2. OPERATION: P.R.O.M
The Order of the Triad, Conjectural Technologies, one of my personal favorites, Shore Leave, and Brock Samson triumphantly return to help give Hank and Dean “the best damn homeschool prom $500 can buy” in this hour-long season finale special.
Much like a real prom, the episode is as grandiose as it is bittersweet, as nearly every story-line and character from The Venture Bros. universe is wrapped up here, giving each member of the supporting cast a night to remember. Seriously, there are more dovetails here than in a John Woo film: Dean realizes that nothing will ever happen between him and four-season-long-crush and a slight reference to Twilight, sorceress in training Triana Orpheus. Hank takes Durmott as his date and puts on Shallow Gravy’s first performance. Nick Fury and Hunter S. Thompson hybrid Hunter Gathers wrestles the hulking commander of the OSI, and even Sergeant Hatred gets his tattoos removed–except for the D on his D. This episode is a sawed-off shotgun to the face of characters and one-liners, with none of it coming off as filler.
Surprising no one, Doc hires six hooke– I mean escorts– to make the Venture Prom not a complete sausage fest. In proper Venture Bros. fashion however, Doc only shells out enough cash for handshakes, resulting in some of the most grotesquely beautiful poetry to ever come out of the Venture Bros. universe as every character with functional genitalia tries to deduce specifically what sexual act a “Rusty Venture” is. I will note however that the censored and uncensored versions of this scene are like day and a night so dark, you’d swear you were in a Paul Thomas Anderson production.
This Creme de Menthe and Sambuca soaked prom doesn’t just celebrate the graduation of the Venture brothers from their electric grandpa-beds however, as it also marks the end of 21’s career as a Monarch henchman as he solves the “mystery” of 24’s death. It is, admittedly, a surprisingly heart-pulping moment, well punctuated with Brock discovering that Molotov Coqtiz has finally ended the Cold War in her red leather pants, removing her star and sickle stamped chastity belt, but not for Samson sadly. Her Blackhearts mercenaries have infiltrated the prom under the guise of ladies of the night, kicking the episode out of a coma with a big needle of kick-ass right into the heart, as a tuxedoed Brock Samson moves with the haste of a thousand tweens at a Beiber concert to perfectly placed “Like a Friend” by Pulp serving as a dirge for our short-lived depression and a binding spell of “Hell. Yes.”
