Home Is Where the Hate Is (The Venture Bros.)

"Home Is Where the Hate Is (The Venture Bros.)"

Home Is Where The Hate Is is the 30^th episode of The Venture Bros. and is part of Season 3.

Plot

The Monarch and Doctor Girlfriend have moved into Phantom Limb's former home, a duplicate of the Frank Lloyd WrightEnnis House. However, as they are moving in, The Monarch seems especially peevish. When Dr. Girlfriend asks the Monarch what is wrong, he reveals his dissatisfaction with their new neighborhood, which is a gated community for supervillains. ("It's like Boca Raton on Halloween!") The duo order the Henchmen to leave their house, as they have decided to keep "work" and "home life" separate. Meanwhile, it is revealed that she and the Monarch have been invited to a Supervillains Party, thrown by Sergeant Hatred, Dr Venture's new arch enemy.

Meanwhile Sergeant Hatred arrives at the Venture Compound, making a seemingly villainous entrance, immediately turns out to be genial -- he presents him with a gift basket and to fill out some minor paperwork regarding their new adversarial partnership. Indeed, the whole visit comes across more as a social call (a "meet and greet" as The Sarge calls it) and he invites Dr. Venture and Brock to a party he is hosting that evening.

The party proves to be a dreary bore to all concerned, until Hatred shows Monarch a minature explosive the size of a postage stamp. Monarch steals it and secretly places it on Venture's spine. Hatred and Monarch get into a hot tub together, and Hatred tells Monarch that he knows he has been stealing from him, so he treats Venture with kindness to get revenge on Monarch. The Monarch counters by revealing that he has planted the explosive on Venture, and will thereby both kill his hated foe and frame Sergeant Hatred for the murder in one devious act. Venture enters the hot tub, much to the terror of the two supervillains. The explosive goes off, causing an explosion so small and mild Dr. Venture misinterprets it (and cheekily laughs it off) as flatulence.

An interesting subplot is introduced when the 21 and Hank overhear the two Moppets, while watching the movie and eating popcorn, discussing using gas as means of murder in a plan they are concocting. Admittedly, one states, it is not as satisfying as hearing them scream, but it will kill them in their sleep and make it look like an accident. These comments close with the line, "and the Monarch won't be expecting it when we..." which is cut off when they realize that 21 and Hank are looking at them through the window. Thinking that it is 21 and 24 (who they had earlier put in the Monarch's sickbay), they take off after them with murderous intent. What is unclear is to whom they were referring when discussing the execution of their murderous plans. One option is they plan to kill the Monarch's henchmen, (or perhaps, even the Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend).

Cultural References

• The Monarch burns Phantom Limb's bed, claiming to be copying the action of Farrah Fawcett's character in The Burning Bed.
• During his tour of the Venture compound, Sergeant Hatred comments on the lawn and asks if it is Kentucky Bluegrass. Brock responds that it is his own mix of "Blue Ridge and Creeping Red" (Festuca rubra).
• After Sergeant Hatred shoots Dr. Venture with a rubber bullet and sees how much damage it caused, he tells one of his malice troops that they're "going full-NERF on this one."
• One of Sergeant Hatred's party games is to guess the identity on a nametag pinned to your back.
  • Dr. Girlfriend's tag is Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
    • Dr. Girlfriend actually has no idea who "Jacqueline Onassis" is when ironically, her entire character design of pink suits, pillbox hats, and an unusually deep "mannish" voice, are all directly based on her.
  • The Monarch's tag is Mark Knopfler
  • Dr. Venture's tag is Mariah Carey
  • Brock's tag is Harry Dean Stanton, star of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
  • An unnamed guest's tag is Joan of Arc
• The Moppets are watching the movie Nell, but confuse it with The Silence of the Lambs. Hank confuses it with Schindler's List due to the presence of Liam Neeson.
• Sergeant Hatred has a picture of Richard Nixon over his mantle.
• Hatred claims he was a supervillain back when Monarch was trading Garbage Pail Kids
• When Sergeant Hatred asks Hank and Dean how old they are, the boys reply that they are "Sixteen...going on seventeen", a reference to the song in The Sound of Music.
• The Monarch remarks that he can't believe he's living in "a town called Malice", a reference to the song of the same name by the Jam.
• The Monarch notes that #24 has a voice similar to actor/comedian Ray Romano.
• During the game of charades, The Monarch acts out clues for the movie Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo, while Dr. Venture desperately tries to act out clues for the movie Birdy.

Connections to other episodes

• Although never mentioned specifically, it is assumed Princess Tiny Feet is still Sergeant Hatred's wife, as there are pictures of her hanging up in the den.
• Sergeant Hatred mentions that he is not legally allowed to be near minors. Hank mentioned in "I Know Why the Caged Bird Kills" that he and Dean were once molested by Sgt. Hatred ("People only tie us up when they want to kidnap us...or touch us inappropriately" "What?" "Sgt. Hatred, Dean?! What did you, blank that out? No, wait, you had passed out from the wine by that point. Trust me, most of it was awful".)
• Sergeant Hatred also mentions that he knows the Monarch's henchmen have been stealing from him. This has been mentioned in several past episodes, particularly in "Hate Floats" when the henchmen say they stole parts from Hatred's hovertank to repair the damaged flying cocoon, and later in "Showdown at Cremation Creek, Part I" when Hatred himself as a guest at the Monarch's wedding in the cocoon was infuriately pointing out parts of the cocoon which were obviously using stolen parts from his hovertank.
• As The Monarch is looking at the Guild's "facebook", the first picture the audience sees is that of a Dr. Quymn. An upcoming episode in season 3 is titled "Dr. Quymn, Medicine Woman".
• Hatred's party includes several previously-seen villains including Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Nightmare Coat.
• Hatred shows The Monarch a carbine dart gun and a comlink/grapnel, both of which have been shown as standard issue equipment for Monarch henchmen in previous episodes.
  • The gesture may have been a subtle, venomous hint to The Monarch that Hatred is well aware of his equipment theft (which he angrily accuses The Monarch of later).

Production notes

• This episode was originally titled "My Dinner With Hatred", although it was later revealed to only be a tentative title and not the final title.
• Sgt. Hatred was voiced by Brendon Small in his first speaking appearance in Showdown at Cremation Creek (Part 1), here he is voiced by Christopher McCulloch due to Small's work on the show Metalocalypse.
• Sgt. Hatred's first appearance had him standing in line to try out for the arch-nemesis position for the Order of the Triad in the episode Fallen Arches when Dr. Venture tempts the villains with his Walking Eye.
• One of the animation directors (Kimson Albert) has a "nickname" inserted into his credits. The nickname is an unusual line or word from the preceding episode. For "Home Is Where The Hate Is" the credit reads Kimson "Full Nerf" Albert.