Recap / Ben 10 Ultimate Alien S 1 E 15 Perplexahedron

The last piece of the Map of Infinity is located on Perplexahedron, a giant cube-maze designed by Professor Paradox himself. Ben, Gwen and Kevin must traverse through Death Trap after Death Trap in order to find it before Aggregor does.

---

Tropes:

• All for Nothing: Ben loses the piece while trying to save the Sentinel. He dies in the end.
• All There in the Manual: Dwayne McDuffie clarified a couple of plot holes in relation to this episode.
  • Ben was able to transform into Ripjaws once again, having scanned a Pisces Volans in Deep.
  • Ben didn’t think to hand over the Map to Kevin while he saved the Sentinel because he felt he was best suited to protect it.
• Ancient Keeper: A creature called the Sentinel guards the piece of the Map of Infinity.
• Calling the Old Man Out: At the beginning of the episode, Azmuth berates the team for failing to stop Aggregor from collecting the pieces. Ben points out that just berating them isn't going to help them find Aggregor and in-turn it's "unimportant". Azmuth stops himself and agrees with the statement.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Something that costs the team their victory. Ben had managed to get the piece, but he goes to save the Sentinel, who wanted to stay behind. Ben ends up losing the piece, which ends up in Aggregor's hands. And in the end, with Perplexahedron's destruction, the Sentinel dies too. Gwen and Kevin do reassure him he did the right thing.
• Deadly Rotary Fan: One Death Trap features these. Gwen nearly gets caught by one when a door opens that saves her.
• Death Trap: Each room of the Perplexahedron is filled with one, some which can be simple laser-firing turrets, while others are more complex like a room getting filled with water.
• Downer Ending: The team once again fails to retrieve a piece of the Map of Infinity. Not only that, but also Aggregor has collected all of the pieces and is ready to assemble the Map of Infinity.
• Dumbass Has a Point: At the start of the episode, Azmuth starts berating Ben, Gwen, and Kevin for letting Aggregor get the first three pieces of the Map of Infinity, but Ben isn't interested in hearing any of it since it isn't getting them any closer to the last piece. The fact that Azmuth himself admits Ben is right speaks volumes.
  Azmuth: Tennyson!
  Ben: Hmm?
  Azmuth: Pay attention, this is important!
  Ben: No it isn't, you're yelling at us and telling us how stupid we are. That's not helping us find Aggregor so it's not important.
  Azmuth: (livid) Ben Tennyson you are... (relents) absolutely correct.
• "Eureka!" Moment: Ben figures out that the correct path is to go through doors where the guards appear, pointing out that it makes no sense to have traps and guards in the same room unless the guards are there to keep you from going to your destination.
• Face Death with Despair: When Ben loses the last piece of the Map of Infinity to Aggregor, the Sentinel tells him that his whole purpose was to guard that piece, and now that Aggregor has it, he dies believing that he failed.
• Harmless Freezing: Gwen gets frozen by Ultimate Aggregor due to her becoming a nuisance to him. She ends up getting unfrozen by Swampfire.
• Hope Spot: Ben as Ultimate Cannonbolt finally has the upperhand on Ultimate Aggregor, but Ben lets his guard down, letting Aggregor knock the piece away from him and escape.
• The Maze: The Perplexahedron is a giant planet-sized maze that is designed to make anyone who enters it get lost so they don't find the piece.
• Party Scattering: Due to the Deadly Rotary Fan, the trio gets split in two, with Ben and Kevin together and Gwen wandering all alone.
• Touché: Azmuth contacts Ben and his team to reprimand them for failing to stop Aggregor from gathering 3 out of the 4 pieces of the Map of Infinity, but when Ben points out this isn't helping them find Aggregor or the last piece, Azmuth actually concedes Ben's point when it looks like he's about to argue.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Inverted. Ben does something good - saving the Sentinel - but gets berated by him due to doing this and not going after the piece of the Map of Infinity.
• Whole-Plot Reference: The episode and the titular structure were inspired by Cube, another work about a cube-maze full of death traps.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: Because Ben chooses to save the Sentinel and loses the last piece of the map in the process, Aggregor has gained all four pieces of the Map of Infinity and is just about ready to go to the Forge of Creation.

---