Nrama: At the end of the last season's finale, you have 21 moving back in with the Monarch and Dr. Mrs. The Monarch, are we going to see more of that family dynamic again?
Publick: Very much so.
Hammer: Of course, but it's a new family dynamic. I mean things went down! The Cocoon went down and now it's a much tighter family unit. I mean we lost 24, I mean, we didn't lose him. We killed him. We made Monarch and 21 a comedy team that we've never been able to do and write for and it's been so much fun.
Publick: I mean he's the last henchman standing so that changes their relationship and we've had fun exploring that.
Nrama: Speaking of changes. From the Halloween special to now, and last season, we're seeing a bit of a transformation with Dean...or is this just puberty finally really hitting him hard?
Publick: Both, I think.
Hammer: Yeah, it's that and a sense of freedom hitting him. I think he got to that age and step back and look at who he was and see what kind of really f----d up world he lives in.
Publick: Yeah, Hank doesn't need to step back because he takes on things as they come. Dean is more sensitive and probably more moral and soul-searching and has to examine his life a little bit.
Hammer: Also, Hank is probably the sanest person on the show. Nothing jars him. Anything you can throw at him, he can just put it in his world view, which sounds insane, but I promise you he's incredibly sane.
Nrama: In the early years we always thought it was the Monarch as the Big Bad, but here we're learning more and more about the Sovereign with some twists I don't think fans are really expecting.
Hammer: I think the exploration of the Sovereign is all there is and that's all you need to know.
Publick: The Monarch is the Big Bad to this one family of former adventurers, but we've always known there is a bureaucracy of villains that is a workman-like aspect to them. Guys like the Monarch are not unique and there are guys like him all over the world torturing dumb scientists. I guess last season we started to explore there is corruption at the top and this is the place where we bring that to the head.
Hammer: Really the beauty of the Monarch is that he's really not that important. He's a bigger pain in the ass to himself and that's kinda a fun thing to have when your main villain is not the world's main villain.
Publick: Every once and a while we've hinted he's done more horrible things off -screen like he kidnaps somebody or murdered somebody because that's not part of the Ventures' plot. He probably killed Captain Sunshine's sidekick, but he'd rather prefer chasing Dr. Venture around. Like he does this for the love of hate.