"Oh well, it's too easy. Where's the fun? You want real? I'll show you real."
"Lady Wifi, Reflekta, Princess Fragrance, you are now the Punishers Trio! I'm giving you the power to chastise the boy you thought was your friend, who has hurt you so terribly. I'm only asking you one thing in return — Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous!"
—Hawk Moth
When Adrien's cousin Félix visits Paris, a disaster comes between Adrien and his friends. Alya, Rose and Juleka are Akumatized into a Trio of Punishers.
Tropes:
- Affectionate Pickpocket: Félix uses a hug to take Adrien's phone, and later a handshake to steal Gabriel's ring.
- Astonishingly Appropriate Interruption: While Adrien is singing his "little kitty on the roof" song, a timely interruption from Gabriel seemingly changes the lyrics to "all alone without his -- Father?"
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Félix has his own "AMP Factor" sequence as he determines the best way to try and manipulate the Punisher Trio.
- Badass Normal:
- Nathalie fights the Punisher Trio, holding them off with no difficulty and even spending a substantial segment of the fight just dodging with her hands behind her back. They do eventually get the better of her, but it takes some prodding from Hawk Moth reminding them of their goal.
- Félix does the same, managing to avoid their attacks and strike back a few times, until Ladybug grabs him. He also takes a punch from Ladybug, a superhero, and doesn't seem to be any more hurt by it than he would be by a normal person doing the same, though presumably Ladybug wouldn't punch a normal human so hard as to intentionally injure them.
- Bait-and-Switch: The audience (and Adrien) are initially led to believe that Emilie has awakened, only for it to turn out to be Adrien's aunt (presumably Emilie's twin sister).
- The Bad Guy Wins: Félix manages to swipe Gabriel's ring at the end, much to his mother's pleasure, that being why she came to Paris to begin with.
- Call-Back:
- In "Cat Blanc", the titular villain is found humming a nursery rhyme to himself before he notices Ladybug. Here, Adrien is humming it to himself mourning by his mother's statue, implying that it was a song his mother taught him.
- In "Gorizilla", the production company that made Emilie's film was Graham Films, and their company logo was two interlocking rings. Now we know that for whatever reason, Gabriel and Emilie's wedding rings are wanted back by Emilie's side of the family, the Graham de Vanily's, or at least by Amelie and Félix.
Little kitty on the roof all alone without his lady... - Cassandra Truth: Whether it was part of Adrien's plan or not, he was telling the truth when he said Félix was the one responsible. The Punisher Trio thought this was a ploy Félix would pull instead of Adrien defending his cousin.
- Chekhov's Skill: While catching up in the bedroom, Adrien casually mentions Félix being a magician and doing karate. The karate is helpful avoiding the Akumatized villains' attacks, while his magic is how Félix can so easily pickpocket Gabriel and his cousin.
- Continuity Nod: Alya and Nino are shown playing Super Penguino together.
- Discard and Draw: Averted. Alya, Juleka, and Rose become Lady Wifi, Reflekta, and Princess Fragrance respectively, in spite of the circumstances being nothing like their original reasons for being Akumatized.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Félix, while disguised as Adrien, tries to force himself on Ladybug, even attempting to kiss her, which leads to Ladybug punching him in retaliation. It brings to mind something very odious and inappropriate for a kids' show.
- Entertainingly Wrong: When Gabriel is about to confess to Adrien that he is Hawk Moth, Adrien stops him and says that he already figured out Gabriel's big secret: He and Nathalie are together! While it is clear that Nathalie pines for Gabriel and Gabriel cares about her, he doesn't love her and gets defensive at the thought of it.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: The interaction Félix has with Amelie at the end seems to indicate that he genuinely loves his mother and that the feeling is mutual.
- Evil vs. Evil: Downplayed with Amelie, but Félix and Gabriel fit. Gabriel knows about Félix's tricky nature, and he swore not be fooled by his nephew twice. It happens that Félix indeed fooled his uncle a second time in the end.
- Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Adrien tries to excuse Félix's behavior on the death of his father. Plagg reminds him that he lost his mother around the same time and never did anything malicious, leading to Adrien having his feelings hurt and Plagg to immediately regret it when he realizes he went too far.
- Hidden Depths: Though Chloé has always been far more kind to "Adrikins" than to other people, her message to him is surprisingly empathetic and maybe the sweetest thing ever to come out of her mouth.
- Jerkass:
- Félix sows discord between Adrien and his friends for no other reason except to have fun, shortly after he rummaged through Adrien's bedroom and messed with Plagg's cheese. By the end of the episode, he doesn't learn his lesson.
- Félix attempts to make a deal with Hawk Moth to work alongside the Punishers in claiming the Miraculous in exchange for his aunt and uncle's wedding rings. Obviously Hawk Moth has no intention of upholding the deal but allows it nonetheless if he gets the Miraculous first.
- Thanks to Lila's intel, Gabriel is pretty aware that Félix is acting to ruin Adrien's friendships, but decides to take advantage of the situation to create more Akumatized villains. He's not above taking some vengeance on his nephew while he's at it...
- Félix stealing Gabriel's wedding ring right under his nose is as impressive as it is cruel.
- Lonely Rich Kid: Invoked by Adrien to justify Félix's behavior. Gabriel, Nathalie, Marinette, Plagg and the audience don't buy it. Félix himself invokes this with his false message to Adrien's friends.
- Magic A Is Magic A: Averted. Last time Hawk Moth Akumatized two people holding the same item, that resulted in a fused villain named Oblivio. In the case of the Sapotis, two identical villains were created. This time, despite holding the same Akumatized item, the Punisher Trio created by Hawk Moth resulted only in apparently less powerful versions of Lady Wifi, Reflekta and Princess Fragrance.
- Mexican Standoff: One at the climax: Ladybug and Cat Noir are aiming at Reflekta and Princess Fragrance, and Lady Wifi is aiming at the former. Then Félix becomes involved.
- Mythology Gag: Félix was the original Cat Noir and Marinette's original love interest for the anime style reel, "Ladybug PV". (However, this guy isn't quite that guy; according to the original treatment, the Cat Noir powers cursed him with bad luck, and he could only remove the ring with a kiss from Ladybug, who represents good luck. Hence the pursuit of Ladybug, while as Félix he couldn't be bothered to acknowledge Mari's presence and considered her a nuisance.)
- Never Say "Die":
- The episode takes place a year since Emilie "went away forever", as Adrien puts it. Marinette then says that he "lost" his mom. Of course, we know that she's not dead, but the mistaken belief that Emilie died is still there.
- Averted at another point when Plagg refers to Félix as a "cheese murderer" for messing with his Camembert.
- Nonchalant Dodge: While holding off the Punishers Trio, Nathalie spends a fair amount of the fight just holding her hands behind her back and dodging like she doesn't really care what they're doing.
- No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: Though the video from Adrien's classmates was sent from Alya's tablet, after Félix deleted it on Adrien's phone she apparently wasn't able to resend it.
- Obnoxious In-Laws: Gabriel and Amelie don't hold each other in high regard, with Gabriel seeing through her sheep's clothing and Amelie (and Félix, and possibly the rest of her side of the family) hold a grudge against him for currently unknown reasons and want his and Emilie's wedding rings back for some plans of their own.
- Odd Name Out: "Félix" is the first episode named after a normal person rather than a super-powered character. It still work as an Antagonist Title, though.
- Out-of-Character Alert:
- When Félix sends a hateful message using Adrien's phone, pretending to be Adrien, Marinette refuses to buy it because it's wildly out of character — particularly since he trash-talks Chloé, of all people. However, the others aren't as convinced because they've only known him since he started coming to public school, leading to the creation of the Punisher Trio.
- Félix tries to make a move on Ladybug when she rescues him, but she knows something's up because Adrien would never be so forward. Cat Noir then explains the situation.
- Polar Opposite Twins:
- Cousins in this case. Unlike Adrien, Félix is malicious and sneaky.
- While Emilie's personality is unknown, she lies in her coffin wearing white while her sister visits in a black suit.
- Rewind, Replay, Repeat: Marinette does this with "I love you" in Adrien's message to his friends at the end.
- Reverse Psychology: When the Punisher Trio confront Adrien and Félix, Adrien immediately points to Félix. The supervillains come to the conclusion that Adrien is Félix since only a meanie would betray his cousin like that. When Nathalie shields Adrien and calls him by his name, Adrien is visibly annoyed. He still manages to convince the Trio for a while until Hawk Moth intervenes.
- Save the Villain: Even though Ladybug witnessed Félix attempting to throw in his lot with Hawk Moth with her own eyes and was almost forcefully kissed by him, she still saves him when he is knocked off the roof of Le Grand Paris during her and Cat Noir's battle with the Punisher Trio.
- Sequel Hook: The twin rings of the Graham de Vanily family. Félix managed to swipe one of them, Amelie hints that there's a story behind them, and Gabriel is loath to part with them — so much so that he immediately takes his comatose wife's ring to replace the one Félix stole from him. Whether Gabriel/Hawk Moth will try to get back his ring or Amelie and Félix will return to claim the second one remains to be seen.
- Single-Target Sexuality: When Adrien implies that his father has romantic feelings for Nathalie, he gets offended and angrily tells Adrien that he'll never love anyone but Emilie.
- Spot the Imposter: The Punisher Trio arrive in Adrien's room, only to find both Adrien and Félix impersonating him. Adrien points the finger at Félix, but the Punisher Trio take this to mean he must be Félix, since they don't believe Adrien would rat out his cousin. Adrien decides to play into it to lead them away, but Hawk Moth interrupts to point out what Adrien is doing.
- Status Quo Is God: Marinette admits she loves Adrien in the group message she and her friends send Adrien, but Félix deletes it so Adrien will never see it.
- Strong Family Resemblance: For once we have a reason why two cousins look so much alike: their moms are identical twins.
- Truce Zone: Despite it being Marinette's idea, even Lila and Chloé take part in the messages to Adrien.
- True Companions: How Adrien really see his friends. Despite being Akumatized because of Félix's fake message, Lady Wifi, Reflekta and Princess Fragance are quick to recognize the real Adrien would never do something that low and turn their attention to the true culprit.
- Twin Switch: "Cousin Switch", really, but it still applies. When they were little, Adrien and Félix swapped places and it took their parents a week before they noticed. In the events of the episode, Félix tries impersonating Adrien to ruin his friendships.
- Uncanny Family Resemblance: Félix looks so much like his cousin Adrien that he can impersonate him in a close-up video call to his friends and even face-to-face with Ladybug. Like The Patty Duke Show, they are "identical cousins," and their mothers are implied to be identical twin sisters.
- The Worf Barrage: Despite there being THREE Akumatized villains around this time, none of them pose a serious threat to Ladybug and Cat Noir. Even against Nathalie and Félix, who are both normal people, they struggle; Fragrance loses her perfume bottle and Reflekta can't get a good aim on her without causing friendly fire, causing the two to fight Nat hand to hand, who proceeds to hand them their asses. Once she gets a shot off, Reflekta transforms Nathalie, but it still takes Wifi pausing her to stop her. As for Félix, he fends off all three simultaneously with the Trio not even able to land a blow or shot on him. (Possibly justified; see Magic A Is Magic A).
