Episode 10
- Rogercop - Tales of Roger the Police Officer
It's Parents' Career Day at Collège Françoise Dupont, and the students' parents (some of them, at least) are coming over to tell the students about their jobs. As Tom Dupain describes his early hours at the bakery, Adrien is speaking with his father, or at least trying to; apparently, Gabriel Agreste initially promised to attend Parents' Career Day with his son, only to bail at the last minute. Adrien decides to cope with Gabriel breaking his promise by indulging in the free croissants brought by Tom and Marinette, which he mockingly gloats about to his father.
An angry Gabriel, who's transformed into Hawk Moth already, decides to akumatize someone out of petty anger.
Meanwhile, Chloé has other things to concentrate on—namely, her new bracelet, slapping Sabrina's hand away when her friend reaches out to touch it. Mayor Bourgeois, Chloé's father, tells her to put it away, lest it be lost. While Sabrina's father silently wonders why André allowed Chloé to bring it to school in the first place, Marinette gives a croissant to Sabrina, bringing a smile to her face. However, when Chloé tells Marinette not to get the latter's "poor grease" near her bracelet, Marinette responds by not giving her a croissant, instead giving it to an overjoyed Adrien.
Meanwhile, closer to the back, Rose comments on Juleka's unusual white clothes. Juleka mentions that she had gotten dressed up to impress the parents, but only four of them (Tom, Marlena, André, and Roger) showed up, and Juleka's own mother chose not to come when she learned there would be a cop.
Chloé putting her bracelet inside its box before putting the box back in her bag. Plagg, hidden away in Adrien's bag, sees the box, which reminds Plagg of a wheel of camembert, so he pounces into Chloé's bag... where he finds Tikki eating a cookie.
As Tikki explains how she came to be in Chloé's bag, Plagg takes out Chloé's bracelet and toys around with it while commenting on Chloé being Scarlet Lady. Tikki violently kicks Plagg out of the bag, ordering him to return to his Cat... only for Plagg to end up accidentally taking the bracelet with him while also causing Marinette to trip and crash to the ground.
As Roger takes his turn, explaining that he believes in people being innocent until proven guilty, Chloé realizes her bracelet has gone missing and immediately accuses Marinette of stealing it. Tom and Adrien jump to Marinette's defense while Roger tries to point out that Chloé could have just misplaced her bracelet. Chloé, incensed, demands her father fire Roger, shocking Sabrina. And when Roger refuses to illegally search Marinette's bag, André tells him he's fired, shocking Roger as well.
As Roger drives back to the station, Hawk Moth takes advantage of him by akumatizing the officer and transforming him into Rogercop—although not before sarcastically commenting on how unsurprising it is that Chloé caused this akumatization.
Tom and André begin a verbal fight when the latter attempts to search Marinette's bag. Mme. Bustier attempts to break it up while the rest of the class considers everything business as usual. After Marinette says the bracelet probably just rolled out of Chloé's bag, Adrien notices something hitting his leg. Looking down, he sees Plagg rolling around, wearing the bracelet as an improvised blindfold.
As Marinette remembers Nino was filming everything, Adrien sneaks away with Plagg and is left unimpressed when the Kwami tries to make light of the events. He grows even more angered when he learns from Plagg that he can't transform without (a) ending up with a blindfold of some kind as well and (b) possibly damaging the Miraculous. Adrien replies that Plagg's lucky there's no akuma, or he'd be really mad.
Watching the video, the group notes that Sabrina was the last person seen holding the bracelet, and Marinette gently asks her classmate if she still has it... only to be shocked to see that Sabrina has spiraled into Heroic BSoD while attempting to comprehend what just happened to her father. Chloé, unsympathetic to her friend's plight, roughly manhandles Sabrina and demands to see the latter's bag, which is promptly thrown right in her face.
As Chloé searches Sabrina's bag, Kim notes that one of Nathaniel's sketches resembles the bracelet, though Nathaniel also points out that he never got out of his seat, meaning he couldn't have stolen it. After a fruitless search, Chloé goes back to accusing Marinette of being the thief.
Unbeknownst to Adrien, an akuma is approaching the school—but no matter what, Rogercop won't break the law, not even if it's a minor offense like jaywalking, which would allow him to reach his target sooner. However, he will immediately sentence people that commit crimes, regardless of the severity.
Back at the school, the mayor attempts to confiscate Nino's phone so his video can be professionally analyzed. When Nino refuses to give up his phone, André tries to pull office on him—only for Nino to angrily reply that he'll make sure his parents don't vote for André in the upcoming elections. The other adults are similarly disgusted by the mayor's behavior.
Marinette attempts to make the point that everyone is a suspect, but Tom tells her to let the adults handle the situation, which leaves Marinette unimpressed when none of the adults actually do anything. Chloé demands to be allowed to search through Marinette's bag, and Marinette acquiesces, emptying her bag in front of Chloé to reveal she doesn't have the bracelet; Chloé, however, resorts to Moving The Goal Posts, demanding that Marinette empty her pockets, too.
Away from the chaos of the rest of the class, Adrien makes a disturbing discovery: Rogercop has entered school grounds. Plagg becomes misty-eyed since Adrien proved to be unlucky, but Adrien is forced to quickly find a way to get Plagg unstuck. He eventually succeeds by giving Plagg some cheese with pepper, though it prompts the Kwami to ask why Adrien has pepper in his locker in the first place.
Max and Kim point out that Adrien could also have stolen the bracelet; he was in the video, too, and has since gone missing. Chloé, however, is unwilling to suspect her crush. Just then, Rogercop enters the classroom and demands to know where Mayor Bourgeois is. Mme. Bustier attempts to claim they don't know where the mayor is, only for André to scream at the principal loud enough for him to be heard from the classroom.
Rogercop moves to arrest the mayor for abuse of power, but Chat Noir intervenes, allowing Mayor Bourgeois to escape, although Rogercop easily manhandles the hero twice.
Chloé then shows up, but not to defeat the akuma: instead, she's dragging Marinette to Rogercop, hoping that he will arrest her for robbery. When the akuma offer to discuss the matter inside his car, Chloé accepts and pushes Marinette inside before getting in herself, uncaring of the danger she's putting herself and her classmate in. While Chat Noir attempts to mount a rescue, Marinette and Chloé start a Cat Fight at the back of the car, with Rogercop ignoring the duo.
Chat Noir manages to reach the car, which is now flying, but when he attempts to open the back door to extract the girls, the car makes a sudden turn, causing him to lose his grip on the door, which in turn results in the unsecured Chloé plummeting towards the ground, much to Chat Noir and Marinette's horror. Rogercop immediately tosses Chat Noir off as well, but the hero uses his staff to soften the fall. Chat Noir begins to frantically look for Chloé, only to encounter a surprisingly wild-haired Scarlet Lady, who later claims to have saved her "best friend" Chloé Bourgeois.
Rogercop enters city hall with his car and manages to put his special cuffs on the mayor. When Mayor Bourgeois rejects the akuma's demands of him giving up his position, Rogercop brings out a similarly cuffed Marinette holding Chloé's bag, with the akuma stating that Chloé was punished for her crimes. Broken, André gives up.
André makes a televised speech in which he announces he's giving absolute power to Rogercop, who immediately issues his first order: Scarlet Lady and Chat Noir are outlaws and must be arrested. Much to the heroes' relief, the cops ignore the orders, as they immediately recognize Rogercop as an akuma.
Taking advantage of the distraction, the heroes sneak into the mayor's office, where Rogercop is holding Marinette and André hostage. When Marinette notices them, Scarlet Lady makes a loud "SHH!" at Marinette so she won't reveal their position... which ends up revealing their position, much to Chat Noir's frustration.
While Scarlet Lady summons the Lucky Charm—an oven mitt—Rogercop uses his power over the cuffs to force Marinette and André to fight Scarlet Lady and Chat Noir. However, Marinette quickly hooks her legs around her chair's arms, slowing herself down as the cuffs dragg her forward; meanwhile, André's so depressed that he plops face first to the ground, not even bothering to resist the cuffs.
Seeing an opportunity, Chat Noir uses his Cataclysm on the floor, opening a hole large enough to make Rogercop fall through and get stuck, which also allow Scarlet Lady to put the glove over his head and steal his whistle, the akumatized object.
As the Miraculous Cure does its work, André remains broken over the loss of his daughter, but Scarlet Lady resassure him that she saved Chloé and offers to go find her. Meanwhile, Chat Noir checks on Marinette—whose legs are hurting from the effort of holding onto the chair's arms—and sneakily puts the bracelet back into the bag.
When Chloé returns, she callously ignores her overyjoyed father and goes straight for the bag, finding her bracelet inside. Roger reasons that it must've slipped into one of the inner pockets by accident. When Chat Noir points out to the mayor that Roger proved to be a good policeman, the mayor declares that Roger will be promoted to Brigadier General—and, for probably the first time ever, gets serious with Chloé, ordering her to apologize to a grinning Marinette (who's standing next to an equally smug Chat Noir) for unfairly accusing her of stealing the bracelet, something that makes Chloé really unhappy.
Afterwards, Roger reassures Sabrina that everything's alright now—he got his job back along with a promotion! So there's no reason to hold any hard feelings against the Bourgeoises, is there...? Sabrina quietly agrees, but her hesitation and averted gaze imply that she won't be forgetting what her "best friend" did any time soon.
This episode contains examples of:
- Adaptational Intelligence: As opposed to their canon selves, the local police immediately notice Rogercop is an akuma and choose to ignore his orders.
- Adaptational Karma:
- Mayor Bourgeois forces Chloé to apologize to Marinette for accusing her. Additionally, though Chloé isn't aware of it yet, she has done lasting damage to her friendship with Sabrina, who unlike canon is visibly still upset at the end about her supposed "best friend" ordering her father be fired over a minor slight.
- Downplayed for Tom and the adults when the former chides Marinette to stand down and let them handle things. She gives her father a disgusted look and succinctly calls him and the rest of the adults out on it while gesturing to how they're all doing absolutely nothing to help resolve the issue at hand.
- Adults Are Useless: Lampshaded. Tom tells Marinette to let the adults handle things, only for Marinette to respond with a deadpan "Seriously?" when she sees that none of them (Tom included) are even trying to do anything about the situation.
- Armor-Piercing Response:
- When André tries to confiscate Nino's phone, snarling, "Do you know who you're dealing with?" Nino retorts, "I know you're the guy my parents won't be voting for when I tell them you're trying to steal from me!" This spurs the other adults present to imply André has lost their votes as well.
- When Tom angrily asks Alya why she didn't stop Chloé from dragging Marinette off towards the akuma, Alya fires back that Tom didn't do anything about it, either.
- Artistic License – Politics:
- Possibly the case when Mayor Bourgeois attempts to illegally confiscate Nino's phone in "Rogercop," only for Nino to shout that his parents won't vote for André once they hear how he tried to steal from their son and the other adults to seemingly hint that they won't be voting for André, either. In real life, Parisians don't vote for their mayor directly, and the Council of Paris instead elects the Mayor of Paris among its members. On the other hand, a prerequisite for being a member of the Council of Paris is being elected to an arrondissement (administrative district) council. It's not confirmed whether all the adults live in the same arrondissement as André Bourgeois, though, and canonically, Marinette's family lives in the fictional 21st arrondissement of Paris (which only has twenty in real life).
- Mayor Bourgeois fires Roger and later hires him back with a promotion. At the time the comic episode came out, Paris did not have a Municipal Police, with the Paris Police Prefecture instead being a detachment of National Police that reports directly to the Ministry of the Interior. Of course, "Captain Hardrock" eventually reveals that André Bourgeois was pulling a Bavarian Fire Drill and never actually had the authority to fire Roger in the first place (and presumably can't promote police officers, either).
- Brick Joke: In his Establishing Character Moment, Rogercop sentences Mme. Mendeleiev to cleaning the sidewalks. When Chat Noir fights him, the akuma tosses Chat Noir into a dumpster—the same one that Mme. Mendeleiev is throwing what she's cleaning off the sidewalks inside.
- Broken Pedestal: Sabrina's regard for Chloé is shattered after seeing her "best friend" demand that Roger be fired due to a petty slight. She's still noticeably upset about this after Roger seemingly gets his job back with a promotion.
- Cheshire Cat Grin: Both Chat Noir and Marinette sport matching smug grins when the mayor orders Chloé to apologize to Marinette.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Rogercop manages to defeat Chat Noir twice in one page.
- Deadpan Snarker: Marinette is in fine form here.
- After searching through Sabrina's bag, Chloé declares she knows Marinette stole the bracelet, to which Marinette snorts, "Couldn't find it, huh?"
- When Tom tells Marinette to let the adults handle things, only for the adults to do nothing, she gives him a disbelieving "Seriously?"
- Disney Death: Chloé seemingly falls to her death from Rogercop's Flying Car. She only survives thanks to transforming into Scarlet Lady.
- Everyone Has Standards: As much as she hates Chloé, Marinette is horrified when the other girl falls out of Rogercop's car to her Disney Death.
- Evil Is Petty:
- Gabriel decides he's "akumatizing the s**t out of someone" just because Adrien chose to defy him by ruining his diet with croissants.
- Chloé demands her father fire Roger Raincomprix just because the police officer said she might have misplaced her bracelet rather than immediately (and illegally) arrest Marinette.
- Face Palm: Chat Noir's reaction when Scarlet Lady ruins their attempt to stealthily ambush Rogercop.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing:
- During his presentation, Roger explains how he believes in "innocent before proven guilty." Then Chloé discovers her bracelet's disappearance and immediately starts tossing out baseless accusations, with her father backing her up, clashing directly with Roger's values.
- After being forced into Rogercop's car, Marinette puts on her seat belt and points out Chloé's not doing the same. When Chat Noir tries to rescue the girls, the car making a sudden turn causes Chloé to fall out of the car, as she wasn't strapped in.
- Friend of Masked Self: Scarlet Lady claims to be best friends with Chloé, her Secret Identity.
- Heroic BSoD:
- Sabrina spirals into one after Chloé pettily demands André fire Roger, which is followed by André indeed telling Roger that he's fired.
- When Rogercop states Chloé was "punished for her crimes," André metaphorically shatters and gives in to the akuma's demands.
- Hesitation Equals Dishonesty: While Sabrina reluctantly agrees with her father that there's no hard feelings towards the Bourgeoises for his seemingly temporary firing, she hesitates before doing so, keeping her gaze averted.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Chloé's obsession with getting Marinette arrested results in her willingly getting inside Rogercop's car after throwing Marinette in first, thus making both of them hostages. In addition, her choice to not wear a seat belt nearly gets herself killed, and even after surviving, her hair becomes a wild mess.
- In Spite of a Nail:
- Seeing her father getting seemingly fired in front of her own eyes by her "best friend" Chloé sends Sabrina into a Heroic BSoD. Thus, when Nino's video reveals that she was the last person seen holding the bracelet, she doesn't even bother protesting against having her bag searched. This in turn leads to Marinette emptying her bag to prove to Chloé she doesn't have the bracelet (in canon, Marinette agreed to let her bag be searched on the condition that the same be done to the other suspects' bags, as there was evidence against all of them and she refused to be singled out simply due to Chloé's biases). Nevertheless, her bully isn't assuaged one bit and remains convinced that Marinette is the thief.
- Sabrina doesn't cause Nathaniel's sketch of the bracelet to fall to the ground due to basically having shutdown after her father's apparent firing. However, Kim ends up noticing the drawing anyway, though Nathaniel quickly points out how he never left his seat, which immediately rules him out as a suspect.
- Max and Kim still float the idea of Adrien being a potential suspect by pointing out how he was in the video for four seconds and has since disappeared, respectively. Like in canon, the holder of the Ladybug Miraculous (though Chloé instead of Marinette) arbitrarily dismisses the possibility of Adrien being the thief due to her crush on him.
- Lack of Empathy: After seeing how badly Sabrina was affected by her father apparently being fired, Chloé (the one who caused the entire mess) manhandles Sabrina and demands to see her bag.
- Laser-Guided Karma: After all is said and done, André orders Chloé to apologize to Marinette while Marinette and Chat Noir give smug Cheshire Cat Grins.
- Lawful Stupid: Rogercop is this, distilled and akuma-shaped. For example, his Establishing Character Moment shows he will wait however long it takes for the light to turn green rather than jaywalk, and when he sees Mme. Mendeleiev littering, he immediately forces her to clean the sidewalks as punishment.
- Little "No": André murmurs one when Rogercop informs him that his daughter "was punished for her crimes."
- Moving the Goalposts: Chloé accuses Marinette of stealing the bracelet and demands to see the latter's bag. When Marinette empties her bag and proves she doesn't have the bracelet, Chloé immediately demands her to turn out her pockets, too.
- Never My Fault: Once more, Chloé's unwilling to accept responsibility for her actions—such as blaming Chat Noir when she falls out of Rogercop's Flying Car, even though she was the one who got inside in the first place due to her Skewed Priorities, requiring Chat Noir to mount a rescue, and refused to put on her seatbelt despite being reminded of it.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Tikki's kicking of Plagg out Chloé's bag triggers most of the plot, as he accidentally takes the bracelet with him, which leads Marinette being baselessly accused, Roger getting akumatized over being seemingly fired for refusing to break the law, and Adrien not being able to transform due to Plagg getting the bracelet stuck on his head.
- No Sympathy: Rogercop is the only one who doesn't react at all to the sight of Chloé falling from his car to her apparent demise, having a completely flat expression while Chat Noir and Marinette both stare after her in horror.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
- Sabrina's Heroic BSoD is so deep that she brutally slams her bag into Chloé's face when the latter demands to see it.
- André actually disciplines Chloé because of what her actions kickstarted, all but ordering her to apologize to Marinette.
- Ordered Apology: Chloé is forced to apologize to Marinette for falsely accusing the latter, with Chat Noir standing right beside Marinette and beaming just as brightly as Chloé does so.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Max and Kim posit the idea that Adrien might've stolen the bracelet; he was also in Nino's video and has vanished since then. They were right in that Adrien had something to do with the disappearance of the bracelet, even if he didn't steal it and only left the room to try and get the bracelet off of Plagg's head.
- Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: André tries to do this by demanding Roger to illegally search Marinette's bag for Chloé's bracelet and then telling him he's fired when Roger won't comply.
- Shared Family Quirks:
- Both Sabrina and Roger make the same surprised Pikachu face when shocked.
- André Bourgeois is as quick to resort to You Have No Idea Who You're Dealing With as his daughter.
- Skewed Priorities:
- When Adrien tells a blindfolded Plagg that the former's earlier Tempting Fate came to roost in the form of Rogercop, Plagg gets misty and declares his holder a true black cat.
- After Rogercop shows up, Chloé's main preoccupation is to have the akuma arrest Marinette over theft of the bracelet, not caring that he's an akuma or that she has literally no proof of it.
- At the end of everything, Chloé's more worried about her bag and her bracelet than her father (despite having just seen how badly he had taken her Disney Death).
- So Much for Stealth: When Chat Noir and Scarlet Lady sneak into the mayor's office in an attempt to ambush Rogercop, Scarlet Lady makes a loud "SHH!" at Marinette, who has just seen them. Rogercop easily hears the Ladybug heroine, ruining the heroes' stealthy approach.
- Tempting Fate: When Plagg tells Adrien he can't transform until the bracelet is gone, Adrien comments that the Kwami's lucky that there's no akuma around.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Most of the class regards André Bourgeois trying to use his position to get his way as "same s**t as always." Kim is even yawning.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Chat Noir's reaction when he sees Chloé throwing Marinette inside Rogercop's car before climbing in herself.
- You Have No Idea Who You're Dealing With: André Bourgeois attempts to use his position as mayor to browbeat people into following his demands. When he tries to illegally confiscate Nino's cellphone with this line, it backfires, as Nino answers that Bourgeois is the guy his parents won't vote for when they learn about him trying to steal Nino's phone. The other adults imply they won't be voting for André, either.
