THE VENTURE BROS (S7E4): “The High Cost Of Loathing”

The Venture Bros. has often played with the idea of who the titular brothers actually are. In the beginning of season 2, following Hank and Dean’s ‘death’ it seemed as though the show was setting up Rusty and JJ Venture as the new bros of the title. In the years after, Declan as joined the roster of possible brothers, and now Malcolm Fitzcarraldo aka The Monarch, might be a Venture brother too.

And with this episode, which takes place two months after “Arrears in Science” and doesn’t reference any of the revelations of that episode, it really clicked into place for me that the Venture Bros. of The Venture Bros. might be Rusty and Malcolm. After all, they are the central points around which most, if not all, of the shows plots revolve. In recent years, the Monarch has especially taken a leading role and has gradually become a much more likable and supportable character. Season 6 was basically all his with most other characters relatively static while he forced the plot along with his Blue Morpho storyline.

Back to Work

Tonight’s episode was a Monarch one as we see him back in the guild and closer to his old self. He’s now arching again rather than killing off Venture’s arches, and he’s the Monarch again instead of the Blue Morpho. On the other side of the story, Rusty manages to seriously injure himself making a grand point and imitating The Hudsucker Proxy. This puts him out of action, but he is still guiding the stories of his sons.

Dean has moved out of the Ventech building and onto campus accommodation (his roommate is the Brown Widow), while Hank is trying to make some money, spend time with Sirena, and live it up in his new room (Dean’s old one.) Rusty plays a part as he has enrolled Dean into a lot of science courses he doesn’t want to attend and with Hank, Rusty refuses to give him a free ride, thus forcing him to rent out his old room on Air BnB.

The two brothers seem to be on a collision course as we see Dean growing closer to Sirena, who is also attending his college, and Hank openly resenting his brother’s place as Rusty’s favourite. The young Venture Bros. have always squabbled, but I don’t remember the show ever putting them in direct, grown-up competition before. With Hammer and Publick its hard to predict where all this will lead, but it’s very intriguing.

Conclusion: The Venture Bros. “The High Cost of Loathing”

By the end of the episode, Dean has paid off The Monarch with a million dollars in the hopes of getting him off his back. However, the obvious repercussions of this feel like funding The Monarch can only lead to him getting closer to his end goal: hating Dr Venture exclusively.

In conclusion, this is definitely a change of pace from the Morphic Trilogy, which dominated the first three episodes of the series. It almost feels as though this should have been the premiere of season 7 with the trilogy being a special or the final part of season 6. That is a slight complaint, especially considering how good the premiere episodes were, but this was still a solid outing with some promising elements for what comes next, the prospect of familial rifts, and The Monarch nearly back to his full, handy dandy eyebrowed glory.