THE VENTURE BROS. (S7E9): “The Forecast Manufacturer”

And thus, we arrive at the fireworks factory. After a few episodes that were more about colour than plot (not that there’s anything wrong with that), “The Forecast Manufacturer” brings things to a head while also hinting at some weirdness for the future.

Time Travel

First, the future. Assuming it doesn’t happen in the next episode, it looks as though Rusty and Billy are going to be having a time travel adventure next season. All that sounds brilliant in itself but Rusty emerging from the time travel and calling The Monarch, Malcolm definitely feels as though it’s setting up the possibility of a new-found alliance between the enemies, or a more brotherly relationship.

Time travel has also played a part in a lot of the fan theories that have emerged since this episode’s airing which I would like to get into. The main time travel one, and probably the weirdest, concerns the identity of Scarebear, a character that never speaks and simply exists to intimidate people. Tonight, he rescued Hank and then took him across town to Dean’s dorm room to have his heart broken. A theory that is gaining traction on Reddit is that Scarebear is a time-displaced Hank, back in time to help his younger self learn the truth about Sirena and his brother. A similar theory is that Scarebear is actually a time-displaced Dean, atoning for his sins. I don’t like either of these, and would be happy to never know who Scarebear is, or what his motives are.

A Siren

Another theory that is gaining traction is that Sirena is a villain, out to bring the Ventures down from within by breaking apart the brothers and, like a siren of myth, smashing their relationship against the rocks. And I’m not a fan of this one. The idea that Sirena has seduced the two boys out of villainy removes the blame from Dean and makes the woman the one at fault when Dean knows that he’s betraying his brother either way. It would be a cop out to fall into the sexist “women are evil” trope when there is a lot of good drama to be wrung from the brothers’ conflict.

The final theory, and one that has been running throughout this season, is that we’re building up to Hank becoming a supervillain. Little visual clues throughout the season have pointed towards it (i.e. a monarch butterfly in his bouquet of flowers, his position during the tolerance of Treaty talks) and this could be the moment that pushes him there.

On the flip side of that, I always thought it would be Dean that would go to the dark side as his character has been the one walking a bleaker path than Hanks. However, this is The Venture Bros. and being good doesn’t necessarily make you a good guy. Look at Rusty Venture, one of the show’s heroes and an arrogant, vain, pathetic shell of a man, who hates the superhero/supervillain game and feels like it is beneath him. This sounds very much like Dean, whereas Hank’s love of pantomime and drive to do what he wants all the time is more akin to The Monarch than any other character.

If the show is going this way then a love triangle and betrayal, coupled with Hank’s feelings that he isn’t part of the family, might be the push he needs to go over to the dark side.

Final Thoughts: Venture Bros, The Forecast Manufacturer

Rusty and Billy’s adventure was a brilliant bit of high concept insanity sprinkled with poop jokes, and The Monarch and Gary engaging in a murderous game of lawn darts was hilarious and a bit stupid. Both seemed slight while also building towards the bigger endgame of the season, which has been The Ventures Bros. way for the past few years.

I’m excited for the finale to this season but also a little worried. I’ve been watching this show for a very, very long time and I’ve watched the Venture brothers at the centre of the show grow from sweet, foolish, boy adventurers into teenagers and young adults. My affection for them and protectiveness of them has grown too and I worry that this rift, the first big conflict between them, will be a hard one for them to come back from.