The Flame Keepers' Circle

The Flame Keepers' Circle is the sixteenth episode of the third season of Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, and the thirty-sixth episode overall.
==Synopsis==
A fanatical group of whackos have taken to worshiping Vilgax of all people or aliens! And guess who has joined them, Julie!
==Plot==
At a local carnival, a man is running a freak show, and another man trying to raise awareness for an unidentified organization accidentally spots the main attraction. Later that night, the owner of the freak show is doing maintenance on a tank when he is suddenly ambushed and knocked out by men in bizarre getups. The leader of the group arrives and the man that was raising awareness from earlier unmasks himself, identifying the creature in the tank as Dagon.
The next morning, Julie convinces Ben and Kevin to come with her to the headquarters of the Flame Keepers' Circle, a religious charity organization based around Dagon. The organization believes that human milestones were really alien technology brought by Dagon. Dagon promised to come back to Earth and solve all of the planet's problems. Unfortunately, not only does Ben not believe Conduit Edwards, the leader of the organization, but, as Julie puts it, he "laughed in his face", making her especially furious. She is also angry because Ben is against the idea of using alien technology to help the planet. Ben and Kevin both say that the Plumbers have rules against that. She expresses her anger about how Ben can turn into 63 aliens now, yet believing in aliens is laughable to him.
Ben and Kevin then talk with Gwen at Burger Shack. Ben states that he doesn't trust Conduit Edwards because he reminds him of a used car salesman, a con artist. While Gwen and Kevin investigate a stolen Plumber ship, Ben transforms into Chamalien and sneaks back into the Flame Keepers' Circle building to see what is going on. Much to Chamalien's shock, he discovers that the living proof of Dagon's existence is Vilgax, whom by chance, resembles Dagon in his real form. Chamalien reverts to Ben and Vilgax explains that following his last appearance, he narrowly survived, albeit greatly weakened, and was washed ashore on a beach. He would have died trapped in his real form, had he not been found by an unidentified figure, and bought by the owner of the carnival's freak show. Despite the great indignity of his situation, it provided him with nourishment and time to recover.
More recently, he was freed by the Flame Keepers' Circle, believing him to be Dagon. Vilgax also reveals that they have stolen the Plumber ship for him, and by using it, he'll reclaim his lost powers and empire. Ben teasingly retorts that in his absence, Vilgax's empire fell apart. This infuriates Vilgax, so he orders his followers to attack Ben. Discovering that the followers have the ability to travel between dimensions, Ben transforms into Big Chill and tries to fight them. When he realizes that he is failing, Big Chill evolves into Ultimate Big Chill to freeze all the soldiers.
Conduit Edwards soon arrives with Julie as prisoner, threatening to dump her in another dimension unless Ben surrenders. Ben reverts to his normal form and demands Julie's release. Much to his shock, Ben discovers that Julie being Conduit Edwards' prisoner was a set up. Vilgax tries to turn Julie against Ben, but when Ben reveals who Vilgax really is, Julie snaps to her senses. At this point, Kevin and Gwen arrive. Kevin reveals that since he was sent a recording of Ben's conversation with Vilgax, he destroyed the ship's pulse drive, permanently grounding it. Ben transforms into Echo Echo to shatter Vilgax's tank and defeat the guards. Ben promises that he'll stop Vilgax and the Flame Keepers' Circle someday soon.
Once the battle is over, Julie says that she still doesn't believe that alien technology should be kept away from 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 recognize it".
==Noteworthy Events==
===Major Events===
*The Flame Keepers' Circle and their soldiers are now servants of Vilgax, whom they believe to be Dagon.
====Character Debuts====
*Erin
*Erin's Boyfriend
*Flame Keepers' Circle
*Esoterica
*Rich
*Conduit Edwards
*Vilgax (Ultimate Alien debut)
===Minor Events===
*Ben is revealed to have 63 unlocked aliens by this point in the series.
*Vilgax's empire is revealed to have fallen shortly after his defeat.
==Characters==
*Ben Tennyson
*Gwen Tennyson
*Kevin Levin
*Julie Yamamoto
*Pierce's Girlfriend (cameo)
*Erin (first appearance)
*Erin's Boyfriend (first appearance)
===Villains===
*Flame Keepers' Circle (first appearance)
**Esoterica (first appearance; flashback and present)
***Rich (first appearance)
***Conduit Edwards (first appearance; flashback and present)
*Vilgax (first reappearance; flashback and present)
==Aliens Used==
*Chamalien (off-screen activation)
*Big Chill (x2; goes Ultimate and reverts; second time was a cameo)
**Ultimate Big Chill
*Echo Echo
==Quotes==
==Naming and Translations==
==Cast==
==Continuity==
*Ben and Vilgax recall the circumstances of the latter's defeat in The Final Battle: Part 2.
==Allusions==
*Dagon, a deity from H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, serves as the inspiration behind Dagon, the being worshiped by the Flame Keepers' Circle. Similarly, Vilgax was inspired by Cthulhu, another deity from the Mythos of the same name.
*The door of the chamber in which Vilgax was resembles the door of the Chamber of Secrets in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
*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.
==Errors==
*The flashback shows Vilgax's ship exploding in mid-air despite the fact that it was underwater when it exploded in The Final Battle: Part 2.
*Just before the Esoterica attack Ben when he talks to Vilgax, the "10" emblem on his jacket is in the wrong font.
*When Ben punches an Esoterica soldier, his fist is bigger than it should be.
*In a few shots when Big Chill is cloaked, the bottom of his wings is drawn incorrectly.
*When Big Chill freezes an Esoterica soldier, there is a perception error where the soldier is shown as if the camera is facing him from the front, even though it is tilted downwards.
*Before Big Chill gets punched from behind by an Esoterica soldier, the patches on his lower legs are missing.
*When Ultimate Big Chill reverts to Big Chill and then Ben, the inner part of both Big Chill and Ultimate Big Chill's eyes is drawn incorrectly.
*When Ultimate Big Chill says "Alright, you win", his mouth moves.
*When Ultimate Big Chill turns back into regular Big Chill before turning back into Ben, the Ultimatrix symbol still has four spikes.
*When Ben is about to transform into Echo Echo, the Ultimatrix seems to be turned off.
TFKC (165).png|The ship is shown exploding in mid-air
TFKC (183).png|Emblem error
TFKC (209).png|Wings error
TFKC (217).png|Perception error
TFKC (219).png|Missing patches
TFKC (229).png|Wings error
Moving mouth.png|Eyes error/Moving mouth
TFKC (259).png|Eyes error/Ultimatrix symbol error
TFKC (323).png|Ultimatrix error
==Trivia==
*The episode's title is listed as The Flame Keeper's Circle on the Ben 10 Ultimate Alien: The Wild Truth DVD and iTunes, and as The Flame Keepers Circle on Amazon Prime Video.
*This episode was originally titled Keepers of the Flame.
==References==
===T.J. Collins===
===Cartoon Network===
es:El Círculo de la Llama Eterna
pl:Krąg Strażników Płomienia (odcinek)
pt-br:O Círculo dos Guardiões da Chama (Episódio)
ro:Cercul păstrătorilor focului (episod)
Category:Ben 10: Ultimate Alien Episodes
Category:Ben 10: Ultimate Alien Season 3 Episodes
Category:Episodes Directed by Dan Riba
Category:Dagon Arc
Category:Episodes with Flashbacks