Dermott Fictel

Dermott Fictel is a supporting character on the Adult Swim show The Venture Bros. First appearing in the season 3 episode "The Buddy System", he was revealed as possibly being the illegitimate son of Brock Samson.

Despite the evidence (see below), it is still possible that Dermott's father is one of the other men present, such as Dr. Orpheus or Master Billy Quizboy.

Character description
Dermott is a teenage boy who is rude, disrespectful and contemptous to just about everyone. Dermott also appears to be a pathological liar, constantly boasting about his (very dubious) feats and knowledge. He makes his debut in "The Buddy System".

While Hank takes an instant liking to Dermott (being the only teenage boy he ever met, outside of his brother), Dean is instantly terrified of him, given his size and swagger. Indeed, Dermott clashes with everyone else at the Venture Compound, especially Brock Samson, whom he provokes several times. Everyone tolerates Dermott's abuse, except Triana Orpheus who labels Dermott a dork and "so Dave Matthews" (as opposed to being hardcore). When Dermott counters by insulting Triana, Dean's ire is raised seeing the object of his affections being disrespected. He (uncharacteristically) gets mad and assaults Dermott, beating him up pretty badly (much to the delight of Brock, who is looking on).

Potential Father
At the end of the episode "The Buddy System", Dermott's mother comes by with a car to pick him up. Dermott and his mother seem to have agreed to come to the camp for the sole purpose of meeting his possible father, and perhaps suggests Dermott has suffered emotionally as a result of not seeing his father, which is evident in his aggressive attitude toward Brock (accusing him of "walking away" when Brock turned around to avoid a confrontation).

Dermott himself mentions in passing that, at least he has been lead to believe, his father was "some Black Ops special agent", which could possibly be describing Brock's past service in the OSI.

In addition, when Brock was calming down Dr. Venture after his outburst at Hank, Dr. Venture told him, "just wait until you have kids of your own," possibly foreshadowing that the reason Dermott is able to get under Brock's skin so easily is that he is his son.

Brock is seemingly oblivious to having fathered any children, and as such is unaware of his possible relation to Dermott; throughout the episode, he is trying to come up with ways to retaliate against Dermott's disrespectful attitude without actually coming to blows with him, as his code of ethics prevents him from harming children. Dermott's provocations may have been a way to "test" Brock, however, as he and his mother have the following exchange when he is picked up from the Venture Compound:

"Dermott's mother: Dermott sweetie, did you meet him?"
"Dermott: Yeah, he was okay. You sure he's my real father?"

Despite their rough treatment of one another, Dermott, a rebellious boy himself, may take pride in knowing that his supposed father is a big, muscular tough guy.

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