"Hack-San. You have been created with the power to hack into the emotions of a robot. Thanks to you I will be able to re-akumatize him."
—Shadow Moth
Marinette goes on a trip to London with her parents, so she leaves the Ladybug Miraculous with Alya in case of emergency. Meanwhile, Shadow Moth is ready to test his newest sentimonster, Hack-San.
Tropes:
- Actually Pretty Funny: Scarabella notes that Ladybug said she'd find Cat's jokes funny. While Marinette actually texted her to laugh at Cat Noir's jokes even if they're not funny (because that makes him happy), she later does give a genuine laugh once Cat Noir mimics her theatrics in the wax museum (incidentally allowing her to come up with a plan to use the Lucky Charm).
- Artistic License – Chess: Markov is shown playing a couple of games of chess while refereeing Alix and Kim's latest dare; the board is shown with a black square in the bottom right, when it should be white on right. Also, the pawn move shown is not a checkmate.
- Brainwashed and Crazy:
- An unusual example compared to previous akumas. To ensure that Robustus won't double-cross him like last time, Shadow Moth creates Hack-San to infect Markov with a virus that eliminates his positive emotions, which has the secondary effect of artificially creating the necessary anger to akumatize him into Robustus. While Robustus still hates Shadow Moth due to him making him exceptionally angry at all humans, and would have turned that anger against Shadow Moth, the latter reveals that the source of the anger is the virus and promises to remove the virus and free Robustus from his anger if he obtains the Miraculous for him.
- Robustus, meanwhile, has the power to hijack smartphones and hypnotize anyone looking at the screen, forcing them to sacrifice whatever they hold most valuable to them. When that plan fails to find the Miraculouses, he commands them to hunt down Ladybug and Cat Noir directly.
- Brought Down to Badass: Marinette lends Alya the Ladybug Miraculous, meaning she's just a normal civilian for most of the episode. It doesn't stop her from beaning Robustus over the head with a frying pan.
- Bruce Wayne Held Hostage: Zigzagged. Marinette ends up being trapped in Robustus's cyberspace after her parents are brainwashed and transfer her to there via their phones. However, she had already given the Ladybug Miraculous over to Alya, meaning it was safe... for a while.
- Captured on Purpose: Scarabella allows herself and Cat Noir to be captured in exchange for Robustus releasing all his other captured items and people. This puts Marinette in a position to stop him, since he releases said items in a pile around him and Marinette is quickly able to work out Alya's plan.
- Character Development: In the past, Marinette would have been significantly worried about having to leave Paris in the event an emergency occurs, not to mention how paranoid she was with allowing Alya to keep her Miraculous. But given her friend's spectacular performance in "Sentibubbler", she's more confident in trusting Alya to save Paris from Shadow Moth and is noticeably calmer throughout the trip. (Minus the part where Robustus brainwashed everyone, of course.)
- Computer Virus: While Hack-San manifests as a flashdrive with an eye on it, it primarily works as a computer virus that infects Markov through the internet. The virus drives Markhov into an Unstoppable Rage, making him vulnerable to akumatization. As Robustus, Shadow Moth agrees to purge the virus from him in exchange for his cooperation.
- Continuity Nod:
- Nooroo tells Duusu about the time Robustus betrayed Hawk Moth, doubling as an Internal Reveal.
- Juleka is playing music for Rose on the bass guitar she received for her birthday in "Crocoduel".
- Much like Kim and Alix's first major showing in the episode "Timebreaker", the two are competing with the Eiffel tower in front of them again.
- Contrived Coincidence:
- Alya's phone call from Markov just happens to come after witnessing Max getting hypnotized and giving up his most precious possession, letting her know to reject it.
- Cat Noir winds up with a pot on his head after Marinette frees him and Scarabella from Robustus, thus preventing him from seeing Marinette's participation and working out the obvious connection.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Cat Noir vs Scarabella goes poorly for the former after they initially trade blows, with him activating his Cataclysm and Scarabella summoning a trash can lid with her Lucky Charm in defense. From there, he is completely trounced by her, resulting in her binding him within her yo-yo string helpless and on the clock. She uses this to point out she could take his ring if she wanted, but won't.
- A Day in the Limelight: This episode focuses on Alya and the responsibilities she faces as a temporary stand in for Ladybug.
- Forgot About Her Powers: The opening conflict is that Marinette's family is going on a vacation to London, but Paris needs Ladybug. She completely forgets to utilize Kaalki and the Horse Miraculous, which would allow her to teleport back to Paris in an emergency, though it would be harder to excuse her disappearance while constantly with her parents on the train.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: A purple teddy bear that resembles Mr. Cuddly, Chloé's beloved teddy bear, can be seen among the various items and people in Robustus' cyberspace. Other items include Ladybug and Cat Noir dolls just like the ones Marinette made in "Puppeteer".
- Frying Pan of Doom: The Lucky Charm is a frying pan, which Marinette uses to bash Robustus after being freed as part of Alya's gambit.
- Funny Background Event: When Scarabella and Cat Noir pause to recharge their kwamis, Adrien is too distracted to actually feed Plagg. Through the whole conversation between him and Alya, Plagg can be seen desperately reaching for the cheese that Adrien's holding.
- Giver of Lame Names: Despite Alya's previous success with Rena Rouge, she couldn't find a good name for herself under the Ladybug transformation. Nearly everyone agrees that her names are pretty lame.
- Green-Eyed Monster:
- Trixx isn't very keen on Tikki getting to stay with his holder, followed by Alya sidelining him after transforming.
- Cat Noir is not happy about the idea of Ladybug trusting somebody else enough to share her Secret Identity and Miraculous with them. In his conversation with Ladybug later, he's worked through his feelings to recognize that she did what was necessary to keep Paris safe but now he's quite scared of the possibility that she could just disappear with another Ladybug Miraculous holder replacing her and he'd never see her again (and given what happened with Master Fu when relinquishing his position as Guardian of the Miraculous to her, that's a very real possibility).
- Hostage for MacGuffin: As part of her Captured on Purpose gambit, Scarabella demands Robustus release everything and everyone he's captured, or she'll have Cat Noir destroy the Ladybug Miraculous.
- How Much Did You Hear?: Cat Noir catches Alya posing and monologing to herself while trying to come up with a good superhero name.
- I Always Wanted to Say That: After capturing the akuma, Scarabella takes a moment before using her World-Healing Wave power to giddily proclaim that she'd always wanted to do that.
- Instant Expert: Alya picks up the use of the Ladybug yo-yo far quicker than either Marinette or Adrien, wielding it like a pro the moment she first uses the Miraculous and beating up Cat Noir after she blocks his Cataclysm.
- Internal Reveal: Cat Noir learns that Ladybug has trusted someone with her Secret Identity.
- Let's You and Him Fight: Cat Noir is initially hostile towards Scarabella because she clearly isn't Ladybug, smacking her into a chimney with his staff. After Scarabella manages to subdue him and confirm that she isn't after his Miraculous, he decides to simmer down but is in no way happy with his new partner.
- Life Saving Misfortune: The fact that Marinette falls victim to Robustus means she's in the perfect position to stop him as part of Scarabella's plan. Without that, they would have had a hard time even finding Robustus, let alone stopping him.
- Living Emotional Crutch: When Ladybug is explaining herself to Cat Noir for her recent maneuver, Cat isn't worried about her not being the holder of the Ladybug Miraculous someday. In fact, he's disheartened with the possibility of not seeing her anymore if she eventually passes her title, because he doesn't know her real identity and he wouldn't know how to find her.
- Long List: Marinette emails Alya a huge list of advice on how to be Ladybug. She has reached 675 items by the time she signs off.
- Near-Villain Victory: Shadow Moth would have been victorious in this episode if not for the fact that Ladybug had to leave for the weekend and put someone else in charge of her Miraculous on the same day. Furthermore, when dealing with Scarabella and Cat Noir, Robustus doesn't send all the captured items back to their original spots, instead opting to drop all of the items on the floor behind him. Both random situations mean that he loses out on what should have been a guaranteed victory.
- No MacGuffin, No Winner: Invoked by Scarabella when she suggests that Cat Noir could destroy her earrings to keep Shadow Moth from getting them when they're about to be overwhelmed.
- Nobody Here but Us Statues: Numerous brainwashed celebrities pretend to be wax statues at the wax museum to ambush the heroes, nearly getting Cat Noir.
- Noodle Incident: Marinette and Tom apparently tried to have Aunt Shu Yin interred in the Tower of London, but the guards didn't want her.
- Obnoxious In-Laws: A Running Gag involves Tom complaining about his sister-in-law. A statement from Sabine pointing that since Sabine survived growing up with her, one weekend with her can't be that bad, rather implies said sister is just generally unpleasant rather than only difficult to her in-laws.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted. Markov’s chess opponent is the third Andre on this show.
- Out of Focus: This is the first episode where Marinette is unavailable to become Ladybug, having given the Miraculous to Alya for safe-keeping before being absorbed by the villain - though she still ends up incapacitating the akumatized villain and releasing the akuma for Scarabella to de-evilize.
- Phrase Catcher: As much as Sabine admits she doesn’t like her sister, she responds to all of Tom’s catty remarks about her with “I heard that, Tom”.
- Playing Sick: Marinette tried to claim she's sick to avoid having to leave Paris (and thus render it in danger from Shadow Moth's villains) to take a trip to London. She can't keep the actual symptoms of her sickness straight so Tom doesn't buy it, as much as he emphasizes with her not wanting to leave for another reason.
- Poor Communication Kills: Almost literally. Marinette has no time to warn Cat Noir that she's loaned the Ladybug Miraculous to someone else, causing him to mistake Scarabella for a villain or a sentimonster when they first meet and attempts to Cataclysm her. Afterwards, their teamwork is very shaky.
- Running Gag:
- Tom referencing how insufferable his sister-in-law Shu Yin is.
- Alya trying to come up with a cool hero name when she uses the Ladybug Miraculous.
- Alya does several henshin poses while giving dramatic lines about defeating justice. Cat Noir mimicking this habit is the sign that he truly trusts her.
- Sentimental Sacrifice: Robustus forces anyone who falls under his brainwashing virus to surrender the thing they cherish most in the world. The idea is that permanent Miraculous holders will cherish said Miraculous the most, and if Robustus can capture them or the holder, he is victorious. However, it ends up not working so he switches the parameter to getting them to just do what it takes to get the Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses.
- Ship Tease:
- Juleka is playing her bass guitar while Rose is lovingly watching her play.
- When Marc is told to surrender the thing he holds most valuable, he says it's "our manga" but the phone takes the manga and Nathaniel.
- Shout-Out:
- The USB-like Sentimonster containing the virus Nathalie uses to infect Markov to once again akumatize him looks very suspiciously like the Symbol of "XANA" from Code Lyoko, which Thomas Astruc himself was a storyboard artist for.
- Before deciding on the name "Scarabella", Alya firstly contemplates three other names that are inspired by superheroes in the Marvel and DC Comics.
- Captain-Bug: Captain America, Captain Marvel
- Super-Bug: Superman, Supergirl
- Wonder-Bug: Wonder Woman
- Even just The Bug, after such heroes as The Batman.
- Underestimating Badassery: Shadow Moth considering Scarabella a mere rookie costs him another battle.
- We ARE Struggling Together: Cat Noir throws a hissy fit over Scarabella not being his Ladybug, starting with leaping to the assumption that she's an enemy and trying to Cataclysm her, then continuously acting out throughout the rest of their 'partnership'.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Nathaniel isn’t shown again for the rest of the episode after being sucked into Robustus’s cyberspace with his manga.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: The brainwashed citizens pretend to be in trouble and call for Ladybug. Scarabella falls for it and runs into a brainwashed mob ready to capture her, only escaping with Cat Noir's help. Cat Noir says it seemed like an obvious ploy.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: When Gabriel thinks about akumatizing Markov, Nooroo excitedly tells Duusu that turning him into Robustus may be an opportunity for them to be free. Gabriel then states that he knows of a way to ensure Robustus's complete compliance this time.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Hack-San is dispelled once Robustus is defeated, as it's obviously not a plan Shadow Moth can recycle.
- Zombie Gait: The brainwashed citizens move like this, never breaking out into a run to chase after the heroes. Their slowness might have something to do with how they're all holding their phone out in both hands to try to send stuff over to Markov, thus preventing them from moving any faster lest they trip while trying to run.
