Personality conflicts: “Ultimate Sacrifice”

[akinoame]

This is starting up my mini-review style for Ultimate Alien, and I’ll be keeping with it for the rest of the season, as well as going back to do “Perfect Girlfriend” the same way.

Let me say this to start: I called it! I’ve said for a long time now that Ben has serious psychological issues, and given the way some of his aliens have overwhelming personalities (Ghostfreak, Big Chill, Chromastone, Ra’ad…), he needs frickin’ therapy. Hell, back in “Duped,” I outright said that it was possible he could develop multiple personality disorder just like Tommy Oliver in Ellen Brand’s Personality Conflicts. They actually do call a psychiatrist, one recommended by Gwen’s mom, but she’s no Lita Kino, and she runs when Ultimate Humongousaur starts to get out of control again. But you can tell these guys are comic book writers: they call it multiple personality disorder instead of dissociative identity disorder (which is a controversial diagnosis anyway, since the field is split on whether or not it actually exists or if the separate personalities are psychotic delusions), and Dr. Borges (or not-Lita, as I think of her) immediately asks the Freudian question of how Ultimate Humongousaur/Ben felt about their moms.

The team discovers that Ben has serious problems when out of the blue, Ultimate Humongousaur goes out of control, has glowing red eyes, and refuses to answer to Ben’s name. Worse, Ben’s voice is coming through and physically fighting with him, worse than he’d had with Ra’ad in “Fused.” This appears to have been hinted from “Fame,” when he had mysteriously glowing eyes, claimed that transforming back from Ultimate Spidermonkey was “weird,” and said that the Ultimates scared him. Azmuth reveals that this is the huge flaw that Albedo had created in the Ultimatrix: the Ultimate forms of the aliens are alive. And they’re pissed at Ben for trapping them in the watch.

To resolve the problem, Gwen and Kevin take entirely different approaches that a series ago would have been reversed: Gwen insists on charging right into the Ultimatrix after Ben, and Kevin argues that there’s no promise they’ll make it out of there safely and that they should get Azmuth’s help. But given their character growth since then, it’s perfectly in character now. Gwen will do whatever it takes to protect the people she loves and Kevin’s not going to fuck around with that, afraid to put them at risk. So Gwen goes to rescue Ben, saving him from the Ultimates, while Kevin fights against absolutely everything in his path to beg Azmuth for help. And for him, it’s the most beautiful thing we’ve heard from him after season 1. He insists that Ben’s done so much to save the universe and finally pleads with Azmuth to save his best friend. He even says it to Ben’s face at the end when they’re all together once more. Sure, he admitted to Ben that he was his brother back in “Perplexahedron,” but now he’s admitted it to someone else. And Azmuth says that this gives him hope for the universe, seeing just how far Kevin’s come.

But in order for the Ultimates to be freed from the Ultimatrix and live their own lives, Ben has to die. He has to be thrown into this burning pit that he obliquely compares to Hell, and somehow that’s going to free the Ultimates. This part of the story is kind of on the rushed side. I don’t feel like there was enough build-up to the schism in Ben’s mind (well, beyond what I suspected across my reviews, but I’m a lunatic). Then when they realize that something’s wrong, you’ve got the quest trying to figure out what it is with not-Lita. Then you’ve got Ben trapped in the Ultimatrix, and time is split between him and Gwen fighting the Ultimates and Kevin fighting to get Azmuth’s help. So there’s not a whole lot of time for Ben to see the Ultimates’ side of things. He literally goes from fighting desperately for his life one moment to agreeing to sacrifice himself with no transition. Sure, he’s begging Gwen not to use so much power that she’ll lose herself to her Anodyte self, but he’s been given no reason to sympathize with the Ultimates. Contrast with “Prisoner Number 775 is Missing,” where he saw the conditions the aliens were living under, and he heard 775 begging him to kill him, making him decide to spare him. The Ultimates aren’t even that nice after Ben does sacrifice himself. It’s worse than Ra’ad—there was at least enough time given then for Ben to understand that it was a move of desperation and that his attempts to save the Andromeda Five were actually allowing Greg to find them. Ben even argues that they’re not real (contradicting everything we’ve seen with all the other aliens I mentioned before, along with his angry shout to Azmuth in “The Transmogrification of Eunice”). I guess we’re supposed to take his general tendency toward self-sacrifice as the reason, but it would have been nice to have more time to develop this. Because in contrast, Kevin stole the show on character development again.

Gwen is in Anodyte form in her astral projection, saying that she’s apparently more Anodyte than she thought she was. She really has begun embracing that side of herself more and more, and Ben has to warn her not to use too much energy or they’ll lose her. But Gwen is willing to make that sacrifice for Ben, which is nice to see—like I said, she will do whatever it takes to protect her loved ones. As for why Ben’s able to use the Ultimatrix when he’s inside it, I’ll never know.

“Ultimate Sacrifice” was written by J.M. DeMatteis and Dwayne McDuffie.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_red_x/]

I'm waiting for ANY of these episodes to start with Ben sitting in a psychiatrist's office explaining that he's a world-famous hero, loved by kids all over and despised by most adults.

Then Ben's told a single sentence that will freak him out to end the teaser: "Everything you experienced Ben, your many adventures with your friends and family, was just a dream."

My semi-conscious hopes thoughts shoved up to the conscious mind aside, I KNEW that was what Ben would have to worry about when a certain Ultimate's eyes were red back in 'Duped!' Then, when Ben said his Ultimates scared him I was reminded of the red eyes.

When Ultimate Humongousaur goes all 300, I thought 'oh, snap!'

Still, I enjoyed how things were flipped around-Gwen going into the Ultimatrix in Anodyte form and Kevin flying to Primus to set things right. Ben sacrificing himself reminded me of another TV series I used to watch years ago back in the late 90s, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys - the 5th season finale involving the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse where the titular character selflessly sacrifices himself to ensure all of humanity isn't killed. (Not surprisingly, like Ben he lives at the end.)

A huge part of me worries that one day, Gwen might actually give up her humanity to save someone she loves: be it Ben, Kevin, Julie, Grandpa Max or her parents. And as far as we know, they aren't able to get it back. (The twist could be that Gwen's only 1/2 Anodyte, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.)

[galistar07.livejournal.com]

Personally, I like this episode better than the previous ones before it so far (the ones that tend to suck as in the latest ones before this). I love the theme of sacrifice and the growth in the characters' developments which were all pretty "inspiring" to see. No wonder Azmuth is impressed by their behaviors (twice) in this episode. In a way, this episode proves that there is still hope that there will be future Ben 10 episodes that are still awesome or even more worthwhile than this.