Episode 17
- The Collector - Tales of Gabriel the [TOP SECRET] Butterfly
After chastising Plagg for bringing Adrien to his shop, the old man introduces himself: he's Fu, the last of the Guardians of the Miraculous and the one who gave Adrien the Cat Miraculous. Adrien angrily concludes that Fu must therefore also be the one who chose Scarlet Lady, only for the elderly man to quickly explain that Scarlet Lady was never meant to have the earrings and that he's trying to find out how that happened, something that is made harder by the fact that he doesn't know her civilian identity.When Adrien shows Fu the Grimoire, the latter explains how the book contains spells that can grant the Miraculous wielders new superpowers, which Adrien realizes he'll have to share with Scarlet Lady. While they drink tea, Fu mentions he's always suspected that whoever had the Grimoire also had the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculous, making for an awkward atmosphere when Adrien mentions the book belongs to his father Gabriel.
Adrien returns home, noting how hard their new lead will be to investigate since Gabriel is never around... only for the man to be waiting for him by the door. As it turns out, Adrien was Caught on Tape taking the book. When Adrien sasses his father back, Gabriel declares his son will be pulled out of school immediately. However, he backs off when Adrien threatens to turn everything into a PR nightmare by getting word of his disproportionate punishment to reporter Nadja Chamack, though Adrien is still grounded for a month.
The next day, Chloé happily hums to herself on her way to school: she's shattered Lila's credibility, so now everyone will go back to worshipping her! As Tikki berates her for not getting the Grimoire, Chloé notices she has a message from Adrien. By the time Marinette arrives, Chloé has broken into tears, lamenting how Adrien's never coming back to school. Nino then explains to Marinette that their friend has actually only been grounded for losing his father's rare book. Chloé immediately puts the blame on Lila, who took the book from Adrien, and demands Marinette give her Lila's number. Marinette refuses and explains she has already returned the book to Adrien. Chloé, however, takes off to find Lila, still blaming her for everything, while Alya complains to her classmates about Lila lying in her interview for the Ladyblog.
Adrien tries to entertain himself as Plagg comments on how lucky they are that Kwamis don't show up in pictures or on video; Chat Noir's secret identity would've been exposed otherwise. As they continue to hear Gabriel throwing things around, Adrien realizes that he should probably go warn Scarlet Lady in case his father does turn out to be Hawk Moth. Plagg reminds Adrien about his grounding, though his holder notes that while he is grounded, Chat Noir isn't. Chat Noir then manages to get away just as Gabriel akumatizes himself into the Collector, who has the power to absorb people and objects into his special book. He catches Nathalie but arrives too late to Adrien's room.
When Chat Noir finds Scarlet Lady, he interrupts her demands that they find Lila Rossi with his lead on Hawk Moth. After Scarlet Lady weighs the downsides of defeating the villain if he really is Gabriel (she'll stop being Scarlet Lady) and the upsides (she'll get to comfort Adrien!), she agrees to follow her partner to the Agreste Mansion, where they encounter the akuma. Scarlet Lady summons her Lucky Charm—a bike pedal—and then tries to attack the Collector with her yo-yo, only for the akuma to trap it in his book!
Chat Noir manages to lead the akuma into his room, distracting the Collector by dropping his DVD collection on top of him. While the Collector is distracted trying to catch as many of the discs as he can, Scarlet Lady slams him in the hand with the Lucky Charm, forcing him to drop the book and letting Chat Noir destroy it, which frees both the butterfly and Scarlet Lady's yo-yo. With Gabriel now freed, Chat Noir drags Scarlet Lady away as Gabriel evilly chuckles about meeting the heroes again... right before getting smacked by an irritated Nathalie.
Adrien returns to Fu, who reasons that, since Gabriel was akumatized, he likely isn't Hawk Moth. Fu then takes photos of all the Grimoire's pages—that way, Adrien will be able to return the book to his father and get himself ungrounded... right on time to attend the birthday of the girl he loves! Adrien returns home with the book and is surprised to find Marinette there, explaining to Gabriel that she'd already found the book and returned it to Adrien. Fortunately, he manages to hoodwink his father into thinking he's had the book the entire time and simply never got a chance to properly explain everything. An embarrassed Gabriel agrees to lift Adrien's punishment.
After congratulating him on getting un-grounded, Marinette makes her way to Lila's house to drop off the homework she missed. When Lila's mother asks Marinette if she knows why Lila came home soaking wet the previous day, Lila quickly reminds her mother that she needs to go grocery shopping; the woman leaves Marinette alone with Lila.
As Marinette brings up the homework, Lila declares she won't be going back now that everyone knows she's a liar. She also explains how she first started lying as a defense mechanism every time she started a new school, only to start doing it for fun to see how far she could push her stories. Marinette, however, tells her that she can still make it up to everyone as several of her classmates were worried for her.
The next day, Adrien returns to school, much to everyone's joy, with Chloé attempting (and failing) to hug Adrien while the others welcome him back. Meanwhile, at the Agreste Mansion, Nathalie asks Gabriel why he bothered with his complicated scheme when he already had a copy of the book, to which Gabriel replies that his actions were necessary to keep his secret identity as Hawk Moth safe. In addition, Lila receives a message from Alix pestering Lila to come to Marinette's birthday party.
This episode contains examples of:
- Archnemesis Dad: Adrien lampshades this trope when he learns that Fu suspects whoever had the Grimoire is Hawk Moth.
- Beleaguered Assistant: Nathalie is not happy when she gets attacked by her akumatized employer and later hits him for it.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Before Fu explains that Scarlet Lady was not meant to be the Ladybug heroine, Adrien was all too ready to get some physical revenge for everything he's been going through thanks to her.
- Big "WHAT?!": Chloé's reaction when Adrien mentions he's been grounded.
- Brick Joke: When the Collector traps Nathalie, she promises to hit him the moment he loses. At the end of the episode, an irritated Nathalie gives Gabriel a Dope Slap.
- Comically Missing the Point: Upon hearing that Adrien's been grounded, Chloé assumes it means he's never coming back to school and has a Comical Overreaction over it.
- Damned by Faint Praise: When Gabriel reduces his punishment for Adrien to being grounded for one month...Adrien: Better. You almost sound like a parent.
- Distant Reaction Shot: Downplayed. While in the hallway, Chloé startles everyone in the classroom with her Big "WHAT?!" to Adrien getting grounded.
- Dramatically Missing the Point: Chloé demands that Marinette give her Lila's contact information so she can track Lila down and make her pay for stealing Gabriel's book and thus getting Adrien grounded. Marinette refuses and adds that she already gave the book back to Adrien, meaning there's no need to bother Lila over it. Chloé completely misses this and instead just declares that she'll have to find Lila herself if Marinette won't help her.
- Easily Forgiven: Many of Lila's classmates don't seem to hold a grudge against her for lying to them. Alix dismisses it as "not that big a deal" and defends Lila from Chloé while Rose worries about Lila catching a cold.
- Everyone Can See It: Fu is well aware that Adrien loves Marinette. He lets Adrien take the book back so he can get his grounding undone and attend Marinette's birthday party.
- Evil Gloating: The Collector attempts this when he greets Chat Noir and Scarlet Lady, but he's interrupted by the latter summoning Lucky Charm and then the heroes getting distracted to talk about the object (a bike pedal).
- Falling into His Arms: Chloé once more tries this with Adrien—and, once more, has an Epic Fail.
- Foreshadowing: Adrien complains about missing Marinette's birthday party, and Alix later invites Lila to attend it, foreshadowing that the next episode is "La Befana."
- Freudian Excuse: Lila started with her Consummate Liar ways to deal with constantly being the new student at school but then moved on to seeing how far she could push it.
- It's All About Me: Chloé, of course.
- When Adrien sends a message stating he's been grounded, Chloé's reaction is to lament, "How could this happen to me?!" Marinette even reminds Chloé that she's not grounded.
- After Chat Noir tells her (as Scarlet Lady) about Gabriel possibly being Hawk Moth, she thinks that defeating Hawkmoth would put an end to her being Scarlet Lady... though she'd then get to comfort Adrien over it!
- In Spite of a Nail: Though she returned the Grimoire to Adrien prior to Volpina's defeat, Marinette still visits Agreste mansion after the Collector is defeated to speak with Gabriel about reversing Adrien's punishment, not knowing that Adrien hadn't yet told Gabriel that the book had been found due to having given it to Master Fu.
- Lesser of Two Evils: Marinette tells Lila that she hates liars but still prefers Lila to Scarlet Lady.
- Loophole Abuse: When Adrien decides he and Plagg need to get out and warn Scarlet Lady about Gabriel possibly being Hawkmoth:
- Mythology Gag: When Lila says she won't return to school because Scarlet Lady destroyed her social life there before it even started, Marinette asks if Lila really thinks she can trick her mom and miss a whole year of school. Lila simply responds, "You underestimate my power"; in canon, she indeed managed to miss quite a bit of school without her mother suspecting anything.
- Never My Fault: Alya is angry that Lila lied about being friends with Scarlet Lady on the Ladyblog, ignoring how Alya herself was the one who published the interview on the blog.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Subverted. It at first appears as if Marinette ruined Adrien's plan to get himself ungrounded by explaining to Gabriel that she had already returned the book to Adrien, unaware that Adrien had given the book to Fu. However, Adrien manages to get the book back right before she tells Gabriel that and then convinces his father that he's had the book all along and just didn't get a proper chance to explain himself.
- No Poker Face: Chat Noir notes this of Scarlet Lady as she eagerly anticipates comforting Adrien if his father turns out to be Hawk Moth.
- Oh, Crap!: When Master Fu explains how he can use the Grimoire, Adrien is horrified at the prospect of having to share any power-ups with Scar.
- Painting the Medium: The episode's subtitle has the last word covered with "[TOP SECRET]" in a different font and in red. The actual subtitle is "Tales of Gabriel the Butterfly."
- Pragmatic Villainy:
- When Gabriel declares he's pulling Adrien out of school for stealing and losing his book, the latter immediately reminds his father that, if that happens, he'll tell all his friends, one of whom has Nadja Chamack, a well-known reporter, as a family friend. Faced with a PR nightmare, Gabriel downscales Adrien's punishment to being grounded for a month.
- Scarlet Lady doesn't want Hawk Moth gone, knowing she'll be forgotten if he and his akumas are no longer around to wreak havoc. But when told that Gabriel Agreste might be Hawk Moth, she decides to help take him down so that she can comfort Adrien over it afterwards.
- Privacy by Distraction: In order to prevent her mother from learning how she caught a cold, Lila distracts her by reminding her she needs to go get groceries.
- Properly Paranoid: Gabriel Agreste organized his own akumatization because he suspected his identity as Hawk Moth could be discovered. He was right on the money.
- Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: Chloé thinks that Adrien being grounded means that he's never coming back to school, even though everyone else can tell that he'll just be grounded for the break (granted, it's also hinted she doesn't know what being grounded means because it's never happened to her before).
- Seamless Spontaneous Lie: When Adrien returns the Grimoire to Gabriel at the end, claiming he had it with him the entire time, Gabriel asks why he didn't say so before. Adrien convinces him by pointing out his wouldn't have listened to him if he had.
- Servile Snarker: Nathalie blurts out a tired, "M. Agreste... the #$%@." as she is getting drawn into the Collector's book, and the author's notes deliver a sarcastic, "I'll be taking my vacation days now, sir." At the end of episode, she also mocks Gabriel for being "the picture of subtly" when he descends to his lair using a secret elevator.
- Shout-Out: A tagline mocks, "Gabriel in his office having the most unemotional temper tantrum ala The Room."
- Slave to PR: When Gabriel tries to punish Adrien by pulling him out of school, Adrien threatens to get word to Nadja Chamack about him being a prisoner at home over a minor mishap. Gabriel downgrades the punishment to being grounded for a month.
- Spanner in the Works: Marinette unwittingly complicates Adrien's attempt to get himself ungrounded, telling Gabriel that she already found the book and returned it to Adrien right before Adrien was going to tell his father that he just found the book, having gotten it back after giving it to Master Fu shortly after Marinette returned it. Adrien is thus forced to corroborate her story by pulling the book out of his bag and lying he's had it all along. Gabriel then asks why he didn't say anything earlier, putting Adrien in the difficult position of being unable to reveal the truth but also looking suspicious if he doesn't give a reason for hiding that the book had been found. Fortunately, Adrien pulls off a Seamless Spontaneous Lie that he didn't think his father would have listened even if he had tried to tell him.
- Symbol Swearing: Nathalie does one when the Collector attacks her: "M. Agreste... the #$%@."
- Tempting Fate: After learning his father may be Hawkmoth, Adrien mentions that finding out the truth may be hard since the man is never around. The moment he enters his house, his father is waiting for him.
- What the Hell, Hero?: After Master Fu rebukes Plagg for bringing Adrien to his shop, Adrien then turns the table around on the Guardian upon realizing that he must be the one who chose Scarlet... or so Adrien thinks.
- You Are Grounded!: Adrien's punishment for losing his book. He was originally going to be pulled out of school entirely, though he convinces Gabriel to downgrade it by pointing out how disastrously the original punishment could end for his father PR-wise.
- You Are Not Alone: When Lila reveals her plan to not go to school to avoid being humiliated over her lies, Marinette tells her that Alix defended her and Rose was worried about her, so maybe she isn't as alone as she believes.
- You Didn't Ask: Adrien is caught in an awkward situation when he finds Marinette explaining to Gabriel that she already returned the lost book to Adrien. He saves himself by producing the book (which he just got back from Master Fu) and corroborating Marinette's account. When his father challenges him for an explanation, Adrien asks, "Would you have listened?"
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Nathalie's reaction when she's about to be absorbed into the Collector's book.
