Last Laugh (Ben 10 episode)
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| Ben 10 episode | |
|---|---|
| "Last Laugh" | |
 Frightwig (left), Acid Breath (middle), and Thumbskull (right). |
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| Episode # | 09 |
| Production # | 106 |
| Airdate | February 25, 2006 |
| Writer(s) | Joe Casey Duncan Rouleau |
| Director | Scooter Tidwell |
| Story | Patrick Kochakh Fred Reyes Adam Van Wyk Andy Lee |
| Guest star(s) | Cree Summer Jeff Doucette John Kassir |
| Season 1 December 27, 2005 – March 25, 2006 |
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| TV.com episode summary | |
| List of all Ben 10 episodes... | |
"Last Laugh" is the ninth episode of the American animated television series Ben 10, that premiered on February 25, 2006.
[edit] Recap
Near a dock with a circus nearby, two criminals are boarding a small boat talking about the easy time they had robbing a yacht. As the second one climbs in, the first notices some bubbles by the side of the boat. When he peers over the edge to investigate, two green eyes stare back at him. Ripjaws hand then reaches out and drags him into the water. When the second criminal goes to investigate, Ripjaw pops out of the water. Scared, the man climbs back onto the pier and begins running. Ripjaw follows along the edge.
When the criminal stops at a hot dog cart to see if he got away, Ripjaw jumps from the water. The criminal starts backing up, banging into the hot dog cart as he does. Composing himself, he tips over the hot dog cart, causing oil to pour out of the tank and surround Ripjaw. A stray electric wire then ignites it, surrounding Ripjaw with flame. The flame quickly dries Ripjaw out, causing him to gasp for air. When he falls to the deck, he realizes what it's made out of and punches a hole through it, allowing him to get back into the water. As the criminal walks away, Ripjaw bursts through the deck in front of him and grabs him in his jaw. He then tosses the criminal into a nearby Knock-Over-the-Can game, knocking over all the cans in the process. When the police arrive, one of the officer tells Ripjaw that he's okay for a circus freak, despite what anyone says. Ripjaw objects to the term, saying that he's a superhero, then jumps into the water. As he swims away, the officer comments that he looked like a circus freak to him.
In the RV, Gwen notices a sign reading "Zombozo's Travelling Circus of Laughs." She's excited and wants to go there. Grandpa Max is equally excited, since he hasn't been to a circus since he was a kid. Ben is not so eager, though, saying that the circus is for kids. Gwen points out that Ben is a kid, so he changes tactics, pretending to be tired. Grandpa Max points out that it's eleven o'clock in the morning when he says this. Ben caves in after this, but is clearly annoyed.
At the circus, Ben looks at the various pictures of Zombozo scattered about. When Grandpa Max mentions that it looks like the entire town came to see the show, Ben tries to convince him that the show will probably be sold out and that they should just head back. Before Grandpa Max can respond, they find themselves in front of a freak show. The ringmaster is there, introducing the various freaks. The first is Thumbskull, who, as the name suggests, has a head shaped like a thumb. He's also quite strong, bending a metal bar into a U-shape with little difficulty and then tosses it. Frightwig is next. In place of regular hair, she has five orange tentacles that make her just as strong as Thumbskull. She demonstrates this by catching the tossed metal bar and bending it even further, making a loop in the middle. She then places it on a nearby anvil. The last freak is Acid Breath. As the name suggests, he breathes a corrosive vapor. He uses this ability to melt the bar into a green liquid.
During the show, Ben sneaks off. He finds a tent marked "Keep Out" and immediately looks inside. Zombozo is inside, talking to himself about how his show will "knock them dead." Zombozo looks like any clown should, only far creepier. He has a blue nose, rotted teeth, and strange blue orbs scattered about his coat as well as a larger one on his hat. As he talks, he shows his tongue to be pointed and far longer than it should be. This scares Ben, who backs up slowly, running into Gwen along the way. This causes to scream. Upon realizing that it's just her, he chides her for sneaking up on him. When Gwen questions Ben on his strange behavior, specifically asking what is scaring him, he says he's not scared. Grandpa Max comes up at this point, telling them that the show is about to start.
In the big top tent, the ringmaster introduces Zombozo. Zombozo then arrives in a trademark clown car, which he shouldn't be able to fit in yet somehow does. Everyone is laughing except Ben, who is scared by the whole act. After Zombozo leaves his car, it starts driving on its own. After it goes to the edge of the ring, it turns and acts like a bull. Appropriately, Zombozo pulls out a red cape to attract it. When it hits the cape, it disappears in a puff of smoke and confetti. As everyone laughs, Zombozo reveals a large machine behind him with three blue orbs attached to the front. As the machine powers up, the orbs glow. Ben excuses himself at this point, saying that he's going to buy popcorn. Grandpa Max asks Gwen what's wrong with him, but she just says that she stopped trying to figure Ben out a long time ago. After Ben leaves, Zombozo makes a joke to keep everyone laughing. He then says that everyone will "die" laughing, a guarantee on his part. When he asks for volunteers, he specifically focuses on Gwen. As the camera zooms into her eye, a reflection of Zombozo appears in it. He comments that she's full of life, but not for long.
Outside the tent, Ben says there's nothing funny about clowns. He then hears glass breaking. When he goes to investigate, he finds the three freaks robbing the town. Thumbskull is robbing a jewelry store, Acid Breath uses his ability to melt through a car and steal the radio, and Frightwig rips an ATM from the wall it's attached to. Ben says that's it's time to play fetch and turns into Wildmutt. Upon seeing Wildmutt, Thumbskull tries to calm him down by saying "good doggy." Wildmutt mutters something incomprehensible and attacks him. Once Thumbskull is down, he tackles Acid Breath. Frightwig manages to grab Wildmutt, but just gets herself dragged a short distance. Wildmutt eventually stops at Zombozo's clown car, which has found its way onto the street. He rips open the top, causing money and various stolen goods to pop out. Acid Breath is annoyed by this and rallies his comrades, breathing corrosive vapor at Wildmutt as he does. Wildmutt dodges the attack, causing it to melt the clown car. He then knocks down all three once more. As Wildmutt advances on Frightwig, Acid Breath tells Thumbskull to go get the boss.
In the big top, everyone is still laughing at Zombozo. The machine that he activated before is now connected to him with a tube attached to his back. He says that laughter is the best medicine: for him. Thumbskull then arrives to ask for help. Zombozo scolds Thumbskull on bothering him while he's eating. Thumbskull just says that they ran into trouble.
Back on the street, Wildmutt has pinned both Acid Breath and Frightwig. Zombozo then arrives, causing Wildmutt to let go. After a short joke based on Wildmutt's appearance, Zombozo gives him a quick beating, sending him flying into a nearby tower. Wildmutt doesn't respond to this, but rather hides behind one of the supports in fear. Zombozo points out Wildmutt's obvious cowardliness to his minions, who can't really say anything in response. He then has them bring the tower down on Wildmutt. Doing so takes fairly large amount of time, but Wildmutt is too scared to escape. After they've brought it down, they head back to the circus. The trademark beeping and red glow of the Omnitrix's deactivation occurs once they've moved out of hearing range. Ben crawls out of the rubble, relieved.
In another part of town, those at the show are now walking around aimlessly and chuckling to themselves. Grandpa Max is sitting and doing the same thing. Ben finds him and asks where the circus went, implying that where they are now used to be the circus. Grandpa Max is disoriented and doesn't give a straight answer. Ben then notices that Gwen is missing. As he ponders on her location, she is shown to be in the back of Zombozo's truck as it drives down a mountain road. It seems that he had Thumbskull kidnap her and several other people as a snack for the road. All of them are laughing mindlessly.
In the RV, a disoriented Grandpa Max is driving on the same road in the hopes of finding Zombozo. Ben tries to act brave, but his voice betrays his fear. When Grandpa Max calls him on it, he admits his fear of clowns. Grandpa Max consoles him, saying that everyone has a fear. He then tells Ben about his fear of heights, and how he climbed a water tower to get over it. During this, he gets noticeably weaker, eventually collapsing after his speech. Ben is forced to take the wheel to prevent them from crashing. He does okay at first, but eventually crashes through the barrier. Lucky for them, they aren't very far above ground, so the RV lands without trouble. Now off the road, Ben is forced to dodge tree after tree. Noticing the rapidly approaching cliff, he tries to use the awning as an anchor. This fails miserably. He then turns the wheel and slams on the brakes, stopping just short of the edge. With the RV stopped, he checks on Grandpa Max. Grandpa Max explains that he's very sad. When Ben asks about what happened at the big top, Grandpa Max has a flashback of the experience. During the show, as everyone laughed at Zombozo, laughing spirits were lifted from each of them and drawn to Zombozo's machine. He explained that that the laughter fed his soul. Grandpa Max recounts this for Ben, saying that Zombozo must be able to steal happiness. Ben then realizes that Zombozo must have Gwen.
At the new location of the circus, the freaks are setting up. Ben is watching them from behind some boxes. When he turns around, he is startled by one of Zombozo's posters, causing him to knock over a box. The three then turn towards his location. As they approach, he tries to activate the Omnitrix. For some reason, it is uncooperative and won't push down. As Ben argues with the Omnitrix, the freaks each attack the box, reducing it to a melted pile of wood. Ben is no longer behind it, though. Behind another stack of boxes, the green flash of the Omnitrix's activation is seen. When Thumbskull goes to investigate, Upgrade walks out, having merged with an automatic ball-thrower. Thumbskull tries to attack him, but Upgrade uses high-speed baseballs to knock him unconscious. He then attacks Frightwig, but frightwig use her hair to tie gwen up frightwig warpped her hiar around gwen arms and legs and frightwig tock gwen shoes and socks off whan gwen was all tied up and frightwig lugh at gwen for being all tied up and bear feet and frighwig ticked gwen feet and firghwig warpped her hair around gwen mouth gaging her so now gwen is bear feet tied up and gagged by and than frughtwig grab gwen by her hair and use her and firghtwig grabs some rope and tape and use her hair to to tie ben arms up and use the rope to tie ben arms and legs up and frightwig use her hair to tie ben legs up and frightwig took off ben shoes and scoks whan ben was tied up and frighwig put on duck tape on ben mouth gaging him and frightwig ticked ben feet and grab ben and gwen and tied them to chairs with her hair and rope and warpped duck tpae around ben and gwen mouths and 10 mins lty frighwig tied ben and gwen back to back with some rope and you two can,t get free frighywig said but ly some one untied ben but not gwen and ly frighwig tied ben up and tape his mouth and tookhim and the tied up gwen back to thee rv and warpped ropes around ben and gwen arms and legs and took ben omnitrix but some one untied ben so he can go and get the omnitrix back go upgarde and atcks her and she use her quickness and tentacle hair allow her to block the baseballs. With some clever aiming, ben becomes Upgrade and eventually overcomes her, causing her tentacles to tie her up while a final baseball knocks her unconscious. Acid Breath then tries to melt him with a stream of acid, melting much of the crates in the process. After he lets up, Upgrade asks if his mother ever told him that it's not polite to spit. Acid Breath claims that she's the one who taught him how. As he tries to attack again, Upgrade fires a baseball into his mouth and then finishes with a barrage. With all three down, he heads for Zombozo. As he tries to reassure himself that there's nothing to be afraid of, the Omnitrix reverts him to human form. He yells at the watch for its badly-timed action, then continues into the tent, which holds a house of mirrors. His reflection scares him momentarily, which he chides himself for.
Inside the house of mirrors, Zombozo taunts Ben as he wanders aimlessly through the room. He eventually causes Ben to begin seeing things, all the while questioning him on the aliens he used to attack his freaks. Zombozo is not quite sure on where the aliens came from, though he is aware that Ben was responsible for them. Ben is sent through a nightmare world during this, in which he runs from all the Zombozo copies that the real one is making him see. His journey eventually ends when he falls onto a giant spider web. Zombozo crawls up in the form of a spider and tries to convince Ben to laugh. He then cuts the web, causing Ben to plummet into the big top ring. Zombozo walks up, in human form, smiling. On close inspection of the gems on his coat, the laughing spirits can be seen. The one on his hat shows a likeness of Gwen, only withered and covered in flame. Zombozo points out Ben's fear after he gets a good look at the orb. Ben cowers and asks what Zombozo wants. He merely snaps his fingers, causing a spotlight to reveal the happiness-stealing machine. Within the orbs on it are even more laughing spirits. As a tube from it connects to Zombozo, he explains that it's called the Psyclown, which he finds clever. He plans to take his act to the big cities to drain the happiness from as many people as possible, making him stronger. Ben then asks what he did with Gwen. Zombozo makes a joke about her running away with the circus as another spotlight lights up, showing Gwen. She's just as withered as her spirit in the orb, being barely able to laugh. This angers Ben, and he activates the Omnitrix, turning into Ghostfreak.
After the change, Zombozo is surprised, but unconcerned. The latter soon fades when Ghostfreak starts beating him up and disappearing. During the fight, Ghostfreak explains that his fear of clowns is nothing compared to the fear of losing his family. Zombozo proves to be no match for Ghostfreak now, eventually being smacked into his Psyclown. He breaks the main orb on the device, releasing all the trapped spirits within. Once he climbs out, he tries to warn off Ghostfreak, though his voice is cracking. Ghostfreak just offers to show him something really scary. To deliver, he grabs his skin and pulls, causing it to peel back. Though the full extent of his innards goes unseen, black and white tentacles can be seen at the edges. Whatever was in the middle is more than enough to leave Zombozo cowering near his machine. He begs for mercy, which Ghostfreak responds to by saying "Boo!" This causes Zombozo to explode in a puff of smoke and confetti. Ghostfreak comments that the experience freaked even him out before he reverts to human form. Once he's back to normal, Ben goes to check on Gwen. She's tired and has no memory of what happened, only asking where the popcorn is that Ben had gone to get earlier.
In the RV, Grandpa Max congratulates Ben on conquering his fear. Gwen tries to scare him with a clown mask, but it doesn't work. After Ben says that it's a good look for her, she just says that he's no fun anymore and walks off. The episode ends on that.
[edit] Trivia
Aliens used in this episode
