If All Else Fails is the thirty-fourth episode of Ben 10: Alien Force.
Plot
An earthquake awakens a Highbreed officer, who had been kept in stasis in a bunker, to be awakened if the Highbreed lost the war. Following his orders, he begins to activate a fail-safe weapon with the intention of destroying Earth.
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All the people inside the crystal, activating the failsafe
Grandpa Max is preparing dinner for Ben, Gwen, and Kevin where he begins acting, collapsing and then talking to himself. Ben and Gwen are very concerned and wish to take him to a hospital, but Max insists he is fine. However shortly afterwards, purple plant tendrils begin growing out of Max, which are revealed to be mind-controlling seedlings. Now fully under Highbreed control, Max takes the Rust Bucket and arrives at the seedling collection point, along with five others. Having sufficient biomass, the Highbreed commences the failsafe activation and the mind-controlled people become crystallized.
Ben, Gwen, and Kevin awaken to find Max gone, along with the Rust Bucket. Gwen uses her powers to track him down and reaches the failsafe location. There they see Max trapped with all the people, as well as the Highbreed. They try to reason with the Highbreed, informing him the war is now over, but the Highbreed refuses to listen.
The Highbreed officer refuses to believe Ben's claims of peace and won't divulge how to stop the creature. While Gwen and Kevin try to slow it down, Ben enlists the aid of Reinrassic III to get the Highbreed officer to cooperate. Unable to stop the monster from the outside, Ben, Gwen and Kevin sneak inside the monster to destroy it within. They manage to save the human beings used as its brain and the Highbreed officer sacrifices himself to dispose of the creature safely.
Characters
- Ben Tennyson
- Gwen Tennyson
- Kevin Levin
- Max Tennyson
- Reinrassic III
- Highbreed Officer (first appearance)
- Ship
Villains
- Highbreed Tree Monster (first appearance; death)
- Bunker Highbreed (first appearance; death)
- Headless Highbreed Antibodies (people under control; first appearance)
Aliens Used
- Spidermonkey
- Humungousaur (accidental transformation; selected alien was Way Big)
- Jetray (x2)
- Diamondhead
- Swampfire
Quotes
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Errors
- After Seedling 2 reported in, Seedling 3 (via Max Tennyson) reported to the Highbreed that five Seedlings were present. However, when Max had shown up, four other Seedlings were already present and Seedling 2 did not show up until after Seedling 3 did, meaning that there were six Seedlings and not five.
- When the Highbreed officer flew into the Highbreed Tree Monster, after the scene where they show Reinrassic III and the soldiers, the Highbreed officer was with them.
- Humungousaur and the Highbreed Tree Monster's heights change throughout the episode.
- When the Highbreed Tree Monster was about to fall down and the Highbreed officer ask Ben's team to gather all the people and get out, only Ben's team got out and they didn't gather all the people.
- The Highbreed officer appears not to have been affected by the Omnitrix wave in War of the Worlds: Part 2. Of course, this may mean that not all Highbreeds' coloration or shape changed.
Naming and Translations
| Language | Name | Origin |
|---|---|---|
| French | À court d'idées | Run out of ideas |
| Hungarian | Ha más nem marad | If Nothing is Left |
| Portuguese (Br) | Último Recurso | Last Resource |
| Spanish (HA) | Si Todo lo Demás Falla | If All Else Fails |
| Spanish (Spain) | Si Falla Todo Lo Demás | If All Else Fails |
Allusions
- "If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error. "John Kenneth Galbraith
Trivia
- This is the second time Reinrassic III has helped Ben defeat a Highbreed. The first being War of the Worlds: Part 2.
- One of Grandpa Max's stories (the one he finishes when the team saves him) is about Devin Levin, Kevin's father.
- Kevin contemplating lighting a match in the Highbreed Tree Monster's exhaust port, is similar to what happened in Inferno where he lit a match in the TNT filled cavern.