Recap / Ben 10: Ultimate Alien S2 E12, "Moonstruck"

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After Gwen finds what appears to be a bracelet, Grandpa Max recounts how he met with Verdona.

Tropes:

• Applied Phlebotinum: The bracelet from the present scenes is revealed to have been used to repress Verdona's powers so she would have a hard time fighting back.
• Conspicuous Trenchcoat: The Synthoid's human disguise wears a trenchcoat. Amusingly, it looks very similar to Magister Labrid's Human Disguise in the Alien Force premiere.
• Continuity Nod: In the pilot episode for Alien Force, Magister Labrid notes that he and Max had been working together for years before the events of the Highbreed invasion. This episode establishes when they first met.
• A Day in the Limelight: The main trio take a backseat in this Whole Episode Flashback, which focuses on Max meeting Verdona and rescuing her from certain death.
• Feet-First Introduction: Verdona is introduced this way in the bar that Max enters.
• Generation Xerox: Like her granddaughter, Verdona fell for a teen who was very protective of his car and who got dismayed when it was damaged by aliens. Her human form in her youth is also shown to have similarly vibrant red hair like Gwen does.
• A Molten Date with Death: Max manages to dip the Synthoid in molten magma. It survives, however.
• Mundane Utility: Attempted. Early in the episode, Ben turns into Four Arms to help unload Max's Rustbucket a little quicker by having the extra arms to pick up boxes. Unfortunately, he's too big to properly fit in the RV, so he ends up falling over and dropping most of them.
• Origins Episode: Explaining how Max met Verdona and joined the Plumbers.
• Powered by a Forsaken Child: Verdona is on the run from a Synthoid, of a planet of similar beings, that captures anodites like her to use as a battery powering their world.
• Real Event, Fictional Cause: The real reason President Kennedy wanted to put men on the moon wasn't due to the Russians, but due to the increased alien activity.
• Terminator Impersonator: The villainous stoic robot, called a Synthoid, that stalks and chases after Verdona is a clear homage to the Terminator. Instead of wanting to kill her, however, it wants to use her as an energy source.
• Whole Episode Flashback: A large part of the episode takes place in the past, showing how Max met with Verdona and the Plumbers.
• Whole-Plot Reference: A woman is stalked by a humanoid Killer Robot and is accompanied by a man who wants to protect her. Are talking about this episode or The Terminator?