The Big Tick

The Big Tick is the second episode of the second season of Ben 10, and the fifteenth episode overall.
==Synopsis==
A giant alien tick that sucks planets dry, lands on Earth with the sole purpose of destroying the planet and only a new alien hero can stop it.
==Plot==
At Yellowstone National Park, Max has just finished setting up the Rustbucket. Both he and Gwen are happy to be there. Ben, on the other hand, would rather be somewhere else. Still not happy with Max's idea of dinner, Ben tries to transform into XLR8 in order to get a burger. Gwen opts to help once Max finds and eats a worm that is under a log. Instead of transforming Ben into a recognizable alien, the Omnitrix transforms Ben into an entirely new form: Cannonbolt. Cannonbolt is a rather clumsy alien and struggles to move and stay upright at the same time. As Cannonbolt tries to figure out what he can do, a meteor flies overhead and crashes a short distance away. Cannonbolt turns in the direction of the crash and falls over again, but this time ends up covered in a hard shell and begins rolling towards the crash site.
At the crash site, the meteor begins to crack apart as the three arrive. It breaks apart to reveal a large, reddish, tick-like alien within. A ship arrives shortly after, and three aliens exit the ship riding platforms that fly through the use of an energy ball positioned directly below them. The first is a tall, pale-skinned alien with six tentacle-like feet. The second is shorter with six arms and yellow skin. He can apparently hear and understand what the giant tick is saying, though it never makes any noise resembling speech. The final alien is of medium height, has four eyestalks, and carries a large axe. The aliens are worshippers of the giant tick, referring to it as the "Great One" and claiming that it's here to destroy the planet. They also identify Cannonbolt as an Arburian Pelarota, whose home planet has already been destroyed about a week ago. Gwen tells Cannonbolt that it is better now that they know about what he is. Apparently, the Great One will devour the planet from the inside out, destroying it. As the Great One begins the process of devouring the planet, Cannonbolt tries to attack them, but the ax-wielding worshiper merely bats him away and into the nearby forest. Max and Gwen chase after him.
In the forest, Cannonbolt bounces off of various objects before coming to a stop and reverting back into Ben. By this point, the Great One has poisoned much of Yellowstone, converting the landscape into a decayed wasteland with gray tentacles sticking out of the ground. The tentacles attack the trio and attempt to drag them underground. Luckily, Ben transforms into Stinkfly and rescues Max and Gwen. He then flies off with them.
As he flies them over the park, they pass by the Old Faithful geyser, which now resembles a giant zit that is about to burst. At the same time, the yellow worshiper tells his friends that the Great One would like them to witness his power, which happens to be the geyser. They meet Stinkfly along the way, this time unsure of what he is. Stinkfly drops Max and Gwen off so he can fight the worshippers. He plugs the geyser as he intercepts them, which they aren't happy about. He does well at first, dodging their attacks easily and managing to make them lose track of him. Unfortunately, when Stinkfly tries to attack them from above, he reverts to Ben in mid-flight. Luckily, he lands on the yellow worshiper's platform, knocking him off of it. The yellow worshiper survives the fall, landing on the softened ground below. Ben then tries to fly the platform and begins a chase with the other two worshippers, eventually causing them to crash into Old Faithful.
With the worshippers out of commission, Ben turns his attention to the Great One, which has grown substantially in the short time since it began its feeding. One after another, Ben transforms into every single alien in his arsenal (Four Arms, Heatblast, Wildmutt, XLR8, Diamondhead, Ghostfreak, Upgrade, and then Ripjaws) in order to destroy it, but none leave so much as a scratch. The three are at the whim of the worshippers when they return and trap them in an energy globe, announcing for the Great One to enter the final phase of Earth's purification.
As the landscape around them dries up from lifeless toxins spreading, the worshippers toss sponges to the Tennysons, ordering them to clean the Great One, claiming it must be cleaned before the planet is destroyed. Ben would rather not, but Max tells him and Gwen to play along for now.
As the three clean the Great One, it begins to shed, revealing a yellow shell underneath its reddish exterior. Several large, purple pores also push their way out of the shell, spitting acid at random intervals. The falling pieces of shell almost crush Ben, Gwen, and Max. With no options left and time running out, Gwen tells Ben to use Cannonbolt. Ben doesn't want to because of his inability to get the hang of Cannonbolt, and he isn't sure if he can transform into Cannonbolt again. However, with no option left, Ben transforms into Cannonbolt again.
Upon seeing Cannonbolt again, the worshippers attack him. Cannonbolt is able to avoid them by rolling away. As they fire on him, several of the worshippers hit the Great One. Their attacks bounce off of its shell, giving Max the idea to use the shell pieces as shields. The shell pieces work well, blocking the lasers and the acid releases from the Great One, but they are eventually trapped in a pit made by the acid. Just before they are finished off by the worshippers, Cannonbolt jumps in to save them, causing the worshippers' attacks to bounce harmlessly off of his shell. Noticing this, Cannonbolt uses it to his advantage, bouncing their attacks back at them and knocking them out.
With the worshippers once again out of the picture, Cannonbolt turns on the Great One. His attacks on the monster's exterior are ineffective, but the pores on the Great One allow interior passage and he successfully infiltrates it, much to the warshippers' horror. Once inside it, he bounces around its entrails like a pinball, wrecking it's internal organs and triggering a reversal of it's gravitational wave. Once all of it's life support is cut off, the rest of the monster's shell sheds off and it finally explodes leaving nothing but blue goop raining down.
Seeing that which they once worshiped destroyed, the worshippers turn to Cannonbolt for a new thing to worship, declaring them their new great one. Gwen comments on their fragile sense of loyalty and Cannonbolt comments that he could get used to being worshipped before reverting back into Ben. The worshippers would rather not place their faith in a human, much less one so young, so they depart. Shortly after they leave, the planet regains its density and the damage from the toxins reverses, allowing the landscape to return to its normal state as if it never happened. After all the excitement, Ben finally thinks that some time outdoors will be good for him, especially since there's no mess to clean up. Unfortunately for him, Max's RV is still covered in the Great One's slime and he's stuck cleaning it up.
==Noteworthy Events==
===Major Events===
*Ben unlocks a new alien for the first time.
*The Omnitrix is revealed to have more than 10 aliens.
====Character Debuts====
*Great One
*Enforcer Alien
*Interpreter Alien
*Leader Alien
====Omnitrix Alien Debut====
*Cannonbolt
===Minor Events===
*Cannonbolt is revealed to be an Arburian Pelarota.
*It is revealed that Arburia was destroyed by the Great One one week prior to this episode. 
==Characters==
===Main Characters===
*Ben Tennyson
*Gwen Tennyson
*Max Tennyson
===Antagonists===
*Great One (first appearance; death)
*Leader Alien (first appearance)
*Enforcer Alien (first appearance)
*Interpreter Alien (first appearance)
==Aliens Used==
*Cannonbolt (first appearance; x2; first time intended alien was XLR8)
*Stinkfly
*Four Arms
*Heatblast (cameo)
*Wildmutt (cameo)
*XLR8 (cameo)
*Diamondhead (cameo)
*Ghostfreak (cameo)
*Upgrade (cameo)
*Ripjaws (cameo)
==Quotes==
==Naming and Translations==
==Cast==
==Allusions==
*All the hand positions Cannonbolt used when trying to figure out what powers he had were Peter Parker's hand positions when he was trying to find out how to shoot webs in the first Spider-Man movie.
*The plot about an intergalactic planet-eater, the creature having its servant(s) go to the world before and the fact that its servant(s) move around on hoverboards is similar to the plot of Fantastic Four 2: Rise of the Silver Surfer.
**Or otherwise, the original Jack Kirby story from the 60s that introduced Galactus and the Silver Surfer (who Ben himself is named after).
Tick (86).png|Spider-Man reference
Tick (87).png|Spider-Man reference
Tick (89).png|Spider-Man reference
Tick (90).png|Spider-Man reference
Tick (91).png|Spider-Man reference
==Errors==
*At the beginning of the episode, front side of the Rustbucket has missing lines.
*When the Leader Alien says "And an Arburian Pelarota to boot", the Ben 10: The Complete Season 2 DVD's closed captioning says, "And an Aburian Pelorota to boot".
*In many shots, the Omnitrix's dial faces the wrong way.
*Gwen's cat logo on her shirt disappears several times in the episode.
*When Ben jumps on the Interpreter Alien's platform and knocks him into the Great One, it never shows any physical damage, seeming as he just phased through it.
*In some shots, the Omnitrix's dial is white and green instead of grey and green.
*After Ben fails to destroy the Great One as Four Arms, he says, "Okay, one down, nine to go!", meaning he was going to try all of his other aliens (not counting Cannonbolt, who he considers to be useless). However, he doesn't use Grey Matter or Stinkfly.
*In one shot, Cannonbolt's back shell is colored white instead of yellow.
*Gwen's shoes are all white in certain shots.
*Towards the end, it looks like Gwen has three fingers on her right hand.
Tick (3).png|Missing lines on Rustbucket
TBT Arburian Pelarota Error.png|Incorrect closed captions on the Ben 10: The Complete Season 2 DVD
Tick (352).png|Omnitrix dial error
Tick (458).png|Missing cat logo
Tick (575).png|Interpreter alien falling
Tick (576).png|No damage
Tick (590).png|Omnitrix dial error
Tick (742).png|Omnitrix dial error/Omnitrix dial color error
Tick (794).png|Omnitrix dial error
Tick (834).png|White shell
Tick (1042).png|Entirely white shoes
Tick (1090).png|Omnitrix dial error
Tick (1116).png|Three fingers
Tick (1123).png|Omnitrix dial error/Omnitrix dial color error
==Trivia==
*The episode's title is listed as Big Tick on iTunes, Amazon Prime Video, and Max.
*As shown on the Ben 10: The Complete Season 2 DVD, there are two deleted scenes in the episode.
**In the first one, Four Arms' fight against the Great One is slightly longer than it was in the final version of the episode.
**In the second one, Gwen and Max are shown jumping from one piece of floating debris to another after the Great One's worshippers exclaim "No!" in response to Cannonbolt entering the Great One's body.
*When Steven T. Seagle's father, Jack Seagle, watched the episode, he complained to Steven that Ben could not have more than 10 aliens since he was called Ben 10. This would later serve as one of the reasons Ben can only have 10 aliens in his active playlist in the reboot.
==References==
===Crew Statements===
====Steven T. Seagle====
===Cartoon Network===
de:Staffel 2/Folge 15: Die ausserirdische Zecke
es:Un nuevo héroe
it:La grande Zecca
pl:Wielki kleszcz
pt-br:O Grande Carrapato
ro:Cel măreţ
ru:Новый супергерой
Category:Episodes
Category:Ben 10 Episodes
Category:Ben 10 Season 2 Episodes
Category:Episodes Directed by Sebastian Montes