In the final moments of The Venture Bros.finale, we finally learn the identity of Hank and Dean Venture's mother. And if you're in your feelings about it, you're not alone.
Ma Venture has been a mystery of the series since episode one. As it turns out, she wasn't obsessed ex-agent Myra Brandish. She wasn't actress-turned-invisible woman Bobbi St. Simone. She wasn't even Mantilla, not really.
Sure, The Venture Bros: Radiant Is The Blood Of The Baboon Heart reveals the woman whose genetic material contributed to Hank and Dean's DNA. But it take more than that to be a mom, right?
Mashable sat down with Venture Bros. creators Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick for a wide-ranging interview — before the SAG/AFTRA strike — that touched on how they felt approaching this finale, which scenes hurt to cut, the plot points viewers might have missed, and finally, what the very final shot of The Venture Bros.means to them.
"We talked about that for a long time," said Hammer.
Credit: Adult SwimAfter a road-tripping rescue mission, Dean Venture finds his runaway brother Hank unconscious at the Caring Hands animal sanctuary, which lies suspiciously near the abandoned Venture compound. There, Bobbi St. Simone had shared her connection to the Venture family, essentially revealing that her daughter Debbie (aka Mantilla) is the boys' biological mother.
However, in a scene with Dr. Mrs. Monarch, Debbie makes clear she never slept with Rusty Venture, a fact he confirms independently to The Monarch while they scramble to escape the Venture Tower heist. "I gave him my stuff I wasn't planning on using," Debbie said off-handedly, suggesting Rusty used some genetic material. But then Dean confronts his dad at the film's end, asking directly, "Who is our mom?"
At first, Doc tries to brush off the question, but then concedes, "All you need to know is that the person who gave birth to you, loves you. I promise they do."
Dean accepts this and hugs Doc, who cringes. But this oblique statement becomes concrete in the post-credit scene. There, a much younger Doc is working on the schematic for a child's toy, while Helper fuses over a baby bassinet, beeping a lullaby. Then, an alarm goes off on Doc's watch, the screen flashing the message "Have the Boys."
"Well, looks like they're about done," Doc says, to which Helper claps his claws in apparent excitement. "Are you ready to meet the Venture Brothers?" As he says this, Doc turns around, revealing he's wearing an artificial womb on his torso. Within its clear casing, fetus Hank and fetus Dean instinctively join their fingers in their signature V salute.
Credit: Adult Swim"We talked about that for a long time," Hammer told Mashable. "For me, it's explaining something very basic — that the Venture Brothers, for all their talk about a mommy, [that's] moot.
"Their mommy is Doc Venture," He said firmly. "That's who it is. It's a statement on the oddness of gender. It's a statement on the oddness of families, it's a statement on how we were raised. This talk about who's my mommy, it doesn't matter as much. It's who's my family which matters. That's what we hammered home at the end is: What is my family? Do I choose them? Am I born to them? What is family? And then we just end it by going: It's the weirdest thing ever. Here's the answer. Your family is the weirdest thing ever."
Publick concurred, "All families are bizarre and artificial."
"All families are so weird," Hammer continued. "It's so weird, like mommy and daddy maybe don't even love each other. It's so fucked up that our statement is: It's fucked up. And it's beautiful. And that's your family. Deal with it, or go find another one."
Of course, for fans who've been theorizing for 20 years, there might be more to ponder in that final scene. Publick acknowledged this, saying, "We also don't know the backstory of how he got to that [decision], because, I mean, it obviously wasn't the love in his heart that needed that to happen. So, there's probably more to say about that. Like, 'Yeah, there was something in my dad's will that said'" — and here Publick slides into his Doc Venture voice — "'I needed to sire an heir, and nobody would fuck me.'"
"Yeah," Hammer agreed. "'I couldn't find somebody to take these to term, and by golly, I didn't need them!'"
Kidding aside, Hammer hopes audiences will reflect on this final revelation. "We left this for the audience to answer. Like, what does that mean to you?" Hammer explained. "Because there is no answer. Looking to us for the answers is the wrong thing. What does it mean? You know the answers."
The Venture Bros.: Radiant Is the Blood of the Baboon Heartwill be released on July 21 on digital and July 25 on Blu-ray.
*This interview was conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strike.
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