Episode 9
- Horrificator - Tales of Mylène the Actress
The class is filming a short film for a contest: a monster is attacking a city, and two government agents, Smith and Jones (played by Mylène and Adrien), are trying to stop it. Unfortunately, filming is stuck on the first scene because Mylène keeps getting scared every time the "monster" (played by Ivan) shows up, as she's still shaken from the Stoneheart incident. This is not helped by Chloé, whom Mme. Bustier forced the others to invite, busily doling out insults to everyone else.
When Mylène braves herself up for another attempt, Chloé grabs the monster mask and scares her, causing her to run away. Ivan unsuccessfully attempts to convince Mylène to rejoin the filming, and Marinette tries to find her as well, not knowing that Hawk Moth has akumatized Mylène, though she does some kind of goo covering the toilets' walls.
Nino—the director—suggests replacing Mylène with Chloé, but nobody else is keen on that. After all, it would just be rewarding Chloé for her usual Alpha Bitch behavior. To make matters worse, they discover that Nino rewrote Alya's script to add in a kiss between the leads, something he didn't clear with anyone involved. Marinette makes it clear that she won't let Nino browbeat the others before sending Chloé off on a wild goose chase.
Lacking a lead actress, Adrien proposes a compromise: have Marinette act in as a new character, taking up Mylène's role in the opening scene, and then Mylène can do the rest of the film as lead. Everyone admits it to be a good idea, and they start filming it. However, when Adrien and Marinette are about to kiss, Chloé returns, having realized that she was being tricked. Before the teens can do anything else, though, they hear Kim (who had left earlier with Chloé) screaming.
Finding only one of Kim's wristbands, the group realizes they're dealing with another akuma. Adrien sneaks away to transform into Chat Noir while the others realize that M. Damocles is also missing and that they have no phone signal. Chat Noir's arrival causes Chloé (who doesn't want Chat Noir to steal any attention from her) to fake her being taken away by the akuma to give herself an alibi and transform into Scarlet Lady. Looking for Adrien, she finds one of his shoes, and catches everyone's attention with a scream.
Horrificator arrives on scene, capturing Nathaniel with its tail. The akuma keeps growing, but Juleka's fascination causes it to shrink, allowing everyone to momentarily escape. Horrificator manages to corner the group and captures Alix, but when faced with Ivan protecting the other girls, the akuma just licks his face before leaving. Everyone realizes Mylène is the akuma.
Meanwhile, Sabrina is looking for Chloé: as the only reason they think she was taken was because they found her nail polish and they didn't hear her scream, Sabrina believes she might be still around. Marinette tries to keep her from splitting off, but Horrificator attacks, and Marinette shoves Sabrina away, saving her at the cost of getting captured herself. Marinette urges Sabrina to seek Chat Noir — no, not Scarlet Lady, Chat Noir! — so he can help rescue everyone.
Finding Sabrina crying and learning what happened, Chat Noir realizes that the goo Horrificator is leaving behind can be used to track the akuma. The trail leads to the basement, where the group finds multiple pods, each containing one person. Horrificator then seals the exit, forcing a fight. Chat Noir does his best to hold Horrificator off while Scarlet Lady just creates the Lucky Charm and complains about how gross the akuma is.
Sabrina hides behind a pod to observe the fight, which turns out to the same one Marinette is inside. When Sabrina mentions the Lucky Charm—a set of guitar strings—Marinette suggests that she and the others sing "Stinky Wolf," a lullaby Mylène was singing earlier to calm herself down, using the strings and several improvised instruments. The teens succeed—with some of them incidentally considering trying their luck with starting their own band—and Horrificator calms down, allowing Chat Noir and Scarlet Lady to purify the akuma and restore everything. The entire thing ends with Ivan and Mylène kissing...
... which turns out to be the film Nino is trying to present. However, the film is such a disaster that he immediately gets kicked out, and Nino admits that the complete lack of any kind of quality control was behind it. Nino apologizes for his "direct-ator" behavior and promises that the next movie they make will be for fun.
This episode contains examples of:
- Acquired Situational Narcissism: Nino lets being the director go to his head, ordering everyone around and making changes without anyone else's knowledge or approval.
- Almost Kiss: Adrien and Marinette try to do the kissing scene, but Chloé interrupts just before their lips touch.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: When Chloé demands to take over Mylène's part, her classmates refute her by pointing out how much trouble she's caused; Nathaniel and Kim point out how she scared off Mylène and made her cry, and Adrien cheerfully adds that Chloé can't even remember the names of the characters.
- Big Damn Kiss: The movie Nino makes ends with Ivan and Mylène kissing.
- Call-Back: Mylène mentions the Stoneheart incident as the reason for her getting easily scared by Ivan's monster costume.
- Chekhov's Gun: The song Mylène was singing to herself early on, "Stinky Wolf," turns out to be the key to calm Horrificator down and put a stop to its rampage.
- Comically Missing the Point: When the class find one of Kim's armbands, Alya says it's covered with the same stuff from the bathroom. Alix then says TMI.
- Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: Marinette at one point threatens to impale Nino with a clipboard if he continues to mistreat his friends.
- Death Glare: Ivan throws two. One at Chloé for mocking him, and another at Nino for adding the kissing scene without asking anyone first.
- Didn't Think This Through: It probably wasn't a good idea for Nino to submit his film without editing it first and making sure it actually had a decent plot and story.
- Disastrous Demonstration: Nino shows his final film to Mayor Bourgeois near the end. Because there wasn't any quality control, though, it doesn't even make it past the first round of the contest.
- Dope Slap: Nino gets one from Alya after admitting that he let his position as director get to his head.
- Evil Is Petty: Hawk Moth makes Horrificator mute because Mylène kept sassing him.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Nino laments how the class's entry into the film festival didn't even make it past the first round. He then wonders if it was because it was unedited... and had no plot... or characters... or story. His friends snicker as it dawns on him.
- Giftedly Bad: Nino seems to genuinely think he put together a good film when he presents it to Mayor Bourgeois near the end. He does later grasp how bad his movie really is after getting kicked out of the mayor's office and failing to even make it past the first round.
- Hypocritical Humor:
- Chloé laughs at Mylène for singing a lullaby to calm herself down, but Adrien cuts that off by reminding her he knows about her teddy bear, Mr. Cuddly. She also claims Sabrina, Kim, and Max fell for Marinette's Snipe Hunt ruse when she was the one who dragged the others into it.
- Ivan tells Chloé off for scaring Mylène and declares that she sucks. Chloé scoffs and asks who thinks that she sucks, to which everybody immediately raises their hands. She responds by asking who asked them.
- Implied Death Threat: Marinette cuts off Nino's "direct-ator" attitude by stating she will be the person who impales him with a clipboard if he doesn't stop.
- It's All About Me:
- Chloé is, as always, in great form. She sees nothing wrong with taking over Mylène's role after scaring her away, acts as if leaving her nail polish to fake being captured by the akuma were a great sacrifice, and generally acts as a nuisance.
- Nino attempts to browbeat the others into following his orders, having let his director position go to his head.
- It's All My Fault: Sabrina blames herself for Marinette being caught in her place in "Horrificator."
- Jerkass Has a Point: Mayor Bourgeois telling Nino to get out of his office after seeing the latter's entry into the film festival might've been a bit harsh. However, given the movie was unedited and didn't have characters, a plot, or a story, his reaction wasn't entirely unjustified. Even Nino later concedes his film was pretty bad.
- Nightmare Face: Alya and Ivan are really unhappy that Nino altered the former's script to add in a kissing scene between Adrien and Mylène (Ivan's girlfriend) without asking anyone about it.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Juleka is more fascinated than terrified with the akuma and its effects.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Marinette saves Sabrina from Horrificator at the cost of getting caught herself.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: The class together give Chloé one, telling her how much she sucks.
- Rhetorical Question Blunder: When Ivan tells Chloé she sucks for scaring Mylène so much she holed herself up in the bathroom, Chloé acts offended and asks who thinks she sucks. Everyone else raises their hands.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Sabrina is convinced that Chloé wasn't actually taken by the akuma and must instead be hiding somewhere since no one heard her scream. Chloé in fact wasn't kidnapped, but she wasn't hiding; she had transformed into Scarlet Lady.
- Skewed Priorities: Nino, due to his obsession with getting the film done, keeps filming even as the scenario turns into a true horror show due to the appearance of the akuma.
- Snipe Hunt: When Chloé suggests making the lead female role a nurse, Marinette says it's a great idea and quickly shoves her out of the classroom while suggesting that she go find a uniform, hoping this will get Chloé out of the way.
- Something Only They Would Say: When Horrificator, instead of attacking Ivan, just licks him and leaves, everyone realizes Mylène is the akuma.
- Stylistic Suck: As in canon, the class film seems to feature some Bad "Bad Acting", and though the final film Nino ends up presenting isn't shown, doesn't make it past the first round on account of its terrible quality, with Nino mentioning that it was unedited and lacked a plot, characters, and a story.
- This Is Gonna Suck: When the class runs into Scar during the akuma attack:The class: Scarlet Lady!
Alya: You're here too?!
Marinette and Chat Noir: [sighing] Greeeeat... - Thousand-Yard Stare: Played for Laughs. When Chloé interrupts Adrien and Marinette as they are about to do the kissing scene, Adrien sports this look after getting his chance of kissing his Love Interest blown in tiny pieces.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Alya, Adrien, and Ivan all call Nino out for adding a kissing scene to the script without bothering to inform anyone, particularly Adrien and Mylène, since they would be the ones acting it out.
