Episode 15
– Simon Says – Tales of Simon the Hypnotist
Aurore and Mireille manage to get Nino a place on The Challenge, a KIDZ+ game show in which the contestants are tasked with convincing someone else to do a particular task live. While Adrien and Marinette are able to watch the show at the studio, Alya is forced to stay at home to take care of her twin sisters.Nino's challenge is to make André Bourgeois dance. Chloé is also watching the show, but the only thing she's interested in is seeing Adrien show up onscreen. Nino manages to complete his challenge successfully, and he's told he'll be allowed back the next week as Alec presents the next contestant, a hypnotist called Simon Grimault.
His challenge: convince Gabriel Agreste to come to the TV studio. Adrien and Nino immediately realize Simon is screwed, and the two are proven correct when Gabriel insults both Simon and the program and shuts off the call... right before making a mad dash to his lair to transform into Hawk Moth, ready to turn Simon into his next akuma, Simon Says.
Simon Says returns to the set and tosses a card at Alec, saying the host is now lame as a duck. While Adrien sneaks away to transform and everyone scatters, Simon Says hypnotizes Adrien's bodyguard to make the latter believe he's a gorilla and serve the akuma. Simon Says announces through the cameras that he will force Gabriel Agreste to show up to the set. Chat Noir arrives and attempts to take Simon Says's cards, figuring that's where the akuma is, but Simon Says sets the Gorilla on Chat Noir.
Seeing this on TV, Chloé decides to transform—because she has to protect her Adrikins! Even if, as Tikki snarks, he doesn't want her protection.
Meanwhile, Simon Says manages to hypnotize most of the people at the studio, turning them into his soldiers and ordering them to find Gabriel Agreste. Only Marinette and Nino have managed to escape this, thanks to managing to avoid the akuma by hiding. Chat Noir manages to kick his bodyguard into the elevator and destroys the controls, causing the elevator to fall. While distressed about possibly hurting the Gorilla, Chat Noir doesn't have time to stop and check on him; having already used Cataclysm, he needs to find a place to hide before he detransforms.
Scarlet Lady arrives just then, demanding to know where "her Prince" Adrien is. When Marinette angrily asks how she knew Adrien was at the studio, the Ladybug heroine replies it was because of her "love radar," causing Marinette to label Scarlet Lady a stalker. When Chat Noir finally shows up, Scarlet Lady demands he start looking for Adrien. Chat Noir suggests that Adrien was probably hypnotized, which drives Marinette and Nino to beg him to search one more time. Moved, Chat Noir agrees to meet the others at the Agreste mansion later on.
Adrien appears a few moments later, hugging his friends after dodging Scarlet Lady. The four of them return to Adrien's home, where Gabriel has Nathalie take the teens to Adrien's room. When Scarlet Lady tries to follow them, Gabriel asks why she isn't staying behind to protect him from the akuma. Groaning, Scarlet nonetheless complies, figuring she can use her time with M. Agreste to convince him to let her date Adrien.
Adrien welcomes his friends to his room before claiming he's going to take a shower, planning to use it as an excuse so he can turn into Chat Noir and leave through the window. As they wait, Nino and Marinette discuss whether Gabriel or Scarlet Lady sucks more.
Gabriel converses with Scarlet Lady and is quickly left dumbfounded: rather than the amazing strategist he had believed her to be, she instead displays nothing but vapidness and entitlement. Chat Noir then appears, berating Scarlet Lady for her behavior before pointing out that Simon Says's hypnotized soldiers have brought down the mansion's main gates. Scarlet Lady runs to get Adrien (and maybe the others) while Chat Noir activates one of the windows' reinforcements before jumping out to return to the bathroom.
Scarlet Lady kicks in the door and demands to know where Adrien is; when she decides to approach the bathroom to get him out, Nathalie grabs her and tells Nino to retrieve Adrien instead. However, just as Nino knocks on the door, Simon Says's minions show up. Scarlet Lady hides in fright while Marinette, Nino, and Nathalie are taken back to the studio. Adrien transforms back into Chat Noir once more and finds Scarlet Lady alone.
At the studio, Simon Says hypnotizes M. Agreste into thinking he's a butterfly (much to Nathalie's hilarity) just as Chat Noir and Scarlet Lady arrive. When Scarlet Lady produces a yo-yo Lucky Charm, Chat Noir interrupts Simon Says's attempt to give an order, allowing Nathalie to free herself and help Marinette and Nino do the same. Simon Says tries to send M. Agreste away by telling him he's a plane, but Nathalie stops her employer before he goes too far.
Simon Says gets surrounded on one side by Scarlet Lady and her yo-yo, on the other by Marinette with the Lucky Charm and Nino. Moreover, both of them keep interrupting him every time he attempts to give an order, distracting him enough that Chat Noir manages to kick him in the back and grab the cards, freeing the akuma and allowing Scarlet Lady to cast the Miraculous Cure.
Having recovered from the ordeal, M. Agreste returns home and goes to Adrien's room, where he hugs his son in relief that nothing happened to him. He then notices the ring Adrien is wearing, only to feel awkward when his son points out he's been wearing the ring for several months now. Deciding to change the subject, Gabriel asks Adrien what he thinks about Scarlet Lady's interest in him and is met with a disgusted face and revulsion, prompting Gabriel to abandon any idea of using said interest as a bargaining chip.
The next school day, everyone is abuzz over the recent akuma attack. Chloé attempts to fish some compliments from Adrien regarding her alter ego, but Adrien states how much Scarlet Lady repulses him—which Chloé ignores since it's not what she wants to hear.
Next weekend, there's a new The Challenge contest, with Nino returning as a contestant. When Marinette and Alya comment on how surprising it is that Gabriel allowed Adrien to attend again, Adrien replies that he found another way to pressure his dad to agree: threatening to wear a Fun T-Shirt to one of Gabriel's fashion shows.
Alec presents Nino's new challenge: make two different celebrities dance. Since he's allowed to pick who, Nino chooses his friends, Adrien (a supermodel) and Alya (who runs the Ladyblog). Alec tries to claim it's not fair, but Nino points out that, after what happened the previous week, talking about fairness isn't exactly smart.
This episode contains examples of the following:
- Actually Pretty Funny: Nathalie quietly snorts to a side when Simon Says hypnotizes M. Agreste into believing the latter's a butterfly.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Here, Chat Noir is distressed about the possibility of having hurt the Gorilla by throwing the latter into an elevator, nervously musing, "I'm sure he's fine," which comes off more as an attempt to convince himself.
- Brick Joke: Much like in "The Bubbler," the akumatization victim notes that Hawk Moth is wheezing, which is due to Gabriel running down to his lair.
- Broken Pedestal: Gabriel is shocked when he realizes that Scarlet Lady (whom he had previously praised as smart and strategic) is actually a shallow, egotistical, bossy, entitled Nominal Hero.
- Comically Missing the Point:
- Chloé only watches The Challenge so she can see Adrien, even though the contestant is Nino.
- M. Agreste orders Nathalie to take the teens to Adrien's room; Scarlet Lady thinks this means she's being invited to join Adrien.
- When Nathalie snorts (see Actually Pretty Funny) Marinette tries to console her, thinking she's crying.
- Continuity Nod:
- Aurore uses the leverage she got on Alec from him rigging the weather girl contest in "Stormy Weather" to get Nino a spot on the show.
- Gabriel and Nino glare at each other, clearly still remembering the events that led up to the Bubbler incident.
- Death Glare: Nathalie gives Scarlet Lady one when the heroine attempts to get into the bathroom where Adrien is (supposedly) showering.
- Dirty Coward: When Simon Says's hypnotized minions open the door to Adrien's room, Scarlet Lady jumps into Adrien's dressing room and hides.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Gabriel is quite disappointed by Scarlet Lady's shallowness and Skewed Priorities (such as bringing accessories to a fight instead of weapons) and put off by her interest in Adrien. Moreover, while he had hoped to use his own son as a bargaining chip against Scarlet Lady, when Adrien expresses his disgust with the Ladybug heroine, Gabriel immediately accepts it, abandons his original plan, and is even relieved that Adrien isn't interested in the Nominal Heroine at all.
- Evil Laugh: Downplayed with Aurore's laugh as Mireille comments on Alec doing whatever the former asks.
- Falling into His Arms: Scarlet Lady attempts to invoke this on Adrien at the TV studio. Adrien dodges her and hugs Nino and Marinette,while Scarlet Lady crashes into the ground and gets Instant Bandages.
- From the Mouths of Babes: One of the twins asks if Nino is Alya's boyfriend.
- Fun T-Shirt: Adrien finds one with the motto, "Get meowt of here," printed alongside a picture of a cat throwing a double bird. He uses it to force his father into letting him go to the studio for the next episode of The Challenge at the end of the episode.
- Hidden Depths: Nathalie has some serious martial arts skills.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: M. Agreste gets captured and hypnotized by the akuma he caused.
- Hypocrite: At the end of the episode, when Nino chooses Alya and Adrien to help him complete his challenge, Alec protests that it isn't fair since they're both his friends. Nino then points out that Alec shouldn't be talking about fairness after essentially setting Simon up for failure last week by challenging him to get Gabriel to come down to the studio after first lying to the designer to get Gabriel to call in to the show. Then there's the fact that Alec still owes Aurore for rigging the weather girl contest against her.
- Hypocritical Humor: M. Agreste calls Simon pathetic for attempting to control him seconds before running to send a butterfly to control Simon.
- I Need to Go Iron My Dog: Adrien states he's going to take a shower as an alibi so he can transform into Chat Noir.
- I Reject Your Reality: Chloé tries to do some …But He Sounds Handsome Compliment Fishing from Adrien regarding Scarlet Lady. However...Chloé: Adrihoney~! I heard you got visited by the amazing Scarlet Lady.
Adrien: [yawning] Ugh, yeah, and I have the eyebags to prove it.
Chloé: Soooo? Isn't she ultra fab? Don't you just love her?
Adrien: Ew. No.
Caption: This answer will be dutifully ignored on the basis that it wasn't the one Chloe wanted to hear. - Logical Weakness: In order to give an order, Simon Says has to outright say, "Simon Says X," and be heard —if someone distracts or interrupts him, he can't order anyone to do anything.
- Loophole Abuse: When challenged by Alec to find two famous people and convince them to dance on set, Nino chooses Adrien (famous model) and Alya (Ladyblogger).
- Milholland Relationship Moment: Marinette and Nino beg Chat Noir to help them check if Adrien is somewhere in the studio rather than hypnotized. Chat Noir (Adrien, of course) is moved by his friends' willingness to help him.
- No. Just... No: When Gabriel mentions to Adrien that Scarlet Lady said she was interested in him and asks his son what he thinks about it, Adrien's face turns puce as he declares, "Ew. No." Adrien later expresses the same sentiment word-for-word when Chloé asks if he loves Scarlet Lady.
- Oh, Crap!: Adrien and Nino's reaction when they see that Simon's challenge is to get the former's father to come down to the studio.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: M. Agreste makes one short and to the point.Gabriel Agreste: Your show is pathetic, just like your contestant.
- Skewed Priorities:
- As usual, Chloé has many instances of this:
- Her primary motivation to transform into Scarlet Lady this time is to "protect" her Adrikins.
Tikki: But does he want your protection?- She tries to sneak off with Adrien while at Agreste manor instead of staying behind to protect Gabriel, the akuma's target.
- Scarlet Lady uses her belt to store accessories like lipstick.
- When they rush back to the studio to rescue the hostages, Scarlet Lady tells Chat Noir to not mess things up since they're on TV.
- Upon hearing Adrien voice his dislike of Scarlet Lady, Gabriel is more disappointed that he won't be able to use his son as a bargaining chip against the Ladybug heroine like he had hoped than he is relieved that Adrien isn't infatuated with the Nominal Heroine.
- As usual, Chloé has many instances of this:
- Stalker with a Crush: How Scarlet Lady comes off when she states she knew where Adrien was because "[her] love radar always knows!"
- What the Hell, Hero?: Chat Noir calls out Scarlet Lady for not doing anything to prevent Marinette, Nino, and Nathalie from being kidnapped.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Nathalie when M. Agreste akumatizes Simon.Nathalie: [thinking] I do not get paid enough for this.
