Guess Who's Coming to State Dinner?

Infobox Television episode
Title=Guess Who's Coming to State Dinner?
Series=The Venture Bros.
Season=2
Episode=9
Airdate=10 September 2006
Writer= Jackson Publick
Ben Edlund (story)
Director= Jackson Publick


Caption = "That little bastard! How'd he do that?"
Production = 2-21
Guests = Brendon Small as Agent Hauser
Dana Snyder as the president
Prev=Fallen Arches
Next=I Know Why the Caged Bird Kills"Guess Who's Coming to State Dinner?" is the ninth episode in the second season of "The Venture Bros."

Plot

The Gargantua-1 Space Station breaks orbit and begins to crash towards Earth. By a stroke of luck, it crashes into a known terrorist cell and Colonel Bud Manstrong becomes a national hero (his crew mate Anna Baldovitch's status is unknown. The ticker tape said she had a closed casket funeral, and Manstrong is seen wearing a black armband throughout the episode, but the 'NEWS' newspaper had an exclusive saying Baldovitch is alive thus contradicting each other. It is, however, worth mentioning that this publication also carries a story about Manstrong's secret "Bat Baby" so it might not be very reliable). At the White House reception in his honor, Dr. Venture jealously derides Manstrong's accomplishments while Brock Samson has some unpleasant interaction with Secret Service Agent Hauser, a former OSI agent and acquaintance of Samson's.

At the state dinner, Venture plans to steal Manstrong's thunder by presenting a new invention to the President. Manstrong tells the tale of the crash to the President, revealing that he has no memories of the later moments of the crash; a flashback shows him waking from an operation, and his surgeons make a passing mention to a microchip in his head. At the dinner, Manstrong's mom gets drunk and begins aggressively flirting with Brock, who Manstrong remembers angrily from their previous encounter. Meanwhile, the ghost of Abraham Lincoln appears from a wall and notices with concern Mrs. Manstrong's almost hypnotic power over her son as well as a suspicious blinking bandage on the back of Bud's head. Dean notices the ghost and tries to alert Hank, but is distracted by Brock spilling his wine on them in an alarmed attempt to keep Mrs. Manstrong from feeling him up under the table.

In the Oval Office, Manstrong and President Breyer meet privately. Breyer offers Manstrong the position of running mate for his re-election campaign to replace his scandal-plagued vice president. Manstrong accepts, but then panickingly declines after the president makes some frank, crass remarks about his sexual liaisons with interns. In the Lincoln Bedroom, a housemaid takes away the Venture brothers' wine-stained clothes and promises to remove the stains with club soda. A jittery Dean tries to explain to Hank that he think they're being watched, but Hank attributes to this to their constant Secret Service surveillance.

Bud explains to his mother what happened in the Oval Office. His mother, outraged about her son declining the position of vice president, tells him to go back and accept. His face going slack, Bud blankly agrees. Lincoln's ghost, possessing a penny in Mrs. Manstrong's purse, looks on in worry. As the Manstrongs enter the Oval Office, Dr. Venture begs Brock to distract the Secret Service so that he can get an audience with the President. Brock initially refuses, but after some taunting from Agent Hauser, he changes his mind.

In the Lincoln Bedroom, Dean tries to sleep but can't because he thinks he keeps seeing the ghost of Lincoln. Finally, Lincoln reveals himself to Dean and demands help stopping Bud from assassinating the president. Dean wakes up Hank, who has never heard of Abraham Lincoln.

With prompting from his mother, Bud gets ready to tell the president he accepts the job. However, Brock causes a commotion outside and blocks the Secret Service long enough for Dr. Venture to sneak through the ruckus. Venture presents his invention, a portable force field generator. He takes out as a demonstration; however, Hauser breaks into the office, mistakes the device's remote control for a gun and tackles the doctor.

Lincoln explains to the boys that Manstrong is being controlled by his mother through a microchip planted at the base of his skull and has been programmed to assassinate the president, to the boys' disbelief. Lincoln asks to possess one of the boys so that he can stop the assassination. Meanwhile, the Oval Office is now surrounded by Dr. Venture's force field, with no way to deactivate it: The remote is smashed, and the device runs on nuclear power, so destroying it is unfeasible. Communicating through Post-its, Hauser gets the other agents to call for a scientist. They call Jonas Venture, Jr., who springs into action.

Lincoln possesses Dean's body, but is confused by the sudden of rush of hormones and tries to make out with Hank. After getting used to the physical world, he takes off for the Oval Office. In the Oval Office, Hauser establishes a perimeter around the president's desk with masking tape while Jonas tries to figure out how to break the force field. Lincoln launches himself towards the Oval Office, but the force field stops him cold, only being able to carry a penny from Dean's pocket into the Office. Because Lincoln can only physically manipulate objects with his likeness on it, he and the Ventures come up with a new plan, to glue five-dollar bills onto Lincoln's spirit so that he may enter the force field with a material body. The Venture brothers get to work collecting fives.

While waiting to be set free, Brock attempts reconciliation with Manstrong and apologizes for sleeping with his girlfriend Baldovitch. Manstrong doesn't accept the apology, miscommunication between the two makes things worse, and the situation does not improve when Mrs. Manstrong drunkenly collapses face-first into Brock's lap.

The Ventures get to work gluing fives onto Lincoln's ghost. While this is happening, Lincoln reminisces about how he thought that President Franklin D. Roosevelt was the best president he had ever known after his death, and how he liked watching him sleep. Lincoln admits that he thinks the current president is the worst in history, but is trying to "earn his wings" by saving his life. Lincoln suddenly springs up, saying that he senses that Manstrong is about to make his move.

Manstrong is now completely enraged at Brock and challenges him to a fight. Before he can throw a punch, however, Lincoln, now completely covered in fives, runs through the force field and tackles him. He then explains the assassination plot to the president and tears off the bandage on Manstrong's head to reveal a microchip. History then repeats himself when Lincoln takes a bullet to the head, fired by Mrs. Manstrong. The bullet also grazes Manstrong's microchip, knocking him out. Dr. Venture, examining the chip, discovers it to be in fact part of the motherboard from Gargantua-1. Attaching a small digital screen to the chip, we see the final moments of the space station: Anna decided to attempt sex with Manstrong before they both died, and when she reached for his genitals, he passed out from overexcitement. Manstrong begins to masturbate at the memory.

Later, Dean wonders why Lincoln hasn't gotten his wings; Venture surmises that since Lincoln was wrong about the presidential assassination plot, he hasn't done anything important enough to earn them. Meanwhile, Jonas Jr. expresses puzzlement as the housemaid solves the problem of the force field, by removing it with club soda.

Production notes

* The creators have stated that they consider this to be the worst episode of season 2. [Season 2 DVD commentary for "Guess Who's Coming to State Dinner?"]
* One of the animation directors (Kimson Albert) has "nickname" inserted into his credits. The nickname is an unusual line or word from the preceding episode. For "Guess Who's Coming To State Dinner" the credit reads Kimson "Budley? Budward?" Albert.
* The maid in the White House was voiced by Jarboe of Swans.

References