Divided We Stand

Divided We Stand is the fifth episode of the fourth season of Ben 10, and the forty-fourth episode overall.
==Synopsis==
While at the beach, Ben discovers a new hero, Ditto, and soon has the ability to create multiple Dittos at once. These multiple Dittos can't agree on anything and drive Gwen crazy. However when the chips are down, these Dittos come together as one fighting force in order to defeat Animo and his army of replicant Stinkflies.
==Plot==
In prison, Dr. Animo is lecturing a group of seagulls about his declaration of vengeance and the nearby guards taunt him, telling him he'll never escape this time around. Just then, one seagull he personally trained brings him a microchip, one of the vital pieces the components needed for a new device and doing so one at a time as to keep it secret from the prison staff. He places it into his new Transmodulator, which makes it fully operational, and uses it to mutate the seagull into a gigantic pteranodon-like monster. It flies away with Animo and some guards, whom it drops into the water. Finally free from prison as he was planning from the start, Animo is ready to pick up where he left off, starting with taking revenge on Ben.
Meanwhile, the Tennysons are relaxing at a beach; Gwen is reading the spellbook she pilfered from Charmcaster while Max fixes up his jetpack. When they notice things are a little too quiet, they both concern themselves with wherever Ben is. Their question is answered when crowds flee the shoreline when they see Ripjaws catching his next wave on a boogey board. When he crashes into a sandcastle, he wonders where everybody is going and he is beset by Max and Gwen by the time he reverts back to Ben, who are not pleased at Ben's irresponsible antics.
Ben has nothing to apologize for since he was simply having fun at the beach, but Max and Gwen don't go for it since their idea of fun doesn't include terrorizing innocent beachgoers. Ben continues to be stubborn since he has his own ideas of fun that don't include reading books or building science projects like Gwen does. Ben continues to annoy Max and Gwen with his rambunctious behavior, but when they still condemn his idea of a fun day at the Beach, he kicks the sand out of frustration not noticing the big rock and because he is barefoot stubs his toe hard.
Finally, out of options, he tries playing with the seagulls. Then, Animo's seagull sneaks up behind Ben and he attempts to take on the beast as Stinkfly. However, much to his surprise, he transforms into a brand-new alien and is excited to find out what he's capable of. However, Ben's inexperience with this new form poses some problems when the seagull maintains the upper hand. It easily swats him away, denoting any hope of strength for this form, and grabs him in its beak, which also proves him to not be fast. While the mutant seagull tugs him when Ben catches hold of rock, he discovers with his new powers when the tugging force literally splits him in two and creates two of them. Max and Gwen hear the commotion, dreading whatever mischief Ben is up to now, and they see the two aliens wrestling the 15-foot bird monster. Both clones hang onto the bird for dear life as Gwen casts a spell that saves two children from a collapsing lifeguard station. While his leg is still in the mutant seagull's beak, Ben realizes that each duplicate feels any pain an individual feels since they are still the same entity. One of the clones pulls out the mutant seagull's feathers to make it scream in pain and drop the other clone and it gives chase. The two of them are able to lure it onto the volleyball fields and they trap it when they make it trip over one of the nets and getting tangled in it. With the monster subdued, both aliens dub themselves as Ditto. When the monster breaks free and flies off, Max suspects that the bird was sent by Dr. Animo. Meanwhile, Ben is planning on having the time of his life now that's he's unlocked Ditto, that is until the Omnitrix times out.
Later, Ben transforms into Ditto again and plays football catch just to raise Gwen's ire. When one of them goes long for it, he crashes into Max and makes a mess when he's trying to enjoy a hot dog. Max makes it clear that he's had enough of "both" of Ditto's tomfoolery. The two of them promise to stop being obnoxious while a third clone promises none of the sort and then divides to be able to say the same for a fourth. Now a quartet, the clones challenge each other to a game of two-on-two basketball and Max and Gwen have mutually reached their wits end regarding Ben as this new alien.
After a round, the gang gets into an argument regarding unsportsman-like conduct and who's on who's team. It's gets violent between two of them quick, so one has to break them up while the ball rolls away and one of the Dittos goes to get it. When he does, he is captured by Dr. Animo on a mutant squid. Animo locks him in a glass pod and wastes no time sadistically telling him that he will extract all of Ditto's Omnitrix DNA as painfully as possible.
On the beach, the two Dittos are still bickering while the third stubs a rock hard, which creates pain on all their toes. That's when Max notices that one of the Dittos is gone and the five see Animo retreating underwater with the missing clone. When the Omnitrix sounds its time-out alarm, it abruptly ceases instead of everybody transforming back into Ben. Gwen suspects all the clones have to be rejoined as one and the same before the Omnitrix can time out and for the Dittos to revert back into Ben.
Animo emerges in a sunken ship base with his seagull and kraken. He places the Ditto into a tank and readies to extract his DNA with an electric prod. The other Dittos feel his pain from the zap and realize the missing clone is in danger. That's when they realize just how dire the situation is with the voodoo effect surrounding the four of them, not wanting to think about what happens to them if something happens to him. Ditto teases Animo's seagull, which attacks his tank. Animo begins extracting and analyzing DNA. Max sees Animo's base and tells the Dittos to steer towards it. Ditto continues to tease Animo's bird, which destroys Ditto's tank and frees him. Ditto escapes. The Omnitrix finally times out as the Dittos approach each other and revert back into Ben.
The seagull grabs Ben and flies away. Max flies towards him on a jetpack. Ben falls and Gwen catches him with a spell. The seagull attacks Ben and Gwen, but they escape with one of Gwen's spells. They land on Animo's ship base after Max drowns the seagull. Animo's squid attacks and Ben attempts to transform into Ditto for the third time, but he transforms into Upgrade instead. The squid grabs Upgrade and painfully stretches him like a rubber band. Gwen drops a crate on it and frees Upgrade. Upgrade merges with a crane and creates a bunch of steel cables that he uses to ensnare all the kraken's tentacles. Once he has the monster at his mercy, he unleashes a powerful voltage blast with the cables and zaps the kraken, sending it in retreat. Upgrade reverts back into Ben and falls down, but he is caught by Max. Ben points out how fast the Omnitrix timed out and thinks it has something to do with how long he was stuck as Ditto. 
Suddenly, Animo appears on top of a giant mutant Lepidopterran/Splixson hybrid, proving that Animo succeeded in gaining access to the Omnitrix through Ditto. Animo further proves his diabolical plans when the Mutant Lepidopterran hybrid splits into several using Ditto's powers until he has an army and he flies away with them, looking forward to levelling the beachfront town. The gang declares that they have to catch up with Animo and stop him before he reaches the coastline and Ben plans on tackling his armada with an army of his own. He transforms into Ditto and makes a clone, ready to take off on Gwen's makeshift glider. The Dittos leap at the Stinkfly armada and make several more. They are easily defeated by the Mutant Lepidopterran hybrids and fall into the ocean. They all rejoin into the dynamic duo and recover with Gwen. She reminds the two of them of the voodoo effect demonstrated back on the beach when one of them stubbed their toe and come up with a viable plan of attack: they simply need to destroy one of the mutant Lepidopterran hybrids to destroy them all. They choose the one that Animo is riding and restrains its wings, sending it plunging into a boat and explodes on impact. With that single Lepidopterran destroyed, the rest dissolve into green slime and lost to the ocean. An army of Dittos pops up and piles on top of Animo, finally subduing him for good.
Animo is delivered back to the police and Max says that he deleted Animo's Omnitrix DNA so that so if Animo does escape again, he'll be back to square one and have none of Ben's aliens at his disposal again. When Ben is himself again, he says that he's finally had his fun as Ditto and is finally ready to have fun Max and Gwen's way. When Gwen declares a race to the beach, both she and Max take off on her makeshift glider and his new jetpack, and Ben is just ironically left behind, especially with the Omnitrix useless until it recharges.
==Noteworthy Events==
===Major Events===
*Dr. Animo returns and tries to use Ditto's DNA to get revenge on Ben.
====Character Debuts====
*Mutant Seagull
*Mutant Octopus
*Mutant Lepidopterran/Splixson Hybrids
====Omnitrix Alien Debut====
*Ditto
===Minor Events===
*It is revealed that Ditto has a shared link that if one clone or the original one gets hurt, automatically, another clones will get hurt too.
==Characters==
===Main Characters===
*Ben Tennyson
*Gwen Tennyson
*Max Tennyson
===Antagonists===
*Dr. Animo
**Mutant Seagull (first appearance)
**Mutant Octopus (first appearance)
**Mutant Lepidopterran/Splixson Hybrids (first appearance)
==Aliens Used==
*Ripjaws (off-screen activation)
*Ditto (first appearance; x3; first time intended alien was Stinkfly; second time was an off-screen activation)
*Upgrade (selected alien was Ditto)
==Spells Used==
*Spirius Expectorium
*Zephyrius Expectorium Perpetua (x3)
*Pardicitus Metalliarka
==Quotes==
==Naming and Translations==
==Cast==
==Continuity==
*Dr. Animo is in jail at the beginning of the episode for crimes committed in Dr. Animo and the Mutant Ray.
==Allusions==
*The title is a play on the phrase "United we stand, divided we fall."
*Ditto at one point says, "All for one, one for all!", a reference to The Three Musketeers.
==Errors==
*When two Ditto clones are running away from the Mutant Seagull, one of them is missing their Omnitrix symbol.
*When one Ditto clone lands the basketball in the hoop, he has black sides.
*For one second when the Ditto clones merge into one, one clone is completely black.
*When Ben and Gwen ride a kite in the air, the Omnitrix is missing its details on the faceplate and core. The dial also faces the wrong way.
*When Animo arrives with his army of mutant Lepidopterran hybrids, the Omnitrix's dial faces the wrong way.
*When the Dittos surround Animo, they don't have eyes and one of them has an entirely black back.
*Throughout the episode, no attempt is made by the Tennysons to hide their relation to Ditto (and by extension, Ben's secret identity).
Divided (253).png|Missing Omnitrix symbol 
Divided (388).png|Sides error
DWS error (3).png|Arm error
Divided (694).png|Omnitrix error/Omnitrix dial error
Divided (818).png|Omnitrix dial error
Divided (920).png|Eyes and back error
==Trivia==
*According to pop-up trivia from the enhanced version of the episode:
**Max was working on the jetpack Gwen wore in Back With a Vengeance.
**Dr. Animo's aquatic outfit resembled a crab.
**Dr. Animo took the main Ditto.
**Gwen's abilities have less to do with spells than she realizes. This would later turn out to be true in What Are Little Girls Made Of?.
*As shown on the Ben 10: The Complete Season 4 DVD, there are two deleted scenes in the episode:
**In the first one, the Ditto clones, as well as Gwen and Max, walk along the docks. Max mentions that they need a boat to go after Animo, while two Ditto clones argue about which alien they should have turned into instead of Ditto, with one suggesting Ripjaws and the other suggesting Stinkfly. The latter clone then pushes the former clone into the water.
**In the second one, a Ditto clone asks Gwen if the boat they are on can go any faster. Gwen casts a wind spell with the intention of making the boat go faster, but the spell blows a gust of wind that knocks her to the ground.
==References==
===Pop-Up Trivia===
===Cartoon Network===
es:Es hora de dividirnos
it:Divisi Vinciamo
pl:Jeden za wszystkich, wszyscy za jednego
pt-br:Divididos Conquistamos
ro:Rămânem dezbinaţi
Category:Ben 10 Season 4 Episodes
Category:Episodes
Category:Ben 10 Episodes
Category:Episodes Written by Marty Isenberg
Category:Episodes Directed by Scooter Tidwell
Category:Episodes Aired Out of Production Order