The Flame Keepers' Circle

The Flame Keeper's Circle is the thirty sixth episode of Ben 10: Ultimate Alien and the fourth episode in the third season.

Plot
At a local Carnival a man is running a freak-show, someone trying to raise awareness for a unidentified organization accidentally spots the Main-attraction. Later that night the owner of the freak-show is doing matenance on a tank when he is ambushed by men in bizarre getups and is knocked out. The leader of the group the men come from arrives and the man from earlier unmasks himself, identifying the creature Dagon, in reality Vilgax in his true form.

Later that Morning Julie has convinced Ben and Kevin to come with her to a office building, head-quarters of the Flame Keeper's Circle organization. A Religious and Charity organization based around a benevolent alien named Dagon promised to come back to earth and solve all it's problems. Not only does Ben not believe him but as Julie puts it he "laughed in his face" making her furious espicially since Ben is against the idea of the organization using alien technology while he can use the Ultimatrix and can turn into 63 aliens now.

Ben and Kevin talk to Gwen at Burger Shack, Ben states that the reason why he doesn't trust the leader, Conduit Edwards, because he reminds him of a used car salesman, a con artist. While Kevin and Gwen investigate a stolen Plumber Ship Ben Sneaks back into the Flame Keeper Building as ChamAlien to see what is going on.

Much to Ben's shock he discovers that the living proof of Dagon's existance is Vilgax who by chance if nothing else closly resembles Dagon in his real form. Vilgax explains that following his last appearance he narrowly survived, albeit greatly weakened, and washed ashore on a beach. He would have died trapped in his real form had he not been found by a unidentified figure and bought by the owner of the carnival's Freak Show.

Dispite the great indignity it provided time and nourishment to recover. More recently he was freed by the Flame Keepers cult believing him to be Dagon. Vilgax also reveals that they have stolen the Plumber ship for him, using which he'll reclaim his lost powers and empire. Ben reveals that in his absence Vilgax's empire fell apart, prompting Vilgax to order guards to attack Ben.

Discovering that the Followers have the abillity to travel between dimensions Ben tries to fight them as Big Chill, that failing he uses Ultimate Big Chill to freeze all the followers. At this point Conduit Edwards arrives with Julie prisoner threatening to dump her in another dimension unless Ben surrenders. Ben returns to normal form and demands Julie's release, much to his shock Ben discovers that Julie is a willing participant in this madness.

Vilgax tries to turn Julie against Ben, however Ben reveals that Dagon is Vilgax. This snaps Julie to her senses and at this point Kevin and Gwen arrive. Having been sent a recording of Ben's conversation with Vilgax, Kevin destroy's the ship's pulse drive permanently grounding it. Ben uses Echo Echo to shatter Vilgax's tank, in the process seperating them.

Ben promises that he'll stop Vilgax and the Flame Keepers some day soon. Once the Battle is over Julie says that she still doesn't believe that alien technology should be kept away from the people that can use it to help the world. Ben decides to discuss it over dinner with her. Meanwhile Vilgax's tank is being repaired and he promises Conduit Edwards that after he's done with Earth "you won't be able to recognize it."

Major Events

 * Vilgax makes his debut in Ultimate Alien.
 * Ben transforms officially into ChamAlien.

Characters

 * Ben Tennyson
 * Gwen Tennyson
 * Kevin Levin
 * Julie Yamamoto

Villains

 * Vilgax
 * The Flame Keeper's Circle

Aliens Used

 * ChamAlien
 * Big Chill
 * Ultimate Big Chill
 * Echo Echo

Errors



 * When Ben turned back into regular Big Chill before turning into himself, the four spikes are clearly visible on the Ultimatrix symbol.
 * The Flashbacks show Vilgax's ship exploding in mid air despite the fact that it didn't. It blew up while still in the water itself.
 * When ChamAlien was walking in public while the sun was out and there were a lot of people outside, he had no shadow.

Trivia

 * This episode now marks the biggest gap between uses of Humongousaur with a total of 4 episodes separated so far.
 * Ben was apparently right about Vilgax surviving things worse than his ship exploding.
 * Ben confirms he can transform into 63 aliens at this point. However, he has only been shown turning into 39 (not counting aliens accessed by his future, Crosstime versions or Ultimate versions).
 * This is first appearance of Vilgax in Ultimate Alien as well as being his first appearance in the franchise since The Final Battle: Part 2.
 * This is ChamAlien's 2nd appearance on the show since Prisoner Number 775 is Missing. However, the transformation sequence is not shown and his official name is not spoken.
 * The beliefs of The Flame Keepers Circle are very similar to that of the real world religion Scientology, which teaches that life on earth was jump-started by aliens.