"Rocketear, I am Shadow Moth. Cat Noir has ripped your heart out and left you in a weeping state of sorrow, so I'm giving your tears the power to destroy everything!"
— Shadow Moth
As Alya is about to find out, Keeping Secrets Sucks. Forced to lie to Nino, Alya gets confused and ends up making Nino believe that she is in love with Cat Noir. Now Nino will do anything to get revenge on the hero. Naturally, Shadow Moth is more than willing to take advantage of the situation.
Tropes:
- All Animals Are Dogs: The four T-rexes in the Action Prologue growl and snap their jaws at the heroes, but quickly start acting like excitable puppies after the doctor uses the "dino whistle".
- Bubble Pipe: Sticks to the bubble wand instead, but used for the same purpose.
- Call-Back:
- For the first time since season 1, we see Nino making soap bubbles. Contrary to that time, when he became the Bubbler, this time, Nino gains a new akumatization called Rocketear.
- Again, Adrien questions the rule about secret identities. His view about how Ladybug does things concerning both her and Cat Noir is starting to bother him.
- Alya's new superhero name is Rena Furtive, which can be translated as "sneaky fox" — i.e. the nickname Cat Noir gave Rena Rouge all the way back in "Sapotis" when she made her debut.
- Clueless Chick-Magnet: Discussed after Adrien sees Alya's new vid singing Cat Noir's praises on the Ladyblog, and after having heard Nino's belief that Alya has fallen for him. Plagg comments that his charisma must have leaked through to Cat Noir, and Adrien wonders if he accidentally amped up Cat's charm and made Alya fall for him. He quickly transforms and goes to talk to Alya to clear things up.
- Continuity Nod:
- Nino remembers Ladybug gave both his and Alya's Miraculous simultaneously in "Catalyst", which is correct, since he is obviously not counting that each had used their Miraculous before.
- When Nino and Alya go to the movies, they watch a trailer for the sequel to the Ladybug and Cat Noir movie from "Animaestro."
- Nino would rather play Super Penguino with Alya than hear another secret. That game featured in "Oblivio" and it carried a lot of innuendo.
- Alya complains about not having any hot topics on the Ladyblog, because Marinette made her delete all the photos of Ladybug and Cat Noir in "Glaciator 2".
- A Day in the Limelight: Nino takes the spotlight for the first time since "Party Crasher", with Alya and Adrien having their share of development.
- Do You Trust Me?: Alya says "I've got this. Do you trust me?" about the Nino situation, and Marinette says she trusts Alya. Unfortunately, that trust is betrayed because Alya tells Nino a secret that Marinette wanted to keep.
- Double Standard: After being brought into the loop by Nino, Adrien dejectedly mumbles that the "our identities must remain a secret" rule apparently applies only to him and Ladybug, since not only has Ladybug informed someone of her own Secret Identity, but allowed two of her chosen heroes to be aware of each other's identity. Plagg agrees with him, but reminds him that since Ladybug is the Guardian, she makes the rules now. Zig-Zagged in that Ladybug only broke that rule in "Mayura" with Alya and Nino because she couldn't separately deliver their Miraculouses under the circumstances, and otherwise has continued calling on the heroes she knows to be compromised without Cat Noir taking issue with it.
- Dramatic Irony: "You're not my enemy, Adrien — Cat Noir is." Of course, unbeknownst to Rocketear, Adrien is Cat Noir.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?:
- Let's say this episode was everything but "nice" to Cat Noir. Not played for laughs in relation to Adrien's friendship with Nino and Cat Noir's doubts about his current role in his partnership with Ladybug.
- Nino gets annoyed that the Ladybug animated sequel is adding Rena Rouge, but not Carapace.
- Entertainingly Wrong: Alya tells Marinette about Cat Noir showing up at her balcony in the middle of the night to question her about the video she posted on the Ladyblog, wanting to know if Alya had fallen for him. Alya has a good laugh at his expense, and Marinette groans and facepalms at how much of a gullible flirt Cat is. In truth, Nino is the one who thinks that Alya has fallen for Cat Noir, and Cat only wanted to clear things up.
- Exact Words: Though Keeping Secrets Sucks for Alya, she wasn't truly lying when she told Nino that she would never be Rena Rouge again (because she now is Rena Furtive) and that Ladybug won't give her the Fox Miraculous again (because she now holds the Miraculous herself).
- Foil: Nino and Alya's relationship as a whole contrasts a lot with Ladybug and Cat Noir's.
- Alya tells (almost) everything to Nino, whereas Ladybug's lies and secrets put a barrier between her and Cat Noir.
- Alya tells Cat Noir she wouldn't fall for someone she doesn't know. This is the opposite of both Marinette and Adrien. Adrien fell for Ladybug despite not knowing her very well, even after all this time, or even knowing her true identity. Marinette is likewise head-over-heels for Adrien even though she rarely interacts with him outside school hours and doesn't know him all that well.
- Heroic Willpower: Nino overcomes his own akumatization through sheer willpower, telling Shadow Moth he doesn't need the power anymore. It helps that at this point he's learned that the reason for his akumatization was a misunderstanding, but nonetheless impressive.
- Innocently Insensitive: Nino tells Adrien the reason why Cat Noir is rejected by Ladybug is because he's "annoying". As he doesn't know that Cat Noir and Adrien are the same person, this really hurts Adrien. So does learning that Nino and Alya know each other's secret identities and that Ladybug allows it.
- Internal Reveal: Nino tells Adrien that he and Alya are Carapace and Rena Rouge, respectively, and that Ladybug knows that they know each other's identities. At the end of the episode, Alya tells Nino that she is now operating in secret, and can never be in public again as Rena Rouge.
- Left the Background Music On: Played with. While Nino and Adrien talk in the boiler room, Nino changes the radio to play smooth jazz, reminiscent of old noir movies. Adrien, however, changes the station away whenever he speaks.
- Likes Clark Kent, Hates Superman: Nino begins to despise Cat Noir in this episode after he thinks Alya is cheating on him with Cat. However his best friend is Adrien, Cat Noir's alter-ego, which leads to a rather dramatic scene where Nino is complaining to Adrien about Cat Noir. Plagg also warns Adrien that it might be a bad idea to transform when Nino is akumatized because he hates Cat Noir now. The misunderstanding is cleared up by the end, though.
- Mistaken for Cheating: Nino is akumatized because he catches Cat Noir hugging Alya on her balcony, after a series of coincidences suggesting that Cat Noir is attracted to Rena Rouge. In fact, Cat Noir is just trying to check that Alya didn't fall for him. Knowing Alya loves Nino more than anything, she makes sure that Cat Noir is right.
- Never Say "Die": Just before he's akumatized, Nino openly wishes that he could make Cat Noir "shut up" forever.
- Noir Episode: Nino, an aspiring director, consciously pays homage to the film noir genre by dressing in a trench coat, using his bubble stick to create "smoke", created a 1940s-style desk in the boiler room, and plays a jazzy saxophone tune on a retro radio.
- Noodle Incident: The start of the episode features a scientist resurrecting four Tyrannosaurus Rexes and needing the Miraculous heroes to stop them from rampaging.
- Not What It Looks Like: Nino thinks Alya is having a romance with Cat Noir and this gets him akumatized.
- Once More, with Clarity: In-Universe. Rena Furtive creates an illusion with sound to give the context Nino missed when he made his video.
- Out-of-Context Eavesdropping: Nino hears Alya say something to Marinette, but it's just Alya reluctantly scrapping a camouflage design for Rena Rouge.
- Poor Communication Kills: Nino's turmoil could have been avoided if he just bothered to talk to Alya herself about his suspicions and evidence. He's willing to blame and punish Cat Noir, but never considers he's expressing a lack of faith in her.
- The Power of Love: Nino's love for Alya is so sincere and big that not only he recover his senses when she comes and hugs him, as the boy breaks his own akumatization instantly!
- Reed Richards Is Useless: Averted, Bob Roth clearly realizes there's some significance from the existence of the four dinosaurs featured in the Action Prologue...someone should really tell him that making a theme park on an island with them has been quite done, though.
- Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: Done by proxy. When Adrien is fretting over Ladybug allowing Nino and Alya to know each other's secret identity, Plagg notes that Ladybug is the Guardian and can do as she pleases. Played with as this only Plagg's personal opinion.
- Sheathe Your Sword: Cat Noir puts away his staff in attempt to talk Rocketear out of fighting. Sadly, it doesn't work.
- Shout-Out:
- The villain's name is a parody of the Disney 1991 live-action film, The Rocketeer.
- Bob Roth comes up with a cockamamie scheme of putting a bunch of dinosaurs, brought to life by a scientist, on an island and turning it into a theme park.
- On a mission to spy on Alya like a detective, Nino wears a deerstalker hat and matching tweed jacket like another famous detective.
- Significant Wardrobe Shift: Since Rena Rouge can no longer appear in public after the events of "Sentibubbler", Alya changed her costume from an orange, white, and black one to a white one with a blue camo pattern resembling an arctic fox's coat, and now goes by "Rena Furtive" (invisible fox).
- Swiss-Army Tears: Rocketear's powers involve flicking glowing tears from his eyes which strike with enough force to blow up a car. When it hits Cat Noir, he flies back into a van, leaving him severely hurt.
- Wham Episode: Quite a few things happen here.
- Adrien learns from Nino that he and Alya are Carapace and Rena Rouge, which in turn makes Adrien suspicious that Ladybug allows others to know each other's secret identities but not him.
- Marinette tells Alya to trick Nino into thinking she's no longer Rena Rouge to help hide her from Shadow Moth's retribution, but Alya, who hates keeping secrets from him, goes behind her back to tell him the truth (that she's still Rena but acting undercover) anyway, to avoid any other misunderstandings.
