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“ | "Your mom is really amazing. Even though she's so busy, she always manages to organize so well!" "The exact opposite of me. Do you realize Tikki, I'm more than a month late for Mother's Day! I wanted to make her something but with everything going on I barely had time get started on it. It's such a bummer because today would've been the perfect day to make it up to her." |
” |
—Tikki & Marinette Dupain-Cheng, "Qilin" |
"Qilin" is a Season 4 episode of the series, Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir. As based on the series' production order specifically, "Qilin" is the 20th written and produced episode of Season 4. It is also the 98th written and produced episode of the series, overall.
Synopsis
Disney Channel
Because of one of Marinette's careless mistakes, her mother is akumatized into Qilin, a fearsome supervillain.
Plot
The episode starts with Sabine preparing for the day, showering, reading her calendar, adjusting the house decor to align with the concept of Feng Shui, preparing the kitchen for Marinette's accidents, making coffee and tea for Tom preparing baked goods for the Chinese ink painting class she is teaching later, all the while doing Tai Chi. She books a reservation at noon for herself and Marinette at Dim Sum delight.
Marinette wakes up sleepy, tripping down the stairs as she does so, landing in the laundry basket full of clothes Sabine planted there on purpose. Sabine greets her and asks about her tired disposition. They are interrupted by an urgent newscast reporting Ladybug and Cat Noir's victory in stopping a turbine from exploding at the coco plant factory and saving the city from an explosion of hot chocolate denied by the CEO arrested for professional negligence. Marinette goes along with the scenario Sabine presented. Sabine asks Marinette to do the laundry, measuring her height as she does so, acknowledging new growth. Marinette eats breakfast but spills the milk as she does so. She apologizes, but Sabine simply picks up a soaked sponge on the floor. Marinette notices the shoe advert Sabine placed earlier, remembering that she is growing out of her current shoes, and asks for a new pair as shown in the advert, which Sabine agrees to and sets up a meeting after her painting class and their lunch.
Just then, a breaking news report alerts Marinette about the reappearance of Lollipop Boy, kicking Marinette into action. Marinette makes up an excuse about being late to class. Sabine reminds her it is a Saturday, which Marinette backtracks and clarifies it is about a meeting with Alya Césaire as they are doing a project together. Sabine gets Marinette to promise that she will not forget their lunch, to buy a ticket for the bus, and to change out of her pajamas, which causes Marinette to freak out and run upstairs. Tikki comments about Sabine Cheng's impressive organisation skills despite her busy lifestyle, which Marinette reflects on how it is the opposite of her, revealing how she is more than a month late for Mother's Day thanks to her duties as Ladybug. Marinette realises she could buy a gift for her before meeting her, giving it to her at the restaurant. They proceeded to transform to take care of the Sentimonster as Sabine leaves the house, collecting the pastries from Tom for her class.
At the school, Sabine teaches a class about Chinese ink brush painting, highlighting the differences between western styles of painting and emphasising certain features of the eastern style. Ladybug and Cat Noir pass by battling Lollipop Boy. Sabine sympathises with them as they have already been up all night dealing with other issues and are already back in action. The heroes defeat the villain and leave. Sabine's students head out and Sabine packs her things up and goes down to the bus station then calls Marinette but ends up leaving her a voicemail telling her to hurry up.
Once the bus arrives, Sabine leaves her bag next to bus driver so she can pull out her wallet. Marinette arrives shortly after but realizes she forgot her bus ticket and Sabine paying for her ticket. Sabine and Marinette walk down in the bus and come across a handicapped person struggling to fit their wheelchair in a tight spot because a rude passenger is busy discussing business plans on a phone call. After Sabine is shut down by the rude passenger when she asked him politely to let the handicapped person stay in spot made for their use, she forms a plan including a traffic light, the rude passenger, a gear on the handicapped person's wheelchair and a paintbrush. Sabine then places the paintbrush on the ground in front of the rude passenger. Once the bus pulls to a stop, the rude passenger trips on the paintbrush which moves him out of the spot, and the handicapped person is relocated uncontrollably to the handicapped spot.
Characters
Major characters
- Marinette Dupain-Cheng/Ladybug
- Adrien Agreste/Cat Noir (Adrien pictured only)
- Gabriel Agreste/Shadow Moth
- Tikki
- Akuma
- Roger Raincomprix
- Ticket Inspector
- Sabine Cheng/Qilin
Minor characters
- Nadja Chamack
- Tom Dupain
- Clara Contard
- Alya Césaire (mentioned)
- Lollipop Boy
- Lila Rossi (background)
- Jagged Stone (pictured)
- Sabrina Raincomprix (indirectly mentioned)
- Sarah (pictured)
- André Bourgeois (indirectly mentioned/pictured)
- Audrey Bourgeois (pictured)
- Armand D'Argencourt (pictured)
- Unnamed bus driver
- Police Officers
Trivia
- Internationally, this episode first premiered in the USA on Disney Channel.
- In Chinese mythology, Qilins, also known in Japanese as Kirins, are East Asian creatures that resemble a unicorn, being one of a great number of East Asian creatures to have one horn.
- That makes this episode the sixth one where the titular villain is named after a mythological creature, after "Dark Cupid", "Befana", "Sapotis", "Anansi", and "Oni-Chan".
- Sabine is fully akumatized for the first time, after her transformation into Verity Queen in "Ladybug" was not completed.
- The lollipop sentimonster is revealed to be named Lollipop Boy.
- As of this episode, Marinette is the only member of her family not getting fully akumatized since her transformation into Princess Justice in "Ladybug" was not completed because of Nathalie Sancoeur's illness.
- This is the fifth episode in Season 4 where a character is fully akumatized for the first time, following "Psycomedian", "Furious Fu", "Sole Crusher" and "Wishmaker".
- This is also the third episode in Season 4 where a character from Season 1 is akumatized for the first time after "Furious Fu" and "Wishmaker".
- This is the sixth time Miraculous-related content premiered in the US, following "Captain Hardrock", "Ikari Gozen", "Miraculous New York", "Wishmaker", and "Ladybug Saves Christmas", later being followed by "Risk".
- This is the second time where Cat Noir uses the umbrella feature of his staff following "Glaciator 2" and before "Ephemeral".
- But this is the first time he uses it in combat.
- Thomas Astruc has stated on Twitter that this episode would have themes of racism.[4]
- This is one of the few episodes with obvious sociopolitical themes. It deals with themes of racism and police aggression. This makes it one of the few episodes confirmed to have mature themes, after "Reverser" and "Mega Leech".
- The episode was written during the Yellow Vests movement in 2018, which explains the political themes.[5]
- This is one of the few episodes with obvious sociopolitical themes. It deals with themes of racism and police aggression. This makes it one of the few episodes confirmed to have mature themes, after "Reverser" and "Mega Leech".
- The Dupain-Cheng's bathroom and Tom and Sabine's room are seen for the first time.
- This is the second time Marinette spills milk on the table, after "Ladybug & Cat Noir".
- This episode takes place on Saturday the 14th of an unknown month.
- There is no Saturday 14th except that before Mother's Day in 2016, the year in which it is assumed the episode takes place. The only possible days are November 14th 2015, January or October 14th 2017, all of which are too far from late May.
- Mother's Day is celebrated on the second Sunday (in China) or last Sunday (in France) of May. This difference, however, does not affect the error.
- Since Marinette mentions she is over a month late for Mother's Day, which takes place in May, the episode would most likely take place in June or July.
- This would be impossible, as each episode happens during the same school year, and as seen in future episodes, the school year still has not ended.
- The following episode, "Dearest Family", takes place in early January.
- Sabine's thinking pattern is revealed for the first time, being whitish-yellow with drawings resembling plants.
- This is the twelfth episode where the thinking pattern of someone who is not Ladybug is seen, following Fei's in "Miraculous Shanghai", Adrien's in "Oblivio", Marinette's in "Oblivio", "Ladybug", "Heart Hunter", "Hack-San", and "Simpleman", Pegasus' in "Startrain", Félix's in "Félix", Cat Noir's in "Psycomedian", Master Fu's in "Furious Fu" and Alya's in "Sentibubbler".
- Sabine is one of the few akumatized victims who at first tries to resist Hawk Moth/Shadow Moth's control.
- Sabine is the third person to break free from Shadow Moth's control while akumatized following Alya in "Gang of Secrets" and Nino in "Rocketear".
- When Nino broke free, the akuma expelled from his glasses, however, when Sabine broke free the akuma had to be released when Ladybug destroyed her handcuffs.
- This is also one of few times someone has seen the akuma before it hits its target.
- It is revealed that Sabine teaches Chinese painting classes at Marinette's school.
- This is the second time Cat Noir runs up a wall, following "Stormy Weather".
- This is the second time Ladybug ties herself down to something so she does not get blown away.
- This is the fourth time Adrien is Cat Noir for the whole episode, following "Prime Queen", "Christmaster", and "Furious Fu".
- This is the tenth episode where Plagg doesn't appear following "Prime Queen", "Despair Bear", "Malediktator", "Animaestro", "Christmaster", "Truth", "Furious Fu", "Guiltrip" and "Crocoduel".
- This is the third time Marinette leaves the house in her pajamas following "Gorizilla" and "Sentibubbler".
- This is the second episode of Season 4 where the other kwamis from the Miracle Box don't appear following "Psycomedian".
- This is the second time Cat Noir gets tossed into the river following "Princess Fragrance".
- The names of Qilin's attacks come from various idioms and phrases.
- Cat Noir talking to Qilin while sitting on a lamppost is similar to what he did in "The Pharaoh".
- This is the third time Ladybug gets tangled in her yo-yo following "Ladybug & Cat Noir" and "Psycomedian".
- It is revealed that Sabine had been marking Marinette's growth for the last five years (sometime after Marinette's 8th birthday), which is a reference from "Ladybug & Cat Noir" (4 years in the same class with Chloe).
- This is the seventh time where Ladybug's Lucky Charm resembles an akumatized villain's object from before it got akumatized following "Pixelator", "Reflekta", "Frightningale" "Sandboy", "Miraculer" and "Mega Leech".
- Even though the ray gun is a weapon of science fiction this episode is the second time where the Lucky Charm is a weapon following "Malediktator".
- When TF1 aired the episode in France, they cut out the scene of the ticket inspector harassing Sabine on the bus, and her being arrested and akumatized, making the episode only 18 minutes long. The exact reason for this is unknown.
- Although TF1 has stated that the cut was due to them believing the episode's theme was too mature for young children, several have believed it was politically-motivated censorship, as it very clearly portrays police officers and state officials as aggressors.
- However, according to Thomas Astruc, the episode was sent in its original form to TF1, so all other broadcasters which air the show in French aired the episode fully. (RTS, Disney Channel France and Belgium, Disney+, Télé-Québec).
- When Shadow Moth was talking to Sabine about him being misunderstood that isn't completely true if he had explained his problem in the first place, then the people would understand his problem but not agree with Gabriel on how he is handling it.
Errors
- When Sabine and her class were looking at Ladybug and Cat Noir jumping on rooftops after the battle, Ladybug's suit was in its upgraded version despite her doing Miraculous Ladybug.
- Even after that scene, when Ladybug was about to detransform in an alley, she is still seen in her upgraded suit.
- When the policemen explain to Ladybug why Sabine was arrested, Ladybug’s earrings are in their activated mode instead of their charged one.
- Marinette's eyelashes disappear in multiple scenes.
- The same happens with her eyeliner.
- Both are also applicable to Cat Noir.
- The same happens with her eyeliner.
- Sabine's hair is discoloured with dark tones throughout the episode.
- All the characters hold their paintbrushes incorrectly during the episode.
- Sabine's closing form from her Tai Chi routine is incorrect.
- Shadows from character models on the environment disappear in multiple scenes.
- When Cat Noir was defending Ladybug with the umbrella feature of his staff, her suit was in its upgraded version.
- When Shadow Moth releases the akuma, his mask has missing details.

- When Sabine tells Shadow Moth she doesn't believe him about not hurting anyone before the full akumatization, the Butterfly Miraculous is shown tilted to the side in the following shot of Shadow Moth.
- The number of passengers on the bus changes drastically between shots.
- Most of the time Cat Noir has a grey suit.
- Characters' eyes become desaturated in many shots.
- Marinette's hair becomes a very light shade in several shots.
- Multiple characters have discolored hands in several scenes.
- When Ladybug creates Sabine's magical charm, the bead is coloured blue instead of orange.
- When Roger Raincomprix puts away the handcuffs, they are discoloured black.
- When Cat Noir proceeds to attack Qilin, his gloves are deformed.
- When Marinette is grabbing flowers for her mother, the cuff of her sleeve is miscolored green.
- Her sleeve cuff also discolours grey while pleading with her mom to let her off the bus.
- The extent of damage caused by Qilin differs in multiple shots.
- In TF1's censored version of the episode, the bus' wheels are not animated when it was driving away from the ticket inspector's bus stop.
- As the bus was added in post-production, it doesn't have any shadow either.
Gallery
![]() Click here to view the gallery. |
References
- ↑ https://cabletvt.powerrangermail.net/index.php/topic,6907.0.html
- ↑ https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tfou-parc_communiqu%C3%A9-de-presse-tfou-parc-janvier-activity-6890250378173054976-mx9B/
- ↑ https://twitter.com/Winny_IRL/status/1499353597095645186
- ↑ https://twitter.com/Thomas_Astruc/status/1488575960739946501
- ↑ https://twitter.com/Thomas_Astruc/status/1500435214228770817