Venture Brothers Recap – 0607 Party For Tarzan #GoTeamVenture

On Mar 21, 2016 6:55 am, by Ian Aspden

Oh man, so much went down on this episode.

Lots of lore details I didn’t expect to find out about such as a whole backstory about Gary that kinda give us a glimpse into the bond he has with The Monarch.

Also, one hell of an opening as we’re riffing with multiple narrations, some less reliable than others as we are taken into a film noir kinda sense that all happens after Rusty Venture runs into a very famous movie star which leads to a tragic turn of events. It has this throw back feel to it, like straight up film noir vibes as we recount some personal history of Gary, learn some Arching History and multiple narrators that weave in and out of the main event, building upon details until we reach the thrilling conclusion.

Someone dies or is that how the story really goes?

Right off the bat, we’re given a full run down on how Gary Fisher joined the Monarch crew in a kidnapping gone wrong that turned into a bit of a Stockholm Syndrome. The whole plot behind why he needed this senator’s signature is hilarious petty as making someone’s last name illegal can cause some major damage in someone’s life but also at the same time, who would plan something like that as their major victory over their nemesis? It’s the brilliant and absurd style that really defines the Monarch as a character.

Of course, the plan itself is met with failure as The Monarch’s crew grabbed the wrong guy and Gary is kinda left there with his own devices so as 8th grader, he joins the life style of being a hench. Fast forward to the present as The Monarch is busy getting to arch Mr Hiney.

With the Guild lost all their official info about The Blue Morpho, they conclude that he never took part in the arching rights act and that in the 1970’s, a bounty was placed on his head and later claimed by someone unknown to them. Dr Zee recounts a chance meeting with him as he spins a tale of seducing the famous tennis player Billie Jean King, only to have it turn out to be Blue Morpho in disguise.

The details of the deed still haunt Dr Zee to this day but one thing is certain as the audience knows that Blue Morpho and Sr Venture were allies, the Council realizes this as well which ensures that due to the footage from when Wide Wale attacked the Venture Building, they’ll act on the suspicion that the current Blue Morpho is working for or is Rusty Venture.

With that thread is being weaved, Rusty is making plans of his own. Namely, to get Vantech of the ground, he starts attending parties in hope of rubbing the right shoulders to get some good attention to his company for a change, having Billy and Pete White in tow as wingmen for his scheme.

The whole Christoper Lambert appearance is handled in such a clever way of showing off certain angles to give us a familiarity from a far but never any close ups of the face and no speaking lines, it’s a cameo that is a more involved take on a gag way back

The bigger play is that the endorsement of Mr Lambert could mean more revenue for the plummeting and with a lunar eclipse coming up, Rusty throws a party for his new friend. In order to look more legit, he needs something with just as much jazz as Lambert’s own speedsuit as Rusty tries so hard to get Enzo to design one just like the the Highlander’s gem studded version and when all else fails, he steals something that looks nice.

This is where things start to stack upon each other. While Rusty Venture gets the suit and throws a party for Chris fails to attend, he’s now unknowningly wearing the costume of the Blue Morpho. How this came to play was with Gary, established in the beginning for his devotion to The Monarch as they both play out the long game.

Who fired the shot that took Rusty Venture’s life? It’s Dr Mrs Monarch as she proves her loyalty once again the council, being goaded to pull the trigger by Wide Wale as they soon come to realize that they have the wrong person.

So not only is Rusty Venture in the clear, the Monarch is arching his replacement Dr Hiney while relying on Gary to take out someone on the list on behalf of The Blue Morpho.

Now this goes back into another flashback as there’s two details that are revealed that add to the hero/villain game. The more important aspect is how Gary got his first kill as he practically stumbled upon Professor Vibration and by sheer luck, his victim had a fatal heart attack but Gary still claims that it counts.

Incidentally, The Guild usually has fairly strict rules when it comes to killing as The Monarch was given Dr Dugong has a replacement for Dr Venture before outright murdering him yet he wasn’t really punished for his actions.

Take in account that henchmen are seen as expendable so you’d almost assume that there would be some kind of punishment to keep the terms of arching to be more like pranks rather than an actual fight. After all, the arching carried out by The Doom Factory was merely theft and that Blue Morpho as Monarch actually killing other villains are two very separate issues, perhaps we might see some kind of strict set of rules that were put in place to keep things non-lethal between heroes and villains.

This is made more clear by how the levels system works out as The Monarch recalls how the system started. Back in the days of Sr Venture as we see the fate of Turnbuckle attempts to bite off more than he can chew as the Action Man deals with him harshly, a pistol whip beating that adds to Rusty’s childhood tragedy before Turnbuckle gets a headshot so the system gets put into place to keep things in balance.

It’s funny that Wide Wale reminses about the good ol’ day that there was no Guild to keep things in balance and it really sets up this lamb among a pack of wolves headspace that Dr Mrs Monarch is heading into as she’s pressured to take out Rusty Venture. All of this season she’s been tested the most, physically for the most part as her near fatal encounter with The Sovereign gave her the push to be a key part of the council, holding more power than The Monarch has ever had.

The other side part is with Gary as he finds his target at the Battle Axe bar. The Wandering Spider is drugged and taken out to the woods as Gary is given the instructions to take him out as the Blue Morpho and relay that info back to Dr Mrs Monarch, just to prove that it is neither The Monarch or Rusty Venture, making the guild look bad but is it really enough? In a weird way, with the reveal showing off that Blue Morpho costume that Rusty wore that night was lined to protect him from the shot, he got everything he wanted – another member off the list, his nemesis lives but at a strange turn of events. Would Rusty still have been mistaken as Blue Morpho if he didn’t plant the outfit in plain sight? Did he depend on Rusty’s likely hood of doing the easy way by stealing the Morpho costume? It’s interesting just how much The Monarch knows about his nemesis yet you can honestly say that it’s a one way street.

This episode was a neat throw back to plans upon plans kind of feel you’d get from something like The Sting, where everything happens a certain way for a certain reason. The bits with Turnbuckle as a reason for the levels really showed off how messed up Rusty’s life has been but the bigger picture is how deadly the game can get when on a surface level, it’s just whacky themed heroes/villains fighting it out because that’s just how it is, the real game is that’s what their life is as Gary is proof of a life devotion to that system.

He’s gone from being just some kid, a newbie hench and now a partner that is willing to get his hands dirty as we see that despite being told to kill – there are other ways as we are left with a more vague outcome of the finale of Wandering Spider’s execution as Gary buries the mechanical legs, already feeling guilty about accidentally killing before.

There’s one last episode left for this season as Dr Mrs Monarch has to pair up with an unlikely ally as The Guild teams up with the OSI to deal with the Blue Morpho, once again Rusty Venture is asked to take a part, this time as bait.