EPISODE REVIEW: Ben 10 Alien Force: “Busy Box” (Season 3, Episode 12)

By my count, this is the penultimate episode of Alien Force, both the season and the series. The show was conceived of as a two-season arc-driven series about fighting an alien invasion, and that story concluded in a three-part series finale that, alas, ended up *not* being a series finale because it got super-high ratings. As a result, this season has been kind of an inconsistent grab-bag of new ideas, old stories that didn’t quite make the cut for the first 26 episodes, and the occasional placeholder villain appearances, just to let us know they’re still around so that we can revisit them with more impact in the new show that starts next year (“Ben 10: Evolution”). That’s not to say the show has been bad - it is largely a Dwayne McDuffie show, and his stuff is always worth watching. I just love the guy - it’s just that the show has been lacking the whole “This is building up to something huge” feel that it had in the first couple of years.

There’s really no better example of that than tonight, in which we’re treated to another semi-comedic standalone episode that borrows heavily from the Henry Kuttner Twist Ending Playbook. It’s entertaining, it’s good, but there’s no sense of heft here, no “An age is coming to a close” sense. It’s just another day. It remains to be seen if the next episode will be “Just another day” as well, or if they’ll try to go out with a big splash.

PLAY BY PLAY

Team Tennyson come across a green cube which turns into a shape-shifting robot that changes form to look exactly like whomever comes nearest to it, and it repeats their last couple words in a tinny-reproduction of their own voice. My youngest kid immediately declared this “The Mimicbot.“ This quickly begins to annoy Kevin, who attacks it. It turns in to Kevin and counterattacks, with exactly his force, speed, and abilities. Ben turns in to Humongasaur, but before he can do anything else, the Mimicbot turns in to Humongasaur too. They duke it out. Gwen zaps it with her powers, but it turns in to a more destructive Gwen and zaps everyone. As usual, Kevin’s car is trashed. Kevin does manage to destroy the ‘Bot briefly, and we see that same glowing green cube in the wreckage, but the whole thing quickly re-assembles itself a’la The Iron Giant, and the carnage starts again.

Gwen realizes that it only counterattacks, never attacks, so if they just sit tight and don’t do anything, it should be calm. This seems to be working until the Vreedle brothers - alien hillbilly repo men - show up, saying the Mimicbot is an ancient weapon “Of ludicrous power,” and they’d like to sell it to the highest bidder. Team Tennyson refuses to give it to ‘em, and they duke it out, but Ben and company loose (!) and the Vreedles take off with Mimicbot in tow.

Ben and the others just shake this off go for a smoothie, kind of glad to be rid of the thing. It didn’t *seem* like a super weapon, after all. Shortly thereafter, the Vreedles return, apologize profusely for taking the ‘bot, explain that it may have “Taken the wrong lesson from our entirely-justified actions” in blasting a space tollbooth and