The Mantis-Eye Experiment

Summary

When the Venture Family visits Tijuana for a lecture Dr. Venture is giving at the (community) University of Mexico, the dastardly Monarch weaves a cocoon of villany that leaves the Venture Brothers trapped in his clutches, Dr. Venture kidney-less and Brock... dead? If only Dr. Venture would return his calls...

Capsule

The episode starts off with Brock playing strip 'poker' with some Mexicans, many dressed like wrestlers, though the natives are cheating. Brock loses his final hand and as a result his underwear. He then proceeds to beat up everyone in the place with his pants. At the end of the fight the leader finally gives up and gives Brock a part for his Charger, revealing that they were in an auto-part store the entire time.

Before Brock leaves one of the wrestlers who hasn't been killed or knocked out (and who also clapped when Brock removed his underwear) ask's Brock to take him with him. Brock refuses, but throws the wrestler his shirt instead in an homage to that old Coke commercial.

Roll opening credits.

The next scene has Dr. Venture teaching a class of students at the "Community University of Mexico at Tijuana, School for Continuing Education". The good doctor is teaching the students about the myth of the 'chupacabra', or rather the lack of evidence. The class does not appear very interested. One of the students asks a question which I believe is along the lines of asking about the class, though I'm hardly the person to ask since I never took Spanish in high school.

The dean (voiced by Leibman-Smith) answers the student's question (telling them the proper room number for the course) and most of the class leaves. Dr. Venture then dismisses the rest of the class and has a chat with the dean. Apparently it is Dia de los Muertos (literally 'Day of the Dead') which is a big holiday in Mexico. Dr. Venture proceeds to insult Mexican tradition and then asks for his paycheck.

Outside the University, Brock is keeping watch. He and Rusty exchange words briefly and Brock picks up one of the locals telling Dr. Venture that he'll see him in a couple of hours. The boys then show up to show their father their new souvenirs (sombreros and sugar skulls), much to Rusty's joy.

The dean resurfaces to give Dr. Venture his check:

DEAN (OF THE UNIVERSITY)
...your check, Dr. Venture. Muchas gracias.

DR. VENTURE
Super good! Very generous of yuh- oh, pesos. Great. These zeros are all meaningless.

A monarch butterfly then lands on Dr. Venture. The dean tells them some Mexican lore about the monarch while Hank questions if it's poison or not (they're not).

However it turns out, in a shocking twist, that the butterfly is actually a small robotic camera/microphone owned by the Monarch. Back at his hideout the Monarch goes into one of his monologues about Dr. Venture and accuses his henchmen of selling him out since he thinks Dr. Venture has somehow found his hideout in Mexico. One of the henchmen coughs when the Monarch asks the guilty to step forward and ends up getting shot with a dart and kicked in the head for it.

The Monarch then appoints a plucky young henchman named 'Speedy' (who still hasn't earned his wings) to find out what Dr. Venture knows.

Back at the University Dr. Venture smashes the butterfly and gives the boys some money to get out of his hair (figuratively speaking of course) so he can meet up with a 'colleague'.

His colleague is a medical doctor whom Dr. Venture is attempting to get some prescriptions out of, though it takes a bit of enticing from 'President Benjamin Franklin'.

Meanwhile Dean has decided that, rather than be selfish with the cash their dad gave them, they ought to use it to do something nice:

DEAN
Hey, I've been thinkin', maybe instead of being super-selfish with the money dad gave us, we should try to do something good with it.

HANK
Aw, crud. Like what, brown-noser?

DEAN
Well, take a look at old HELPeR there. He's pretty beat up, dontcha think?

HANK
Well sure. He looks like a dried out turd on a bad stretch of road. Why?

DEAN
Hasn't HELPeR always been there for us? Hasn't he always been, well, super helpful?

HANK
Sure, he's great.

DEAN
Well do you see what I see? [pointing at a car detail shop]

HANK
So you wanna... buy him car... paint?

DEAN
Leave the thinking to me, Albert Einsteen [that's how he says it, oh and drags Hank away]

Turns out Speedy and his henchcrew were watching the whole time. Speedy thinks they should grab the boys but the other henchmen disagree because the plan was to just observe them. Speedy wants his wings pretty bad, so he wins out and they shoot the boys with tranq darts, though not before Dean is able to contact Brock.

Who happens to be zipping up his pants down the street at this very moment. Brock rushes the henchmen, taking on a ton of tranq darts which completely fail to have any effect on him. He grabs speedy by the throat and is shot with more darts but is only stopped when he has the Monarchmobile backed into him.

Speedy, meanwhile, is not having a very good time as Brock still has a strong grip on him. After a mediocre attempt to free him at best, the henchmen shoot him with a tranq dart and let him die more peacefully, though probably with less dignity.

Commercial.

Back at the Cocoon (the Monarch's hideout), the Monarch and the henchmen discuss the happenings and how having the boys at the hideout isn't a good thing. That is, until the Monarch finds out that Brock is out of the picture. The boys are carted off to the holding cell and the Monarch contacts Dr. Venture via Hank's watch.

We are then privy to a scene of one fetus gnawing on another (this will become clear by the end of the season, but right now it's just bizarre) which turns out to be a dream by Dr. Venture who wakes up screaming in a bathtub full of ice. Apparently his appointment didn't go very well because both of his kidneys have been removed and only a note remains telling him to 'seek immediate medical attention'. After deciding that the situation is indeed bad, Dr. Venture attempts to contact Brock with no response. He then contacts HELPeR who shows up with a variety of decals (various flames and pictures of women, and some nifty car horns on his head) and carts Dr. Venture away.

Back at the Cocoon the boys wake up and have a chat with the Monarch who explains his, uh, plans I guess:

HANK
What's your problem with our dad anyway?!

THE MONARCH
Well I- he- he's my nemesis. My arch-enemy.

DEAN
I don't think pop thinks your his arch-enemy.

THE MONARCH
Come on, I'm sure the walls of the Venture Compound are practically caked with the lingering curses of the Monarch's name.

DEAN
Uhh, no. I've never even heard him mention you.

HANK
Yeah, I always thought Baron Underbhiet was dad's arch-enemy.

THE MONARCH
Underbhiet!?! Why that dime store Dr. Doom isn't fit to- just you wait til your father calls me back!!

Meanwhile on the X-1 Dr. Venture has rigged up HELPeR to be a dialysis machine. However what he really needs is the kidney of a donor with the same blood type (one of the boys). When he attempts to contact them he (finally) gets the Monarch's message.

Still at the Cocoon the Monarch is getting kind of frustrated that Dr. Venture hasn't contacted him, though he inadvertently ends up making the boys feel bad that their father hasn't shown up yet.

Meanwhile Dr. Venture is rolling across the desert on HELPeR's back in search of Brock who he finds, or rather, his grave (insert spooky sounds).

Back at the Cocoon the Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend have a chat about the boys and their father and the origin of the Monarch is revealed. Apparently when the Monarch was only eight his parents' private jet crashed in New Jersey with only him as the survivor. He was 'raised' by the monarch butterflies who he came to love as his adopted parents. However one day he awoke to find them gone, and he was once again alone. He later found out that monarchs fly south to Mexico for the winter which is the entire reason for being in Mexico (even though butterflies only live for nine months). Dr. Girlfriend is so touched by this story that she tells him to "love those boys and never let go".

Meanwhile at Brock's grave (more spooky sounds), Dr. Venture has constructed a shrine to Brock and gotten a little drunk as well. At this point Brock, still very much alive, bursts out of the ground and grab's Dr. Venture's liquor and asks where the boys are.

The boys, meanwhile, are attempting a jail break... with Hank's belt buckle as a lock picking mechanism. This fails badly of course, but the Monarch then barges in with fresh cookies. The boys jump the Monarch and attempt to beat him up, though their efforts clearly aren't too well since the Monarch thinks they just want to wrestle.

Back on the X-1 Brock and Dr. Venture discuss a plan which involves Dr. Venture detaching from HELPeR in order to rescue the boys. They head to Brock's car when Dr. Venture is promptly attacked by a chupacabra which Brock introduces to his knife:

DR. VENTURE
What the hell was that?!

BROCK
Chupacabra. They're all over Mexico.

DR. VENTURE
No way.

Brock then proceeds to drive his Charger out of the X-1 and parachutes/crashes into the Cocoon. Surprised by the rescue (partly because he is still wrestling with the boys) the Monarch orders his minions to attack. Brock tells Dr. Venture to rescue the boys while he takes care of the henchmen. He then proceeds to kill pretty much every last one of them by running them down with his car. The moral of the story is of course to never hit Brock Samson with a truck.

The Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend meanwhile make their escape in a 'smaller escape cocoon ingeniously housed inside this larger cocoon headquarters'. They take off and Dr. Venture and the boys meet up.

Back on the X-1 Dr. Venture explains his situation to his sons, stating that he needs a kidney from one of them:

DEAN
But, which one of us, pop?

DR. VENTURE
Well, I haven't decided yet.

HANK
I know! Rock, scissors, paper!

DEAN
You're on!

DEAN & HANK
Once, twice, three, shoot!

Roll end credits.

HANK
[groans, then notices a large bandage on his side] What happened? I thought I picked rock.

DEAN
[looking at a similar bandage] So did I.

DR. VENTURE
And I picked two beautiful kidneys! I feel freakin' amazing!

Notes

• This, being the first episode, features a lot of firsts. Though Dr. Venture, Brock, the boys, the Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend were all in the pilot (which first aired over a year before this episode debuted) they all have slightly different designs (it's more prominent with the Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend).
  
  
• HELPeR makes his first appearance in the series. HELPeR is voiced by Soul-Bot, which is a robot that they have around the Astrobase Go! headquarters. He also appears in the Astrobase id at the end of every episode. He's the one that looks like a robot. HELPeR also stands for 'Humanoid Electric Lab Partner Robot' according to Jackson, though it's never stated in the show.
  
  
• The title of the episode, as you might be able to tell, is a play on the Mexican holiday of Dia de los Muertos. As mentioned it translated to 'Day of the Dead' and is equivalent to All Saint's Day. You can find out more about this holiday at azcentral.com if you want.
  
  
• Richard Liebman-Smith, who voiced the college dean, used to work on The Tick (live and animated shows) with VB creator/writer Chris 'Jackson Publik' McCulloch.
  
  
• The chupacabra is mentioned (and shown) a few times. If you're not familiar with the legend of the chupacabra, there have been numerous reports of a creature that sucks the blood of live stock in Mexico and Puerto Rico, though none have ever been confirmed with any concrete evidence. You can read up on chupa-thingies here.