The Venture Bros.: The Inamorata Consequence

September 3, 2018 5:12 PM - Season 7, Episode 5

The Venture family returns to their old compound where intrigue, danger, jackets, and diplomacy await.

The family heads home on an excellent Venture Bros. (Zack Handlen for TV/A.V. Club)

I’d be hard-pressed to imagine something closer to the platonic ideal of a late-season Venture Bros. episode. All “The Inamorata Consequence” is really missing is some obscure, vaguely janky film references; the closest we get is a discussion about the true nature of James Bond’s gun in From Russia With Love. (Not, I should stress, a janky film.) Apart from that, the half hour has everything we’ve come to expect from the show. The lore-building, the squabbling between “heroes” and “villains,” the fixation on rules that only barely covers the petty jealousies and tempers of a bunch of hot-headed loons, a deep dive into the show’s past for an unexpected reveal, and that final grace note of emotion that gives the whole thing just a bit of weight. It’s good; the season overall has been excellent so far, and this continues that trend nicely.

Episode on Venture Brothers Wikia, with more details about how this connects back to past episodes.

posted by filthy light thief (18 comments total)

I think you’re referring to red helper bot thinking dean was rusty after acknowledging that he knows he’s a clone which is... 🤭 but I also liked the stinger drop about the peril partnership which was really well done- I REALLY bought the pee pee on the belt joke as a male incontinence joke and was shocked that it actually had plot significance.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 8:18 PM on September 3, 2018

The nonchalant reveal of Rusty's origins was great - it makes a lot of sense in hindsight. The call back to the 2 snipers who fell in love in season 6 was nice. I must admit though I was hoping that the PP was something other than an incontinence joke or a roundabout joke about a sex act so I was glad that it was something deeper.

I noticed in the previous episode there were a few Canadian references (obvious one being the Canadian flag that the Brown Widow has in his dorm room and him looking like he's having sex with his beaver mascot head piece). And here in this episode the reference to Peril Partnership cements this a bit as they are, according to the wiki based in Canada. So it seems to me that something might be coming of this stuff. But who knows.
posted by Ashwagandha at 9:40 AM on September 4, 2018 [3 favorites]

I was just saying in the thread for the last episode that I was glad they'd written out Dermot, and now he's back again! I wasn't exactly gritting my teeth to see him again, but I hope this was just a callback and not that he's back as a regular. I was expecting that they were going to make a point that even Dermot is in OSI now while Hank is kind of spinning his wheels. Hank's interaction with Dermot did make me wonder if I was full of beans with my theory that Hank may be on his way to becoming a villain. It is hard to picture this goofball kid ever choosing to become evil.

I'm still loving the show but the mythology is becoming so deep and tangly that it's getting hard for me to follow the plots. Every week I have to hit the Wikis to understand what I just saw. (It doesn't help that there are like 5 years between seasons sometimes!) I had no idea who the cyborg brain guy and the Amazonian OSI lady were, and when I found them on some Wiki I was like, "Oh, yeah. I kind of remember them now, maybe?" It's like they're writing this show a bit too much for the most hardcore fans. I am a major fan, I've got a Dr. Mrs. the Monarch action figure FFS, and even I'm getting lost!

The thing about the PP mole made me flinch a little because it seems like we may be getting in a whole new slew of characters, or maybe calling back to characters from 6 seasons ago. Honestly, I'd like to see them maintain focus on the core cast a bit more. (And dear god, a "previously on..." montage would be sorely appreciated!) If this show keeps going much longer they might have to do one of those superhero comic book purges where they kill off 3/4ths of the cast and move to an alternate Earth or something, just to simplify the continuity a bit!

Doc Venture's outraged remark that they were all children, and their shamed reaction, did reinforce my feeling that this show may be in the home stretch. It landed so hard, and got such immediate and impressive results, it almost felt like something from the series finale rather than a random, mid-season episode.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 4:58 PM on September 4, 2018

ARE WE NOT TALKING ABOUT THE CARVEL CAKES?
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 5:12 PM on September 4, 2018 [9 favorites]

We should be, because the Brock Fudgie the Whale cake is the best thing.
posted by jason_steakums at 5:30 PM on September 4, 2018 [6 favorites]

I was so excited and then I learned it was a promotion with only 4 ever to exist and I was crushed.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 7:15 PM on September 4, 2018 [2 favorites]

The whole thing where red Helper calls Dean Rusty is ambiguous for me - is he supposed to have just confused Dean for Rusty or is Dean supposed to be an actual clone of Rusty?
posted by GuyZero at 10:10 PM on September 4, 2018

Also how awesome is it that Rusty finally does something competently right foronce in his life?
posted by GuyZero at 10:10 PM on September 4, 2018 [2 favorites]

Also also Rhys Darby dropping New Zealand references randomly was gold.
posted by GuyZero at 10:12 PM on September 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

is Dean supposed to be an actual clone of Rusty?

I think, it's implying that Jonas did the same thing to rusty that rusty did to hank and dean IE cloned them because they were death prone.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 10:13 PM on September 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

ok also^3 why is there a giant pile of coats?
posted by GuyZero at 10:18 PM on September 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

Yeah. Dean is a clone of Dean. Rusty is a clone of Rusty. But let’s also remember the Monarch figures into things somehow...

And it’s a pile of jackets, surely.
posted by Sys Rq at 12:02 AM on September 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

Oh, and Dermot needs to be back because this whole season is about daddy issues.

Hank's interaction with Dermot did make me wonder if I was full of beans with my theory that Hank may be on his way to becoming a villain. It is hard to picture this goofball kid ever choosing to become evil.

S.P.H.I.N.X.!
posted by Sys Rq at 12:09 AM on September 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

(And dear god, a "previously on..." montage would be sorely appreciated!)

Cartoon Network should give them an extra episode just so they can do a 30 minute "previously." (How long ago was the Gary-narrated "previously?")
posted by whuppy at 5:20 AM on September 5, 2018

Sorry to ask here, but how do I reveal spoilers? I'm just getting garbled text boxes.
posted by GoblinHoney at 10:50 AM on September 6, 2018

hover over the blank space ala xkcd comic
posted by some loser at 1:55 PM on September 6, 2018

New episode is up on the Adult Swim site!
posted by jason_steakums at 6:05 PM on September 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

Yes, for once I was proud of Rusty. He tore through all the bullshit, stepped up his ethical game in this one way past where his father would have, and it paid off. He never did like having inherited his dad's lifestyle. I am glad Dean seems more centered and skeptical of the whole infrastructure, it's promising for him. And if he does end up unwillingly in that same spot, at least he'll have Hank as his Brock-Junior. Or maybe Dermott! Who knows. All I can say is that was a good job, Rusty.

Oh wait what's a Rusty Venture again?
posted by not_on_display at 8:09 PM on September 14, 2018