An old enemy emerges while Ben and Rook visit Kevin and Gwen at college.
Tropes in this episode
- Character Select Forcing: A non-video game example. The Omnitrix glitches throughout the episode and only gives Ben the option to turn into Ghostfreak.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Ghostfreak vs Mike Morningstar. The Ectonurite definition of life is too alien from the mana Mike feeds on, meaning he can't drain Ghostfreak's energy. Ben, as Ghostfreak, possesses Mike and forces him to undo everything he worked for.
- Deus Exit Machina: Ben spends most of the episode refusing to transform because he'd only be able to turn into Ghostfreak, which carries too much risk. As soon as he finally does, he solves every problem Darkstar caused in under a minute.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: The students and police don't respect Lucky Girl anywhere near as much as they respect Ben, much to Gwen's frustration.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: Throughout the episode, Zed is very suspicious of Dante. She turns out to be right; he's actually Darkstar in disguise.
- Godzilla Threshold: After getting bitten by a stone creature, the Omnitrix only shows Ghostfreak's icon. Ben is too wary of Zs'Skayr to try to transform, until Darkstar drains Gwen and becomes Michael Morningstar again. Luckily, Ben remains in control of Ghostfreak throughout.
- Idiot Ball: Our main heroes interrogate professor Xagliv under the assumption that she's Vilgax in disguise just because her name is "Vilgax" backwards, even though it's highly unlikely for Vilgax to disguise as a human who's way shorter than him or even disguise at all. Unsuprisingly, the professor's reaction isn't very good and had the right to be mad at them for interrogating her.
- No-Sell: Ghostfreak is immune to Michael’s life draining abilities because Ectonurites are not alive in the conventional sense, and thus have no mana to drain.
- Playing with Puppets: Ghostfreak can't resist forcing Mike to smack himself and do a silly dance while possessing him.
- The Reveal: Meek, nerdy Dante is actually Darkstar, which he only gives away when he's close enough to a Charm of Bezel to catch Gwen off guard.
- Scream Discretion Shot: After being arrested, Darkstar ends up in a police car with a policewoman who turns out to be Charmcaster in disguise. She plants a rune on his forehead, and the scene cuts to outside the police car as he begins screaming.
- Scooby-Dooby Doors: Ben, Rook, Kevin, and Zedd chase Dante and an unconscious Gwen through a set of doors that constantly change the location they lead to, in a direct Shout-Out to Scooby Doo.
- Shout-Out: Aside from the Scooby Doo references, two of Darkstar's cultists resemble Raven and Jinx.
- The End... Or Is It?: When all is said and done, Zs'Skayr emerges from the runes Darkstar was using to try and reach Legerdomain.
- Wham Line: Dante gives one to Gwen after he absorbs her attack, revealing his true identity.
- Wham Shot: When Dante betrays the group and steals one of the runes for himself, Gwen fires a mana blast at him… only for him to absorb it.
- X-Ray Sparks: Ghostfreak gets them when Darkstar tries to drain his energy, notably showing his upside-down skull under the outer skin.
- Verbal Salt in the Wound: Once Darkstar is defeated, Rook takes a look at his wizened countenance and remarks "You are quite ugly." Darkstar can only sob in response.
- "You!" Exclamation: Gwen does this when she realizes that Dante is actually Darkstar.
