Now Museum, Now You Don't

Infobox Television episode
Title=Now Museum, Now You Don't
Series=The Venture Bros.
Season=3
Episode=35
Airdate=27 July 2008
Writer= Jackson Publick
Director=Jackson Publick


Caption = "Okay, everyone, say, 'Go Team Venture!'"
Production = 3-35
Guests = Mia Barron as Sally Impossible
Toby Huss as Scaramantula [ [http://urbaniak.livejournal.com/162000.html James Urbaniak's LiveJournal] . James Urbaniak: "Sadly, his name was misspelled in the credits."]
Episode list = List of The Venture Bros. episodes
Prev=Tears of a Sea Cow
Next=The Lepidopterists

Now Museum, Now You Don't is the 35^th episode of "The Venture Bros." and is part of Season 3.

Plot

The episode begins in 19X9 (the year is partially bleeped out), at Spider Skull Island. However, at this date, the island is the headquarters of the super villain Scaramantula, who leads the Fraternity of Torment (which includes Manotaur and a large-headed villain named Brainulo). The Fraternity is welcoming a new supervillain into their fold, the Japanese Dr. Fangdragon from 'Japananawa' (which is Jonas Venture Senior in disguise) and are planning to kill Rusty. Dr. Venture reveals himself and Team Venture bursts onto the scene in the Excavator Car. Following a melee, the villains and their henchmen are soundly defeated, and only Scaramantula escapes via an underground tunnel. In his escape, he activates the self-destruct mechanism to blow up the island, as he continues down the deep subterranean passage. The mechanism inexplicably shorts out before the countdown completes, and the victorious Team Venture, topside, declare Spider Skull Island their new headquarters. A young Professor Richard "Dicky" Impossible is on hand to photograph their triumph.

Fast forward to the present, Dr. Jonas Venture Jr. has decided to open Spider Skull Island to the public by setting up a Jonas Venture Museum. Among the dignitaries are both the current Team Venture (Thaddeus, Brock, Dean, Hank, and H.E.L.P.eR.) and the former Team Venture (the Action Man, Kano, Otto Aquarius and Humongoloid (Dr. Entmann), as well as Swifty and Hector, while Ook Ook is frozen in a block of ice). Col. Horace Gentleman arrives to round out the team, explaining that he was not dead when the Venture boys found him in "Twenty Years to Midnight", but that he was in a diabetic coma; he also assaults Thaddeus in retaliation for "breaking [his] stepdaughter's heart" (as seen in "Dr. Quymn, Medicine Woman"). Also at the party is Conjectural Technologies, various government dignitaries, and the Fraternity of Torment themselves (excluding the deceased Manotaur).

Although they are retired and officially at peace with each other, The Fraternity and the original Team Venture still bear deep ill-will towards each other. They spend most of the evening bickering over old scores.

This is not the only source of enmity that evening. A disheveled Professor Richard Impossible arrives, whom Jonas Junior invited as a dignitary. Not only is he drunk and bitter, but his estranged wife Sally is furious that he was invited without her knowledge. Meanwhile, the Sea Captain and his ex-ghost pirates (who now work as butlers and valets) are getting more and more fed up with Jonas Junior's condescending method of management. On top of everything else, Thaddeus/Rusty gets annoyed that Jonas Junior seems to be trying to erase him from the Venture legacy.

Unbeknownst to all, Brainulo, while pretending to be senile, is using his psychic powers to amplify the bad feelings of everyone in the room. Soon, this starts to manifest itself -- Richard awkwardly tries to commit suicide in front of everyone by jumping off a catwalk (the fall doesn't injure him at all, but embarrasses Sally), Jonas and Sally begin to have a series of unseemly arguments in front of the guests, and finally, the Captain and his crew attempt a mutiny (and are immediately set on by the Original Team Venture). Brainulo has little effect on Pete White because, apparently, Peter's major thoughts at the time are about the mother from Growing Pains, played by Joanna Kerns.

Meanwhile, the current Team Venture prudently leaves before the fracas reaches a fever pitch. Brainulo tries to activate Futuro, his old attack robot (on display in the museum), with his psychic energy but is unsuccessful. During the melee, a projector is knocked on, which shows a quick film describing what a positive impact Dr. Jonas Venture Sr. had on the world. This display of sentimentality causes everyone to stop fighting. Still trying to activate Futuro, Brainulo overexerts himself and short-circuits his neural implants. Jonas Jr., seeing that his party is back online, asks Rusty Venture to speak only to find that his brother has already left. This surprise is cut short by the re-activation of the Spider Skull Island self-destruct mechanism. Brainulo and Scaramantula escape after unsuccessfully trying to disarm it and the current Team Venture leaves just as the countdown begins, with Thaddeus mocking the situation. The countdown continues as the credits roll.

In the epilogue, Spider Skull Island seems covered in Professor Richard Impossible's expanded body, like a gigantic, deflated, hot-air balloon. It is revealed that he put his mouth over the device and contained the blast within his own elastic body, saving everybody. Sally and Jonas Junior thank him for his selfless act. As The Professor retracts back to normal and lies on the floor, the Sea Captain slyly suggests that the Professor was actually trying to commit suicide.

Production notes

* This is the first episode since The Terrible Secret of Turtle Bay (the pilot) in which Stephen Colbert does not voice Richard Impossible. He is instead voiced by Christopher McCulloch. [http://www.tv.com/the-venture-brothers/now-museum-%E2%80%93-now-you-dont/episode/1214226/cast.html TV.com cast list for "Now Museum, Now You Don't"] ]
* One of the animation directors (Kimson Albert) gets to have a "nickname" inserted into his credits. For "Now Museum, Now You Don't" the credits reads Kimson "Ook Ook" Albert.
* The Wilhelm scream can be heard in the opening scene.

References