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akinoameIn an ancient temple on a distant planet, Baz-el is dealing with some bad indigestion while stealing jeweled eyes from stone statues. I guess I don’t even need to say this, but countdown to this backfiring? Proving that you have to be Harrison Ford to play Indiana Jones, he’s attacked by the statues coming to life. Meanwhile on Earth, Julie’s practicing tennis with Ship when he somehow telepathically hears Baz-el’s screams. Worried, Ship transforms back and explains to Julie what’s going on. In his usual Pokémon speech. Which she somehow understands like how everyone understood Lassie. Okay. Ship transforms into…well, ship form, to what sounds suspiciously like the Dragonzord theme from Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers and flies off, leaving a worried Julie behind. In that city from “Duped,” Ben and the team are fighting the Forever Knights in front of the museum (only those two old guys aren’t there today. Damn). Gwen comments that it’s been a year since the Forever Knights disbanded, which makes the timeline kind of awkward. They’ve fought them several times since “Be-Knighted,” and quite a few times in Ultimate Alien too. Like “Absolute Power,” or “Hero Time.” Does it mean that it’s been a year since season one? Whatever, I’m not getting into a timeline argument like I did in W.I.T.C.H. They’re doing pretty well until Humongousaur gets thrown off one of the AT-ATs from Star Wars and sees Julie standing over him. Brokenhearted, Ben points out that Julie dumped him in their Offscreen Argument, but Julie points out that she never actually dumped him, he took her comment about “might as well be broken up” literally. But hey, we didn’t actually see it, so we don’t know who’s right. Anyway, Julie explains the problem with Ship, and Ben’s even more brokenhearted that Julie cares more about her pet than about her ex-boyfriend. He points out that Ship’s gone off on his own before, so Julie shouldn’t worry, but she still thinks that this is different from all those other times. As she turns and walks away, there’s a moment of genuine regret on Ben’s face as he begins to take a step toward her…only for Gwen to step in and cockblock, taking Julie’s shoulder and insisting that they’ll help even if Ben won’t. Oh yeah, real subtle, writers. You know, if Gwen were a guy, there’d be more people calling foul on this. Kevin points out that not even Ben seems to know what point he was trying to make right there before heading off, looking to me like he’s figured out what’s going on between the girls and is hoping that if he plays nice, he can join in. Left alone with the Forever Knights, Ben finishes the battle and escapes the press and his fans, narrating his regret that he let Julie go and how he’s lost sight of how important she is to him. And just when we think that he’s talking to a therapist, we see he’s talking to a ten-year-old. Is this some kind of offhand reference to Sweets? Jimmy Jones, PsyD, asks Ben if he wants to talk to Julie even though she doesn’t want to talk to him, encouraging him to make the first move. Emboldened, Ben races outside the apartment, carrying a Plumber’s Badge I didn’t know he had and tracking the others’ progress as they leave the solar system. Realizing his only chance is to go Jetray and hit hyperspace, he miraculously does so. Wow, and I thought the Ultimate forms were overpowered. Meanwhile, Jimmy brags to the neighborhood kids that he and Ben are bros.
Aboard the Rustbucket, the team is bitching about Ben, surprise, surprise. Kevin complains that if he hears Ben brag about saving the whole entire universe one more time (…like in season three of Alien Force, before he had Aggregor hand him his ass and then guano loco Kevin pissing him off and then his girlfriend breaking up with him?), he’s going to “go psycho,” but Gwen makes sure that he doesn’t mean it literally. Julie suggests that maybe Ben doesn’t realize that he comes off as a jerk to others, but Kevin and Gwen insist that he does know and she shouldn’t make excuses for him. Huh. Wasn’t there a discussion here last season about how Ben uses his asshole tendencies as a defense mechanism so he can cope with the stress of being essentially a child soldier? Guess it wasn’t important. And he’s never there for her, never mind all the episodes where he was and when she said in “Fame” and “Duped” that she understands he’s saving the world. Guess that wasn’t important either. Meanwhile, planetside, Baz-el is being tortured by temple worshippers. Apparently, that temple was still in use. Oops. They want to know where the Occulant—the jeweled eye—for the third sentinel is, but the idiot insults them. Oy. Don’t you know that a torture session is the last place where you should be heckling the bad guys? Ship arrives, much to Baz-el’s surprise, but he’s shot down by the worshippers and badly injured. Rustbucket III arrives just in time, and Gwen takes him inside to heal with her magic…which she can apparently do now. Why did this never come up earlier? There’s this really bizarre moment of Kevin eating fleem cake that is never brought up again this episode (this damn well better be a throwaway plot element for later, or I’m going to be as pissed as about the random donut comments in season one of W.I.T.C.H.). Ship recovers, but to Julie’s dismay, he doesn’t want to return to Earth yet. He’s determined to save Baz-el, despite him being (as everyone points out) a total weasel. Ben arrives just as the team is heading toward the temple, late for the recap and pissed that Julie’s blowing him off. The girls go on ahead and Gwen attempts small talk with Julie while the two walk on an energy platform over the slippery earth. Yeah, you’re really failing to convince me you’re not pushing a Gwen/Julie ship here, guys. Gwen admires Ship’s loyalty, but Julie’s depressed that he seems to care more about Baz-el than about her. Huh, this sounds kind of like someone else’s complaints about Julie. In the back, Ben makes an offhand remark about not deserving this treatment, especially when he’s a famous hero, and Kevin tells him off for being a jerk, suggesting that Ben got dumped because he was a jerk. As a somewhat nice show of continuity, Kevin admits that he’s the expert on jerks (“Absolute Power”), but this is just another shoehorned attempt to turn everyone against Ben. Oy.
The team arrives to see Baz-el’s torture session, but because they fail at stealth, they’re caught by other worshippers. The Priest ransoms their lives for info on the Occulant from Ship, and when he’s stupid enough to threaten Julie, Ship decides he’s not taking that shit and bonds to her as a battlesuit again. Julie and Ship then proceed to pretty much singlehandedly hand the temple worshippers their asses, and Ben wisely keeps out of his heavily-armed, pissed-off, ex-girlfriend’s way. He goes Brainstorm to free Baz-el, but because Ben is the King of Collateral Damage, he smashes the altar while freeing him. The desecration of the temple once again leads to the sentinels coming to life and attacking, and even with the aid of Ultimate Swampfire and Ship proving that as a battlesuit he can fire laser-pellets, they can’t stop all of them. They manage to defeat the two that can see, but the blind third sentinel is still searching for them. They try to hide, but Baz-el’s indigestion gives them away. Julie realizes what the sentinel is looking for and puts together that it’s all Baz-el’s fault, so she heads over and gives him the Heimlich maneuver to force him to hork up the missing Occulant. Um, question: how do you forget you swallowed a jewel that size? And even if Baz-el did know, nothing’s indicated that he’s brave enough to lie about it when his life is on the line. Whatever. Julie presents the jewel to sentinel, who pops it back in, then heads back to his bros to sleep in front of the desecrated altar. Apparently, this is no big deal.
As things unwind, Baz-el explains that he steals artifacts for his “retirement plan” since he’s got a crappy job that doesn’t pay well. Dude, have you tried applying elsewhere? Or has the recession extended to the rest of the galaxy too? Julie tries to give Ship back to Baz-el, reasoning that if he was so determined to save him, they belong together. Ben tries to reason with her, arguing that Ship’s her friend, but she bitterly responds that sometimes friendships end and maybe that’s how things are supposed to be. So Ben does the only thing he can: he acts like a complete asshole and says pretty much “Okay, everybody’s happy, we can go home and Ship can get sold on the black market,” winking at Baz-el. Baz-el catches on and remarks on how Julie’s made Ship into a valuable weapon, completely breaking her heart. Ben then poses an ultimatum for Ship: stay with the guy who sees you as a weapon and a way to make money, or with the girl who loves you for who you really are. Ship doesn’t even need the ultimatum, leaping to Julie while gleefully crying her name. Yes, Ship’s learned a new word. It’s pretty adorable. As Baz-el leaves, Kevin pushes Ben over to Julie, proving that he’s secretly been shipping them the whole time. Julie doesn’t want to talk, but Ben makes her stay. He apologizes for being a jerk and says that Julie’s the only other person who cares about him as Ben and not as an alien hero, accepting him “faults and all.” The two of them promise to try to do better, reconciling after…two episodes and an offscreen breakup.
I haven’t exactly been subtle with the fact that I hate the way this episode was handled. Sure, I liked some parts of it—the action was good, Ship and Jimmy were adorable, and I did actually like Ben’s therapy session with Jimmy as he expressed all his regret, but the heart of the episode was the breakup, and that failed badly. Somewhere between “Absolute Power” and “The Transmogrification of Eunice,” Ben and Julie had an argument that we never saw, and Ben took it to mean that Julie no longer wanted him around. We have no way of knowing what really happened during the Offscreen Argument, which in theory keeps us from taking one side over the other. But the series is shown from Ben’s point of view, automatically putting the bias toward him, and like “Duped,” this episode implies “Julie’s always right, Ben’s always wrong.” And as I pointed out in “Duped,” I hate that line of thinking when it looks like the both of them are being total asses.
Don’t get me wrong, I actually think the breakup could have been good thing for their characters. As I mentioned, we do see Ben’s thought processes on it: he’s devastated, and he can only express his sorrow and regret in private and with Jimmy, who’s the only one on his side right now. But around Julie, his pain turns into anger and he can’t help but take it out on her. Is it right? No. Understandable? Yes. Meanwhile, we also see Julie’s side: she’s just as hurt, and like Ben, she’s taking it out on the other party. She refuses to talk to him or even listen to him, generally being pretty passive-aggressive toward him. She also seems to expect that because Ben left, everyone else is going to leave her, including Ship (who embodies the memory of their first date). This comes out very clearly in her reactions to Ship’s quest to save Baz-el. She’s hurt that he appears to care more about Baz-el than about her. This seems to be a projection of her feelings about Ben, betraying how she feels like he cares more about saving the universe than about being with her (even though she said in “Duped” that she was okay with it; can we please stop with passive-aggressive Julie?). But at the same time, now she’s seeing how Ben sees her relationship with Ship, ever since “Pet Project.” He’s always been a little jealous that she puts Ship before him. One of the things that clearly hurts him in this episode is when she comes to him after the Offscreen Argument and no contact between then and now, and the only reason she even tries to talk to him is because of Ship, not him. She comes off to him as though she cares more about Ship than she does about Ben.
The problem, however, is that none of this potential development is followed up on. The worst part is the way Ben’s friends take sides. This is a Bad Thing, serving only to turn the world against Ben once again. They argue that Ben’s never been there for Julie, despite the evidence of “Pier Pressure,” “Pet Project,” “Don’t Fear the Repo,” and especially “Hero Time.” Julie’s track record for being there for Ben is also impressive: “Save the Last Dance,” “War of the Worlds,” “Singlehanded” (kinda), “Fame,” “Hero Time,” and the implications in “Absolute Power.” Sure, she might have a few more episodes under her belt, but does that mean that Ben hasn’t been there for her enough? No. It means that when the other needs them (which in Julie’s case, isn’t as often as when Ben needs her), they’re there. Kind of like that Linkara rant I linked last time. This episode winds up feeling more like it was meant to be for season three of Alien Force, especially with Kevin mentioning Ben’s brags that haven’t happened since he was defeated by then defeated Vilgax. That actually would make sense, with the implication that the breakup was meant to be a kick in the pants to Ben to show him what his ego is costing him (and then all the changes he went though in Ultimate Alien make it harder for Julie to find the boy she’d fallen in love with originally), but Ultimate Alien has taken pains to show that Ben’s fame is more a headache than anything. And it’s not his fault either; Jimmy did it all by accident with his blog and Youtube account. Which kind of makes it ironic that Jimmy’s the only one Ben can turn to here on the very consequences of that video. It’d be easier to appreciate without the nagging sense that this is all here to give Ben some drama with his girlfriend and his friends (Terry, Dana? I want you back!).
To illustrate how such a breakup can be handled well, let me tell you a little story. Okay, that’s a lie, it’s not little at all. It’s a bit TLDR, to be honest, but I promise there’s a point.
Once upon a time in a series called W.I.T.C.H., there was a boy named Caleb and a girl named Cornelia. They hooked up near the end of the first season while fighting the bad guy together for quite a while. Then the bad guy was defeated, and the Queen of Caleb’s homeworld was restored to her throne. Without a bad guy to fight, Caleb realized he had to stay on his homeworld, Meridian, to protect the Queen he’d fought so hard to get on the throne in the first place. He explained to Cornelia that he wasn’t going back to Earth. She didn’t take it well. But though this decision deeply hurt the both of them, they were both very proud and stubborn people and argued about it. Cornelia even insisted that she wouldn’t miss Caleb, that she’d actually miss their little green mascot, though this was a bold-faced lie.
Being utterly clueless about women and having the social skills of Yuuto Sakurai, Dillon, and Kevin in season one of Alien Force, Caleb assumed Cornelia’s problem was that he wasn’t there on Earth with her. So when Queen Elyon decided she wanted to finish up her year at school on Earth, he took the opportunity for a reassignment for the best of both worlds—he could be with Cornelia and still protect his Queen. So despite having next to no knowledge about Earth aside from what he picked up from his friends, Caleb transferred to Cornelia and Elyon’s school. And Cornelia wasn’t happy. No matter how many times he tried to fit in at school (usually failing epically and making a total fool of himself), Cornelia was still mad at him. Caleb’s lack of understanding about Earth girls didn’t help, and he found himself getting what we like to refer to as a hairflip. He tried to reason with her, but she was as stubborn as ever. Caleb argued that he’d dropped everything in his life to move to Earth and be there for Cornelia, but she argued back that he’d done this all for Elyon instead. He even knew more about Elyon’s hobbies than he did about Cornelia’s.
Cornelia tried to move on, dating her friend’s older brother while under an assumed name and using magic to make herself look older, but by this point, her and Caleb’s friends were fed up with their bullshit. Elyon made Caleb swallow his pride and make a complete fool of himself by going to meet her ice skating, and Cornelia was actually moved by his derpiness. The problem was that Caleb had seen the other guy and took it to mean that Cornelia was done with him, and he with her. He left, only to end up captured in battle alongside his father and other former members of their Rebellion. Cornelia and the other girls only managed to save the others, as they assumed Caleb and his father had been killed. Cornelia held it together for a little bit, but once they reached the palace, the strong, proud girl broke into tears until Caleb and his father miraculously appeared out of nowhere. Cornelia hugged him in relief. When they tried to explain everything to Queen Elyon, Cornelia reached for Caleb’s hand, but he jumped and tried to move away from her, understandably upset about getting dumped twice:
“Caleb, wait!”
“For you? Not anymore.”
“I deserve that. But you have to know—when I thought I lost you, all I could think about was…”
“That other guy?”
“No! Caleb, listen! After you made a fool of yourself for me, I decided to break up with him. I swear.”
This gave him something to think about, and they returned to the ice rink. Cornelia officially called it off with the other guy, who took it well because he knew that she wasn’t the one for him. Meanwhile, Cornelia and Caleb knew they’d found the ones for them.
This saga took place over the course of six episodes, three of which I’ve covered here. And unlike the Ben/Julie breakup, Caleb and Cornelia’s relationship drama served to give them character development. Both of them were very proud and stubborn, and that personality clash is what led to their fight. Caleb’s need to stick with duty over his heart and Cornelia’s pain and inability to understand that was the catalyst. Following this episode, they were considerably less proud around each other. They learned how to give and take in their relationship, and how to wait. When Caleb needed time to himself to cope with a horrifying realization about his family and his destiny, Cornelia was there for him when he returned. They stopped being completely stupid and started looking cute.
None of this happens with Ben and Julie. Ben’s situation is analogous to Caleb’s: he can’t just abandon his duty for his girlfriend, who can’t understand. Hell, even Julie’s situation this episode matches up with Caleb: she comes to Ben for someone else’s sake, much like Caleb came to Earth because he had to protect Elyon first, moreso than to be with Cornelia. But do they learn anything in the end? Not really. They promise they’ll try harder, but as I’ve pointed out before: they were always by each other’s sides when things were bad. And Ben can’t always be there for Julie’s games and everything because of his duty and because he draws unwanted attention to her from the press. They really don’t go anywhere with this. There’s no real character development. In short, this breakup cockup only existed so that Ben would have something to angst about for two episodes. They took a cute couple that did have some understandable issues that they could have worked through maturely and instead turned it into an Avril Lavigne song.
“Eye of the Beholder” was written by Len Uhley. Jeff Bennett returned as Baz-el.
Aboard the Rustbucket, the team is bitching about Ben, surprise, surprise. Kevin complains that if he hears Ben brag about saving the whole entire universe one more time (…like in season three of Alien Force, before he had Aggregor hand him his ass and then guano loco Kevin pissing him off and then his girlfriend breaking up with him?), he’s going to “go psycho,” but Gwen makes sure that he doesn’t mean it literally. Julie suggests that maybe Ben doesn’t realize that he comes off as a jerk to others, but Kevin and Gwen insist that he does know and she shouldn’t make excuses for him. Huh. Wasn’t there a discussion here last season about how Ben uses his asshole tendencies as a defense mechanism so he can cope with the stress of being essentially a child soldier? Guess it wasn’t important. And he’s never there for her, never mind all the episodes where he was and when she said in “Fame” and “Duped” that she understands he’s saving the world. Guess that wasn’t important either. Meanwhile, planetside, Baz-el is being tortured by temple worshippers. Apparently, that temple was still in use. Oops. They want to know where the Occulant—the jeweled eye—for the third sentinel is, but the idiot insults them. Oy. Don’t you know that a torture session is the last place where you should be heckling the bad guys? Ship arrives, much to Baz-el’s surprise, but he’s shot down by the worshippers and badly injured. Rustbucket III arrives just in time, and Gwen takes him inside to heal with her magic…which she can apparently do now. Why did this never come up earlier? There’s this really bizarre moment of Kevin eating fleem cake that is never brought up again this episode (this damn well better be a throwaway plot element for later, or I’m going to be as pissed as about the random donut comments in season one of W.I.T.C.H.). Ship recovers, but to Julie’s dismay, he doesn’t want to return to Earth yet. He’s determined to save Baz-el, despite him being (as everyone points out) a total weasel. Ben arrives just as the team is heading toward the temple, late for the recap and pissed that Julie’s blowing him off. The girls go on ahead and Gwen attempts small talk with Julie while the two walk on an energy platform over the slippery earth. Yeah, you’re really failing to convince me you’re not pushing a Gwen/Julie ship here, guys. Gwen admires Ship’s loyalty, but Julie’s depressed that he seems to care more about Baz-el than about her. Huh, this sounds kind of like someone else’s complaints about Julie. In the back, Ben makes an offhand remark about not deserving this treatment, especially when he’s a famous hero, and Kevin tells him off for being a jerk, suggesting that Ben got dumped because he was a jerk. As a somewhat nice show of continuity, Kevin admits that he’s the expert on jerks (“Absolute Power”), but this is just another shoehorned attempt to turn everyone against Ben. Oy.
The team arrives to see Baz-el’s torture session, but because they fail at stealth, they’re caught by other worshippers. The Priest ransoms their lives for info on the Occulant from Ship, and when he’s stupid enough to threaten Julie, Ship decides he’s not taking that shit and bonds to her as a battlesuit again. Julie and Ship then proceed to pretty much singlehandedly hand the temple worshippers their asses, and Ben wisely keeps out of his heavily-armed, pissed-off, ex-girlfriend’s way. He goes Brainstorm to free Baz-el, but because Ben is the King of Collateral Damage, he smashes the altar while freeing him. The desecration of the temple once again leads to the sentinels coming to life and attacking, and even with the aid of Ultimate Swampfire and Ship proving that as a battlesuit he can fire laser-pellets, they can’t stop all of them. They manage to defeat the two that can see, but the blind third sentinel is still searching for them. They try to hide, but Baz-el’s indigestion gives them away. Julie realizes what the sentinel is looking for and puts together that it’s all Baz-el’s fault, so she heads over and gives him the Heimlich maneuver to force him to hork up the missing Occulant. Um, question: how do you forget you swallowed a jewel that size? And even if Baz-el did know, nothing’s indicated that he’s brave enough to lie about it when his life is on the line. Whatever. Julie presents the jewel to sentinel, who pops it back in, then heads back to his bros to sleep in front of the desecrated altar. Apparently, this is no big deal.
As things unwind, Baz-el explains that he steals artifacts for his “retirement plan” since he’s got a crappy job that doesn’t pay well. Dude, have you tried applying elsewhere? Or has the recession extended to the rest of the galaxy too? Julie tries to give Ship back to Baz-el, reasoning that if he was so determined to save him, they belong together. Ben tries to reason with her, arguing that Ship’s her friend, but she bitterly responds that sometimes friendships end and maybe that’s how things are supposed to be. So Ben does the only thing he can: he acts like a complete asshole and says pretty much “Okay, everybody’s happy, we can go home and Ship can get sold on the black market,” winking at Baz-el. Baz-el catches on and remarks on how Julie’s made Ship into a valuable weapon, completely breaking her heart. Ben then poses an ultimatum for Ship: stay with the guy who sees you as a weapon and a way to make money, or with the girl who loves you for who you really are. Ship doesn’t even need the ultimatum, leaping to Julie while gleefully crying her name. Yes, Ship’s learned a new word. It’s pretty adorable. As Baz-el leaves, Kevin pushes Ben over to Julie, proving that he’s secretly been shipping them the whole time. Julie doesn’t want to talk, but Ben makes her stay. He apologizes for being a jerk and says that Julie’s the only other person who cares about him as Ben and not as an alien hero, accepting him “faults and all.” The two of them promise to try to do better, reconciling after…two episodes and an offscreen breakup.
I haven’t exactly been subtle with the fact that I hate the way this episode was handled. Sure, I liked some parts of it—the action was good, Ship and Jimmy were adorable, and I did actually like Ben’s therapy session with Jimmy as he expressed all his regret, but the heart of the episode was the breakup, and that failed badly. Somewhere between “Absolute Power” and “The Transmogrification of Eunice,” Ben and Julie had an argument that we never saw, and Ben took it to mean that Julie no longer wanted him around. We have no way of knowing what really happened during the Offscreen Argument, which in theory keeps us from taking one side over the other. But the series is shown from Ben’s point of view, automatically putting the bias toward him, and like “Duped,” this episode implies “Julie’s always right, Ben’s always wrong.” And as I pointed out in “Duped,” I hate that line of thinking when it looks like the both of them are being total asses.
Don’t get me wrong, I actually think the breakup could have been good thing for their characters. As I mentioned, we do see Ben’s thought processes on it: he’s devastated, and he can only express his sorrow and regret in private and with Jimmy, who’s the only one on his side right now. But around Julie, his pain turns into anger and he can’t help but take it out on her. Is it right? No. Understandable? Yes. Meanwhile, we also see Julie’s side: she’s just as hurt, and like Ben, she’s taking it out on the other party. She refuses to talk to him or even listen to him, generally being pretty passive-aggressive toward him. She also seems to expect that because Ben left, everyone else is going to leave her, including Ship (who embodies the memory of their first date). This comes out very clearly in her reactions to Ship’s quest to save Baz-el. She’s hurt that he appears to care more about Baz-el than about her. This seems to be a projection of her feelings about Ben, betraying how she feels like he cares more about saving the universe than about being with her (even though she said in “Duped” that she was okay with it; can we please stop with passive-aggressive Julie?). But at the same time, now she’s seeing how Ben sees her relationship with Ship, ever since “Pet Project.” He’s always been a little jealous that she puts Ship before him. One of the things that clearly hurts him in this episode is when she comes to him after the Offscreen Argument and no contact between then and now, and the only reason she even tries to talk to him is because of Ship, not him. She comes off to him as though she cares more about Ship than she does about Ben.
The problem, however, is that none of this potential development is followed up on. The worst part is the way Ben’s friends take sides. This is a Bad Thing, serving only to turn the world against Ben once again. They argue that Ben’s never been there for Julie, despite the evidence of “Pier Pressure,” “Pet Project,” “Don’t Fear the Repo,” and especially “Hero Time.” Julie’s track record for being there for Ben is also impressive: “Save the Last Dance,” “War of the Worlds,” “Singlehanded” (kinda), “Fame,” “Hero Time,” and the implications in “Absolute Power.” Sure, she might have a few more episodes under her belt, but does that mean that Ben hasn’t been there for her enough? No. It means that when the other needs them (which in Julie’s case, isn’t as often as when Ben needs her), they’re there. Kind of like that Linkara rant I linked last time. This episode winds up feeling more like it was meant to be for season three of Alien Force, especially with Kevin mentioning Ben’s brags that haven’t happened since he was defeated by then defeated Vilgax. That actually would make sense, with the implication that the breakup was meant to be a kick in the pants to Ben to show him what his ego is costing him (and then all the changes he went though in Ultimate Alien make it harder for Julie to find the boy she’d fallen in love with originally), but Ultimate Alien has taken pains to show that Ben’s fame is more a headache than anything. And it’s not his fault either; Jimmy did it all by accident with his blog and Youtube account. Which kind of makes it ironic that Jimmy’s the only one Ben can turn to here on the very consequences of that video. It’d be easier to appreciate without the nagging sense that this is all here to give Ben some drama with his girlfriend and his friends (Terry, Dana? I want you back!).
To illustrate how such a breakup can be handled well, let me tell you a little story. Okay, that’s a lie, it’s not little at all. It’s a bit TLDR, to be honest, but I promise there’s a point.
Once upon a time in a series called W.I.T.C.H., there was a boy named Caleb and a girl named Cornelia. They hooked up near the end of the first season while fighting the bad guy together for quite a while. Then the bad guy was defeated, and the Queen of Caleb’s homeworld was restored to her throne. Without a bad guy to fight, Caleb realized he had to stay on his homeworld, Meridian, to protect the Queen he’d fought so hard to get on the throne in the first place. He explained to Cornelia that he wasn’t going back to Earth. She didn’t take it well. But though this decision deeply hurt the both of them, they were both very proud and stubborn people and argued about it. Cornelia even insisted that she wouldn’t miss Caleb, that she’d actually miss their little green mascot, though this was a bold-faced lie.
Being utterly clueless about women and having the social skills of Yuuto Sakurai, Dillon, and Kevin in season one of Alien Force, Caleb assumed Cornelia’s problem was that he wasn’t there on Earth with her. So when Queen Elyon decided she wanted to finish up her year at school on Earth, he took the opportunity for a reassignment for the best of both worlds—he could be with Cornelia and still protect his Queen. So despite having next to no knowledge about Earth aside from what he picked up from his friends, Caleb transferred to Cornelia and Elyon’s school. And Cornelia wasn’t happy. No matter how many times he tried to fit in at school (usually failing epically and making a total fool of himself), Cornelia was still mad at him. Caleb’s lack of understanding about Earth girls didn’t help, and he found himself getting what we like to refer to as a hairflip. He tried to reason with her, but she was as stubborn as ever. Caleb argued that he’d dropped everything in his life to move to Earth and be there for Cornelia, but she argued back that he’d done this all for Elyon instead. He even knew more about Elyon’s hobbies than he did about Cornelia’s.
Cornelia tried to move on, dating her friend’s older brother while under an assumed name and using magic to make herself look older, but by this point, her and Caleb’s friends were fed up with their bullshit. Elyon made Caleb swallow his pride and make a complete fool of himself by going to meet her ice skating, and Cornelia was actually moved by his derpiness. The problem was that Caleb had seen the other guy and took it to mean that Cornelia was done with him, and he with her. He left, only to end up captured in battle alongside his father and other former members of their Rebellion. Cornelia and the other girls only managed to save the others, as they assumed Caleb and his father had been killed. Cornelia held it together for a little bit, but once they reached the palace, the strong, proud girl broke into tears until Caleb and his father miraculously appeared out of nowhere. Cornelia hugged him in relief. When they tried to explain everything to Queen Elyon, Cornelia reached for Caleb’s hand, but he jumped and tried to move away from her, understandably upset about getting dumped twice:
“Caleb, wait!”
“For you? Not anymore.”
“I deserve that. But you have to know—when I thought I lost you, all I could think about was…”
“That other guy?”
“No! Caleb, listen! After you made a fool of yourself for me, I decided to break up with him. I swear.”
This gave him something to think about, and they returned to the ice rink. Cornelia officially called it off with the other guy, who took it well because he knew that she wasn’t the one for him. Meanwhile, Cornelia and Caleb knew they’d found the ones for them.
This saga took place over the course of six episodes, three of which I’ve covered here. And unlike the Ben/Julie breakup, Caleb and Cornelia’s relationship drama served to give them character development. Both of them were very proud and stubborn, and that personality clash is what led to their fight. Caleb’s need to stick with duty over his heart and Cornelia’s pain and inability to understand that was the catalyst. Following this episode, they were considerably less proud around each other. They learned how to give and take in their relationship, and how to wait. When Caleb needed time to himself to cope with a horrifying realization about his family and his destiny, Cornelia was there for him when he returned. They stopped being completely stupid and started looking cute.
None of this happens with Ben and Julie. Ben’s situation is analogous to Caleb’s: he can’t just abandon his duty for his girlfriend, who can’t understand. Hell, even Julie’s situation this episode matches up with Caleb: she comes to Ben for someone else’s sake, much like Caleb came to Earth because he had to protect Elyon first, moreso than to be with Cornelia. But do they learn anything in the end? Not really. They promise they’ll try harder, but as I’ve pointed out before: they were always by each other’s sides when things were bad. And Ben can’t always be there for Julie’s games and everything because of his duty and because he draws unwanted attention to her from the press. They really don’t go anywhere with this. There’s no real character development. In short, this breakup cockup only existed so that Ben would have something to angst about for two episodes. They took a cute couple that did have some understandable issues that they could have worked through maturely and instead turned it into an Avril Lavigne song.
“Eye of the Beholder” was written by Len Uhley. Jeff Bennett returned as Baz-el.