The Venture Bros. review: “The Terminus Mandate”

What does it mean to be satisfied with your job? Does what you get out of it change as you do? Those are the questions at the heart of a very funny Venture Bros.

People take up careers for all kinds of reasons. Ideally, they do it because they want to. The Monarch didn’t don a butterfly costume and start terrorizing Rusty Venture because he thought it would make him money; he did it because he couldn’t envision doing anything else. Other people are born into their jobs. Rusty became a superscientist in large part because his dad was one already, and Dean might be following suit. And of course, most people work simply to make a living.

But we don’t see much of that kind of person on The Venture Bros. If you’re in the costumed heroes-and-villains business, you probably love your job. Or at least, that’s how it started. In “The Terminus Mandate,” we see several longtime villains face down their old archnemeses, and like a police captain who finds she no longer has it in her to walk a beat, some of them discover that they’ve changed while they weren’t looking. That sly insight underscores a funny, memorable episode.

The fun starts when Dr. Mrs. The Monarch goes through the Guild charter and discovers a rule the Sovereign ignored during his reign: if you sit on the Guild council, you cannot be an active villain. So she, Dr. Z, Red Death, Radical Left, Wide Whale, Phantom Limb and Red Mantle/Dragoon are all given the chance to arch an old enemy one last time before hanging up their tights. Dr. Z, naturally, goes after Action Johnny, who’s now recovering from his latest addiction in a Florida rehab center. Dr. Z has dreams of chasing Johnny around in a biplane (“or something fun”), but their actual meeting is muted, with Dr. Z inviting Johnny to come live with him and even confessing his love. (“In the platonic sense, I mean. Not literally. Not even platonically, really, since Plato was all about showing naked boys a good time.”)

Dr. Z hated Johnny, and Johnny’s father. There was an intimacy in their relationship, however warped. Over time, the hatred went away but the bond remained. It’s a perfect example of how your perspective changes as you grow older. The back-and-forth between Z and Johnny is funny, particularly the Hanna-Barbera-inspired flashback to one of their old adventures (Dr. Z had a “zero bungle tolerance” when it came to his henchmen), but it’s also wistful and sweet.

Not every reunion tugs at the heartstrings. Phantom Limb squares off against his old foe Hunter Gathers. Neither of them have grown quite as wise as Doctor Z, and settle their differences with a literal dick-measuring contest. “I would like to add that last night I was mighty in my victory,” Limb tells the Council later. “Like an inch mightier, seriously.” As for Radical Left, he plays a game of Clue against Far Right, a hero with whom he merged at some point in the past, which is why he looks all Two-Face now. And Red Mantle and Dragoon have the funniest encounter of all. After an evening of eating TV dinners and watching Downton Abbey on TiVo (“Lady Violet, you are a delicious bitch and you have my heart.”), they learn to their great relief that all of their former adversaries are dead, so they don’t have to put themselves at risk.

Dr. Girlfriend has a more full-bodied encounter. When she was starting out as Lady Au Pair, she went up against Novia, a wedding-themed hero who foiled her during a jewel heist. I was prepared to be annoyed that they matched Young Dr. Girlfriend up with a female hero, but the details are so carefully chosen (“novia” is Spanish for “girlfriend”) and the character herself is so charming (she throws exploding bouquets) that I didn’t care.

Anyway, Dr. Girlfriend gets into her old costume to go on one last arch, but finds herself overcome with emotion upon seeing her enemy. (“And now I’m supposed to be arching you, and you look really good and you’ve made so many better life decisions!”) Sure, she swipes Novia’s wallet — this is still an arch, after all — but the battle does not proceed as planned. None of the battles in this episode do. In almost every case, the villain finds not only that they’ve grown up, but that they’re okay with it, and ready to move into management. And that’s okay. In a career — any career — there’s a time to be a headstrong go-getter and a time to step back and oversee the operation, leaving the flashy stuff to people who are hungry for it. If the Guild had nothing but Monarchs as members, it would never survive.

That said, not every council member agrees to pack it in. Wide Whale finds he has too many grudges to retire as a villain, and and we don’t see what decision Dr. Girlfriend makes. More on that in the finale, I’m sure.

And then there’s Red Death, who completely ignores whomever he was supposed to arch and makes a beeline for Blind Rage, a villain from the Peril Partnership. The PP is trying to bilk the Guild for bribe money, threatening to stir up trouble if the Guild doesn’t comply. Most of the council members (not Dr. Girlfriend) vote to pay up, but Red Death is having none of it. He ties Blind Rage to a train track, delivers a chilling speech about the “gentleman villain” of old, and leaves, sending a clear signal to the Peril Partnership that the Guild is not to be messed with. It’s another terrific showcase for voice actor Clancy Brown, a shot across the bow for the PP, and setup for what should be an interesting finale. I wouldn’t be surprised if the teleporter the Monarch snagged last week showed up, too. And isn’t there a Hank-Dean-Sirena love triangle yet to be resolved?

Also, there’s a subplot where Rusty tries to date a woman who may or may not marry rich men just to kill them. It’s funny, but I was more interested in how the middle-to-old-age villains dealt with their changing careers. The most interesting thing about the Rusty subplot is that his date is Novia, who may have gone from being a wedding-themed superhero to a black widow. As usual, The Venture Bros. does a great job of sketching the basics of a story I wouldn’t mind hearing in full. And considering how fond this show is of expanding on minor points, who’s to say we won’t?

Grade: A-

Nothing But Bullet Points

• At the top of the episode, Rusty is talking to a P.I. to get info on Novia. It’s Night Dick, a Ghost Rider ripoff. I like James Adomian’s voice work on this character. He also has some great lines, particularly when trying to get Rusty on the same page about the whole Novia-is-a-murderer thing. “I’m on the obituaries. You’re on like the Penthouse Forums.”
• “Her friends would call her Terri if she had any,” Night Dick says of Novia. Later, Dr. Girlfriend calls her Terri.
• “I’m calling a council meeting. Do you wanna cater it?”
• If I can indulge in fan theorycrafting for a moment, is Dr. Girlfriend pregnant? Blind Rage, being super-classy, points out that her breasts are “spilling from your brazier,” she cries when she reunites with Novia, and then vomits afterward. More finale fodder?
• Rusty with a rare moment of self-awareness: “I don’t want to be laughed at, denied, or even feel like the pathetic man I clearly am.”
• Rusty says hasn’t been with a woman since Hank’s graduation, when all of Molotov Cocktease’s assassins turned into mutant bugs. Does that mean he figured out that last week’s Eyes Wide Shut orgy was a simulation?
• Wide Whale’s first arch enemy was Curtis Sliwa, the actual founder of the Guardian Angels. I f**king love the references on this show.
• Dr. Z framed the picture of himself and Sergeant Hatred from “The Buddy System”:

• How much did I love Dragoon hoping he would get to arch Al from Home Improvement? So much. “He would never hurt us.”
• “You’re very kind. I will spare your life!”

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