​ "The Inamorata Consequence" – The Venture Bros. S07E05 Review

Okay, "The Inamorata Consequence" was weird. And that's speaking as someone who basically understands what's going on with the show.

Let's start by detailing what happened. Brock and the Ventures drive across a field of dead cows. OSI soldiers, led by Hunter Gathers, greets them. Hunter explains the cows are a ploy to keep the public away from the Venture compound. It turns out the OSI and the Guild are meeting to sign the Treaty of Tolerance... once they work out a few details. They're at the compound because back in the day, Jonas chaired the first meeting.

Dean gets bored and wanders off, while an OSI soldier takes Hank away. It turns out the soldier is Dermott, Hank's friend (and Brock's illegitimate son). Dermott is now a private with the OSI. Hank and Dermott end up in a giant coat checkroom, climb to the top of the pile of coats, and spy on OSI Kimberly McManus and Guild Stranger S-464 (from season 6's "Red Means Stop"). Kimberly gets turned off when she finds "pee-pee" on S-464's belt, or at least that's what Hank and Dermott hear her say.

Meanwhile, Dean comes to the old Potter house and finds H.E.L.P.er MOD-2 (Rhys Darby). MOD-2 can speak unlike the Ventures' H.E.L.P.er, and explains Ben (digging way back in the continuity) designed it. MOD-2 is part organic and part robotic. Dean wants to take it out into the world, but MOD-2 would rather not because of a fear of religious fundamentalists deciding it's an abomination. It turns out MOD-2 has mistaken Dean for Rusty. Which presumably suggests Rusty (and Monarch) may also be clones.

The Guild and the OSI can't agree on anything, and Rusty finally chews them all out, saying they can compromise and get something or argue and get nothing. The two sides finally sign the Treaty, and Dean realizes he and Rusty are a lot alike and his grandfather, Jonas, was a lousy parent. Girlfriend finds out from Dermott about S-464 making out with the enemy and the pee-pee incident.

In the after-credits wrap-up, Girlfriend (who is technically Dr. Mrs. the Monarch, but it's easier to type "Girlfriend") tells Phantom Limb it's not pee-pee but "PP". Which stands for Peril Partnership, which means that S-464 is a mole.

Got all that? Good. Because it's really confusing. It starts in media res with the Ventures going to the compound and the two sides meeting to negotiate the Treaty. Since I don't think we've heard of the Treaty before, the whole thing is kind of confusing since the references to the Treaty are mixed in with the usual Venture Brothers non sequiturs, jokes, background bits, and running gags.

Then we get Dermott, a character I've never been fond of. He's probably my least-liked character on the show. Dermott is... well, an idiot. And not in a goofy super-science or supertype way. But in a trailer-trash type of way.

Then Dean goes to the Potter house. Which is a callback to "A Very Venture Halloween" six years ago. So I had to look up who the heck "Ben" was. He was the guy who partnered with Jonas and came up with the cloning technology Rusty uses to duplicate Hank and Dean after all of the times they've died. It's pretty obscure, all things considered.

Granted, a lot of Venture Brothers is built on referencing continuity we the audience have never been privy to. That's part of its charm. Anybody seen the movie Buckaroo Banzai? It's kind of like that: the creative team assumes you've been watching the show before it began and know everything the characters are talking about. But we get McManus, and S-464, and MOD-2, and a callback to Ben the old guy in the creepy Potter house. It's all a bit much.

If you're a fan of the earlier episodes, then we get a look at Dermott. And Shoreleave. And Snoopy. And Brock actually gets to act more like his old "Swedish Murder Machine" self, hefting a dead cow and threatening to throw a knife. There are all kinds of jokes about super-villains, as the OSI and the Guild argue about fine points of "arching" (i.e., when arch-villains go after heroes). And some surreal moments like Phantom Limb and Shoreleave engaging in a "pool battle" Which involves them fighting a duel of honor wearing flippers on their hands and inner tubes around their stomachs. Mix that in with Phantom Limb, who has invisible arms and legs, and it's... kinda strange.

The above image shows what I mean about the background bits, too. Notice Girlfriend checking her text messages while Phantom Limb prepares to fight.

We also get a daydream sequence of Hank rocking an afro and a flamethrower-guitar, taking on Kimberly and S-464 while he flies on a dragon and flirts with Dominique Dawes. Did I mention Hank is kinda weird?

And there's no Monarch. Which seems odd since so much of Monarch's backstory is tied up with arching.

So "The Inamorata Consequence" wasn't bad. It lets us check in with a few faces that have been missing so far. It sets off what will presumably be a new storyline with the Peril Partnership. But it doesn't seem to have much to do with anything that has come before. It may set off a few new things, and may feature some obscure revelations to the whole Jonas/cloning thing. We'll see.

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?