The Pharaoh

"The Pharaoh" is the sixth episode of the first season of Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir. It premiered on January 10, 2016.

Synopsis
When a young historian gets akumatized into the Pharaoh, he plans to bring an ancient Egyptian princess back to life by sacrificing Alya; Ladybug and Cat Noir must face an army of mummies.

Plot
Marinette is watching Alya's new blog update. Alya is tracking Ladybug when she passes by, hanging onto a helicopter and dropping her history textbook in the process. Alya picks it up, identifying it as a 10th grade history textbook thus announcing her belief that Ladybug's secret identity may be that of a student.

Marinette panics, as Alya will know something's up if she asks to borrow her history textbook. Tikki tells her that what's done is done, and she can only keep looking ahead. If Marinette wants to keep her identity secret, she needs to get the book back from Alya before her friend opens it. Tikki then types on Marinette's computer and brings up a webpage about an exhibit at the Louvre on the pharaoh Tutankhamen. Tikki urges Marinette to invite Alya to the museum and tell her to bring the book with her. Marinette is skeptical, not understanding what King Tut has to do with Ladybug, but Tikki promises that the trip will be worth it.

Marinette ends up telling Alya that she found something about Ladybug at the King Tut exhibit, so they go to the Louvre. Alya is excitedly talking about how close she is to finding out Ladybug's identity, as their school is the only one that uses this particular history textbook, and there are only 43 girls in their grade, excluding Alya. Marinette tries to exclude herself from the suspects list, but Alya points out that Marinette had to borrow her textbook yesterday. Panicked, Marinette makes the excuse that she's forgotten her own book at home and that Alya knows how she always loses or forgets things. But Alya just laughs and says she was teasing. Marinette will be off the suspects list when she brings her book to school.

As the girls reach the King Tut exhibit, a young man shoves past them and drops a bunch of papers and a pendant, which, thankfully, hasn't broken. He introduces himself as Jalil Kubdel, their classmate Alix's older brother, before running off to greet his father, who has also arrived. Shrugging at his odd behavior, Alya turns back to Marinette and asks why she brought her here and what this has to do with Ladybug. Marinette tries to stall, and Tikki points her over to a papyrus scroll on the wall in the corner. Unfortunately, the scroll is covered in hieroglyphics without a translation. Marinette tries to find something that's relevant to Ladybug before Alya loses interest.

In his room, Adrien is on the Ladyblog, watching the video of Alya finding the history book. He, too, wonders if Ladybug goes to his school. Plagg doesn't understand why humans crush on each other instead of cheese. Adrien replies that girls look better than cheese, much to Plagg's annoyance.

Meanwhile, Jalil and Mr. Kubdel join Marinette and Alya in front of the scroll as Jalil explains the images on the scroll. He identifies a man holding a scepter as Pharaoh Tutankhamun I and the woman next to him as Princess Nefertiti with one hundred mummies surrounding them. The princess died before the pharaoh did and became the sun god's wife in the afterlife. Mr. Kubdel remarks that he already knows all this, since he organized this exposition. Jalil then claims to have deciphered the hieroglyphs, theorizing that the images on the scroll depict a resurrection ceremony in which the pharaoh tries to bring his princess back from the afterlife and that the scroll contains a spell to bring people back from the dead.

Marinette remarks that, like Alya, Jalil is prone to jumping to conclusions. Likewise, Mr. Kubdel is unconvinced and cautions Jalil that anything written in the scroll is a legend and cannot be interpreted so literally. Jalil insists that he is right and suggests proving his theory by using the pharaoh's scepter, on display nearby, and reading a spell from the scroll. Having lost his patience, Mr. Kubdel yells at Jalil for treating the scepter as a toy instead of a priceless historical artifact. He leaves, telling Jalil to stop with is wild theories and start focusing on the real world. In his lair, Hawk Moth senses Jalil's dejection and sends an akuma his way.

While Marinette stalls, Alya grows bored and takes the book out of her bag. Before she can open it, Marinette jumps in and puts the book away, insisting that she's found something about Ladybug. Outside the museum, the akuma finds Jalil and lands on the pendent around his neck, transforming him into the Pharaoh with the ability to harness the powers of the Ancient Egyptian gods.

Transforming into Thoth, the Pharaoh creates bubbles and traps several museum visitors and security guards inside them, freezing them in time. Alya and Marinette duck behind some displays, the history textbook falling out of Alya's hands in the process. Alya begins recording everything while Marinette sneaks off and transforms into Ladybug. Back home, Adrien is watching Alya's feed and transforms into Cat Noir when he sees the Pharaoh stealing the scroll and scepter.

Ladybug dives in as the museum's security doors come down, trapping her, the Pharaoh, and Alya in the room. She tries to fight the Pharaoh, but he grabs her yo-yo and swings her into a wall. He then transforms into Sekhmet and uses his enhanced strength to pull apart the bars of the security door. Cat Noir arrives, but the Pharaoh easily defeats him by throwing him into a sarcophagus. He then notices Alya hiding behind a display and kidnaps her, taking the scroll and scepter and pulling the bars back in place behind him.

Ladybug and Cat Noir escape the room using Cataclysm on the bars, and Cat Noir goes to recharge his Miraculous. Ladybug uses her yo-yo to access the Ladyblog, where Alya has been live streaming her abduction. Outside the museum, the Pharaoh uses Anubis's powers and transforms all the bystanders into mummies. At Alya's questioning, he explains that he needs a hundred mummies and a sacrifice (a soul pure of heart) to resurrect his princess. He reveals that he plans to exchange the princess's soul for Alya's (because she looks like the person being sacrificed in the pictures on the papyrus scroll) to appease the sun god.

Hearing this, Ladybug runs to rescue Alya but accidentally gets trapped in one of the time-warping bubbles. Cat Noir returns and pops the bubble, and they run to the roof to witness the resurrection ceremony in the courtyard. Alya, still being held hostage, notices a figure in a spotted dress on the scroll who seems to be swinging a yo-yo. When she questions the Pharaoh, he explains that the goddess on the scroll is Ladybug, who had thwarted the original pharaoh's resurrection ceremony 5,000 years ago.

The Pharaoh recites the spell, and a beam of energy shoots up from the Louvre Pyramid, opening a portal in the sky. The mummies grab Alya and begin to carry her toward the pyramid, but Cat Noir distracts them while Ladybug swings in on her yo-yo and carries Alya to safety on a nearby rooftop. With Alya's help, Ladybug realizes that the akuma must be in the pendant. However, the Pharaoh transforms into Horus and flies up and captures Alya again, dropping her onto the beam on top of the pyramid to be transported into the portal.

The mummies attack Cat Noir, but he and Ladybug trap them on a bus. Ladybug then ties her yo-yo around the Pharaoh and manages to grab the pendant from around the his neck when he's flying. It falls to the ground, but he retrieves it before she or Cat Noir can. Just as Alya is about to disappear into the portal, Ladybug activates Lucky Charm, and a ladybug costume falls out. Using her lucky vision, she spots the pair of earrings that come with the costume. She then bargains with the Pharaoh, offering herself as a sacrifice in Alya's place, with the reasoning that Pharaoh can finally have his revenge on Ladybug for stopping him the first time 5,000 years ago. The Pharaoh agrees and releases Alya, placing Ladybug on the beam to the portal.

The Pharaoh holds out his hand for Ladybug to give him her Miraculous, but she grabs the pendant from him and throws the toy earrings from the Ladybug costume to the ground, telling him to fetch. When he is distracted by the decoy, Ladybug destroys the pendant and catches the akuma. She purifies it and returns everything back to normal. The Pharaoh transforms back into Jalil.

Ladybug returns Alya's phone to her, and Alya asks her how old she is. To throw Alya off Marinette's scent, Ladybug replies that she's definitely too old to be a high school student. When Alya wanders back into the museum to the King Tut exhibit, Marinette makes the excuse that she was missing because she had been turned into a mummy. Alya is happy to have learned that Ladybug is 5,000 years old, but she's confused because the history book in her bag has disappeared. As Alya searches for the book, Marinette keeps walking and giggles to herself.

Later that night, Tikki explains that she is actually much older than 5,000 years. There has always been a Ladybug superhero, and Tikki is the kwami who has watched over every Ladybug since the beginning. Marinette wonders if the other Ladybugs were as klutzy as herself. Tikki replies that every Ladybug is different, but Marinette is surprising, unpredictable, endearing, talented, and a quick learner. The episode ends with Tikki telling Marinette to get some sleep because she has a history test tomorrow. Marinette quips that at least it is about ancient Egypt.

Major characters

 * Marinette Cheng/Ladybug
 * Adrien Agreste/Cat Noir
 * Tikki
 * Plagg
 * Alya
 * Jalil Kubdel/The Pharaoh
 * Hawk Moth
 * Akuma

Minor characters

 * Mr. Kubdel
 * Mummies
 * Civilians
 * Ancient Egyptian Ladybug (mentioned)

Trivia

 * This episode was the 7th to air in Korea, the 3rd in France and the 5th on Disney Channel and TéléQuébec.
 * The Korean title for this episode is "Lady of the Pharaoh".
 * The date of the video on the Ladyblog suggests this episode takes place on May 21 or the day after.
 * In the English dub of this episode, when the Lucky Charm equips Ladybug with a costume version of her superhero suit, Cat Noir asks, "That's our last hope?", but in the Korean version, he quips, "You want me to wear that?"
 * Tikki is revealed to be over 5,000 years old, and people have been using the Ladybug Miraculous to fight evil for thousands of years.
 * In the English dub of this episode, Alya says on her blog that she is in the 10th grade, while in one of the sub versions, she says she's in the 9th grade.
 * In the French dub of this episode, Alya says it is a troisième-year textbook, which is equivalent to Year 10 in the UK and Grade 9 in the US.
 * In the Korean dub of the episode, the Pharaoh seeks to revive Queen Ankhesenamun, who, according to the episode, died before King Tutankhamen. Historically, Ankhesenamun was King Tut's only wife, and she died later in life than her husband. In the English version, Ankhesenamun is called "Princess Nefertiti", after another Egyptian Queen with a much easier to pronounce name.
 * Nefertiti was King Tut's father's (King Akhenaten's) first wife. She is not related to King Tut and died about a year after Tut became pharaoh.
 * This episode also takes considerable liberties with Egyptian mythology. In the myths, Thoth was the god of writing and knowledge, not the god of time. Sekhmet was the goddess of war, and here is portrayed as a goddess of destruction. Horus was the god of kingship and ruled the sky, but there are no major legends about him with wings. His mother, Isis, goddess of magic, is the only Egyptian deity with wings.
 * When the Pharaoh is about to perform the spell to offer Alya to Ra, the sun god, the mummies stand around them in an ankh, an Egyptian hieroglyph which reads as "life".
 * The Tutankhamun exhibition that appears in this episode was already advertised by some banners in "Copycat".
 * The bus where Ladybug and Cat Noir lock most of the mummies has an advertisement with Mireille and Aurore on the side. This is for the KIDZ+ weather girl competition from the episode "Stormy Weather."
 * In the French version, Marinette had written her name in her history book before she dropped it.

Errors

 * When Cat Noir looks at his Miraculous after using Cataclysm, the ring is on his left hand.
 * The school bag that Alya normally uses is light blue, but in this episode, she uses a yellow school bag that has the same design as Nino's.