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Recap / Ben 10 S1 E4 "Permanent Retirement"

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That's what you get for eating his slippers.

What kind of vitamins are these freaky old people taking?

While visiting aunt Vera, the team discovers that the old people of the neighborhood are acting really strange.


Tropes:

  • Artistic License – Biology and Artistic License – Chemistry: Despite the fact that the Limax are weak to water, they still plan to eat humans, even though humans are mostly made of water. One also swallows a fly, despite them also containing a lot of water.
  • Aborted Arc: The episode ends with a shot of the Limax slithering through a cave after its mother-ship's departure. However, this is never referenced again.
  • Big "NO!": Upgrade-Ben screams this when Max says they're visiting Aunt Vera.
  • Blob Monster: The Limax are green aliens capable of contorting their body in any shape or form, and are apparently made of a goo-like material.
  • Boom, Headshot!: A family-friendly version occurs to the Limax. When Gwen shoots at their head with a water pistol, they dissolve.
  • Capture and Replicate: The plan of the Limax is capturing every person in the neighborhood while progressively replacing them so no one will suspect a thing.
  • Carpet-Rolled Corpse: One of the aliens transports an old man to his ship this way.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Gwen uses her water pistol at the beginning of the episode to annoy Ben. At the end of it, the pistol makes it clear that the aliens don't like water.
  • Deadpan Snarker: That ice cream vendor must really hate non-fat food.
    Gwen: What do you have that's non-fat with less than three percent sugar?
    Ice cream vendor: Napkins.
  • Dirty Coward: One of the Limax pretends to act like Grandpa Max to keep Ben from clobbering him.
  • Discreet Dining Disposal: When faced with a gelatin mold filled with pork chops and cauliflowers, Ben puts it in Gwen's plate when no one's looking.
  • Foreshadowing: There are two prominent hints as to the Limaxes' weakness to water. The first hint is when the limax impersonating Marty is chased off by the sprinklers going off, just as he had Ben in his clutches. The second hint is when the one impersonating Aunt Vera jumps up and wedges herself between the counters with her legs when Gwen spills some coffee on the floor.
  • Ironic Echo: When Gwen calls out Ben for sneaking away and hurting Aunt Vera's feelings, he writes it off with "She's old, she'll get over it". When Ben tries convincing Grandpa to check out Marty's place, Grandpa agrees but insists Ben doesn't go alien. He then follows it up with a sarcastically curmudgeon "Us old fogies don't forget as much as you think."
  • Kill It with Fire: Heatblast tries to kill the Limax by using his fire based powers but finds out the hard way that they actually thrive in hot environments.
  • People Jars: Every human replaced is stored in a green egg-like pod.
  • Rubber Face: Max warns the children about Vera being "a pincher". Her alien copy does this to Gwen to see if she is ready to be eaten.
  • Rubber Man: While in human form, the Limax can stretch themselves and even twist around their body. This trait is taken up to eleven when they are not disguised.
  • Sarcastic Confession: Ben tells aunt Vera that he has been fighting aliens during the summer. Naturally, she simply thinks it's a joke.
  • Senior Creep: There's a whole neighborhood of "freaky old people" as Ben calls them (even though they're technically shapeshifting aliens), and he even openly questions their bizarre behavior as seen in the page's quote.
  • Shapeshifter Guilt Trip: Ben is beating the tar out of one of the evil aliens (already posing as Grandpa Max) as Wildmutt when it shapeshifts to close up its revealing wounds and says in Max's voice, "Now, you wouldn't want to hurt old Grandpa Max, would ya?" Ben-as-Wildmutt hesitates, allowing the alien to start wallopping him and forcing Gwen to have to remind him of reality.
  • To Serve Man: The Limax plan on eating the humans they replace. They also prefer older people as children are "chewy".
  • Weaksauce Weakness: The Limax are weak to common water.
  • Weirdness Magnet: Gwen lampshades the fact that, after getting the Omnitrix, everywhere they go weird things happen.

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