The Tennysons visit a Navajo reservation in Chinle, Arizona, owned by Max's old friend Wes Green, and Ben gets a crush on his granddaughter Kai. Unfortunately, sightings are reported of a Yenaldooshi, a Navajo werewolf, and while Ben is fighting it, the wolf bites him, then scratches the Omnitrix before it escapes. Now the Tennysons and the Greens must find a way to stop the Yenaldooshi, and things are complicated when Ben slowly transforms into a Yenaldooshi himself.
Tropes
- Ascended Extra: This is Kai's only appearance in the original series, barring a dream sequence in a later episode, but she becomes a recurring character and Ben's full love interest in Omniverse. It's even shown that they end up married and have Ken, Ben's son from the episode "Ken 10."
- Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: Wes is a former plumber and recalls hunting a yeti with Max once.
- Bit-by-Bit Transformation: Ben gradually changes into his Benwolf form, further making it look like he’s a werewolf before The Reveal.
- Cactus Cushion: To produce a cure for Ben's transformation, Gwen and Kai have to find a specific kind of cactus, which proves elusive - until Gwen succumbs to exhaustion and accidentally sits on it. Cue one Pain-Powered Leap.
- Contrived Coincidence: The cactus Gwen and Kai need to cure Ben's condition is stated to be extremely elusive, and the two are driven to exhaustion trying to find it. But somehow, Gwen (and her butt, to be specific) chances on that exact cactus, which she doesn't even notice until Kai points it out.Kai: I guess the spirits work in strange ways.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing:
- After fighting the werewolf the second time, Ben starts itching himself uncontrollably, right before he begins his Slow Transformation into a doppelgänger of the Werewolf.
- While fighting the Yenaldooshi, Ben discovers that the Omnitrix isn't on his wrist. Moments later, after the pendant fails to destroy the Yenaldooshi, Ben's transformation finishes and the Omnitrix appears on his Benwolf form's waist, revealing he's actually an alien werewolf.
- Foreshadowing:
- This episode is one of a few whose events help build up to the final showdown of the season.
- The fact Ben’s clothes change as he becomes the Benwolf, just like they do in his alien transformations, indicates what’s really happening to him.
- Hypocritical Heartwarming: Framed as a Bait-and-Switch. When Kai voices she's only fascinated in Ben for his Benwolf transformation and the potential to "train him" and "tame him". To this, Gwen fiercely calls out Kai on valuing Benwolf over the real Ben, telling her she can't treat Ben that way. Ben is grateful for a moment, until Gwen voices that the only reason this offends her is because only she can treat her cousin that way.
- Innocently Insensitive: Kai tries to be polite about it when she tells Ben he's "not [her] type", but it nonetheless is cold comfort for the fact she was only interested in his Benwolf form so she could "train" and "tame" him. Then Gwen tells her that only she is allowed to treat him that way, which only ruins Ben's mood even further.
- Pain to the Ass: Followed by a Pain-Powered Leap when Gwen accidentally sits on a cactus... the very same one she and Kai need to cure Ben's werewolf problem, to be precise.
- Pet the Dog: When Kai rejects Ben romantically, being more interested in his Benwolf form as a pet, Gwen angrily calls her out on this.
- Seen It All: Subverted. Upon discovering they were actually dealing with an alien werewolf, Max comments "Just when I thought this summer couldn't get any stranger!".
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Gwen (Tomboy) and Kai (Girly Girl). While she later became more snarky and sharp-tongued in Omniverse, in the original series Kai was quite soft-spoken and mellow. This, along with the fact that her role was being the love interest to Ben in the episode, contrasted strongly with the snarky and sharp-tongued, short-tempered Gwen. Kai also spent the episode getting captured a lot and played the role of Damsel in Distress while Gwen was a lot more active in joining in the action, even running straight towards the werewolf at one point.
- Wham Episode: In this episode we learn that the Omnitrix can take DNA samples of any alien that comes into contact with it, allowing Ben to have a new alien form to turn into.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Briefly noted near the end, where Kai states that she only wanted to treat Ben's "werewolf" form like a pet. Ben is understandably insulted, and his ire only grows when Gwen calls her out on it only because she alone can treat him as such.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: For most of the episode it looks like they're after a werewolf that infected Ben with a bite and they act accordingly before finding out the wolf is actually an alien whose DNA the Omnitrix absorbed.
