There is no light without shadow, just as there is no happiness without pain.
"Truth, I am Shadow Moth. I'm giving you the power to force people to tell you their most sacred secrets."
— Shadow Moth
After Marinette accidentally releases the kwamis from the Miracle Box, she finds it harder than ever to maintain her social life, even though she just started dating Luka. As Luka gets frustrated that Marinette is keeping secrets from him, the newly-upgraded Shadow Moth transforms him into a villain that forces people to tell the truth.
Tropes:
- Almost Kiss: Marinette and Luka come close to kissing on their movie date when Mr. Pigeon causes a Moment Killer.
- Bittersweet Ending: Luka is reunited with his long-lost father, and the two bond over their shared love of music. However, Marinette breaks up with Luka and ends up a crying mess because she feels she no longer has any agency over her life as long as Shadow Moth is on the loose. And while Shadow Moth is defeated once more, he notes that with his new powers it's only a matter of time before he gets his hands on the Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses.
- Blatant Lies: Marinette's lies and excuses to Luka are so obvious that it gets to him and leads to him being akumatized when she tells him upfront that she can't tell him the truth.
- Brick Joke: Early on, it’s mentioned that Jagged Stone’s discography contains a song entitled “My Guitar is My Only Family”. Later on, after Truth learns that Jagged is his father, the latter claims he was inspired to write the song after having to give up on being a family man to pursue his dream.
- Brutal Honesty: The only time Marinette is completely honest with Luka is when she tells him that she can't confide her secrets to him. This devastates Luka, leaving him vulnerable to akumatization.
- Bound and Gagged: To prevent herself from accidentally revealing her identity to Truth, Ladybug gags herself with Cat Noir’s belt by wrapping it around her mouth; until Cat finds a way to exploit Truth's power to their advantage, she communicates with him through muffled grunts and hand gestures.
- Call-Back:
- Wayzz tells Xuppu that Kwamis using their powers independently is dangerous, reminding him of how Plagg sank Atlantis.
- Cardboard figures from a movie theater, advertising the animated movie from "Animaestro", are used in a Decoy Getaway to trick Light Eye and Truth.
- A longer version of the final scene of season 3 is shown, showing the entire process of fixing the Peacock Miraculous.
- Cannot Tell a Lie: Anyone Truth hits with his eye beam becomes incapable of lying and is compelled to answer any question posed to them. Unfortunately for Truth, the answer he wants and the answer he gets are two different things, at least when it comes to Marinette.
- Comically Missing the Point: While Marinette tries to keep the kwamis under control, Alya makes a video call with Rose, Juleka, and Mylène. They can't see the kwamis over the webcam, but can absolutely see Marinette behaving oddly. All four girls on Alya's side come to the conclusion that Adrien must be in Marinette's house.
- Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: Jagged Stone somberly tells Truth that he left him and Anarka because he felt he couldn't properly raise a kid while also pursuing a career as a rock star (and then tells him cheerfully that this led to him writing a super-cool song, which proves rather well how pre-occupied he is with music rather than fatherhood). Truth doesn't consider it a good enough reason, tossing Jagged off the roof. They reconcile after Luka is de-akumatized.
- Diving Save: Cat intercepts Ladybug's almost-reveal by tackling her into the Seine.
- Don't Sneak Up on Me Like That!: Before they defeat Mr. Pigeon, Cat Noir decides to prank Ladybug by sneaking behind her back. It backfires as she instinctively grabs his arm and shoulder-throws him off the building before realizing her mistake and grabbing him with her yo-yo.
- Dramatic Irony:
- Ladybug jokes that Cat Noir's daily life must be pretty boring if he finds fighting three-eyed supervillains fun. She has no idea how right she is.
- Shadow Moth treats Truth going to Marinette's house as another annoying detour that distracts him from defeating Ladybug and Cat Noir. Truth comes within seconds of finding the Miraculous Box and all its kwamis, which would have given Shadow Moth what he wanted and thensome, before Ladybug and Cat Noir interrupt.
- Everybody Knew Already: The only "secret" everyone has to share about Marinette is that she has a crush on Adrien. This frustrates Truth because he already knew that and is trying to figure out why she's so flakey.Truth: Tell me the truth! What is Marinette's secret?
Alya: She is... in love with Adrien Agreste.
Truth: That's not a secret! - Fish out of Temporal Water: The kwamis have been inside the box for so long (and what little time they've spent out of it was during missions) that they're amazed by modern technology, such as cell phone cameras and horseless carriages.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: The pictures over Marinette's bed are no longer just of Adrien; now, they include all her friends.
- Freudian Slippery Slope: Marinette has a meltdown when talking to Luka over the phone after the latter thanks her for sending him photos of Adrien. She starts calling him Adrien, prompting Luka to remind her what his name is, only for Marinette to assure him that of course she knows what his name is, she's just cheating on him... eer, she just made a mistake!
- Fusion Dance: Gabriel has apparently learned how to unify Miraculous after seeing Cat Noir do it in "Miracle Queen" (or simply learned it from the translated grimoire he stole), which he uses to fuse his newly-repaired Peacock Miraculous with the Butterfly to become Shadow Moth.
- Heroic Willpower: Luka briefly resists Shadow Moth's corruption, and even when he succumbs he retains enough presence of mind to tell Marinette to run before he transforms.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Cat Noir drives Light Eye berserk with his Cataclysm, then Ladybug ropes it and directs its beam onto a foil-covered umbrella, which reflects onto Truth. Paralyzed by his own ally, Ladybug easily breaks his guitar pick and frees both the akuma and the amok.
- Internal Reveal: Thanks to Luka blurting out his new name, Ladybug figures out that Hawk Moth has become Shadow Moth and is using the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculous in tandem.
- Irony: Truth can force people to tell the truth, but only learns one of the things he really wanted to: the identity of his father. When asking for Marinette's secret, he only asks people who don't know (and gets "she's in love with Adrien" as a response every time, which he already knew). And when trying to learn Ladybug and Cat Noir's secret identities, the two constantly interrupt, either preventing the other from answering or changing the second half of the question.
- It's Not You, It's My Enemies: Marinette decides that it's too dangerous for her to date anyone and breaks it off with Luka.
- Let No Crisis Go to Waste: Even though Truth's power inconveniences Ladybug and Cat Noir to no end, they both take advantage of it to get an honest answer from their crime-fighting partner that they otherwise might not get. Cat asks Ladybug what she really thinks of him, and Ladybug asks Cat whether her promotion to Guardian of the Miraculous bothers him. They're both pleasantly surprised by the answers they get.
- Logical Weakness: Truth has several:
- First, anyone affected by his powers must answer questions honestly, but it doesn't have to be his questions. Cat Noir is able to keep him from revealing Ladybug's secret by cutting him off every time he tries to ask something.
- Just because his victims have to answer his questions honestly, it doesn't mean they'll answer them correctly. When he asks others about Marinette's secret, he's told that she has a crush on Adrien. While this isn't the secret he wants — everyone but Adrien knows that "secret" — it still counts because she hasn't yet told Adrien himself, and as far as they know Marinette is an honest person otherwise. Luka is the only person with any knowledge of Marinette hiding a much bigger secret.
- People under Truth's power can't tell him what they don't know. None of Marinette's friends know she's hiding a big secret, much less that she's Ladybug, so none of them could ever possibly reveal it even when magically forced to answer any question truthfully.
- Lost Voice Plot: Once again, an akumatized Luka puts Ladybug in a situation where she cannot speak, this time she is gagged because of the risk of a potential reveal of her secret identity.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Well, Luka, at any rate. He learns from his mother that Jagged Stone is his father, and has Jagged Stone confirm that it's true.
- The Masquerade Will Kill Your Dating Life: Marinette makes all sorts of excuses to Luka when superhero business interrupts their dates. In the end, she decides that it's too dangerous for her to date anyone. The kwamis give her a group hug as she cries over this.
- Mood Whiplash: Truth forces Jagged Stone to explain why he abandoned Luka, Jagged Stone tells him that he was sure he could not be a proper father...and then adds on that this had the side effect of inspiring his "My guitar is my only family" song that he's clearly proud of. Truth reacts expectedly poorly to this and throws him of the building.
- Next Tier Power-Up: Hawk Moth upgrades himself to Shadow Moth by joining the Peacock Miraculous with his Butterfly Miraculous, giving him the power to infuse an object with an akuma and an amok at the same time.
- Ontological Inertia: Despite the Peacock Miraculous being fixed, the damage it inflicted on Emilie and Nathalie's bodies remains since Emilie is still in her coma and Nathalie is bedridden.
- Open Secret: Every time Truth asks others for Marinette's secret, they answer that she loves Adrien. As he lampshades, that's painfully obvious to everyone but Adrien.
- The Paralyzer: Truth is given the assistance of an eye-like sentimonster named Light Eye, who can immobilize anyone it gazes upon, except that they can still speak (allowing Truth to interrogate them).
- Plot Hole: Ladybug is shocked to realize that Truth is actually Luka during their fight even though she was present when he was akumatized.
- The Reveal: Luka learns that Jagged Stone is his father.
- Running Gag:
- Mr. Pigeon manages to get himself akumatized again.
- When questioning people about Marinette's secret, Truth keeps getting the same answer: "She's in love with Adrien Agreste."
- Shout-Out: The door poster in Alya's bedroom look exactly like the entrance to the TARDIS.
- Status Quo Is God: Marinette breaks up with Luka right at the start of the season, after hooking up with him at the end of the previous one.
- Synchronous Episodes: Parts of this episode are replayed during "Lies".
- Taking the Bullet: Juleka jumps in front of a shot from Truth meant for Rose.
- That Was Not a Dream: When the Peacock Miraculous has been fixed, Duusu's mind is restored and he says he had a nightmare where he was being used for evil. Nooroo says that nightmare is unfortunately not over.
- This Is My Human: When Daizzi takes a shine to Alya and says he wants her to be his new holder, Trixx vetoes it, smugly informing his fellow kwami that this particular human is "already taken".
- Waxing Lyrical: When Marinette answers Luka's call at the beginning of the episode and accidentally calls him "Adrien", he answers with "My name is Luka.".
- What Does This Button Do?:
- Marinette has no idea how the transformed Miracle Box works, so she decides to press the Ladybug symbol on the top. This causes every compartment to open and the kwami all spill out at once.
- The freed kwamis immediately scatter about Marinette's room, opening and pressing everything in sight.
- Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises: Everyone hit by Truth's eye beam has this happen as the effect kicks in.
