (Hank being suspended in the air by his undies as Rocco/Brock found their respective missing kids)
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