Ben Tennyson arms himself for a new conflict.
Five years after the original series, Ben is forced to don the Omnitrix once more when he finds out that his Grandpa Max has discovered an alien conspiracy happening on Earth. Teaming up with his cousin Gwen and plumber Magister Labrid, they begin to investigate Max's discovery and begin to unravel the scopes of the conspiracy.- Accidental Tickle Torture: When Ben transforms into Swampfire and gets shot by the Forever Knights, his reaction is this.
- Arms Dealer: The DNAliens are selling weapons to the Forever Knights.
- Badass Normal: Despite not wearing the Omnitrix, Ben still proves himself to be a badass when he defeats a DNAlien with a fire extinguisher.
- Berserk Button: Ben gets annoyed when Gwen starts making cracks about Grandpa Max being dead.
- Brake Angrily: As Ben, Gwen, Kevin and Labrid drive to one of the Forever Knights' castle, Ben snaps at Gwen after she makes a joke about Grandpa Max while he's in trouble. Kevin's reaction is this very same trope, causing Ben to apologize.(brakes, then points at Ben) "Don't talk to her like that!"
- Cliffhanger: The episodes ends with the team getting attacked by a dragon at the Forever Knights castle.
- Conspicuous Trenchcoat: Labrid wears a trenchcoat while in human disguise.
- The Conspiracy: Max has discovered a conspiracy and is curently investigating it. Ben and his team are following his trail.
- Continuity Nod: In the original series, Gwen wanted a black belt. Now, she has one.
- Damn You, Muscle Memory!: When a DNAlien ambushes Ben in Max's RV, he jumps back and swaps his wrist...while still not wearing the Omnitrix.Oh, man.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Cash, JT, Julie and Ben’s mother all make appearances ahead of episodes focusing on them later on.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- Ben's mother Sandra makes a brief cameo in this episode, though she's very different here compared to her later appearances. Namely, she has auburn hair and a different facial shape, and is voiced by Julie's voice actress Vyvan Pham rather than Tara Strong or Beth Littleford.
- Similarly, JT’s brief appearance comes courtesy of Ben’s VA Yuri Lowenthal rather than Adam Wylie or Scott Menville.
- The first DNAlien Ben encounters attacks him by completely converting his upper half into tendrils which then lash out at him. This ability is never used again in the series.
- Enemy Mine: Kevin, after getting captured, decides to help Ben, Gwen and Labrid because the Forever Knights didn't pay him.
- The Faceless: All we see of Ben’s mother is her body and part of her hair.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: When Max's final message deactivates, his person briefly flashes into that of a DNAlien.
- Feet-First Introduction: As a muscle car approaches the arms deal and Kevin comes out of it, we first see his feet.
- Love Redeems: It's pretty obvious a big reason Kevin agrees to help is because he's attracted to Gwen.
- Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: The minor crime in the episode is the arms deal between the Forever Knights and DNAliens, which leads to the team discovering the major plot in the next episode.
- Mistaken for Thief: Magister Labrid begins stalking Ben and eventually confronts him and Gwen at the latter's school because he thought he was some punk who broke into Max's RV and stole the Omnitrix for himself. Once he realizes that he and Gwen are Max's grandchildren, he immediately apologizes and ofers to help them find Max together.
- Riddle for the Ages:
- Given the type of person Ben was established to be in the original series, good luck trying to figure out why Ben would willingly take off the Omnitrix and give up his life as a hero. All the episode tells us is that getting it off to begin with was quite a bit of trouble.
- It's also unclear what Max's exact motive was for telling Ben that he had the Omnitrix, which Ben quickly finds out wasn't true. Ben decides it was Max's way of telling him to put it back on, but since Max's image in the hologram briefly shifts into a DNAlien, it's possible it wasn't even really Max who recorded it.
- Sinister Silhouettes: When Magister Labrid enters the school gym, he's introduced as a silhouette.
- Time-Shifted Actor: Due to Ben, Gwen and Kevin being teenagers, Yuri Lowenthal, Ashley Johnson and Greg Cipes do their voices now.
- Wham Shot:
- After turning blue and failing to work for several minutes, the Omnitrix glows and recalibrates into a newer, sleeker form, giving Ben access to a brand new set of aliens.
- Kevin back in human form, sane and able to absorb matter instead of energy. It wouldn't be until "...Nor Iron Bars a Cage" was this explained.
