The Krakken

The Krakken is the third episode of the first season of Ben 10, and the third episode overall.
==Synopsis==
While stopped at a lakefront campsite, Ben has a chance encounter with a Loch Ness type sea monster called a Krakken, provoked by an evil poacher.
==Plot==
The episode begins with Ben taking a swim in a lake at night. Gwen isn't as eager to get dirty water all over her. Ben teases her but is suddenly pulled under when she turns away. As Gwen checks back, a giant monster emerges from the lake and scares her. She drops her flashlight, revealing it's actually just Ben pranking her as Four Arms covered in seaweed. As Gwen storms off, a tentacle of an actual monster pulls Four Arms under the lake. Four Arms manages to escape and makes it back to the Rustbucket in a sweat, though Gwen and Max don't believe him and tell him to cut the act.
The next morning, the three head out to the pier for a fishing trip. Gwen then decides to stay on the shore. Ben and Max meet the captain of the boat chartered for the day: one Shaw, a gruff-looking man with an impatience about him. As they ride into the lake, Ben keeps an eye out for the lake monster. Shaw overhears him talking about it and pipes up. Not only has he seen it, but he explains that it's called the Krakken and that he's been trying to hunt it for years; people think he's crazy, but he's convinced it exists. He even offers to take Ben and Max to the spot of a sighting. While Max is suspicious of Shaw's sanity, he sees Ben's excitement and agrees. However, they are soon forced to stop the boat: the area in front of them has been cordoned off. A boat pulls up next to them, and a man onboard introduces himself as Jonah Melville, part of the marine biology group that closed off the area for study. Shaw starts getting angry, but Max smugly orders him to turn back, as he's the one who technically calls the shots. Just as they do, though, Shaw's sonar starts picking up something. They spot the fin of a large animal heading toward the docks -- where Gwen is.
The Krakken reveals its towering figure, smashing the docks and sending all the people on it (Gwen included) into the water. Ben tries to save them by turning into Ripjaws, but instead turns into XLR8. With no choice but to use what he has, XLR8 tries swimming to them, gradually figuring out that he's fast enough to run on the water. He snatches everyone out of the Krakken's path and gets them to safety. Jonah orders his crew to get his boat moving; the Krakken spots it and gives chase, trying to grab a specific crate on the boat marked "CANNERY". Jonah and his crew try to hold it back, and XLR8 kicks the Krakken's grip loose. With time to breathe, he asks them what was so valuable in the crate that they risked their lives for; Jonah tells him it was their food supply, which XLR8 finds unbelievable. The Krakken comes back one more time and manages to steal the crate away. XLR8 times out before he can finish running back to Shaw's boat; Max sees Ben and yells at Shaw to turn the boat around. Shaw, busy aiming a harpoon at the Krakken, decides to let it go, grumbling about getting it next time.
Later that night, Ben reaffirms that he was right, and wants to help Shaw catch the Krakken, but Max insists that he should leave it be. Shaw then passes by, insulted by Jonah's organization shutting down the lake, and insisting it won’t stop him from catching the beast. As Gwen and Max get ready for bed, Ben manages to slip out and stow away on Shaw's boat, which Shaw only discovers once they've gone far into the lake. They finally reach the spot of the sighting and Shaw dives down to look for the Krakken, his harpoon gun as the weapon and himself as the bait. He refuses that Ben comes down with him, but Ben finds a spare diving suit and follows him down anyway, almost getting himself harpooned. At the bottom, the two discover a nest of giant eggs and swim back up. As Shaw surfaces, he finds an armed speedboat parked right next to his. Men in diving gear and masks pull him up and interrogate him (Ben hides from them in the water). The leader asks what Shaw saw down there, to which Shaw lies that he saw nothing. The leader knocks him out and reveals himself to be Jonah. Jonah loads Shaw's body on his boat, throws a tracker into this spot in the lake (knowing about the eggs and making sure to come back to collect them), and blows up Shaw's boat.
The Omnitrix recharges, and Ben goes after Jonah as Stinkfly. He manages to dodge Jonah shooting at him and disables his weapons with slime, but a well-placed depth charge crashes Stinkfly in the water, rendering his wings useless. Luckily, a log allows Stinkfly to stand up and dry his wings before Jonah runs him down. The Krakken shows up, forcing Jonah to dump Shaw's body overboard and escape. Stinkfly rescues Shaw from drowning and has a near miss flying him back to the Rustbucket. Inside, Ben explains the reasoning behind the Krakken attacks: It's not a monster at all, but rather, a mother with eggs that Jonah has been stealing. Gwen finds out on her laptop that the environmental group, Friends of Fish, is a merely a front for Jonah, who is actually a wanted criminal who travels around the world poaching rare animals that he crates up (like the crate the Krakken managed to nab) and sells to private collectors. Ben wants to get the eggs back, but Shaw is only focused on capturing the Krakken. Gwen gets off her phone and informs the others it will be a while before the police arrive. He offers a ride in his spare boat, but the Tennysons hijack it from him, taking it to Jonah's cannery hideout.
At the cannery, Jonah has already retrieved the eggs using a miniature sub and is loading them into a large container in preparation for the highest bidder he'll be selling them to. The trio arrives; Ben sends Gwen and Max inside, while he stays to deal with the poachers. Ben transforms into Ripjaws and confronts Jonah in his sub. The two receive an unexpected visit from the Krakken, who showed up to get the eggs back. The three begin to fight over the eggs: Jonah manages to fend off the Krakken but Ripjaws interferes and gets the eggs from him. Meanwhile, Max and Gwen sneak around and take out some guarding henchmen.
Jonah's minisub proves to be formidable, but Ripjaws gains the upper hand by wielding an anchor and removing one of its limbs. He then takes the eggs back to the Krakken's nest, appeasing it. Jonah attempts to steal the eggs again, but his sub is torn in half by the Krakken. Jonah takes one last stab at the Krakken, but the knife shatters on its skin. The Krakken is about to eat him, but Ripjaws comes between them, saving Jonah and letting the calmed Krakken go back to her eggs. Ripjaws punches Jonah's clock and leaves him hanging on some wreckage for the police (who were called before) to find.
As Jonah is arrested, an overjoyed Shaw comes riding up to Max in his rowboat, claiming to have caught something. On closer inspection, it is Ripjaws in a fishing net; Shaw thinks it's one of the Krakken’s offspring. Ripjaws reverts back to Ben while Shaw's head is turned. Max points Ben out, bewildering Shaw. The episode ends on the Krakken, peacefully cradling her eggs at the bottom of the lake where she belongs.
==Noteworthy Events==
===Major Events===
====Character Debuts====
*Captain Shaw
*Krakken
*Jonah Melville
*Duane
*Jack
====Omnitrix Alien Debut====
*Ripjaws
==Characters==
===Main Characters===
*Ben Tennyson
*Gwen Tennyson
*Max Tennyson
===Supporting Characters===
*Captain Shaw (first appearance)
===Antagonists===
*Krakken (first appearance)
*Jonah Melville (first appearance)
*Duane (first appearance)
*Jack (first appearance)
==Aliens Used==
*Four Arms
*XLR8 (selected alien was Ripjaws)
*Stinkfly
*Ripjaws (first appearance)
==Quotes==
==Naming and Translations==
==Cast==
==Allusions==
*This episode's title and Team Tennyson refer to a poem called The Kraken by Alfred Tennyson.
*The "monster" Ben uses to scare Gwen is a reference to Marvel's Man-Thing, with three distinctive appendages over his face, as opposed to DC's Swamp Thing (Man of Action having written for both companies).
*When Stinkfly flies in to attack Jonah's speedboat, the crew and Jonah exchange "Is that a bird?", "Looks like a plane", "It's a bug!" This is a reference to the iconic line from the opening of the Adventures of Superman TV show in the 1950s: "It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman!"
*Captain Shaw is likely a reference to Quint from the 1975 movie Jaws played by Robert Shaw, with the episode's plot also taking cues from the film.
**Likewise, Shaw's bloody-mindedness and obsession over the Krakken fills the Ahab archetype originated by Moby-Dick. Shaw is even called Ahab by Jonah during the episode.
Krakken (77).png|Man-Thing reference
==Errors==
*In many shots, the Omnitrix's dial faces the wrong way.
*When Gwen gets splashed with water by Ben, she gets wet, but when she turns back, she is no longer wet.
*When the gang walks to the dock, Ben says that he saw a lake monster with red glowing eyes, but the Krakken has blue eyes.
*After Ben scares Gwen with the bait worms and puts them back in front of him, the bucket is shown behind Ben in the next shot.
*While Gwen walks away from Max and Ben, she vanishes before reaching her destination.
*In one shot, the back of Ben's hair is missing.
*When Ben becomes annoyed when Jonah and Duane laugh at the idea of the Krakken being real, the collar of Ben's T-shirt is white.
*When Ben takes notice of the Krakken while out on the sea with Max and Captain Shaw, part of the Omnitrix is white.
*In one shot, Ben has a stripe on the back of his shirt.
*When Ben is at the campsite, the Omnitrix is green. It is still green when he boards Captain Shaw's boat, but when he comes out of the water and tries to turn into an alien to help Captain Shaw, the Omnitrix is red.
*When Stinkfly is knocked into the water, the bottom of his tail becomes white for a second.
*When Ripjaws has the eggs in his mouth, the fins at the end of his tail are white instead of green.
Krakken (8).png|Omnitrix dial error
Krakken (64).png|Dried up
Krakken (222).png|Omnitrix dial error
Krakken (236).png|Omnitrix dial error
Krakken (263).png|Ben reaching in front of him
Krakken (264).png|The bucket is behind him
Krakken (282).png|Missing hair
Krakken (309).png|Omnitrix dial error
Krakken (386).png|Omnitrix dial error
Krakken (459).png|White collar
Krakken (460).png|Omnitrix color error
Krakken (466).png|Omnitrix dial error
Krakken (564).png|Omnitrix dial error
Krakken (869).png|Omnitrix dial error
Krakken (924).png|Omnitrix dial error
Krakken (992).png|Omnitrix dial error/The Omnitrix is green
Krakken (1144).png|Omnitrix is timed out
Krakken (1287).png|White tail
Krakken (2049).png|White fins
==Trivia==
*This is the first episode of the Original Series, and the Classic Continuity overall, to feature a mistransformation.
*Dave Johnson designed the Krakken and wetsuits for this episode, but noted that the Krakken was animated very poorly and that its tentacles were supposed to retract. He found the episode overall to be disappointing, believing that nobody after him in the process was likely feeling the love on this episode to really bring the designs to life, but enjoyed the scene where Ripjaws put two giant veiny eggs in his mouth as it made him laugh for all the wrong reasons.
==Notes==
==References==
===Production Material===
====Backgrounds====
===Crew Statements===
====Duncan Rouleau====
====Dave Johnson====
===Cartoon Network===
de:Staffel 1/Folge 3: Das Untier
es:El Krakken (Episodio)
hr:Krakken
it:Il Mostro del Lago
pl:Krakken (odcinek)
pt-br:O Krakken
ro:Krakken
ru:Чудовище Кракен
tr:Göl Canavarı
Category:Episodes
Category:Ben 10 Episodes
Category:Ben 10 Season 1 Episodes
Category:Episodes Directed by Scooter Tidwell