Venture Bros. Halloween Special Recap

October 30, 2012
Fandom

Quick warning, if you have not seen the Venture Bros. Special “A Very Venture Halloween,” you might want to exit this episode recap and actually watch the episode first. You can download the Halloween Special on iTunes.

The Venture Bros. Halloween Special takes us on a trip down memory lane. On Halloween four years ago, Hank was dressed as a Hunchback and Dean as Dracula. While Rusty is tasting the “blood” drink, Hank informs him that it’s “ketchup and Pepsi.”

Three years ago, Hank is dressed as an adventurer of sorts as he takes Rusty and Brock through a “spooky” hallway where socks are masquerading as spiders. Once they get to the boys’ room, Dean is a mummy.

The best Halloween prank happens two years ago. As Doc and Brock enter Hank and Dean’s room, it’s covered in blood. The boys are “dead” and under a bookshelf. Seeing the chaos, Rusty gets annoyed and tells Brock to heat up the clone slugs. After they leave, Hank complains that his dad is impossible to scare.

Present day Halloween has Hank sitting at the computer telling Rusty that the doctor emailed about the lump and that it’s a “malignant malinema.” Dean’s in the bathroom screaming that it burns when he pees and he never should have trusted that girl. Sergeant Hatred now has boobs. It’s not just a Fight Club themed Halloween costume since his bitch tits were shown in another episode during the Comic Con season five clip. Could they be a side effect from No Molesto or did Hatred take the sex change plunge like Hunter Gathers?

And this all takes places before the opening.

Cut to the Venture kitchen where Dr. Orpheus is explaining to Rusty that his “magical community” gathering won’t cause any problems. Dermott walks in dressed as an “enchanted mime” aka the Crow.

Hank and Dean come down the stairs without costumes. Hank’s mad that Dermott dressed-up so he grabs a trash bag and becomes a “ Bag of Hank” or a “California raisin.” I vote for Bag of Hank. The biggest shock in this scene isn’t Hank’s non-Batman costume, it’s Dean’s new emo/goth look and black Venture speedsuit.

At Dr. O’s gathering, the Order of the Triad is setting up their symbol on the floor, pentagram style. The doorbell rings and it’s the one body, two heads Council of 13 members Red Mantle and Dragoon. Red Mantle is magical, but costumed in blackface Dragoon finds the “trading card game confusing.”

All three Venture brothers are out creating “Project Mayhem.” This diabolical plan includes standard Halloween hijinks like rotten eggs, toilet paper, shaving cream, and a trip to a haunted house. While Dean may have gone goth, he’s not into the haunted house idea, causing Hank to tell him he better “use his balls before something else (besides hair) grows on them.”

Back at the compound, Hatred and Rusty argue over the size of Halloween candy. Hared doesn’t mind giving out the king sized bars because very few kids will actually make it to the door thanks to the laser riddled security system. But Pete and Billy make it, of course. Pete is dressed as a “thinner, whiter Duke” and Billy is dressed as Rusty Venture, boy adventurer.

At Dr. O’s party, the guest including the Outrider, Tatyana, and Curse (who is called “Chris” yet again) mingle. Dr. O breaks up the chitchat as the circle starts glowing. He announces the “Brimstone Assembly,” which seems to mean that it’s time for parlor tricks like young girls’ sleepover favorite “light as a feather, stiff as a board.”

The boys make it to the Potter house and Dean wonders if it’s on Venture property. Dean goes in alone where he finds a dark hallway filled stuffed and mounted animals. One of them looks like a hybrid man/monkey thing. It comes to life and attacks him. Next thing we see is Dean opening his eyes to a old man peering down at him and yelling at the monkey thing for smelling Dean’s balls.

Rusty, Hatred, Billy and Pete are watching the compound’s security cameras and betting which trick or treaters will get lasered. Rusty serves everyone a “Hunchback” which made of a blend of ketchup and bourbon. Red Mocha Cooler, you might not be the most disgusting alcoholic drink ever anymore.

Back at the haunted house, Hank and Dermott wonder when Dean’s coming out. Meanwhile, Dean’s inside talking with Ben, the old Big Lebowski looking dude. Apparently, he’s been watching the Venture family for a long time. He also mentions a place called Potter’s field.

The magical gathering at Dr. O’s get more impressive and kinky as Tatyana and a skinless Outrider are hanging by meathooks. While the Outrider tries to solve a Rubik’s cube, there’s a Cenobite. After this display, Al tries to one-up them by suggesting raising the dead.

Hank and Dermott are joking about farting when hands start coming out of the ground. Dead henchmen, OSI, and even Venturestein. Hank yells “Super fucking runaway” and they take off. Even more shocking than the legions of corpses Rusty tried to hide throughout the years is that inside the house, Dean finds out he’s a clone. He freaks out and thinks he doesn’t have a mommy. Ben tells him “you have a mommy and daddy that got drunk and forgot the condom.” Ben explains that cloning is a “band-aid for really big boo-boos.” He’s not only worked with Rusty on cloning, but also Jonas senior. He offers the distressed Dean a beer.

Who’s going to clean up hordes of zombies? Why, Santa Claus, of course. After he kills the dead again, he stops by Dr. O’s where it’s revealed that Santa his Master who doesn’t know or care about the holiday mascots of mortals, even mentioning the “Halloween ferrett” and that they “lost the true meaning of Christmas. “He’s also many of the other partygoers’ Master since he’s lived in “many of your closets.” Dr. O then gives everyone a lecture about how Halloween is when we become ourselves.

After the credits, Hank finds Dean sitting on the rooftop of the compound. Does Dean mention that they’re clones? Nope, he tells Hank that beer tastes like “pee-pee.”

While this episode reveals a few things like where all those dead bodies go and that at least Dean now knows that he’s a clone, it raises more questions. Who is the mysterious Ben? Is he a character we’ve seen in some way before and if so, who could it be? What about the burning question of “why does Hatred have boobs?”

There were awesome moments like the the boy’s faking their death and Rusty nonchalantly mentioning the lab, Dr. O’s party of magical misfits, placing bets on trick or treaters being lasered, the Master as Santa the zombie killer and the short return of Venturestein. Since it is so close to Halloween, I expect to see many “Bag of Hank” costumes on Venture fans.

The fact that it’s a part of the fifth season and not the beginning makes me wonder if the questions raised in it will be answered or hinted at in early ones. It’s a solid Venture episode, but I think it would have been even better if I watched the ones before it. I was also hoping for some Monarch, but I’m sure we’ll see plenty of him once season five starts.