Sakura's friends have seen her getting up to mischief, which most of them recognize as being most uncharacteristic. What's more every time she's been seen doing naughty things she's had an alibi for not having been there with witnesses. This mystery has to be wrapped up before the case gets serious.
This episode contains examples of:
- Beware the Nice Ones: Sakura set Watery, one of her most dangerous cards, on Mirror. While it's a No-Sell, keep in mind this is Sakura.
- Big Sister Instinct: Inverted; Sakura is furious on seeing her big brother is hurt.
- Confronting Your Imposter: Sakura does this after finding her brother's been injured.
- Doppel Ganger: Naoko's assumption about the situation.
- Foreshadowing: Kero quietly remarks that the foretold catastrophe about the scattering of the cards could be seen as worse than the Earth blowing up, while a mysterious figure stands outside looking at the Kinomoto household.
- Invoked by Sakura's divination session where the three center cards (Shadow, Water, Illusion) are explicitly stated to be characteristics of the card she's after.
- Heel Realization: The Mirror Card gets this when Touya realizes that she's an impostor, but instead of being angry, he expresses sympathy for her. Mirror allows Sakura to name her, revealing her true form, and she gives an apologetic kiss on the cheek to Touya before Sakura seals her.
- Human Shifting: A Clow card deliberately takes on the guise of Sakura.
- I Know Your True Name: Sakura can't seal the card until she names it. The earlier divination tells her it has the elements of Shadow, Water, and Illusion. She still needs a hint from the card after it gives up the fight.
- Immune to Bullets: This is one card Sakura cannot capture by using another card.
- Invisible Subtle Difference: After Sakura elects to have her hair trimmed by Yukito Kero can't see any difference, but Tomoyo can.
- Kick the Dog: The Mirror Card hurts Touya, an innocent party, while posing as Sakura. To be fair, she does realize that what she did was petty.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Chiharu when she thinks that she sees Sakura messing up a display store.
- Kero when Sakura during her divination finds out that this card is deliberately seeking her out to cause trouble.
- Sakura when she reveals the Flower card, and realizes that the Mirror Card is after her brother. "Touya" means "peach blossom" in Japanese.
- Touya when he falls and dangles off a cliff.
- Out-of-Character Alert:
- Sakura's friends are confused when they see her causing mischief, especially when Sakura points out she was getting her hair cut, and eating ice-cream with Tomoyo. Naoko suggests it may be a malevolent doppelganger.
- Touya can't actually see what Sakura's imposter is, but he can tell it's not her after she causes him to fall off a cliff.
- Spot the Imposter: Averted; the two Sakuras are never seen in the same place, at the same time until the climax. By then, the Mirror Card isn't bothering to pretend to be Sakura, after her talk with Touya.
