It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep, 'Cause everything is never as it seems.
Believing he has found Ladybug, Monarch akumatizes Mr. Damocles into Dark Owl once more, this time upgrading him to Darker Owl and granting him the power of Jubliation to trap his foes in their greatest desire.
Tropes:
- Ace Custom: Gabriel’s Alliance avatar is modelled on Emilie, rather than Adrien or Lila like the mass-produced versions.
- Aesop Amnesia: In The Owl's first appearance, Mr. Damocles learned how to be a hero without needlessly putting himself in danger. In this episode, he's back to trying to save kittens himself instead of calling for the fire department and nearly suffers a serious injury, only narrowly avoided by a Cape Snag and Socqueline pulling him to safety.
- Ambiguous Situation: How much of the dream was based on Ladybug's wishes and how much on Cat Noir's? Cat Noir is the one who wishes for the two of them to go on a date, but the final kiss before they broke out of the dream was initiated by Ladybug, and both of them were equally devastated when they woke up. Notably, the dream is pretty much exactly what Marinette has always said she's dreamed of doing with Adrien; it's just that it's their alter egos doing it this time. We still don't find out what they'll call their hamster this time either.
- Babies Ever After: Ladybug and Cat Noir's dream life starts with one child, then two, then four just before Ladybug forces herself awake. To accentuate the wrongness of the situation, all of them are identical, soulless dolls.
- Be Careful What You Wish For:
- Marinette wants an Alliance Ring and borrows Socqueline's to try it out. When she is called away by a hero emergency, she's shocked when it accurately displays her wild movements across the city. She realizes that she can't risk owning one as Ladybug because it would track her every movement and reveal her secret identity. She even refuses the ring when her mother gives her one.
- Adrien worked up the nerve to tell his father he no longer wanted to be a model. Now he's incredibly bored because he has nothing to do outside of being a hero, which he can't be all the time.
- Big Brother Is Watching: Gabriel's Alliance Rings track the movements of their users and alert Gabriel if the movement patterns demonstrate superhuman capabilities. Gabriel is then able to correlate that data to sightings of Ladybug and Cat Noir. When Marinette borrows Socqueline's ring and goes off to fight some flying dinosaurs, Gabriel is alerted and targets Socqueline under the assumption that she's Ladybug.
- Bouquet Toss: Ladybug tosses hers during the wedding segment. Rena Rouge catches it but it turns into an alarm clock.
- Call-Back: One of Alliance's alternate skins for Adrien is a banana costume.
- The Cameo: The United Heroez and Lady Dragon attend the imaginary wedding.
- Caught on Tape: Just before Darker Owl can capture her, Socqueline sets her Alliance Ring to record their conversation along with getting the big bird to admit to where his akuma is. She does this knowing the real Ladybug would find her ring and use this information.
- Clark Kenting: Despite this being a series that plays this trope ridiculously straight most of the time, Marinette is instantly able to identify the fake Ladybug as Socqueline, someone she hasn't seen in some time.
- Continuity Nod:
- Anne-Jeanne Théoxanne du Bocquale from "Rocketear" returns, having created flying Tyrannosauruses.
- Marinette uses the motorbike she received at the end of "Dearest Family".
- Creepy Doll: Ladybug and Cat Noir's children in the dream are represented by motionless, wide-eyed dolls.
- Double-Meaning Title: Monarch grants Darker Owl the power of Jubilation in order to trap the heroes in their heart's desires. And earlier, both Socqueline and Principal Damocles express obtaining jubilation in becoming superheroes in their own right.
- "Eureka!" Moment: After coughing up an alarm clock in the dream, Ladybug says that the clocks showing up everywhere is a "nightmare". Then she realizes that's quite literally true, and figures out she and Cat Noir are trapped in a Gift illusion.
- Extremely Short Timespan: Marinette and Socqueline were school friends the previous year, yet Socqueline didn't know about Adrien and Marinette being classmates. This means that the previous year must have been before Adrien started attending Marinette's school in the "Origins" two-parter, which would mean that the events of the entire series plus both Miraculous World specials (which are referenced in this episode) have all taken place over a matter of months.
- Given Name Reveal: Mr. Damocles' first name is stated by Alliance to be "Denis".
- Grey Rain of Depression: When Ladybug breaks free of the dream, the sunset becomes a gloomy rain as Cat Noir is left alone.
- Hostage Situation: Darker Owl takes Socqueline hostage to draw out the heroes so he can shoot them with Gift. When Cat Noir saves Socqueline, Darker Owl fires his grappling hook at him so Ladybug will intervene, then hits both with Gift.
- I Just Want to Be Special: Socqueline's heart's desire is to be an official superhero and be recognized by the Miraculous Duo.
- Ironic Episode Title: "Jubilation" means to feel great happiness or triumph. The events of this episode briefly leave the heroes in a depressed state, and the ending shows that they're still perturbed by what they experienced.
- It Doesn't Mean Anything: Ladybug denies that the dream she and Cat Noir shared meant anything, claiming that it was just a fantasy... while listing in detail everything the two of them experienced during the dream. Cat Noir, for his part, isn't convinced, and even she doesn't seem to believe her own words.
- Lethal Harmless Powers: Gift, when used by Darker Owl. While Pigella used Gift to make Juleka experience a moment of pure joy, Darker Owl forces Ladybug and Cat Noir to live out an entire fantasy, placing them inside a Lotus-Eater Machine that can only be broken out of by waking up. Furthermore, those struck by this are not only left completely vulnerable in the waking world, but once they manage to break free from it, they're left in a depressed state, which could potentially make them a target for akumatization.
- Life Saving Misfortune: Had the flying dinosaurs not gotten loose when they did, Marinette would never have considered that the Alliance Ring can track her movements and wouldn't know not to accept the one gifted to her by Sabine. Fortunately, Adrien likewise doesn't bother wearing his ring because he doesn't care, so he doesn't fall into the trap before Ladybug can warn him.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: When used by Darker Owl, the power of Jubilation traps Ladybug and Cat Noir in a happy dream where everything goes right for them. Meanwhile, they're paralyzed in the real world and Darker Owl can take their Miraculous with impunity. The only reason it fails is because Ladybug's Lucky Charm summons an alarm clock that rings incessantly, waking her up.
- Mistaken Identity: Monarch mistakenly believes Socqueline to be Ladybug based on the data from her Alliance Ring.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: Dr. Bocquale engineered Tyrannosaurus/pigeon hybrids, because apparently the one thing history's most famous carnivore needed was the ability to fly.
- Mundane Solution: Subverted with the alarm clock that Ladybug gets as a Lucky Charm. She simply throws it at Darker Owl's face to break his mask and it works perfectly... except that the whole scene is just part of the dream caused by Gift.
- Mundane Utility: Monarch uses Voyage to make a portal for his akuma, just so it doesn't have to fly as far. It also means there's now minimal chance of the akuma losing its target since it will likely be on them before their feelings change or someone else with stronger negativity shows up.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Marinette tries to talk Socqueline and Mr. Damocles out of risking their lives doing heroics, which only succeeds in making the latter depressed and giving Monarch the opportunity to akumatize him.
- Old Friend: Socqueline was this to Marinette before she transferred to Collège Françoise Dupont.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted, Socqueline has the same last name as Master Fu.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
- Cat Noir is so furious at being snapped out of a perfect life that he comes within a hair's breadth of Cataclysming Darker Owl, before catching himself and breaking his mask.
- The same can be said for Ladybug, as she is so crushed by forcing herself out of the dream that she goes through purifying the akuma, gifting Principal Damocles his Magical Charm, and using her World-Healing Wave with a frown on her face.
- Opening Shout-Out: Marinette again uses the phrase "normal girl with a normal life" from the intro to describe herself.
- Prefers the Illusion: Cat Noir would rather stay in his perfect dream world than go back to the miserable existence he calls reality.
- Rich Boredom: Now that Adrien gave up on modeling, he gets to spend his days in his room playing video games and eating junk food all while bored out of his mind.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons:
- Marinette believes Socqueline's habit of dressing like Ladybug is what made Monarch believe her to be the real one. Marinette is actually responsible for that, having worn her Alliance Ring during her heroics, which alerted Monarch.
- Marinette rejects the Alliance Ring on the grounds that it could accidentally give her away as Ladybug by tracking her movements, but she assumes it's just an unfortunate but honest complication of what seems to otherwise be useful technology. In fact, Gabriel specifically designed the tracking feature with the hopes that it would reveal the heroes to him by doing just that, so Marinette avoids his trap without actually realizing it was a trap in the first place. Adrien meanwhile seemingly just has no interest in the thing and also unknowingly avoids Gabriel's trap.
- Shout-Out:
- The climax involving a superhero having to break out of the Lotus-Eater Machine and leave behind the illusion of a happy life in which they have kids and then delivers a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on the villain responsible for this is heavily similar to For the Man Who Has Everything.
- Darker Owl's new costume being red and black with a more angular design makes it resemble the Batman Beyond Batsuit worn by Terry McGinnis.
- Swiss-Army Gun: Instead of using a tambourine, Darker Owl has an alternative setting on his Grappling-Hook Pistol that allows him to shoot Gift from it.
- Themed Wedding: The theme of Ladybug and Cat Noir's wedding is superheroes, with Cat Noir and Ladybug switching to white for the occasion, as all of their guests (barring Jagged Stone) being their Miraculous allies along with Lady Dragon and the United Heroez.
- Time-Passage Beard: The one real attempt to age the characters up in their fantasy is giving Cat Noir a (very fake-looking) moustache in one scene.
- Trash of the Titans: Downplayed. Adrien seems to have stopped cleaning his room after the quit being a model, so now there's dirty laundry and empty junk food boxes all over the place. Neither he nor Plagg seem to mind.
- Understatement: The Alliance Ring reveals that Marinette covered 135 kilometers in 15 minutes, thanks to her powers and flying around the city on the back of a flying T. rex. The Adrien AI still gives a stock comment that she covered "more than an average person her age".
- Unstoppable Rage: Cat Noir is devastated to find out that the perfect happy life he shared with Ladybug was just a dream created by Darker Owl so he could steal their Miraculous. He takes his anger out on the villain, beating him into submission and nearly Cataclysming him before Ladybug snaps him out of it.
- Unwanted Assistance: Marinette is strongly against Socqueline and Principal Damocles pretending to be superheroes as it would just make them into potential targets for Monarch while giving Ladybug more problems to deal with.
- Was It All a Lie?: After the action, Cat Noir wonders if there was any truth to his and Ladybug's shared dream. They decide Monarch must have altered the power somehow, because admitting it were real would force them to face some uncomfortable truths.
- Year Inside, Hour Outside: The heroes undergo several years worth of happy memories when barely a minute passes through in the real world.
