Hunted

This article belongs to the Classic Continuity

Hunted is the fifth episode of the first season of Ben 10, and the fifth episode overall.

Synopsis[]

Three alien bounty hunters are hot on Ben's trail. But one of them is a secret agent trying to make sure the Omnitrix does not fall into evil hands.^{[CN 1]}

Plot[]

The episode starts out in space in Vilgax's ship. An audition is being held inside the ship, between bounty hunters SixSix, Kraab, and Tetrax. Each hunter demonstrates skill in eliminating various drones. Vilgax decides to hire all of them to retrieve the Omnitrix, rewarding whichever one succeeds. He then sends them to Earth.

In the middle of the desert, Max has set up an obstacle target practice for Ben. He completes the final touches and Ben transforms to Diamondhead. He tells Diamondhead to think before he acts and use some strategy; Ben is unconcerned about always using his muscle options. Max starts up the course and Diamondhead shoots every target with no problem. Meanwhile, Gwen is by the Rustbucket, applying sunscreen. As Diamondhead feels confident going through the course, a tire obstacle knocks him by surprise, causing him to fire diamond shards everywhere. Max and Gwen were nearly hit but dodged out of the way, although one of the shards hit Gwen's sunscreen bottle, causing it to pour on her head. Diamondhead apologizes while laughing.

In the RV, Gwen chides Ben for almost killing her, and Max tells him he needs to think when using the Omnitrix. Ben counters that he doesn't need to improve because he's defeated every enemy they've come across. Gwen says that one day, he'll screw up and find himself beaten, and she hopes to be there to see it. The three bounty hunters trace the location of the Omnitrix's last activation to the obstacle course. Tetrax finds a shard from Diamondhead, but SixSix steals it to look at it himself. Tetrax rips it back; the two have a brief standoff and exchange threats. They scatter, and Tetrax destroys the course. The Rustbucket sputters and stops, stranding the Tennysons in an abandoned mining town called Slaterville. Max finds the cause of the breakdown, a stray Diamondhead shard puncturing the fuel line. Ben wants to help fix it, but Max insists on doing it himself. With nothing to do, Ben decides to check out the town. Max has Gwen follow him so he doesn't get into any trouble.

Ben hears Gwen following him and leads her into a giant warehouse, where he tries to scare her as Ghostfreak. Gwen isn't scared, but Kraab suddenly emerges from burrowing in the ground and closes in on them. He demands the Omnitrix (a word the two have never heard before, though Gwen deduces that he is referring to Ben's watch). Ghostfreak refuses and turns invisible. Kraab sees him using thermographic vision and sprays him with a solidifying agent, rendering him unable to go intangible. Now, Kraab has the advantage, easily defeating Ghostfreak. However, Gwen notices Kraab is standing on top of a lift. Ghostfreak pulls the lever, pinning Kraab to the ceiling. The two run back to the (repaired) RV and recount the battle to Max. Ben still wants to fight, but Max insists on leaving.

On the road, they are attacked by SixSix. Max brakes suddenly to shake SixSix off the RV, and confidently runs him over, though this pops the tires. The Tennysons are forced to flee into a nearby mine entrance, while SixSix recovers and Kraab catches up to them. Kraab chases the Tennysons inside the mine. Once they reach a chasm blocking their path, Max turns on a cable car to take across. While Kraab can't reach them, SixSix attacks them from above. Ben turns into Diamondhead (against Max's wishes) and fights the two bounty hunters. Their combined fighting experience overwhelms Diamondhead, knocking him out. As they argue over who should get the reward, a grenade falls to their feet and produces knockout gas. It came from Tetrax, who picks up Diamondhead, drags him back into town on his hoverboard, and throws him to the ground.

With Diamondhead awake, Tetrax begins to insult him as a poor choice for the Omnitrix to wind up with. Diamondhead tries to talk and fight back, but Tetrax both parries all his attacks and continues about how Ben has no strategy; recklessly chooses aliens with strength; how an experienced fighter should have defeated the hunters without a problem; and how the Omnitrix is the key to an epic battle between good and evil, not some toy for a child's amusement. When Diamondhead asks which side of the battle he's on, Tetrax points out that he hasn't killed Diamondhead yet. He explains that his mission is to retrieve the Omnitrix (separately from Vilgax). Diamondhead surprise tackles him, causing him to drop his hoverboard. Tetrax remarks how little experience Ben has with Diamondhead, and when asked how he knows so much about it, takes off his helmet and reveals that he comes from the same species as Diamondhead. Diamondhead reverts back to Ben, and Tetrax grabs him. He looks for his hoverboard, now missing. Kraab surprises them with the hoverboard in hand, and SixSix holding Max and Gwen. The two bounty hunters have decided to work together and split the reward.

Outnumbered two to one, Tetrax flees with Ben in hand, taking cover in a nearby house. Ben wants to back out and save his family, but Tetrax points out that Ben would be quickly overpowered and captured. He leaves Ben behind and goes to retrieve his hoverboard. He shoots SixSix so he drops Max and Gwen and swipes the board away from Kraab. As Ben watches Tetrax fight, the Omnitrix regains its charge. Kraab notices Ben and follows him into the house. Ben hides behind a table and gets ready to transform into Four Arms, but then hesitates, remembering the advice that Max and Tetrax had given him. He switches to a different alien and transforms just as Kraab crushes the table, only to find nothing there. In the rafters, Grey Matter is seen sneaking about. He jumps onto Kraab, searching for a nerve cluster in Kraab's armor. He finds it and rips it out, causing Kraab's armor to go haywire and shut down.

Grey Matter joins the fight outside and messes with SixSix's jetpack, causing him to fly around and crash right next to Kraab, as a water tower (damaged in the fighting) falls on top of them. Tetrax commends Ben's smart thinking and contains the defeated hunters in a shrinking cube. Ben asks him about the Omnitrix, to which he admits that it's in good hands. He then gifts Ben his hoverboard and leaves. Once he's gone, Gwen covers Ben's head in sunscreen as payback. Meanwhile, Vilgax watches Tetrax leaving from his ship, annoyed at the betrayal. Vilgax surmises that whoever possesses the Omnitrix must be as clever as they are fierce, but he insists that he won't be denied.

Noteworthy Events[]

Major Events[]

• Ben befriends Tetrax.
• Ben defeats Kraab and SixSix.

Character Debuts[]

• Tetrax Shard
• SixSix
• Kraab

Minor Events[]

• Team Tennyson learns that the device attached to Ben's wrist is called the Omnitrix.
• Tetrax gives Ben his X321 hoverboard.

Characters[]

Main Characters[]

• Ben Tennyson
• Gwen Tennyson
• Max Tennyson

Supporting Characters[]

• Tetrax Shard (first appearance)

Antagonists[]

• SixSix (first appearance)
• Kraab (first appearance)
• Vilgax
  • Mechadroids

Aliens Used[]

• Diamondhead (x2)
• Ghostfreak
• Grey Matter

Quotes[]

Naming and Translations[]

Cast[]

Continuity[]

• Vilgax is seen recovering in a regeneration chamber after having suffered a fatal blow in And Then There Were 10.

Errors[]

• When Ben grabs a wrench in the warehouse, the colors on the Omnitrix's dial are reversed.
• In many shots, the Omnitrix's dial faces the wrong way.
• After Max throws the junk at Kraab, the Omnitrix appears on Ben's right wrist.
• When Tetrax knocks Diamondhead into a minecart, for a split second, the minecart is not drawn in and Diamondhead's upper half is cut off.
• When Ben is about to think of the right alien to use for the Omnitrix, the tubes are green for a shot.
• When Tetrax tells Grey Matter he is smart, Tetrax's eyes are yellow.
• When Ben asks Tetrax about the Omnitrix, the dial button is on the wrong side.
• At the end of the episode, Gwen pulls a bottle of lotion out of nowhere.
• On Netflix, when a red-tailed hawk's cry can be heard, it is incorrectly captioned as "[Eagle screeches]."

Omnitrix dial color error

Omnitrix dial error

Omnitrix dial error

Omnitrix dial error

Omnitrix dial error

Right wrist

Missing minecart/Diamondhead's upper half is cut off

Green tubes

Yellow eyes

Button error

Trivia[]

• According to pop-up trivia from the enhanced version of this episode:
  • This episode takes place in New Mexico.^{[pop-up 1]}
  • The Omnitrix's green glow is its unique DNA energy signal and the reason the hunters could track Ben.^{[pop-up 2]}
  • Ghostfreak's roaming eye is the first clue that there's more to Ghostfreak that is hiding under his "skin".^{[pop-up 3]} This later turned out to be true in Ghostfreaked Out, where it is revealed that he possesses a second skin.
  • Ben may not have been the one in control when Ghostfreak was taunting Kraab.^{[pop-up 4]}
  • Tetrax was hard on Ben because his own lack of thinking caused the destruction of his homeworld Petropia.^{[pop-up 5]}
  • The teleporter cube Tetrax used is another example of Petropian hard-light tech.^{[pop-up 6]}
  • Tetrax told Ben his real name in a special holo-message attached to the hoverboard he gave him.^{[pop-up 7]}
• Kraab's laser-gun sounds when he's firing at the cart suspended over the strip-mine are X-Wing laser blaster sound-bytes. Later, SixSix's weapons use pitched down laser-blaster sound bytes also from the Star Wars franchise. This further adds to the parallel that SixSix and SevenSeven share with Boba/Jango Fett.

References[]

Production Material[]

Storyboards[]

Pop-Up Trivia[]

Cartoon Network[]