Warning: major spoilers below! You know the drill. Don’t read this recap until you’ve seen the fourth episode of The Venture Bros. season 6. You’ve been warned!

Following up on last week’s revelation that his father was a superhero named the Blue Morpho, the Monarch eventually came around and embraced his destiny to become the new Blue Morpho, with Gary as his new Kano. But while the original Blue Morpho was a hero who pretended to be a villain, the Monarch is still a villain…he’s just pretending to be a hero to take out the villains ahead of him on the Guild’s list to arch Doctor Venture. That the Monarch and Gary inadvertently save Billy Quizboy is just the foreplay to his next epic arching. Oddly enough, their plan worked out more neatly than any of the Monarch’s previous schemes.

The Empire Strikes Back gag was well played (with a vocal cameo by the long missed Henchman 24), and the revelation that the original Blue Morpho (once again voiced by Paul F. Tompkins) was a swinger with Dr. Jonas Venture was another great comic moment. There are even some personal stakes for the Monarch, even if he doesn’t realize it yet. The ending of the episode suggested that he’s alienating Dr. Mrs. The Monarch and he didn’t care as long as she didn’t suspect that he was out violating all sorts of Guild rules.

The running gag of the lab mice going through the worst stages of Christian history was amazingly funny, especially because no one in the Venture lab even bothered to look at them after exposing them to “God Gas.” There’s an intriguing reversal at play here. The Monarch was an accidental hero and Rusty is becoming more of an amoral villain. Rusty isn’t ambitious enough to go full villain, but he was perfectly happy to use human subjects for mind control gas. That’s pretty dark, even for Rusty.

Hank’s subplot about getting romantic advice from Brock and Dead was slight, but it gave us something more substantial for Brock. Despite his experience and his very funny kissing guide, Brock couldn’t act on his desire for the Amazon heroine Warriana until he was exposed to Rusty’s God Gas. From the way that Brock and Billy reacted to that substance, it suggested that the gas made them more inclined to worship someone whom they already admired. For Billy, God is his childhood idol, Rusty Venture. And now we all know who Brock wants to take orders from.

Steven Rattazzi voiced the one-off villain, Harangutan, who was a fun addition while he lasted. Unlike Brock and Billy, Harangutan had a very bad reaction to the God Gas before Gary/Kano “punched him to death.” Harangutan only saw Billy and Rusty as devils to be destroyed. The different reactions were intriguing, but there’s no guarantee that the writers will ever follow up on that. But it worked in the moment, and it was very amusing. The recurring Superfriends style announcements was also a terrific running gag.

Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer’s brand of comedic insanity was back in full force last night, and this may have been the best episode this season. The plot was thin, but the laughs were huge. And who doesn’t want to laugh?

What did you think about the latest episode of The Venture Bros.? Let us know in the comment section below!

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Image Credits: Adult Swim