Now that we’ve established what the main characters have been up to, we got an episode of The Venture Bros. focused on the extended universe. So, while we also got our fill of the Ventures and the Monarchs, the bulk of this episode saw the return of Conjectural Technologies (with Robo-Bo!) fighting their arch, Augustus St. Cloud. There were also a few Duran Duran references, which was nice.

In their latest clash, St. Cloud managed to steal the red ball from Duran Duran’s “Is There Something I Should Know?” video. This was a cause for great concern.

Billy Quizboy and Pete White The Pink Pilgrim then made their way to St. Cloud’s lair… and his bathroom.

Though, to St. Cloud’s credit, the set was indeed worth the wait.

As was this whole setup.

At last, we got to the heart of why the ball is so important…

… and St. Cloud’s demands.

Billy had no choice but to give up the company.

Over in Newark, The Monarch wasn’t taking this whole not-arching-Venture thing laying down.

We couldn’t say the same for his stalling methods.

And while The Monarch and 21 managed to knock Redusa off the list…

… the mansion sitting on a Bat Cave was a slightly bigger deal.

Back in New York, we found out the Crusaders Action League actually works for Wide Wale, and Dr. Venture’s O.S.I. protection was taking money out of his pocket.

With Brock still getting set up, the usual O.S.I. arsenal wasn’t at his disposal.

But he and Hated were able to put up a distraction for Wide Wale.

And even left him a gift.

As for our CEO, things seemed to be taking a turn.

Rust wanted to use his company for super science, not whatever hip thing the kids are into.

He was also short a Pirate Captain, who’s been slumming since getting back on tranq.

With help from the Ventures, he got through a horrifying detox period.

And Dean may have figured out a way to save Ven-Techno.

If only there were some down-on-their-luck scientists who happened to be in need of work and specialized in something similar to “speculative engineering.”