Did someone order a MacGuffin?
And you say that this watch just jumped up and clamped onto your wrist?
During a Summer trip with his Grandpa Max and his cousin Gwen, 10-year-old Ben Tennyson discovers the Omnitrix, an alien watch-like device that lets him turn into 10 different aliens. This unfortunately makes him the next target of Vilgax, a galactic conqueror that wants the Omnitrix.
Tropes:
- An Arm and a Leg: Vilgax loses both legs and his left arm in the explosion of his spaceship.
- Attack Reflector: Diamondhead defeats the giant robot by using his body to reflect its laser back at its head.
- Brick Joke: Right before the ending of the episode, Ben gets revenge on the classmates that bullied him before he started the Summer trip.
- Body Horror: Vilgax's injuries are not pretty.
- Clingy MacGuffin: The Omnitrix attaches itself to Ben's arm and he is incapable of getting rid of it.
- Description Cut: Vilgax says that no one will stop him from obtaining the Omnitrix. The episode then cuts to Ben making a paper plane.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Stinkfly, Ghostfreak and Ripjaws make appearances as silhouettes on the watch.
- Establishing Character Moment: Ben is first introduced throwing a paper airplane at a teacher, then subsequently attempting to defend a classmate and getting a wedgie as a result. A bit of a troublemaker, but ultimately a hero at heart; pretty much Ben in a nutshell.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!:Gwen: (notices smoke rising) What's that?
Max: Looks like the start of a forest fire. We better let the ranger's station know. Probably some darn fool camper out there, messing around with something he shouldn't. (Beat, he and Gwen share a panicked look) Ben! - Flying Saucer: The giant robot has two UFO-like robots in its shoulders and sends them after Ben.
- Foreign Queasine: Grandpa Max serves the kids marinated mealworms and says that they are considered a delicacy in some countries. Gwen answers that they are considered gross in others.
- Foreshadowing: The certainty with which Max asserts that Heatblast is an alien rather than a monster is an early hint that there's more to Max than meets the eye. The Pop-Up Trivia even lampshades that this is our first clue to Max's secret past.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: Vilgax is missing the lower half of his body as a result of his wounds.
- Hour of Power: Ben's transformations only last for around 10 minutes and the Omnitrix needs to recharge after each one.
- Humongous Mecha: A giant drone attacks the campsite the team is at. It's big enough to grab Diamondhead
- Insistent Terminology: Grandpa Max corrects Gwen when she describes Heatblast as a monster, saying that it's "clearly" an alien.
- Jumped at the Call: After getting the Omnitrix and learning what it can do, Ben thinks that with its help he could save people instead of screwing things up when trying to do so. A good example of this is his willingness to attack the giant robot without any idea of what Diamondhead can do.
- Makes Us Even: Gwen saves Ben from a search robot, later on Diamondhead saves Gwen from being crushed by tree.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Ben tries to stand up for the kid getting picked on. Because there's one of him and two bullies, he ends up getting wedgied as well.
- Playing with Fire: Heatblast can create, control and is partially made of fire. Quite literally, he accidentally starts a forest fire while testing his powers.
- Powers in the First Episode: Ben receives the Omnitrix and its ability to transform into the ten different aliens it contains.
- Robo Cam: Every robot shown perceives the world as red with scribbles in an alien language.
- Schedule Fanatic: Gwen has a schedule for her vacation. Every activity has a unique color so as not to do one two days in a row.
- Shout-Out: The title of the episode is a reference to the Agatha Christie novel And Then There Were None.
- The space battle at the beginning is a reference to the opening scene of A New Hope.
- Grandpa Max's license plate spells, "S81Z1M", AKA, "Shazam!".
- Something Only They Would Say: Gwen figures out Heatblast is Ben when he calls her "freak".
- Start X to Stop X: Ben stops the forest fire he started by creating another one near it and letting both consume each other. Bonus points: this is something firefighters actually do in response to forest fires!
- Transformation Conventions: After Ben has been introduced as a temperamental slacker, the first extraterrestrial the Omnitrix picks for him is Heatblast, a magma-based alien.
- Transformation Sequence: Save for XLR8, every alien's transformation is shown. Heatblast's also has Ben freaking out about it.
- Vader Breath: Vilgax has it in his healing tank, likely due to having a lot of internal bleeding and breathing issues due to his injuries.
- Transformation Trinket: The Omnitrix itself lets Ben turn into anyone of 10 aliens.
- Wedgie: At the beginning of the episode, Ben ends up on the receiving end of one by the school bullies when he tries to help a classmate who was also given one. In the end, he returns the favor as XLR8.
