History Recap / MiraculousLadybugS04E22Ephemeral

** Ladybug and Cat Noir keeping their identities secret from each other has always been stated to be of utmost importance, but with a particularly bad showing against Moolak when Adrien can't help, Su-Han decides enough is enough and gives Marinette the task to find out who Cat Noir ''really'' is so he can be called upon when needed, or he'll takes the Black Cat Miraculous away from him and bestow it to a new holder who is more reliable.

* LovingAShadow: Discussed. After finding out that Adrien, her crush and the ideal boy in her eyes is also Cat Noir, her goofy and reliable partner, Marinette is seen wondering which one is the true Adrien and if she hasn't been in love with a public mask. After a talk with Luka, she spend some time observing him and Cat Noir to eventually realize that they are two halves of the same coin which prompt her to reveal him her true identity.

* ShoutOut: The error message on the computer bluescreening from the time distortions has after "time.exe" contains two pieces of text that read [[Series/DoctorWho "dr" and "wh0"]], with another piece of text reading "t4rd15".

* ApocalypseHow: Class X-4. Gabriel's wish to change the past requires erasing the present, metaphysically annihilating the current universe so it can be replaced with one that meets his desires.

* ApocalypseHow: Gabriel's wish to change the past requires erasing the present, metaphysically annihilating the current universe so it can be replaced with one that meets his desires.

* WritersCannotDoMath: Gabriel states that he's tried to steal Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculouses 100 times. Seems like an appropriate thing to say, considering it's the [=100th=] episode, but then you would have to ignore a ''lot'' of akumatizations that were not the main villain of an episode as well as any that occurred offscreen (such as the vast majority of [[RunningGagged Mr. Pigeon's 72 akumatizations]]). Hell, earlier in ''this'' episode there was a montage of villains being beaten, which would have put the total above 100 even if you had only counted one per episode up to this point.

* OutsideContextProblem: When Unification was used previously, it was explicitly limited to just two Miraculouses at a time. Even when "Kwamibuster" had Marinette (as Multimouse) unify several Miraculouses, she was using [[MesACrowd Multiplication]] as a LoopholeAbuse. This episode has Shadow Moth ''unifying the Cat Miraculous with the Peacock and Butterfly'', becoming Shadow Noir for his confrontation with Ladybug.

* SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay: Gabriel realizes that Adrien is Cat Noir when he overhears him talking to Marinette on the phone and Adrien calls her "M'Lady". Because of this, he also figures out that Marinette is Ladybug.

* StatusQuoIsGod: As in "Cat Blanc", Gabriel learning the heroes identities leads to a worse case scenario. So the events of the episode are largely undone by the end.

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Long story short, due to Su-Han’s paranoia and demands for an identity reveal, Shadow Moth would had ''won and would had destroyed the current universe'' if it weren’t for Sass and Luka. And even then Ladybug and Cat Noir had to clean up the resultant mess of Sass using his powers alone.

* WritersCannotDoMath: Gabriel states that he's tried to steal Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculouses 100 times. Unless he's [[PurpleProse being poetic]], this is ignoring every akumatization that's occurred off-screen mixed with 72 of those attempts involving [[RunningGagged Mr. Pigeon]].

** it's been 100 weeks since Emilie went missing.
** Gabriel has been trying 100 times to get the duo's Miraculouses.

** The scene that has Marinette see Cat Noir as Adrien was him extending his umbrella to him, calling back to the moment in "Origins" when she first fell in love with him.

* LetsGetDangerous: Marinette transforms into Ladybug as soon as Shadow Noir bursts into the movie theater. Knowing full well how dangerous the situation has become immediately!

* TakeAThirdOption: Su-Han's original ultimatum is that Ladybug learns Cat Noir's secret identity or he will confiscate Cat Noir's Miraculous. She comes up with the alternative solution of having Viperion learn Cat's identity, using Second Chance to undo her learning it in the process, and having ''him'' tell Su-Han, thereby making it possible to keep tabs on Cat Noir outside the suit while preserving the secrecy between Ladybug and Cat Noir. At the end of the episode, after time shenanigans disrupt this plan, she comes up with the ''fourth'' option of skipping all the identity stuff and just telling Su-Han to his face that she's not going along with his demands because the team is doing fine as-is.

* OutrightLie: Several on the part of Ladybug:
** In the first timeline she lies about her reasons for wanting a reveal. Su Han's threat, her plan to expose Cat Noir's identity to the Guardian and Luka without his consent and that she was originally going to erase her own knowledge of his identity were never going to be revealed to him.
** She also pretended it was going to be a double reveal, which she had no intention of following through. Only when the reset didn't happen and after much soul-searching did she decide to keep her word.
** Her excuse for not going first or together with the double reveal, that she is feeling awkward.

** Her excuse for not going first with the double reveal, that she is feeling awkward.

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Long story short, due to Su-Han’s paranoia and demands for an IdentityReveal, Shadow Moth would had ''won and would had destroyed the current universe'' if it weren’t for Sass and Luka. And even then Ladybug and Cat Noir had to clean up the resultant mess of Sass using his powers alone.

* BlatantLies: Several on the part of Ladybug:
** In the first timeline she lies about her reasons for wanting a reveal. Su Han's threat, her plan to expose Cat Noir's identity to the Guardian and Luka without his consent and that she was originally going to erase her own knowledge of his identity were never going to be revealed to him.
** She also pretended it was going to be a double reveal, which she had no intention of following through. Only when the reset didn't happen and after much soul-searching did she decide to keep her word.
** In the second timeline, when Cat Noir asks Ladybug what she wanted to talk to him about she says it's not important. His expression making it clear that he didn't buy it.

** In the first timeline she lies about her reasons for wanting a reveal. Su Han's threat, her plan to expose Chat Noir's identity to the Guardian and Luka without his consent and that she was originally going to erase her own knowledge of his identity were never going to be revealed to him.

** In the second timeline, when Chat Noir asks Ladybug what she wanted to talk to him about she says it's not important. His expression making it clear that he didn't buy it.

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Long story short, due to Su-Han’s paranoia and demands for an IdentityReveal, Shadow Moth would had ''won and would had destroyed the current universe'' if it weren’t for Sass and Luka. And even then Ladybug and Chat Noir had to clean up the resultant mess of Sass using his powers alone.

* UnwittingInsigatorOfDoom: Long story short, due to Su-Han’s paranoia and demands for an IdentityReveal, Shadow Moth would had ''won and would had destroyed the current universe'' if it weren’t for Sass and Luka. And even then Ladybug and Chat Noir had to clean up the resultant mess of Sass using his powers alone.

* UnwittingInsigatorOfDoom: Long story short, due to Su-Han’s paranoia of the Miraculous users making a mistake and demanding to know Chat Noir’s identity, Shadow Moth would had ''won and would had destroyed the current universe'' if it weren’t for Sass and Luka. And even then Ladybug and Chat Noir had to clean up the resultant mess of Sass using his powers alone.

* UnwittingInsigatorOfDoom: Long story short, due to Su-Han’s paranoia of the Miraculous users making a mistake and demanding to know Chat Noir’s identity, Shadow Moth would had ''won and destroyed the current universe'' if it weren’t for Sass and Luka. And even then Ladybug and Chat Noir had to clean up the resultant mess of Sass using his powers alone.

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: Not stated by anyone in universe, but if you take a few steps back, you'll realize that the whole Alternative Future could've easily been avoided without Sass' later intervention if Ladybug had just asked Cat Noir to reveal his identity only to Su-han instead of her. Which he would've done easily if she asked him to do so. However, she end up blatantly making up a false reason of actually wanting to reveal their identities to each other.

** When Chat Noir reveals himself as Adrien, he states that the event is causing his heart to beat 100 times a minute.

* WritersCannotDoMath: Gabriel states that he's tried to steal Ladybug and Cat Noir's miraculous' 100 times. Unless he's [[PurpleProse being poetic]], this is ignoring every akumatization that's occurred off-screen mixed with 72 of those attempts involving [[RunningGagged Mr. Pigeon]].

** In the first timeline she lies about her reasons for wanting a reveal. Su Han's threat, her plan to expose Chat Noir's identity to the Guardian and Luka without his consent and that she was originally going to erase her own knowledge of his identity.

* CurbStompBattle: With Ephemeral at his side, Shadow Noir is able to utterly trounce Ladybug, notably because Ephemeral's power steals her kwami's energy. Without the transformation, she is a weak, helpless kid against a grown adult with three Miraculous.

** Sass, upon seeing the wish being granted and knowing how bad the effects are, reveals that he can use Second Chance to go back in time to any designated point. He uses the picture of the watch Marinette texted Luka to return to the Eiffel Tower several days ago, before Ladybug and Cat Noir revealed their identities to each other.

* ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman: Unlike the others time-related akumatized vilains, Ephemeral's powers to accelerate time appear to be relatively harmless (unless he held back [[RapidAging more powerful applications of his powers]]). However, this gives him the ability to completely capitalize on the 5 minutes time-limit and allows him to debilitate Ladybug, leaving her ripe for Shadow Moth to pick.

** Without Cat Noir to help, Ladybug has to recruit every single hero she has access to in order to find some combination of powers among them that can penetrate the villain's shell.

* WhatIf: According to Thomas Asdruc, this is what the episode is meant to be. Downplayed as the events of this episode do have an impact to the main plot to some extent, such as TheReveal that the price of making a wish using both the Ladybug and the Cat Miraculouses is [[EquivalentExchange the destruction of the old reality that would be replaced in favor of the new ones that suited for the wisher]].

** To the above Luka replies that he did in fact encounter a situation like that and while he was confused at first, it allowed him to understand them better and love them even more. To Marinette he's seemingly talking about the recent reveal of Jagged Stone being his father and while that's could very well be part of it, he's obviously talking about Marinette herself and him finding out she was Ladybug and how that helped him understand why she was distant and wouldn't tell him about the obvious problems it was causing her.

* RuleOfSymbolism: Quite a bit in this episode:
** When Marinette realizes that she didn't know Adrien as well as she thought after finding out the truth. She starts seeing Cat Noir in Adrien's place everywhere she goes. Symbolizing how she sees him as more of a stranger to him. It isn't until enough time has passed where Marinette falls in love with the real Adrien, it's then that she sees Adrien instead of Cat Noir.

* UnexpectedCharacter: Ladybug has a very short confrontation with her very confused precessor, Jeanne d'Arc herself.

* DidntSeeThatComing: Ladybug has a very short confrontation with her very confused predecessor, Jeanne d'Arc herself.

* WritersCannotDoMath: Gabriel states that he's tried to steal Ladybug and Cat Noir's miraculous' 100 times. This is ignoring every akumatization that's occurred off-screen mixed with 72 of those attempts involving [[RunningGagged Mr. Pigeon]].