It's Not Easy Being Gwen is the twenty-ninth episode of Ben 10: Ultimate Alien and the ninth episode of the second season.
Plot
In the park, Dr. Animo is riding on his mutant frog carrying a canister of radioactive isotopes. While believing he lost some people who were chasing him, he learns that Kevin, Gwen and Big Chill have surrounded him. Big Chill freezes the mutant frogs' legs, trapping them in it, but they get free and they escape. Ben drops off Gwen at her house, and she goes to bed, but gets to sleep for only a little while when her alarm clock beeps for 5:30 in the morning, much to her chagrin.
Gwen starts her day by jogging and studying French. She then comes home to take a shower and then gets ready for school. When she was about to leave, her mother asks her to write out invitations for a formal family reunion. Realizing that there are too many invitations, Gwen tries to use a spell to make her pen write the words down for herself, but instead they catch on fire. At school, Gwen meets with Emily, who says she has a piano concert tonight and she hopes Gwen can come. Gwen promises to be there, despite being very overbooked, with activities and the invitations and helping her friends track down Animo. When lunch break goes on, Gwen meets with Kevin, but sees his shirt ripped up and says that he found Animo.
While driving in Kevin's car, Gwen's mother berates her about not finishing the invitations and Kevin asks if she can help him get into high school. Gwen promises and before Kevin leaves to help Jetray take down Animo's mutant frogs, Gwen gives him a magic pendant that can protect him if he needs it. Gwen goes back to her school to finish the rest of her studies and notices Animo placing a threat on the Internet and Humungousaur battling the mutant frogs. She also has to cover for her algebra teacher's class and do karate. Once the school day is over, Gwen would finish her list of duties for the day by finishing the invitations, helping Kevin get a G.E.D. and get to Emily's concert. However, Spidermonkey arrives and tells Gwen that they can't defeat Animo without her, now making Gwen's schedule even "more" tighter.
Emily is angry that Gwen would put saving the world from Animo over getting to her concert. When she berates Gwen for always leaving her to save the world, Gwen gets hurt and goes with Ben to help. In an open field, Kevin is battling Animo and his army of mutant frogs. While being picked up, he drops the magic pendant Gwen gave him. As Kevin was about to be killed by Animo, Gwen and Cannonbolt arrive to help him. While battling Animo, Emily prepares for her concert and is saddened to learn that Gwen is not in the seat she reserved for her. Emily plays the music and Dr. Animo fires his transmodulator ray on both Gwen and Kevin, but they manage to survive thanks to Gwen's shields. Cannonbolt and Kevin work together while Gwen rests from protecting Kevin from the transmodulator ray. Ultimate Cannonbolt finally defeats Animo, then destroys the mind-control headband that allowed Animo to control his mutated frogs. Soon, Emily stops playing the piano and while she is gifted with applause, she believes Gwen never showed up at her performance, but is surprised to see Gwen in the audience. When Gwen comes home, she tells her mother she got the invitations done in the car and Gwen's mother allows Ben and Kevin to join them for dinner. When Gwen's mother asked how her day was, she responds it was the "usual" and hugs her mother while yawning.
Major Events
- Animo becomes a threat again.
Characters
- Gwen Tennyson (main character)
- Ben Tennyson
- Kevin Levin
- Emily
- Natalie Tennyson
- Trina (cameo)
Villains
- Dr. Animo
- Mutant Frogs
Aliens Used
- Big Chill
- Wildmutt (off-screen)
- Jetray
- Humungousaur
- Spidermonkey
- Cannonbolt (x2; second time goes ultimate)
- Ultimate Cannonbolt
Spells Used
- Scribo Iniacendia
- Super Theca
Errors
- When the fog clears out after Ultimate Cannonbolt was getting whipped around by the mutant frog and laying down, the 4 spikes for the Ultimatrix on Ultimate Cannonbolt's chest are gone.
- When Ultimate Cannonbolt punched the mutant frog, the headband on its forehead wasn't there.
- When Gwen put her headphones on the table, when she got out the spellbook, neither the headphones nor the MP3 were there.
- Dr. Animo says that he was held by the Plumbers even though Kevin says in the episode Viktor: The Spoils that Plumbers can only arrest aliens.
Allusions
- The title, "It's Not Easy Being Gwen", is based on the phrase "it's not easy being green" from The Muppets.
Trivia
- Dr. Animo's mutant frogs return.
- It revealed that Gwen takes her spellbook to school.
- It is revealed that Kevin does not go to school.
Kevin working on his car
- Kevin is seen adding an electrolysis machine (which converts water into oxygen) to his car, as part of his ongoing efforts to make it submersible (which was first mentioned in In Charm's Way) and he was 10 minutes away from finishing it in The Beginning of the End.
- Near the end of the episode, the song being played is called "River Flows In You" by Yiruma.
- At her concert, Emily is playing the song Fantaisie Impromptu in C- Sharp Minor, Op. 66 by Chopin.
- When Gwen used the spell Scribo Iniacendia "scribo" means write in Spanish.