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akinoameIn the dark of the night, a masked figure breaks into Hex’s manor and steals the Archamada Book of Spells. Hex nearly catches her, but she hides quickly, and Charmcaster is able to convince her uncle that no one’s there. Once again, Lucky Girl proves her name right.
Gwen returns home as Ben and Kevin are waiting to get in to watch the football game. Leaving the boys alone (and Kevin to angst about how she’s not paying attention to him because he’s ugly and all that other Beast stuff), she heads upstairs to perform a spell. But before she can finish it, Paradox appears and warns her not to do it. The spell is a time travel spell that will allow her to go back in time and prevent the explosion in the Garage. Gwen believes this is her only chance to save Kevin, but Paradox warns her that only immortals and fools mess with time. Ignoring his warning, she goes back to the moments before the explosion and warns herself not to let Ben and Kevin go through with the experiment, warning the past Gwen that she’ll never forgive herself for what happens to Kevin. Scared, past-Gwen agrees and stops the boys, destroying the machine.
Gwen returns to her own time, excited to see how everything worked out. But Kevin and Ben are gone. And that’s not the worst of it. The sky is a deep blood red, houses are crumbling, the city is abandoned, Charmcaster’s golems patrol the streets, and posters of Hex are plastered everywhere, encouraging the remaining populace to surrender so they will suffer less. Paradox reappears and explains that with her interference, Kevin was unable to gain the power needed to defeat Hex, and one by one, they all fell. He takes her to Hex’s compound, where Kevin has been put under Charmcaster’s golem spell, and adds that Gwen had been killed and Ben captured. Gwen decides to try and set things right by finding the spellbook and preventing herself from stopping the explosion, and she charges in, only to run into Charmcaster, who is all too eager to kill her again. Gwen fends her off easily, but when she breaks into the library, Hex is there and has the Archamada. Thanks to his magic, he learned of the time distortion and knew Gwen would return to try and stop him, and he’s not willing to lose what he’s conquered. Charmcaster reappears for round two, but when Gwen again defeats her, they summon someone far worse for her to fight: Kevin. Gwen fails to break through the spell controlling him, so she escapes by cutting a hole in the floor.
She smashes through the floors until she reaches a dungeon with various medieval torture devices, and she sees Spidermonkey chained to the wall. Hearing a small moan from him, she realizes he’s still alive and breaks his chains, dropping him to the floor where he reverts to human form. Ben looks at Gwen in shock and confusion, pointing out that he saw her die, and Gwen promises to explain everything to him as soon as she gets him to safety. Unfortunately, Charmcaster and the golems have found them, so the weakened Ben tells Gwen to fight the golems while he fights Charmcaster. They manage to fend them off, and when Hex arrives, Swampfire immediately drops the ceiling on him, allowing Gwen to grab the book. Unfortunately, the others are reviving, and Ben drops to the floor as the Omnitrix fails and leaves him in extreme pain. Gwen asks him to try and hold everyone off long enough for her to do the spell, and Ben agrees, insisting that he trusts her. While he fights a losing battle on his own, Gwen runs off, just managing to finish the spell before Hex can stop her. She arrives just as her other two past selves are trying to stop the explosion, and she convinces them not to interfere with the course of history, taking extra precautions to erase “Vengeance of Vilgax” Gwen’s memory so that she doesn’t get any ideas.
Time is restored to normal, and Gwen finds herself in her room. Ben knocks at the door and asks her what she’s been doing all day, and when Kevin asks if she wants to go to Mr. Smoothy, she hugs him. But she doesn’t know why she was suddenly so glad to see him. When they head outside, Paradox is waiting by the car. When Gwen asks if something’s wrong, he simply answers, “No, everything’s fine,” before disappearing in a flash of light.
“Time Heals” is the first Gwen-centric episode since “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” and it definitely does a hell of a job on her character. She’s been so absorbed in trying to find a cure for Kevin that she’s reached a block and thinks the only thing she can do is go back in time and prevent everything from happening to begin with. This is a callback to the episode “Paradox,” when she suggested to the good professor that he go back in time and prevent the time experiment from happening in the first place, and he remarked that it was just like an energy being to think outside the laws of physics. Just as Paradox warned her then and now, Gwen’s disregard for the laws of time has resulted in catastrophe. She fails to foresee the consequences of her actions, even though she does them with the best of intentions. But once she sees what she’s brought on the world, she’s determined to set things right. Seeing golem-Kevin makes her want to save him, but Paradox warns her that got her into this mess in the first place. However, Gwen’s insistence to save the individual people she cares about is what drives the episode. When she finds Ben and asks him to hold off the others while she performs the spell, she’s nearly in tears when Ben asks her if it’ll fix everything, and she runs off desperately chanting the words after Ben’s affirmation of trust.
Paradox is Gwen’s foil this episode, the immortal against the fool. Like Gwen, he tries to prevent a major catastrophe, but where Gwen forced her past self to do what she wanted, Paradox lets Gwen have her own choice. And when Gwen destroys everything, he tells her what she needs to know about the new timeline and reminds her that she can’t just do this for Kevin’s sake—otherwise, she’ll just blind herself to what needs to be done again. He argues that everything happens for a reason, in favor of fate, despite his habit of meddling in time himself. He always keeps in mind the consequences and reminds Gwen that she must as well. Despite appearing just sporadically throughout, the end of the episode implies that he was watching out for her the entire time, to be sure everything went right in the end. He only interfered when he needed to, showing that he does trust her to do what was right.
This episode absolutely pulled no punches. Dystopian futures go hand-in-hand with time travel stories, such as the famous “Five Years Gone” timeline of Heroes or the numerous disastrous timelines in Justice League. “Time Heals” is no different. Hex has taken over the world, destroying just about everything in Bellwood, and anyone who resists is hunted down by the golems and brutally murdered, as Gwen and Paradox witness the off-screen killing of a civilian who couldn’t get away.
The problems start when Hex and Charmcaster try to take over the world, of course. Unfortunately, because Kevin never mutated, his powers were extremely limited. Much as he angsts about what happened to him, it’s undeniable that he’s been a far more effective fighter since the explosion, with his ability to morph his hands into weapons and his near indestructibility. Without these powers, Hex and Charmcaster easily overpower the team. As more and more of the world falls prey to them and their powers increase, the team loses more and more. Kevin is captured first, and as a sick joke, Charmcaster binds him to one of her golem spells. Kevin still ends up looking non-human, but now there’s no hope for him, as his mind is completely lost. Gwen is the next to go, killed by Charmcaster in battle. Ben remembers witnessing it, and the incident leaves him as the last hope for humanity. Unfortunately, he too falls, unable to fight them all on his own. They leave him chained in the dungeon and presumably torture him—possibly to break his spirit so they can put him under a mind control spell as well, instead of just killing him. But though Ben is beaten in this timeline, he’s not entirely broken. Seeing the Gwen of the true timeline makes him more dedicated to protecting her, so he doesn’t have to watch her die all over again. And when Gwen insists that she can put things right, Ben trusts her completely and agrees to continue fighting so he can cover her, no matter how badly injured he is.
“Time Heals” was written by Len Uhley. David McCallum once again played Paradox, and Kari Walgrehn played Charmcaster. Khary Payton reprised his role of Hex from the original.
Gwen returns home as Ben and Kevin are waiting to get in to watch the football game. Leaving the boys alone (and Kevin to angst about how she’s not paying attention to him because he’s ugly and all that other Beast stuff), she heads upstairs to perform a spell. But before she can finish it, Paradox appears and warns her not to do it. The spell is a time travel spell that will allow her to go back in time and prevent the explosion in the Garage. Gwen believes this is her only chance to save Kevin, but Paradox warns her that only immortals and fools mess with time. Ignoring his warning, she goes back to the moments before the explosion and warns herself not to let Ben and Kevin go through with the experiment, warning the past Gwen that she’ll never forgive herself for what happens to Kevin. Scared, past-Gwen agrees and stops the boys, destroying the machine.
Gwen returns to her own time, excited to see how everything worked out. But Kevin and Ben are gone. And that’s not the worst of it. The sky is a deep blood red, houses are crumbling, the city is abandoned, Charmcaster’s golems patrol the streets, and posters of Hex are plastered everywhere, encouraging the remaining populace to surrender so they will suffer less. Paradox reappears and explains that with her interference, Kevin was unable to gain the power needed to defeat Hex, and one by one, they all fell. He takes her to Hex’s compound, where Kevin has been put under Charmcaster’s golem spell, and adds that Gwen had been killed and Ben captured. Gwen decides to try and set things right by finding the spellbook and preventing herself from stopping the explosion, and she charges in, only to run into Charmcaster, who is all too eager to kill her again. Gwen fends her off easily, but when she breaks into the library, Hex is there and has the Archamada. Thanks to his magic, he learned of the time distortion and knew Gwen would return to try and stop him, and he’s not willing to lose what he’s conquered. Charmcaster reappears for round two, but when Gwen again defeats her, they summon someone far worse for her to fight: Kevin. Gwen fails to break through the spell controlling him, so she escapes by cutting a hole in the floor.
She smashes through the floors until she reaches a dungeon with various medieval torture devices, and she sees Spidermonkey chained to the wall. Hearing a small moan from him, she realizes he’s still alive and breaks his chains, dropping him to the floor where he reverts to human form. Ben looks at Gwen in shock and confusion, pointing out that he saw her die, and Gwen promises to explain everything to him as soon as she gets him to safety. Unfortunately, Charmcaster and the golems have found them, so the weakened Ben tells Gwen to fight the golems while he fights Charmcaster. They manage to fend them off, and when Hex arrives, Swampfire immediately drops the ceiling on him, allowing Gwen to grab the book. Unfortunately, the others are reviving, and Ben drops to the floor as the Omnitrix fails and leaves him in extreme pain. Gwen asks him to try and hold everyone off long enough for her to do the spell, and Ben agrees, insisting that he trusts her. While he fights a losing battle on his own, Gwen runs off, just managing to finish the spell before Hex can stop her. She arrives just as her other two past selves are trying to stop the explosion, and she convinces them not to interfere with the course of history, taking extra precautions to erase “Vengeance of Vilgax” Gwen’s memory so that she doesn’t get any ideas.
Time is restored to normal, and Gwen finds herself in her room. Ben knocks at the door and asks her what she’s been doing all day, and when Kevin asks if she wants to go to Mr. Smoothy, she hugs him. But she doesn’t know why she was suddenly so glad to see him. When they head outside, Paradox is waiting by the car. When Gwen asks if something’s wrong, he simply answers, “No, everything’s fine,” before disappearing in a flash of light.
“Time Heals” is the first Gwen-centric episode since “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” and it definitely does a hell of a job on her character. She’s been so absorbed in trying to find a cure for Kevin that she’s reached a block and thinks the only thing she can do is go back in time and prevent everything from happening to begin with. This is a callback to the episode “Paradox,” when she suggested to the good professor that he go back in time and prevent the time experiment from happening in the first place, and he remarked that it was just like an energy being to think outside the laws of physics. Just as Paradox warned her then and now, Gwen’s disregard for the laws of time has resulted in catastrophe. She fails to foresee the consequences of her actions, even though she does them with the best of intentions. But once she sees what she’s brought on the world, she’s determined to set things right. Seeing golem-Kevin makes her want to save him, but Paradox warns her that got her into this mess in the first place. However, Gwen’s insistence to save the individual people she cares about is what drives the episode. When she finds Ben and asks him to hold off the others while she performs the spell, she’s nearly in tears when Ben asks her if it’ll fix everything, and she runs off desperately chanting the words after Ben’s affirmation of trust.
Paradox is Gwen’s foil this episode, the immortal against the fool. Like Gwen, he tries to prevent a major catastrophe, but where Gwen forced her past self to do what she wanted, Paradox lets Gwen have her own choice. And when Gwen destroys everything, he tells her what she needs to know about the new timeline and reminds her that she can’t just do this for Kevin’s sake—otherwise, she’ll just blind herself to what needs to be done again. He argues that everything happens for a reason, in favor of fate, despite his habit of meddling in time himself. He always keeps in mind the consequences and reminds Gwen that she must as well. Despite appearing just sporadically throughout, the end of the episode implies that he was watching out for her the entire time, to be sure everything went right in the end. He only interfered when he needed to, showing that he does trust her to do what was right.
This episode absolutely pulled no punches. Dystopian futures go hand-in-hand with time travel stories, such as the famous “Five Years Gone” timeline of Heroes or the numerous disastrous timelines in Justice League. “Time Heals” is no different. Hex has taken over the world, destroying just about everything in Bellwood, and anyone who resists is hunted down by the golems and brutally murdered, as Gwen and Paradox witness the off-screen killing of a civilian who couldn’t get away.
The problems start when Hex and Charmcaster try to take over the world, of course. Unfortunately, because Kevin never mutated, his powers were extremely limited. Much as he angsts about what happened to him, it’s undeniable that he’s been a far more effective fighter since the explosion, with his ability to morph his hands into weapons and his near indestructibility. Without these powers, Hex and Charmcaster easily overpower the team. As more and more of the world falls prey to them and their powers increase, the team loses more and more. Kevin is captured first, and as a sick joke, Charmcaster binds him to one of her golem spells. Kevin still ends up looking non-human, but now there’s no hope for him, as his mind is completely lost. Gwen is the next to go, killed by Charmcaster in battle. Ben remembers witnessing it, and the incident leaves him as the last hope for humanity. Unfortunately, he too falls, unable to fight them all on his own. They leave him chained in the dungeon and presumably torture him—possibly to break his spirit so they can put him under a mind control spell as well, instead of just killing him. But though Ben is beaten in this timeline, he’s not entirely broken. Seeing the Gwen of the true timeline makes him more dedicated to protecting her, so he doesn’t have to watch her die all over again. And when Gwen insists that she can put things right, Ben trusts her completely and agrees to continue fighting so he can cover her, no matter how badly injured he is.
“Time Heals” was written by Len Uhley. David McCallum once again played Paradox, and Kari Walgrehn played Charmcaster. Khary Payton reprised his role of Hex from the original.
