| This article is about the episode. You may be looking for the Miraculous of Derision. |
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| “ | This can't be happening. I've got to pull myself together. I have to figure out why I get like this every time I get close to Adrien. Otherwise, I'm gonna fall apart! | ” |
—Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Derision | ||
"Derision" is a Season 5 episode of the series, Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir. As based on the series's production order specifically, "Derision" is the 14th written and produced episode of Season 5. It is also the 118th written and produced episode of the series, overall.
Synopsis[]
Just as it seems like Marinette is finally about to have a normal date with Adrien, she strangely starts suffering from repeated panic attacks. She doesn't understand why, and it's starting to jeopardize her relationship with the one she loves. And it creates an emotional situation that could make her the perfect target for Monarch! What if the answer to her problems lay in her own past? Back when Marinette wasn't the Marinette we know today...
Disney+[]
Marinette's relationship problems may lay in her past.
Plot[]
Marinette is asleep in her bedroom when she gets a wake up call from Adrien. He excitedly reminds her that they're going to the swimming pool. Marinette is also excited to go to the pool and see Adrien, but she gets a sharp and unpleasant feeling. Tikki asks her if she's alright, to which Marinette responds that she is. She just feels lightheaded and most likely needs to eat some breakfast to feel better. She tries to eat, but her stomach prevents her from doing so. Her mother Sabine remarks how coincidental it is that her stomach hurts the day she finally goes on a "date" with her crush, embarrassing her daughter. Sabine shares her experiences with stomach butterflies she had when she went on her first date with Tom, now her husband and Marinette's father. The sharp and unpleasant feeling returns again and fades just as quickly. In the process, Marinette spills her meal. She apologizes to her mom for making a mess, Sabine tells her not to worry about it and to go see her love. Marinette thanks her mom and leaves.
Marinette arrives at the pool and greets Adrien, who was already there. He greets her back and offers her his hand. She shyly takes it and the two enter the entrance to the pool. Adrien asked the person at the reception desk how they gain access to the pool, the person responds they have to buy tickets. Marinette again gets a sharp and unpleasant feeling, retracting her hand in fear. Adrien concernedly asks her if she's okay. She nervously assures him she's okay and grabs their armbands so they can change. The sharp and unpleasant feeling comes back once again while Marinette tries to change into her swimsuit. Adrien asks her again if she's doing okay. She fearfully reassures Adrien she's okay, she's just having trouble with her shoelaces and she'll be out soon. Adrien leaves her alone and she starts to hyperventilate. Tikki asks her what's up with her, but Marinette is clueless as to the reason why.
She manages to get changed and tries to work her way down the stairs while holding onto the railing to get to her waiting friend. Kim greets Marinette, returning the sharp and unpleasant feeling. Adrien climbs down the pool ladder, offering Marinette his hand to help her in. She tries to take his hand, but the sharp and unpleasant feeling gets so severe that she storms out on Adrien. Kim asks him what he did to get her to blow up at him like that. Ondine points out Marinette's emotional distress. Kim dismisses this saying Marinette does this every time someone pranks her. He then proceeds to tell Adrien and Ondine about what happened between him and Marinette the previous year, expecting them to find it hilarious. Marinette runs into the changeroom in full panic mode. Monarch seizes the opportunity and sends a megakuma in an attempt to akumatize Marinette into Panic. She resists and tries to remember the source of her panic attack and uncertainty around Adrien.
During the previous school year, Marinette had developed a crush on Kim. However, she hates going to school because of Chloé, a cruel bully who has the teachers wrapped around her finger and the other kids are too afraid of her to help Marinette. She tries to convince her mom to let her stay home, but she lists off the excuses she gave the last few days that she didn't want to go to school. Sabine tries to reassure her daughter she'll be okay, school will be over in two weeks and the chances of Chloé sharing a class with Marinette for the fourth year in a row is slim. Marinette doubts her luck will change and accidentally spills her breakfast.
Marinette runs to the front door of the school, attempting to get to class and try to evade Chloé along the way. She seemingly manages to get to her locker with no problems, but she gets a rude awakening as when she opens her locker door, a swarm of bugs decorate the inside of her locker and head right towards her. She screams and runs away from the bugs in fear only to knock over a bucket full of water in the girls's bathroom, tripping her and landing her face first on the floor. She tries to leave for class, but is stopped by the principal, Mr. Damocles, who was informed by Chloé that she'd be out of class. He orders Marinette to come to his office for her being out of class without permission. After her chat with Mr. Damocles, she finally gets to her class only for her science teacher, Ms. Mendeleiev, to scold her for being late and demanding her to go to her desk quietly. Marinette obeys her as Chloé mocks her for the prank she pulled on Marinette's earlier. She dejectedly takes a seat only for her to yelp as she sits on a paint tube, wrecking her favorite pair of pants. Chloé mocks her again for the nasty prank she pulled. Marinette accuses Chloé of placing the paint tube on her seat, but Ms. Mendeleiev is having none of it, scolding Marinette not to accuse a student without evidence, not to yell, and to go to the principal's office for her actions. Chloé mocks her once again. Rose and Juleka give her dirty looks, but she threatens and mocks them back into line.
Marinette exits the principal's office with an additional three hours of detention on Saturday. Rose tries to explain Chloé's actions with her absent mother, but Mylène counters her mother left too and she finds no joy in tormenting Marinette. Kim offers Marinette his swimming trunks to replace her ruined pants. She declines, but is touched by the thought. Chloé shoos off Marinette's friends, informing her she'll be in the cafeteria to make her life a nightmare. Socqueline steps in to tell Chloé to leave Marinette alone. Socqueline tells Marinette that she needs to stand up to Chloé on her own, as Socqueline won't be around to help her much longer as she is graduating. Socqueline's in the highest grade of the school, and the school year's almost over. Marinette remarks the teacher's fear of Chloé and shifts her attention to Kim, who's antagonizing Max. Socqueline's in disbelief that her friend could have a crush on Kim, asking her what she sees in him. Marinette believes she likes him for his kindness. Socqueline thinks she's confusing kindness for foolishness. Marinette decides to invite Kim to go to the swimming pool with her. Unfortunately for her, Sabrina, Chloé's minion, overhears and tells Chloé about it. She talks to Kim about Marinette's plans and tricks him into playing a prank on her. Marinette and Socqueline get on a bus headed for the pool. Socqueline asks Marinette her intentions. Marinette shares her plans: if all goes well and there's a moment that's right, she intends to confess her feelings to Kim. Marinette says goodbye to Socqueline and leaves for the pool. Socqueline stops the bus to be nearby, just in case her friend needs her. Marinette and Kim have a splendid time at the pool, enough that Marinette decides to reveal her love for Kim. In response, Kim presents her with a gift that has spiders in it, freaking Marinette out and sending her hurtling to the pool below.
Chloé manipulated Kim into doing this so she could humiliate Marinette on social media by recording the entire thing and posting it on the internet. A livid Socqueline, who obviously followed Marinette, and as such, saw everything, angrily destroys Chloé's phone with the recording on it out of outrage before Chloé can post it online. Kim, not understanding what he did, goes to Marinette, expecting her to find his prank funny. A revolted Socqueline shoos him away being furious about what he and Chloé did and disgusted by their shamelessness, retorting he should be ashamed of himself. Kim dismisses her, believing it was just a joke. Marinette is traumatized from this experience, changing her outlook on love. From that point onward, she decides she has to know everything about anyone she falls in love with and make sure they're not friends with Chloé. The next day at school, Chloé tries to get Socqueline suspended from school out of spite for breaking her phone, preventing her from having new fuel for tormenting Marinette. She argues Socqueline attacked her. Mr. Damocles tells Chloé due to it happening off school property, he can't do anything. Chloé threatens Mr. Damocles with her dad, the mayor. Mr. Damocles suspends Socqueline for the rest of the school year. Socqueline tries to protest, but Chloé has the principal wrapped around her finger. Marinette catches Socqueline before she leaves, remorseful things ended up this way. Socqueline tells her to keep fighting and doing the right thing. With that, she leaves.
Back in the present, Marinette's revelation breaks her free of the akumatization, forcing Monarch to retrieve his megakuma. Meanwhile, Kim finishes his story with Ondine and Adrien furious at him for his actions. Kim shrugs their anger off, focusing on the supposed hilarity of the situation and his adoration for Chloé, making Adrien fume as Ondine calls Kim out on his cruel behavior. Kim doesn't believe he did anything wrong and swims away in anger. Monarch senses Kim's feelings of rejection and sends the megakuma after him. He names him Dark Humor, the slide evolution of Dark Cupid, and gives him the power of the Monkey Miraculous. Kim transforms into Dark Humor. Marinette excitedly goes to tell Adrien about her recent revelation, but is stopped by the sight of Dark Humor. A lifeguard appears, barking at Dark Humor to stop flying at the pool. Adrien grabs Marinette's arm and runs. Dark Humor summons a rubber ducky on his arrow tip with his power and shoots the lifeguard. The lifeguard decides to drain the pool, thinking people jumping in with no water would be funny. Ondine doesn't believe that's humorous but dangerous. Dark Humor thinks she lacks a sense of humor and shoots her as well. Adrien hides Marinette in her changeroom, and goes to get help. Marinette uses the opportunity to transform into Ladybug. Adrien hides in his changeroom to transform into Cat Noir.
At the Jardin des Tuileries, Ondine swings her pool noodle at toy boats in the fountain, sinking them and making their owners cry. Dark Humor asks the kids where their sense of humor is and shoots at two of them. Ladybug and Cat Noir use their miraculous-tools to defend Dark Humor's targets. Cat Noir, full of hatred and rage for Kim, attacks Dark Humor recklessly, spouting off about his lack of awareness to those he hurts. Ladybug tries to calm her partner down, but he's too focused on defeating Dark Humor. He wails on the akumatized supervillain with his staff and then activates his Cataclysm, trying to use it on Dark Humor. Thankfully, he's stopped by Ladybug's yo-yo. Dark Humor takes the distraction to strike Cat Noir with one of his arrows, turning his Cataclysm into a ball generator and Cat Noir into an even bigger goofball than usual. Ladybug attempts to use her Lucky Charm, but Dark Humor shoots her yo-yo, turning it into a balloon and rendering her unable to use her Lucky Charm. Cat Noir notices the balloon and knocks into Dark Humor's way, obstructing his vision and giving Ladybug the chance to detransform behind a pillar and retransform, restoring her ability to activate her Lucky Charm.
It gives her a toilet bowl. Ladybug grabs a glue tube, evading the rain of arrows, but seemingly gets hit by one of Dark Humor's arrows. In reality, she faked getting hit, as it's part of her plan. She squirts out some glue into the toilet bowl and emerges from her hiding spot acting as if she was hit by one of Dark Humor's arrows. Ladybug spots Cat Noir, and pretends to want to put the toilet bowl on his head. She chases Cat Noir and lures Dark Humor into chasing her. When he's close enough, she turns around and plants the toilet bowl on his noggin. Ladybug questions Dark Humor's sense of humor while Cat Noir taunts him. Ladybug tosses her yo-yo, wrapping its string around the toilet bowl and pulls, shattering it and bringing Dark Humor's eye reticle with it. Ladybug then breaks it with her yo-yo, releasing the megakuma. She de-evilizes the megakuma, releases it, and throws part of her Lucky Charm in the air, activating her Miraculous Ladybug. It reverts those hit by Dark Humor's arrows back to normal and fixes the mess the battle made. Dark humor deakumatizes into Kim, who asks what happened. Ladybug tells him Monarch used his emotions to manipulate him. She opens her yo-yo, pulling out a magical charm to give to Kim, telling him to keep it with him to remind him not to make the same mistakes. Cat Noir apologizes for his rash behavior earlier. Ladybug reminds him that's why there's two of them: to keep the other in check. The two heroes pound it, signifying a job well done.
Back at the pool, Kim expresses remorse for the actions he committed as Dark Humor, but Ondine replies he still does bad actions as himself by saying that Marinette liked him and he ended up breaking her heart. He tries to defend himself, pleading ignorance, but Ondine retorts that just because he didn't know, doesn't mean the pain he caused Marinette was any less real. Kim realizes Ondine is right about how his pranks can have consequences and vows to change his ways. He apologizes to Marinette for his actions, to which she accepts. Ondine rejoices at her love's growth. Outside the pool, Marinette is able to share with Adrien why she gets so nervous around him: she's afraid of getting hurt again like she was by Chloé's manipulation of Kim. Adrien shares with Marinette that he's scared too: of doing something wrong, hurting her, someone else hurting her, and scared of losing her. But Adrien believes that together, they will help each other, no matter what. He reaches his hand out for Marinette to grab, she holds it, but lets go and apologies, as she's not ready for that yet. Adrien tells her they have time and they go their separate ways for the time being.
Later that day, Adrien goes to Chloé's place letting her know of his knowledge of her heinous deeds and demands that she apologize to Marinette for the cruel way she treated her, being sure she would forgive Chloé and to prove that she can change. Chloé couldn't care less about the harm she caused by doing what she did and goes on about how she views people like Marinette as doormats who only exists for her amusement. Sabrina reluctantly continues to paint her nails, despite being hurt by her "best friend's" comment since she treats her as a doormat too. Adrien is utterly disgusted by what she did to Marinette and Socqueline for a long time, as well as her egoistical selfishness, despite the multiple chances he, Ladybug, Cat Noir, and several others gave her to become a better person. Adrien firmly tells her that they will never be friends again, permanently ending their friendship while leaving, only for Chloé to hypocritically call him a traitor behind his back.
Characters[]
Major Characters[]
- Marinette Dupain-Cheng/Ladybug (Panic mentioned)
- Adrien Agreste/Cat Noir
- Monarch
- Tikki
- Xuppu
- Megakuma
- Lê Chiến Kim/Dark Humor
- Ondine
Minor Characters[]
- Sabine Cheng
- Chloé Bourgeois (Queen Bee indirectly mentioned)
- Sabrina Raincomprix
- Plagg (background)
- Trixx (background)
- Pollen (background)
- Wayzz (background)
- Sass (background)
- Longg (background)
- Mullo (background)
- Stompp (background)
- Daizzi (background)
- Roaar (background)
- Barkk (background)
- Orikko (background)
- Ziggy (background)
- Socqueline Wang (flashback)
- Olga Mendeleiev (flashback)
- Denis Damocles (flashback)
- Mylène Haprèle (flashback)
- Rose Lavillant (flashback)
- Juleka Couffaine (flashback)
- Nathaniel Kurtzberg (flashback)
- Max Kanté (flashback)
- Caline Bustier (pictured)
- André Bourgeois (pictured)
- Clara Nightingale (pictured)
- Audrey Bourgeois (indirectly mentioned)
- Tom Dupain (mentioned)
- Mylène's mother (mentioned)
- Students (flashback)
- Civilians
Trivia[]
- Internationally, this episode first premiered in Brazil on Gloob.
- This is writer Mélanie Duval's favorite episode of the series.[3]
- The episode shares its name with the concept of the Monkey Miraculous.
- The episode also gives an insight to the power of Uproar:
- As seen with Cat Noir in addition to his Cataclysm going haywire, it was also unable to carry out its intended function as he touched a balloon after getting struck but nothing happened.
- It's effective on a Miraculous holder if the toy is touched to their tool, but it doesn't seems to work when the tool is used as a shield.
- It seems that Uproar can only disrupt actual superpowers while enhanced abilities go unaffected.
- If Uproar is used on a Miraculous holder, the victim can cancel out the effects by detransforming and transforming back again which is different from the effects of akumatization because when a holder is effected and they detransform depending on what kind of effects they get hit with varying on the akumatized champion powers the effects will transfer to the kwamis too.
- But it seems Uproar effects doesn't transfer to the kwamis and yet given the situation there wasn't enough time to test the theory.
- However if it does it could result in the kwami version of the superpowers going more haywire than normal.
- The superpower Uproar is shown being used to turn people wild and start mocking others, however, it's possible that was a result of it being mixed with Dark Humor's power, as Dark Cupid can change other people's feelings.
- Besides the use of its superpower, its concept, derision, defined as regard with mockery, is also applied throughout the episode:
- Kim is revealed to have a tendency to play cruel pranks on people without realizing how he hurts people's feelings with them, with one in particular being the reason why Marinette panics whenever she tries to declare her love for Adrien.
- It is shown how Chloé used to bully Marinette by playing cruel and humiliating pranks on her, mocking her afterwards and even manipulating others to do the same. Not just that, but she also forced others to not be friends with her with the threat of targeting them as well.
- The people hit by Dark Humor's arrows are forced to play cruel pranks on others.
- Ladybug uses Dark Humor's own game against him, by tricking him to think she was hit by him in order to destroy his akumatized object.
- Uproar also means to spread chaos, panic and confusion in a public or general area as well as very vocal protest.
- Like every time when akumatized villain, victim or sentimonster appeared people would always turn and run away in countless episodes.
- And the vocal protests in "Reverser" and "Mega Leech".
- Or like Volpina did in "Heroes Day" with her illusions.
- It shows how said mockery affected other people's feelings and other episodes too:
- Thanks to Kim and Chloé's prank, Marinette was traumatized, went on a love knowledge spree with Adrien and because of their prank, they unknowingly caused her akumatization.
- Ondine and Adrien were angry at Kim for playing such a mean prank on Marinette. In the end, they get him to realize that just because he had no idea, it doesn't give him an excuse to hurt others.
- As Cat Noir, Adrien gave Kim a fierce thrashing in anger to the point of using his cataclysm on him if not for Ladybug's intervention.
- As well as the many times Chloé mocked and bullied everyone, causing their akumatizations leading her to being bullied, following "The Evillustrator", "Lady Wifi", "Princess Fragrance", and many more examples.
- The Monkey Miraculous represents knowing the difference between serious and silly as well as reminding yourself and others not to mock or assume another for their misfortune, situation, for what you don't know or understand yet nor don't be the cause of someone's misfortune and even if you are you should fix it.
- Le Chien Kim as the current Monkey Miraculous holder King Monkey, he was shown to be mischievous like a monkey but also knew of times to be serious.
- Such as Chloe in this episode and "Revolution", as she always belittled and mocked others for being beneath her now she has no power.
- In "Santa Claws" and "Hack-San", both heroes assumed that the other was in danger but they weren't.
- In "Mayura", where Hawk Moth mocked Ladybug and Cat Noir for being young and inexperienced with their powers however he didn't know that their condition was the result of a security system that prevents younger holder from using too much of their vital energy and harming themselves.
- In "Penalteam", Chloe mocked the name of Rooster Bold's power but she wasn't laughing when she saw what it could do.
- From "Ladybug", where he mocked the heroes about being sentimental about the heroine's sentimonster doppelganger barely being alive for a day and yet he spent close to 15 years raising one despite not knowing that Adrien and Cat Noir are the same person.
- In "Cat Blanc", to sway Adrien over Hawk Moth assumed if Ladybug truly loved him, she let him save his mother but he's partially right she would but not like this. If they had known about Emilie's condition sooner, then they could've consulted Master Fu, so Hawk Moth hastily assumed the wish was the only way.
- If Gabriel had thought through the crazy circumstances, Adrien did what he asked. It's likely that he assumed both boys switched places again and when Marinette crashed the party he believed that she was in on their trick but she wasn't.
- In "Timetagger", Gabriel easily assumed that the titular villain was sent by his future self but he was shocked upon learning the truth.
- Nor Felix in "Emotion", when he was angry with Ladybug involving her actions with the miraculouses but he didn't know or asked what guidelines, restrictions or rules went into choosing who gets a miraculous or not having to learn it the hard way.
- By misreading what Ladybug and her Lucky Charm meant, he thought she was referring to him but actually she was referring to everyone else teaching him that everyone has something to lose even though, he didn't realize it, he put Ladybug in the same situation they were in "Strikeback".
- Switch pranks between Adrien and Felix in "Felix", "Strikeback" and "Emotion" weren't funny and caused serious harm to himself and others.
- In "Ladybug & Cat Noir: The Movie", when finally meeting Ladybug and Cat Noir in person, Gabriel mocked the heroine for "being a scared little girl" but when he saw who Cat Noir was as a parent he had to face his own fear.
- When Gabriel and Nathalie had the Rabbit Watch, they instantly assumed with it that by changing the past, everything would just be as they predicted unaware that they could've created another evil in place of theirs.
- In "Destruction", Gabriel assumed that Orikko's powers could just give him any powers he wanted but misunderstood what it was really suppose to do.
- Such as Shadybug and Claw Noir from "Miraculous Paris", when they believed their counterparts were nothing like them until they were proven wrong.
- When Marinette met Fei in "Miraculous Shanghai", she was devastated that Fei was the cause of her misfortune but forgave her and helped fix it.
- Ever since Season 4, Su-Han just assumed that Hawk Moth was an irresponsible, reckless miraculous holder but didn't understand why until learning from Ladybug in "Re-creation" after that he became remorseful towards him.
- How wrong he was about Cat Noir in "Ephemeral", when he based the heroes off his fears.
- The episode also gives an insight to the power of Uproar:
- This is the third overall time Marinette is possessed by an akuma, following "Ladybug" and "Elation". In all 3 times, the akumatization was incomplete.
- Unlike the other two times where she had help driving the akuma away, despite this akuma possessing her, Marinette drew it away on her own, revealing another method of how victims can resist akumas. If the victim understands why they feel the way they do, as in with Marinette with her dealing with painful past memories, they can find a way to make peace with them and the akuma will leave them alone.
- This is the third time Marinette spills milk while having breakfast, after "Ladybug & Cat Noir" and "Qilin".
- Additionally, another instance is seen in the flashback.
- This is Gabriel's sixth attempt to akumatize Marinette following "Zombizou", "Chameleon", "Cat Blanc", "Ladybug", and "Elation".
- If counting Marinette as Ladybug, "Mayura" would technically total it to being the seventh attempt. This would also be Gabriel's final attempt to akumatize Marinette/Ladybug.
- Despite attempting to akumatize her, Monarch, from his point of view, usually akumatizes his victims based on what they are feeling in the moment, but what he didn't know is that Marinette's feelings of panic came from her past, and this is the first time he akumatizes someone under these conditions.
- What is also ironic is that had Monarch been active as Hawk Moth that prior year, then Marinette might have possibly ended up as an akumatized victim unless she resisted.
- When Monarch akumatizes Marinette, Hawk Moth's akumatizing theme from season 1 can be heard. By production code order, this is first out of five episodes from season 5 to do this, followed by "Intuition", "Revelation", "Conformation" and "Action".
- This is also the first episode to use Hawk Moth's theme since it was last heard briefly in "Risk".
- This is the seventh time a person infected by an akuma isn't fully akumatized, following Marinette herself previously in "Ladybug" and "Elation", Chloé in "Miraculer", Sabine in "Ladybug", Félix in "Gabriel Agreste" and Luka in "Migration".
- Through Marinette's flashback, several things about the characters in the previous school year are revealed:
- Marinette used to be in love with Kim, adoring him the same way she now adores Adrien, having had pictures of him around her room and going to the pool watch him swimming.
- It is also explored how much she used to be bullied by Chloé, being her main target. She was always suffering with Chloé's cruel and humiliating pranks and couldn't be friends with other students who, despite wanting to be her friends, were pressured by Chloé to be away from her. In order to avoid Chloé, Marinette was constantly trying to get excuses to not go to school and would be late to classes as Chloé always warned Principal Damocles about it, causing her to get detention.
- Since they've been classmates for four years, it's unknown if Chloe also pranked Marinette the last two years too, but judging by Chloé's previous actions and behaviors, it's not too far a stretch to say this is the case.
- In fact, the reason why Marinette used to wear a pair of blue jeans that were her favorite, but they were ruined due to one of Chloé's pranks in which she had green paint all over her seat in her class. This prank is similar to the one in "Stoneheart", in which Chloé tried placing her chewing gum on Marinette's seat.
- The flashback also shows how the characters appeared in the previous class photo seen in "Reflekta"; Marinette, during eighth grade, was in the same class as Chloé for three years, as well as Sabrina, Rose, Juleka, Max, Kim and Nathaniel all sharing their eight grade homeroom and science classes. Meanwhile, Mylène was in a different set of classes.
- It is also hinted that the reason why Marinette uses pigtails as her hairstyle during the ninth grade is because she wants to have the same confidence Socqueline has, and in a way, be able to stand up against Chloé.
- It is also explored how much she used to be bullied by Chloé, being her main target. She was always suffering with Chloé's cruel and humiliating pranks and couldn't be friends with other students who, despite wanting to be her friends, were pressured by Chloé to be away from her. In order to avoid Chloé, Marinette was constantly trying to get excuses to not go to school and would be late to classes as Chloé always warned Principal Damocles about it, causing her to get detention.
- Kim used to be even more childish and naive than he is now, as he used to play much more pranks on people than he does now and would fall much easier for Chloé's manipulation.
- It's also implied that Kim may have had feelings for Marinette and that, if Chloé hadn't intervened and Marinette had declared herself to him, it was possible that the two of them would had become a couple. Though he seems to sometimes have feelings for Chloé since at least "Dark Cupid", it is unknown if these feelings were present during their eighth grade school year.
- If it wasn't for Chloé's harsh prank, Marinette and Adrien's friendship and relationship could've started off better.
- Socqueline, who used to study at Collège Françoise Dupont as a ninth grader at that time, was the only person Chloé was scared of, as she was not intimidated by her and would always defend Marinette from her.
- Because of her actions defending Marinette after Chloé filmed her falling for Kim's prank by breaking Sabrina's phone, where the video was recorded and stored, Socqueline was suspended for the remaining two weeks of that school year, missing the end-of-the-year party and graduation.
- This scene is also similar to episode "Lady Wifi", when Chloé suspends yet another of Marinette's best friends, Alya for "invading" and "stealing" by taking pictures of Chloé's locker, threatening Mr. Damocles to calling her father, the mayor to fire him.
- Mylène, just like Chloé, reveals she has an estranged mother who, according to her, abandoned her and her father, but at least she doesn't use that as an excuse to hurt others.
- Despite Max and Kim being best friends, the former used to be extremely annoyed when Kim would play pranks on him, like taking and wearing his glasses.
- Marinette used to be in love with Kim, adoring him the same way she now adores Adrien, having had pictures of him around her room and going to the pool watch him swimming.
- Kim is the second character who received the power of his own Miraculous through his Alliance in an akumatized form, following Kagami in "Perfection".
- This is the fifth time Cat Noir uses his Cataclysm in anger, following "Santa Claws", "Cat Blanc", "Hack-San" and "Jubilation".
- Similar to "Hack-San", his anger came from the pain of feeling a loved one hurt or in danger this time being Marinette unknown to him that she and Ladybug are the same person.
- After learning that Chloé is the reason why Marinette can't be with him romantically and seeing how she refuses to repent on her actions and apologize, along with her refusal to change after many chances given to her, Adrien finally ends his friendship with her for good.
- Although "Queen Banana" seemed to imply Chloé cut off ties with Adrien for not taking her side when her version of the class movie wasn't filmed, she was still hopeful that he would come around and love her some day, as seen in "Gabriel Agreste". In this episode, however, their friendship ends definitively, as they increasingly can't see eye to eye.
- Chloé now views Adrien as a "traitor" for not taking advantage of his position of power like she does after he ends their friendship for good when he calls her out for her selfishness. She continues to refer to him as this in "Emotion" and "Revolution".
- Her viewing him as a "traitor" is ironic since she betrayed Cat Noir (unbeknownst to her that it is Adrien) in "The Battle of the Miraculous".
- Despite for just being a moment, Sabrina is shown to be bothered and hurt by the way Chloé expresses how she views people like Marinette as doormats since she treats her as a doormat too.
- This is the third time Kim gets akumatized, following "Dark Cupid", and "Catalyst". However, this time he gets akumatized into Dark Humor, a new version of Dark Cupid.
- In the Brazilian Portuguese dub, the title voice-over narrator refers to the episode as "Derision, the essence of Xuppu's Miraculous" in the title card, instead of just calling it by its translated name, like in all other episodes.
- Adrien and Marinette are seen in their swimwear for a second time, following "Mr. Pigeon 72".
- This is the eleventh episode that features a post-credit scene, following "Miracle Queen", "Gabriel Agreste", "Optigami", "Sentibubbler", "Dearest Family", "Multiplication", "Jubilation", "Illusion", "Transmission", and "Perfection".
- This is the third not to feature Gabriel Agreste, following "Multiplication" and "Jubilation".
- Despite being a flashback, this is the second episode in which Marinette's hair is seen in a bun, following "Animaestro", and the fourth time it's completely down following "Heart Hunter", "Cat Blanc" and "Determination".
- The scene in the flashback in which Marinette is eating breakfast with Sabine parallels the one in "Ladybug & Cat Noir", in which Marinette expresses her dissatisfaction with being in the same class as Chloé for yet another school year. Here, the two hope that Chloé won't be in the same class as her for the next year.
- Even though Marinette was first seen at the pool before in "Mr. Pigeon 72", back then, she showed no signs of trauma, most likely because she was trying to get Adrien and Kagami together and her feelings for him weren't on the same level.
- Like Adrien in "Kuro Neko", Marinette had to return to the place where her nightmares in love had began to gain emotional growth.
- This is the second time Ladybug had the process of summoning her Lucky Charm interrupted, following "Sandboy", but unlike last time, an object does appear, just not the real Lucky Charm.
- This is the seventh time where a Lucky Charm object breaks, excluding the broken plate in "Troublemaker" followed by "Robostus", "Weredad", "Miraculer", "Psycomedian", "Hack-San" and "Miraculous Paris".
- This is the third time where Ladybug breaks the Lucky Charm object herself, following "Miraculer" and "Psycomedian".
- This is the second time Ladybug pretends to be under the powers of an akumatized supervillain, following "Psycomedian".
- However, unlike in "Psycomedian", she wasn't actually hit afterwards.
- The way Kim described his and Chloé's prank is how he proposed to Chloé in "Dark Cupid".
- In the flashback where Marinette is looking at the picture of Kim in her room, there's one picture from "Reflekta" that has been reused where there is Rose, Juleka and her with hair edited into a bun.
- When Marinette told Socqueline she's gonna make sure the other boy she will fall in love is not gonna be friends with Chloé, is also a callback to "Ladybug & Cat Noir" where Marinette asked Adrien if he's friends with Chloé.
- This also could be a callback to what Nino asked Adrien why is he friends with Chloé, for Adrien to respond by saying he has known her and can't drop her a friend, that is until this episode Adrien finally decides to call off her friendship with her.
- In terms of Luka, Marinette felt comfortable to talk with as considering she knows Luka isn't friends with Chloé, and by far probably does not even know about her.
- Chloé mentions the cockroach prank back in "Sole Crusher", when she is talking to Zoé. She comes up with ideas sticking gum on her chair and getting her punished for something she did not do and putting roaches in her locker calling herself brilliant.
- In the flashback, Chloé did the cockroach prank on Marinette and when Chloé discussed it with Zoé, she suggested the same plan she did indicates she likely forgotten she already did that.
- Lila initially wanted to take an embarrassing photo of Marinette back in "Oni-Chan" but claimed it was too easy to humiliate her like that.
- Zoé and Marinette both had cockroach prank on them both. Zoé did say back in her boarding school in New York, someone put cockroaches in her locker.
- This is the third time Chloé is seen with her sunglasses on her face following "Reverser" and "Malediktator".
- Both Marinette with Kim and Adrien with Félix, trusted a trickster and got tricked.
- This is the first episode of Season 5 where Kaalki is absent.
- Just like in "Dark Cupid", Cat Noir's mind was influenced by an akumatized version of Kim.
- This marks the only time in Season 5 that Cat Noir's mind has been affected by an akumatized villain.
- This is the second time Cat Noir's mind has been fully infantilized by an akumatized villain, following "Simpleman".
- This is the third time where his power of completely nullified following "Reflekta" and "Malediktator".
- This is the third and last episode of Season 5 where Gabriel is not featured in the episode, following "Determination" and "Migration".
- This episode marks the only time in Season 5 that the superpower Uproar is used, if the flashback in the next episode is discounted.
- Although Uproar was only seen once in Season 4, being "Penalteam", it was implied to be used off-screen during "Kuro Neko", due to King Monkey automatically de-transforming.
- However, it was used far more times in this episode alone than in seasons 3 & 4 combined; however that was a result of Kim being akumatized, thus allowing him to use Uproar multiple times without transforming back.
Errors[]
- Kim uses spiders in his prank on Marinette. However, in "Darkblade", he admits to Marinette that he is afraid of spiders and that's what Chloé used to keep him from running for class representative.
- However, it's possible that his fear of spiders may have been formed in the between, as the prank was done when he was an eighth grader and he tried to run for class representative during his ninth grade.
- What Kim says is that Chloé "threatened to tell everyone I'm afraid of spiders." Whether it's true that Kim is afraid of spiders is not relevant, only that people thinking it's true will embarrass Kim.
- When Ondine destroys the boats, the mouth of the blonde hair girl is strangely shaped.
- When Ladybug and Cat Noir were defending civilians, one of the mother's eyes were briefly yellow instead of brown.
- When Socqueline kicks Chloé's phone, her eyes are white.
- In one of the scenes where Ladybug is chasing Cat Noir, trying to get Dark Humor to follow her, her suit is a mix of her normal and upgraded suit. None of the sections of it are black, but she's got her new hairstyle and the ladybug zipper.
- In the flashback some scene in the flashback the rubber band that ties Marinette bun can be seen in some scene and some scene it just disappears.
- After the scene when Monarch transferred Xuppu to Kim, his hand appeared out of nowhere.
- When Ladybug is figuring out how to use the Lucky Charm and sees the arrow that Dark Humor had shot, the arrow disappears in the last frame.
- After Marinette enters the science classroom after coming back from Principal's office, Nathaniel is sat next to a brown haired boy. After Marinette sits on the stool though, Nathaniel is sat next to a red haired boy.
Gallery
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References[]