Permanent Retirement

Permanent Retirement is the fourth episode of the first season of Ben 10, and the fourth episode overall.
==Synopsis==
Grandpa, Gwen and Ben visit an old maid relative only to find that her retirement community has been overtaken by a shapeshifting aliens called Limax.
==Plot==
The Tennysons have stopped for gas and ice cream in the middle of the desert, when two men rob the ATM. Ben puts a pause on picking an ice cream and stops them using Upgrade. Hyped up on his victory, he asks Max where they're headed next, to which Max says visiting Great Aunt Vera for the weekend, immediately killing Upgrade's mood.
On the drive to Vera's retirement village, Ben complains about how boring the visit will be, no one else agreeing with him. Waiting for them to arrive, Vera chats up her next-door neighbor Marty. When he goes back inside his house to enjoy some TV, he gets attacked by a blob of something, covered in shadow. As the Rust Bucket arrives in the village, Ben notices an old man perfectly backflipping off his roof. He's amazed, though Gwen and Max didn't see anything. They arrive at Vera's house and Ben is annoyed by the heat; Gwen shoots him with a water gun. Ben notices Marty in his house, glaring and hissing from the window. After that odd interaction, Vera greets them and brings them inside. They have dinner, consisting of an odd orange pork-flavored gelatin mold, and coffee beans as candy. Ben is repulsed by it all and runs to the bathroom to hide. He gets the idea to use Ghostfreak to phase through and sneak out of the house.
Ghostfreak roams around the town, looking for fun things to do in his invisible state. He finds a golf cart to ride, then finds an apple pie on a windowsill. The elderly woman who baked it, frustrated with trying to swat a fly, clings to her ceiling and devours it, shocking Ghostfreak. Marty takes the golf cart, making an odd effort to swerve around a neighbor's sprinkler. Ghostfreak decides to follow him. Marty stops at the village dump, having brought a rolled-up carpet. Instead of using the gate, he elongates his legs to step over it. As he opens a trapdoor under a dumpster, the Omnitrix inopportunely reverts Ghostfreak back to Ben. Marty sees him and attacks him, screeching and stretching his arms. Ben drives away using the golf cart, but Marty easily catches up. They scuffle, leading in Ben not looking at the road and crashing the cart. Marty is undamaged and has Ben in his grip, until the neighbor's sprinkler goes off. It scares Marty away, leaving Ben with even more questions.
Back at Vera's house, Ben recaps all that he saw to Gwen and Max, asking them to come investigate Marty's house. Even though Vera was hurt by Ben sneaking out, Max agrees. They find it abandoned, nothing out of the ordinary, except for the missing rug. As night falls, Max urges Ben and Gwen to get some sleep, promising Ben they will continue investigating tomorrow. During the night, another mysterious blob attacks Vera in her sleep. The next morning, Vera comes into the kitchen. Her mannerisms are stranger: she speaks monotonously; pinches the kids' cheeks harder than usual; and completely freaks out when Gwen spills a glass of water. Once she leaves the house (to go find Max), Ben accuses her of being "one of them". Ben and Gwen decide to go sneaking around the neighborhood: Ben wants to take another look at that hidden trapdoor by the dump. Meanwhile, the Faux Vera meets with the Faux Marty in an alleyway, and they discuss the gestation of "pods" for some kind of transportation preparations. Marty is worried Ben suspects them too much.
Ben and Gwen pass by two old women playing shuffleboard. They instantly hiss at the sight of them and knock shuffleboard pieces at them. Running away, they turn the corner and run into Max. It becomes clear that even he is one of "them", as he tries to attack Ben and Gwen. Some elders pick up a car and throw it at them, but accidentally squish Max. Gwen yells, thinking he's dead, but the creature reassembles into Max's body from greenish slime and gives chase. Ben and Gwen finally arrive at the dump. Gwen attempts to move the dumpster; Ben transforms into Wildmutt and moves it for her. Wildmutt "tells" Gwen to open the door while he fends off the small army of elders after them. The trapdoor reveals a long tunnel going down. Wildmutt picks her up and jumps in. At the bottom, Wildmutt and Gwen find a series of underground pathways. They try to lose the elders in the tunnels, but the one impersonating Max manages to sneak up on them. Wildmutt fights him and wins until the creature repairs his face to look like Max and appeal to Ben's nature. Wildmutt hesitates, letting the creature get a leg up. Gwen reminds him who his real family is, and Wildmutt comes out on top. He then suddenly detects something and sprints through the tunnels, crashing through a wall before turning back into Ben, Gwen on his back. Gwen is enraged, but Ben justifies that he picked up some kind of scent.
Ben and Gwen find an alien ship with hundreds of green pods surrounding it. Inside the pods are the real residents of the neighborhood, along with Max. Ben frees Max from his pod. The fake elders interrupt their reunion, having caught up. They unmask their true forms as tall green blob-like aliens called Limax. Gwen discovers a door to the Limax's ship. Inside are many more pods loaded onboard, Aunt Vera's included. Ben transforms into Heatblast to fend them off with fire, however, doing so has no effect. The Limax assemble into one large entity and berate Heatblast for choosing to attack them with heat. They love heat, it's the reason they invaded a desert location in the summer. The giant Limax grabs Heatblast and buds two smaller Limax from its body, to stop Gwen and Max from unloading the pods from the ship. As they swipe at Gwen, they knock her backpack open and her water gun falls out, terrifying them. Gwen and Heatblast piece it together: they hate water. Heatblast shoots a fireball to break an overhead water pipe. Water sprays out, dissolving the giant Limax. The puddles retreat into their now-emptied ship as its thrusters begin to heat up. The Tennysons watch as the spaceship tunnels out of the underground and leaves Earth. They then discuss how to get everyone in pods back to their homes.
The next day, the Tennysons say their goodbyes to Vera. She gives Max a hug and Gwen an equally odd gelatin mold to take on the road (Ben's idea). Vera tells Ben she hoped the visit hadn't "bored him to tears", but Ben admits that he had lots of fun. As they drive away, down in the crater of the fight, one Limax, left behind, crawls along the cave floor.
==Noteworthy Events==
===Major Events===
====Character Debuts====
*Vera Tennyson
*Limax
*Marty
====Omnitrix Alien Debuts====
*Upgrade
*Ghostfreak
==Characters==
===Main Characters===
*Ben Tennyson
*Gwen Tennyson
*Max Tennyson
===Supporting Characters===
*Vera Tennyson (first appearance)
===Antagonists===
*Limax (first appearance)
===Other Characters===
*Marty (first appearance)
*Senior Citizens
==Aliens Used==
*Upgrade (first appearance; off-screen activation)
*Ghostfreak (first appearance)
*Wildmutt
*Heatblast
*XLR8 (off-screen)
==Quotes==
==Naming and Translations==
==Cast==
==Allusions==
*This episode shares many themes with The Body Snatchers novel and adaptations, however in this case instead of trying to take over the world, the aliens are kidnapping humans for food.
**The scream made by the pod people from the 1956 adaptation is used throughout the episode.
**The episode also contains an allusion to the 1978 adaptation where in Vera is lying on her bed and subsequently replaced by a Limax.
*This episode also has a similar plot to the Powerpuff Girls episode Tough Love, where the loved ones of the girls get possessed by Him, which worries the girls and question who is possessing them.
==Errors==
*In one shot, Ben's pupils are bigger and not centered.
*In many shots, the Omnitrix's dial faces the wrong way.
*After the Limax Marty turns around after the Omnitrix times out when Ben follows him, there are two watches on each of the Limax's wrists.
*When Ben and Gwen run away from Limax Max, the Omnitrix is red.
*When a Limax throws a car at Ben and Gwen, there is a point in the scene where the Omnitrix is missing.
*When Wildmutt bites Limax Max, Wildmutt's lips are orange.
*On Netflix, when a red-tailed hawk's cry can be heard, it is incorrectly captioned as "[Eagle screeches]."
PM (190).png|Misplaced pupils
PM (364).png|Omnitrix dial error
PM (614).png|Two watches
PM (642).png|Omnitrix dial error
PM (774).png|Omnitrix dial error
PM (926).png|Omnitrix dial error
PM (963).png|Omnitrix dial error
PM (978).png|Omnitrix dial error
PM (1061).png|Omnitrix dial error
PM (1078).png|Omnitrix is timed out
PM (1095).png|Missing Omnitrix
PM (1299).png|Orange lips
PM (1474).png|Omnitrix dial error
PM (1492).png|Omnitrix dial error
PM (1868).png|Omnitrix dial error
PM (1875).png|Omnitrix dial error
==References==
===Cartoon Network===
de:Staffel 1/Folge 4: Ewiger Ruhestand
es:Visitando a los viejos
hr:Trajno umirovljenje
it:Terrore dallo spazio
pl:Straszni dziadkowie
pt-br:Aposentadoria Permanente
ro:Pensionare permanentă
ru:В гостях у тёти Веры
tr:Sonsuza Kadar Emeklilik
Category:Ben 10 Episodes
Category:Ben 10 Season 1 Episodes
Category:Episodes
Category:Episodes Directed by Scooter Tidwell
Category:Filler