The Big Story

The Big Story is the third episode of the third season of Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, and the twenty-third episode overall.
==Synopsis==
When a mysterious meteor shower leaves behind an evil alien plant species, Ben 10 super-fan Jimmy steps up to save the day.
==Plot==
Jimmy is near a cave with his video camera, saying he is following a tip about a meteor shower. Suddenly, a meteor hits the inside of the cave, so Jimmy goes investigating, but he is shocked to learn that the object inside the cave is nothing but a "dumb space plant". The plant suddenly blooms and attacks Jimmy.
At a remote location, Ben (as Rath), Gwen, and Kevin are fighting SevenSeven. After SevenSeven defeats Gwen and Kevin, Rath defeats him and ties him to a pole. After Rath transforms back into normal, the group was briefly celebrating victory when Jimmy appears and says he has a major story about an alien invasion. Gwen and Kevin leave as they don't believe him, while Ben goes with Jimmy to go to the cave. Soon enough, Ben can't find the plant Jimmy was talking about, much to Jimmy's disbelief. He refuses to give up, so he finds some water graphs that show an increase in water usage in Bellwood. He then goes back to the cave, and finds Ben there, talking to the alien monster. He gets a blurry picture of Ben and tries to show this evidence to Gwen and Kevin, but they still don't believe him, even when he shows them the increase of water usage, so he goes on Will Harangue's show to tell the people about the invasion, but Harangue twists the story, telling his viewers that Ben is plotting an alien invasion. Gwen and Kevin finally get suspicious and decide to investigate the cave Jimmy was talking about. At Sav Cost, Jimmy encounters Ben, and he is creeped out by his unusual behavior. When he attempts to leave, he is attacked by Humungousaur.
Jimmy is chased through the supermarket by Humungousaur, who causes a major wreck inside. When Jimmy manages to get away from him by going through a narrow alley, he calls Gwen and Kevin and tells them that Humungousaur is attacking him, but they assure him they know what's going on and that they investigated the cave. Soon, Jimmy is chased by Cannonbolt. Jimmy gets away from him again and finds Gwen and Kevin's car, but he notices something wrong with them. Ben urges him to get in and they go back to the cave. It is revealed that Ben, Gwen, and Kevin are clones created from the plant alien and that they were made to capture Jimmy to find out how he is immune to their master's power. The plant alien's plan is to make copies of everyone in the planet and create a utopian planet without war, hunger, disease, and fun. Soon, vines crawl on Jimmy and prepare to strangle him.
As the vines tighten around Jimmy, a few packages of peanuts from his backpack fall out and land near some vines, which back away from the peanuts. Jimmy realizes that peanuts is the plant's weakness (explaining how he escaped from the plant before) and frees himself and his friends. Plant Gwen and Plant Kevin do not possess their counterparts' powers, but Plant Ben stole the Ultimatrix from Ben while he was captured. Plant Ben transforms into Chromastone, but Jimmy throws peanuts at him, which transforms him back into normal.
Just as Plant Ben is about to transform again, Ben takes the Ultimatrix from him and transforms into Swampfire. Swampfire kills the plant clones, angering the plant alien, causing them to all run out of the cave. Swampfire, Gwen, and Kevin to fight the plant alien, but it is too strong. However, Jimmy throws his backpack full of peanuts inside the alien's mouth, weakening it. Swampfire evolves into Ultimate Swampfire and destroys it. Jimmy is sad that he couldn't get any video of the battle, but they reassure him that he is a real reporter, and they will take him seriously from now on.
==Noteworthy Events==
===Major Events===
====Character Debuts====
*Plant Alien
*Plant Clones
==Characters==
===Main Characters===
*Jimmy Jones
===Supporting Characters===
*﻿Ben Tennyson
*Gwen Tennyson
*Kevin Levin
*Will Harangue
===Antagonists===
*﻿Plant Alien (first appearance; death)
*SevenSeven
*Plant Clones (first appearance; deaths)
**Plant Ben
**Plant Gwen
**Plant Kevin
===Minor Events===
*It is revealed that Ben is allergic to peanuts.
==Aliens Used==
===By Ben===
*Rath (off-screen activation)
*Swampfire (x2; goes Ultimate and reverts; second time was a cameo)
**Ultimate Swampfire
===Aliens on Jimmy's Wall===
*Goop
*Cannonbolt
*Jetray
*Echo Echo
*Big Chill
*Chromastone
*Rath
===By Plant Ben===
*Humungousaur (off-screen activation)
*Cannonbolt (off-screen activation)
*Chromastone
==Quotes==
==Naming and Translations==
==Cast==
==Allusions==
*The plot is about similar to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, except that the plant aliens knock their victims out instead of killing them.
*The plant monster reuses Baragon's roar from Frankenstein Conquers the World.
==Errors==
*When Jimmy is being chased by Plant Humungousaur, his jacket keeps switching from zipped to unzipped.
*Chromastone and Swampfire's holograms face away from Plant Ben.
*When the Plant Alien shoots the liquid that forms a sort of containment around Swampfire, it shoots a lot of the liquid (enough to almost drown Swampfire) but after it turns into the barrier, there is only the part around Swampfire.
*When the plant picks up Swampfire, his Ultimatrix symbol is missing.
*When Ultimate Swampfire tells the others to run away, his eyes have pupils.
TBS (189).png|Jacket is zipped
TBS (221).png|Jacket is unzipped
TBS (325).png|Hologram error
TBS (340).png|Hologram error
TBS (401).png|The amount of liquid originally
TBS (404).png|The rest of the liquid disappears
TBS (409).png|Missing Ultimatrix symbol
TBS (436).png|Eyes error
==Trivia==
*While recording his podcast at the beginning of the episode, Jimmy mentions the day and date: Thursday, May 25th.
**The two closest years to the airdate of this episode for this to be possible are 2006 and 2017. However, the series does not take place in any specific year.
*A running gag throughout this episode is Gwen making battle puns.
==References==
===Crew Statements===
====T.J. Collins====
====Dwayne McDuffie====
===Cartoon Network===
es:La gran historia
pl:Artykuł
pt-br:A Grande História
ro:Un articol de senzație
Category:Episodes
Category:Ben 10: Ultimate Alien Episodes
Category:Episodes Directed by Matt Youngberg
Category:Filler
Category:Ben 10: Ultimate Alien Season 3 Episodes
Category:Episodes Aired Out of Production Order