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akinoameImmediately after the events of “Where the Magic Happens,” the team stands in front of the Door to Anywhere, trying to figure out what to do. Gwen says that they need to learn from their mistakes against Aggregor so far, but Azmuth cuts in via Ultimatrix feed, saying that he’s only got about 3000 years left to live—he doesn’t have time to wait for these guys to learn anything. Which is a really good burn, I have to say. He reminds them that Aggregor is three-fourths of the way to the Forge of Creation, though when Gwen asks, he refuses to explain what it is, insisting it’s beyond their comprehension. Ben’s stopped listening to his ranting by this point, and when Azmuth tells him to pay attention, he answers that all Azmuth is doing is yelling about how stupid they are—hence it’s not important. Surprisingly, Azmuth agrees and cools down, telling them where the last part of the Map is. He teleports them and the Rustbucket to another galaxy, right outside a giant white Rubik’s Cube, the Perplexahedron. This Borg-like ship was created by Paradox to protect the final Map fragment, the defenses designed to only let in those deemed worthy. This apparently means anyone who possesses the rest of the Map, as Aggregor gets in easily once it scans the Map in his hands. Brilliant idea, Professor—let the key be the rest of the frickin’ thing you don’t want to be completed! If I didn’t know better, I’d say you wanted Greg to get the whole Map!
Making their way past the lasers, the Rustbucket squeezes through the narrow corridor to the launch bay. Kevin calls their crashlanding a success, but Ben and his motion sickness disagree. When they get outside, the room is stark white, with square-shaped tiles on every surface. Gwen can’t get a reading on Greg, so Ben suggests they split up, but Kevin points out that it would only result in them getting picked off one by one. It turns out to be a good decision: the Perplexahedron is composed of room after room, each with its own distinct center of gravity like an Escher painting (though how you can tell when there are no features in the room to give that away is beyond me). Worse, retracing your steps doesn’t help—Gwen tries to leave lasting energy constructs as breadcrumbs, but Ben points out that they disappear from the corridor behind them and appear in the corridor ahead. The rooms are moving, and it’s impossible to tell where they’ll be next. Worse, when the doors close, a death trap kicks in. The first trap is lasers, which Gwen defeats when they realize that her shields can deflect them. The next room, however, generates a guard from the door. Happy to have something to hit, Kevin starts smashing away, but this one’s a windtunnel. The team gets separated when Gwen loses her grip on Ben’s hand, entering one room. The boys are sent to another. Gwen has to fight off more lasers and another guard, but when she heads to the next room, she runs into Aggregor. Meanwhile, Ben and Kevin are in a room that’s flooding. There’s a cameo by Ripjaws in his new design (as seen in “Deep”) as Ben puts him to good use escaping.
Once in the next room, the guys have some downtime, though they’re worried about Gwen. Kevin admits that part of the reason he likes her is because she can take care of herself, but he does want to protect her. Ben says that he can’t believe that this is the same kid who used to try to kill him six years ago, gone from his archenemy to the big brother he never had. Kevin tries to ignore Ben as he draws on his sensitive superego side, and Ben admits that this is probably why guys don’t talk about this stuff. Then he pauses and asks, “Unless you want to talk about this stuff?” and Kevin admits that he likes being the guy that Gwen sees when she looks at him. He’s grateful for the second chance Ben gave him, after all the times he’d thrown those second chances away. And he owes them for changing his life. Ben says that Gwen would love to hear that, but Kevin pretty much makes him swear to secrecy. The next death trap is an acid bath, which they escape thanks to Spidermonkey. Meanwhile Gwen trails Greg…for no apparent reason other than being annoyed that he won’t take her seriously. He continues to ignore her until they reach a snow-covered room. Greg gets completely annoyed when she tries to attack him and blasts her with a spray of water. In the freezing temperatures, it causes ice to form all over her. She’s saved by the boys’ sheer dumb luck, and they admit as such, since by total accident they managed to reach her room. Ben realizes there’s a pattern in the rooms, asking a very logical question: “What does a death trap need with guards?” They realize that the guards are there to deter anyone on the way to the Map—they just have to ignore any other doors that the rooms open and only go through ones that create guards. Again, it’s like Paradox wanted them to get through. The plan’s a success and they finally make their way to the Sentinel, a Chimera Sui Generis (one of Vilgax’s people) who recognizes Ben and the salvation he brings. He hands over his crown, really the last piece of the Map of Infinity, and reveals that he knows of Max thanks to the legends and stories Paradox has told him. When they ask why Paradox really hid the Map, the Sentinel only says that Paradox was trying to keep Greg and other crazypants evil guys from accessing “infinite power,” whatever that’s supposed to mean. But the Map fragment also held together the Rubik’s Cube of Doom, and as it begins to fall apart, the Sentinel decides to stay. An uneasy Ben heads off with the others, following the directions the Map is apparently beaming into his head to the launch bay, and Gwen confirms the directions with her badge. But Ben can’t bear leaving the Sentinel behind, and he and Gwen turn back while Kevin follows Gwen’s badge to the Rustbucket. They presumably follow the Map to get there, where Greg is attacking the Sentinel. Cannonbolt doesn’t do a whole lot against him, but Ultimate Cannonbolt puts him into a wall or two. Unfortunately, Ben’s single-minded determination not to let him escape again betrays him, and he loses the Map fragment. Aggregor claims his prize and flies out. As the room falls apart, Gwen throws up a forcefield to temporarily protect them in space, but Kevin arrives just in time to save the day. On the Rustbucket, the Sentinel calls out Ben for screwing up and failing to protect the Map before he apparently dies, his body disappearing. So…either Chimera Sui Generis vanish like Yoda when they die, or there’s something literally tying his life to his “purpose” of protecting the map fragment or something. Either way, Ben realizes he screwed up trying to save him, and he’s completely shaken. But Kevin and Gwen remind him it’s not over; the MapQuest might be over and they might have lost this battle, but they still have a chance to stop Greg from using the Map. Reaffirmed, Ben swears to honor the Sentinel and finish the mission: to protect the Forge of Creation.
So, show of hands: how many people really thought Ben and the others would be able to keep the Map out of Greg’s hands? I thought so. We already expected that they were going to lose (not to mention that the next episode is called “Forge of Creation”), so this episode needed to entertain in spite of the inevitable ending. And the results are kind of mixed. It has great dialogue and excellent character moments, but it loses momentum around the point when Gwen runs into Aggregor. She tries to challenge him and he ignores her, and it’s really hard to connect with that scene. It’s a very odd sequence—she acts like she wants him to take her seriously, but there’s no personal connection between them, unlike there is for the boys. With Kevin, there’s the whole “through a glass darkly” thing going on—they’re the same race and Aggregor’s going through the same insanity that Kevin had gone through. Kevin looks at him and sees in him his own possible future, how he might have turned out if he hadn’t taken that second chance Ben gave him, if he didn’t try to be the Kevin that Gwen saw, if the Tennysons hadn’t changed his life (and this is confirmed by the original series episode “Ken 10”). Ben, meanwhile, has a vendetta against him. Aggregor killed the Andromeda Five, whom Ben swore to save. From the very start, Aggregor has used him like a pawn. Everything has benefited Greg—Ben finds the aliens, Greg collects them. Ben goes on the MapQuest, and Aggregor lets him do all the work while he takes the Map fragments and delivers the smuggest responses since David Xanatos punked the Gargoyles. Ben has never been so thoroughly outwitted at every turn, and he hates it. Gwen doesn’t have that; she doesn’t hate Greg enough—he’s just another villain.
And from here, the pacing really goes downhill. There’s only so many of the death traps you can take before it starts getting tedious, so they quickly try to break it up with character moments, particularly between Ben and Kevin, and then by cutting ahead a few rooms before they reach the last room. But this feels really awkward. The transition itself is fine, but the timeframe isn’t. We learn that they’ve had about three fire rooms in a row, and Ben insists that a killer robot spider on his shoulder was from about ten rooms ago. There’s trying to skip the boring stuff, but this is cut way too far ahead, even if it makes sense that they’d have to go through a whole bunch more rooms.
Still, there are some nice moments. The dialogue is excellent, beginning with Azmuth’s hilarious complaint that it’ll take more than the rest of his long lifespan before the team learns anything. When Ben fails to go Chromastone against the lasers and ends up as Humongousaur, he argues with the Ultimatrix, “If you’re gonna give me the wrong guy all the time, why do you even have a dial?!” More hilarious Ben moments include his attempt to get Kevin to talk during their downtime and the reunion between Gwen and Kevin. Impatient with Kevin’s continued inability to express his feelings, Swampfire explains to Gwen that Kevin’s trying to say that he was worried; and when Gwen and Kevin kiss, he shouts, “Why don’t you just get a room? This place is full of them!”
Ben probably did have the best character stuff this episode, given that he had to deal with his failure to protect the Map. His decision to go back for the Sentinel is similar to his choice between retrieving the oscillator key or saving Tyler in “Inside Man,” only this time it hits him just what he’s done. He saves the Sentinel only for him to die lamenting his failure in fulfilling his purpose. This time, Kevin and Gwen support him. Where they had called him out on making the a questionable decision in the earlier episode, here, Kevin reminds Ben that he did what he thought was right and Gwen adds that it’s a character trait of Ben’s not to leave anyone behind. They know that he couldn’t go completely against everything he believed and abandon someone.
I’m not entirely sure if this is supposed to mean anything, but I figured it was worth mentioning that Ben was very easily able to follow the Map fragment’s directions to the Rustbucket and back to the Sentinel. In his words, the Map fragment “just knows” where things are. And back in “Paradox,” it was revealed offhand that Ben has an innate understanding of the metaphysics of time and space. So it would make sense that the Map would be able to let him know on an instinctive level. Only time will tell if this comes into play explicitly. Also of note are some bits from Gwen and Kevin in battle. To deflect the lasers, Gwen used a spell called Thracius to generate a polygonal forcefield. And in his fight with the first guard, Kevin was surprisingly agile—using flips and kicks alongside his usual “hit it with a mace” tactics. It looks like Gwen’s given both of them pointers, and it really does a lot to help Kevin’s style.
“Perplexahedron” was written by Brian Swenlin. The Sentinel was voiced by Dee Bradley Baker.
Making their way past the lasers, the Rustbucket squeezes through the narrow corridor to the launch bay. Kevin calls their crashlanding a success, but Ben and his motion sickness disagree. When they get outside, the room is stark white, with square-shaped tiles on every surface. Gwen can’t get a reading on Greg, so Ben suggests they split up, but Kevin points out that it would only result in them getting picked off one by one. It turns out to be a good decision: the Perplexahedron is composed of room after room, each with its own distinct center of gravity like an Escher painting (though how you can tell when there are no features in the room to give that away is beyond me). Worse, retracing your steps doesn’t help—Gwen tries to leave lasting energy constructs as breadcrumbs, but Ben points out that they disappear from the corridor behind them and appear in the corridor ahead. The rooms are moving, and it’s impossible to tell where they’ll be next. Worse, when the doors close, a death trap kicks in. The first trap is lasers, which Gwen defeats when they realize that her shields can deflect them. The next room, however, generates a guard from the door. Happy to have something to hit, Kevin starts smashing away, but this one’s a windtunnel. The team gets separated when Gwen loses her grip on Ben’s hand, entering one room. The boys are sent to another. Gwen has to fight off more lasers and another guard, but when she heads to the next room, she runs into Aggregor. Meanwhile, Ben and Kevin are in a room that’s flooding. There’s a cameo by Ripjaws in his new design (as seen in “Deep”) as Ben puts him to good use escaping.
Once in the next room, the guys have some downtime, though they’re worried about Gwen. Kevin admits that part of the reason he likes her is because she can take care of herself, but he does want to protect her. Ben says that he can’t believe that this is the same kid who used to try to kill him six years ago, gone from his archenemy to the big brother he never had. Kevin tries to ignore Ben as he draws on his sensitive superego side, and Ben admits that this is probably why guys don’t talk about this stuff. Then he pauses and asks, “Unless you want to talk about this stuff?” and Kevin admits that he likes being the guy that Gwen sees when she looks at him. He’s grateful for the second chance Ben gave him, after all the times he’d thrown those second chances away. And he owes them for changing his life. Ben says that Gwen would love to hear that, but Kevin pretty much makes him swear to secrecy. The next death trap is an acid bath, which they escape thanks to Spidermonkey. Meanwhile Gwen trails Greg…for no apparent reason other than being annoyed that he won’t take her seriously. He continues to ignore her until they reach a snow-covered room. Greg gets completely annoyed when she tries to attack him and blasts her with a spray of water. In the freezing temperatures, it causes ice to form all over her. She’s saved by the boys’ sheer dumb luck, and they admit as such, since by total accident they managed to reach her room. Ben realizes there’s a pattern in the rooms, asking a very logical question: “What does a death trap need with guards?” They realize that the guards are there to deter anyone on the way to the Map—they just have to ignore any other doors that the rooms open and only go through ones that create guards. Again, it’s like Paradox wanted them to get through. The plan’s a success and they finally make their way to the Sentinel, a Chimera Sui Generis (one of Vilgax’s people) who recognizes Ben and the salvation he brings. He hands over his crown, really the last piece of the Map of Infinity, and reveals that he knows of Max thanks to the legends and stories Paradox has told him. When they ask why Paradox really hid the Map, the Sentinel only says that Paradox was trying to keep Greg and other crazypants evil guys from accessing “infinite power,” whatever that’s supposed to mean. But the Map fragment also held together the Rubik’s Cube of Doom, and as it begins to fall apart, the Sentinel decides to stay. An uneasy Ben heads off with the others, following the directions the Map is apparently beaming into his head to the launch bay, and Gwen confirms the directions with her badge. But Ben can’t bear leaving the Sentinel behind, and he and Gwen turn back while Kevin follows Gwen’s badge to the Rustbucket. They presumably follow the Map to get there, where Greg is attacking the Sentinel. Cannonbolt doesn’t do a whole lot against him, but Ultimate Cannonbolt puts him into a wall or two. Unfortunately, Ben’s single-minded determination not to let him escape again betrays him, and he loses the Map fragment. Aggregor claims his prize and flies out. As the room falls apart, Gwen throws up a forcefield to temporarily protect them in space, but Kevin arrives just in time to save the day. On the Rustbucket, the Sentinel calls out Ben for screwing up and failing to protect the Map before he apparently dies, his body disappearing. So…either Chimera Sui Generis vanish like Yoda when they die, or there’s something literally tying his life to his “purpose” of protecting the map fragment or something. Either way, Ben realizes he screwed up trying to save him, and he’s completely shaken. But Kevin and Gwen remind him it’s not over; the MapQuest might be over and they might have lost this battle, but they still have a chance to stop Greg from using the Map. Reaffirmed, Ben swears to honor the Sentinel and finish the mission: to protect the Forge of Creation.
So, show of hands: how many people really thought Ben and the others would be able to keep the Map out of Greg’s hands? I thought so. We already expected that they were going to lose (not to mention that the next episode is called “Forge of Creation”), so this episode needed to entertain in spite of the inevitable ending. And the results are kind of mixed. It has great dialogue and excellent character moments, but it loses momentum around the point when Gwen runs into Aggregor. She tries to challenge him and he ignores her, and it’s really hard to connect with that scene. It’s a very odd sequence—she acts like she wants him to take her seriously, but there’s no personal connection between them, unlike there is for the boys. With Kevin, there’s the whole “through a glass darkly” thing going on—they’re the same race and Aggregor’s going through the same insanity that Kevin had gone through. Kevin looks at him and sees in him his own possible future, how he might have turned out if he hadn’t taken that second chance Ben gave him, if he didn’t try to be the Kevin that Gwen saw, if the Tennysons hadn’t changed his life (and this is confirmed by the original series episode “Ken 10”). Ben, meanwhile, has a vendetta against him. Aggregor killed the Andromeda Five, whom Ben swore to save. From the very start, Aggregor has used him like a pawn. Everything has benefited Greg—Ben finds the aliens, Greg collects them. Ben goes on the MapQuest, and Aggregor lets him do all the work while he takes the Map fragments and delivers the smuggest responses since David Xanatos punked the Gargoyles. Ben has never been so thoroughly outwitted at every turn, and he hates it. Gwen doesn’t have that; she doesn’t hate Greg enough—he’s just another villain.
And from here, the pacing really goes downhill. There’s only so many of the death traps you can take before it starts getting tedious, so they quickly try to break it up with character moments, particularly between Ben and Kevin, and then by cutting ahead a few rooms before they reach the last room. But this feels really awkward. The transition itself is fine, but the timeframe isn’t. We learn that they’ve had about three fire rooms in a row, and Ben insists that a killer robot spider on his shoulder was from about ten rooms ago. There’s trying to skip the boring stuff, but this is cut way too far ahead, even if it makes sense that they’d have to go through a whole bunch more rooms.
Still, there are some nice moments. The dialogue is excellent, beginning with Azmuth’s hilarious complaint that it’ll take more than the rest of his long lifespan before the team learns anything. When Ben fails to go Chromastone against the lasers and ends up as Humongousaur, he argues with the Ultimatrix, “If you’re gonna give me the wrong guy all the time, why do you even have a dial?!” More hilarious Ben moments include his attempt to get Kevin to talk during their downtime and the reunion between Gwen and Kevin. Impatient with Kevin’s continued inability to express his feelings, Swampfire explains to Gwen that Kevin’s trying to say that he was worried; and when Gwen and Kevin kiss, he shouts, “Why don’t you just get a room? This place is full of them!”
Ben probably did have the best character stuff this episode, given that he had to deal with his failure to protect the Map. His decision to go back for the Sentinel is similar to his choice between retrieving the oscillator key or saving Tyler in “Inside Man,” only this time it hits him just what he’s done. He saves the Sentinel only for him to die lamenting his failure in fulfilling his purpose. This time, Kevin and Gwen support him. Where they had called him out on making the a questionable decision in the earlier episode, here, Kevin reminds Ben that he did what he thought was right and Gwen adds that it’s a character trait of Ben’s not to leave anyone behind. They know that he couldn’t go completely against everything he believed and abandon someone.
I’m not entirely sure if this is supposed to mean anything, but I figured it was worth mentioning that Ben was very easily able to follow the Map fragment’s directions to the Rustbucket and back to the Sentinel. In his words, the Map fragment “just knows” where things are. And back in “Paradox,” it was revealed offhand that Ben has an innate understanding of the metaphysics of time and space. So it would make sense that the Map would be able to let him know on an instinctive level. Only time will tell if this comes into play explicitly. Also of note are some bits from Gwen and Kevin in battle. To deflect the lasers, Gwen used a spell called Thracius to generate a polygonal forcefield. And in his fight with the first guard, Kevin was surprisingly agile—using flips and kicks alongside his usual “hit it with a mace” tactics. It looks like Gwen’s given both of them pointers, and it really does a lot to help Kevin’s style.
“Perplexahedron” was written by Brian Swenlin. The Sentinel was voiced by Dee Bradley Baker.