Episode 36
- Desperada - Tales of Vivica the Guitarist
It's practice time on board the Liberty, and Marinette offers Luka a glass of orange juice, heavily blushing. He thanks "Ma-Ma-Marinette," flustering her even further, and offers to teach her how to play while Alix, Alya, and Mylène watch with confusion. Adrien and Kagami then arrive. When Alya asks if their parents let them out, the two express mock horror over how they supposedly got the address wrong; this isn't fencing practice!
But Adrien's good humor dissipates upon noticing how Luka is teaching Marinette how to play, a shadow falling over his face as he smiles and asks what's going on there. The rest of the group wants to know, too.
Suddenly, they hear shouting overhead: Anarka's arguing with somebody. As the others go to investigate, Marinette flops down on the couch, overloaded and overwhelmed. Adrien sits down beside her, asking what's wrong. When she admits how Luka confessed to her, his eye twitches, but it's swiftly overridden by concern as she dissolves into tears, declaring, "I'm trying so hard to be normal and it's not! working!"
Marinette explains that while she doesn't want to start dating Luka, she's also worried about damaging their friendship. Her search for answers has just led to her overthinking everything, uncertain of what to do. Adrien advises her to simply talk to Luka and tell him the truth; he's not the sort to hold that sort of thing against her. Marinette thanks Adrien, and they head up to join the others on deck.
It turns out that the person Anarka's arguing with is none other than Jagged Stone, who's trying to convince her to join him for a jam session. Anarka declares that she's nobody's back up plan; when he claims that she's the only one he wants to play with, she accuses him of throwing his guitarist overboard again. Jagged claims otherwise, but unconvincingly, then spots Marinette and asks if she knows somebody who plays guitar. Like, say, somebody who's in a band on a houseboat, and who's got blue hair? Marinette notes how oddly specific that is, but as Jagged's about to ask Luka to join him, Chloé interrupts, calling Jagged Stone a hack and demanding that he pay for all of her shoes Fang chewed up.
Jagged Stone dismissively tells her to send the bill to Bob Roth. But another interruption appears in the form of an akuma, who declares that the musician is her target. Jagged Stone asks, "Vivica?" but Desperada corrects him, angrily calling him out for trying to replace her with a school kid (though, as Jagged points out, she's only two years older than Luka). As Desperada rains down her vengeance, capturing Anarka and most of the teens, Adrien leads Luka off to safety and Marinette and Chloé take cover. Chloé complains that this latest akuma looks really annoying, but she still has to avenge her shoes, so time to transform!
Scarlet Lady taunts Desperada, declaring she probably got fired over her hairstyle. Luka plays a few chords to distract the akuma—seeing him imperiled also drives Marigold to send Desperada flying, buying them a chance to duck into the sewers (and leaving Luka wondering if they just witnessed a murder). Marigold then tells the boys that their plan was reckless, but very brave, suggesting that they go and take cover. Adrien rushes to get away from Luka and transform, causing Chat Noir to show up sweating.
Scarlet's Lucky Charm summons a gong, which Chat Noir recognizes as a sign they need to get help. While she doesn't get the connection, Scarlet Lady angrily demands that he give the Miraculous to her Adrien. Chat Noir starts to reject the idea, but Marigold shyly pipes up, agreeing that Adrien would make a good hero. Chat volunteers to track him down while Scarlet Lady recharges and Marigold retrieves the Miraculous.
Upon detransforming, Plagg complains that this will never work. Adrien reassures him that he's got a plan to get himself off the "potential temporary Hero roster": he'll be such a nuisance that he'll never get called upon again.
(Meanwhile, Marinette finds herself torn as she picks up the Snake. While they all already agreed upon Adrien, her instincts are still pointing her towards Luka, and she jumps back and forth while Master Fu reminds her that they still have an akuma to deal with.)
When Marigold arrives, Adrien appears, claiming that Chat Noir needed to check on the civilian thing he'd ditched. Scarlet Lady attempts to hijack the presentation, screaming at "Marimold" to let her do it. Adrien overreacts to Sass's appearance, asking if he's some kind of Genie. Sass is unimpressed but realizes what's going on and resigns himself to the deception, instructing Adrien to say "Sass, scales slither!"
As they climb out of the sewers, Marigold explains to Aspik how Second Chance will let him go back to the time he used it. Aspik immediately sets it up, then puts it into use when Scarlet Lady gets sniped by Desperada. What follows is a montage of him repeatedly forcing Scarlet Lady into harm's way, getting her captured over and over again. As Marigold gapes at one of his many betrayals, Aspik reassures her that, "You won't remember this." He even confesses to Scarlet Lady that he's none other than her partner Chat Noir, exulting in her aghast expression before Second Chancing away from the fallout.
Once he's had his fun, Aspik returns back to the moment before they exited the sewers and detransforms, apologizing to Marigold and offering the Miraculous back to her. He claims that he wasn't able to protect them, no matter how hard he tried; when she protests, he insists that he's already done this 25,913 times. Marigold apologizes for putting him through that, reassuring him that it's not his fault and that they chose him for a reason.
Scarlet Lady sulks, asking what they'll do now. Marigold already has a plan, and wouldn't you know it, Luka shows up, looking for Adrien. To the girls' immense surprise, Adrien's up and vanished, and Chat Noir reappears, heavily sweating from all the running he's been doing. Marigold presents Luka with the Snake Miraculous; Sass remarks, "Ah, another one" upon seeing him, much to Luka's confusion. Still, he transforms into Viperion, and the four heroes race along. Deducing that Desperada is sniping from the Eiffel Tower, they decide to take away her vantage point with Cataclysm. Fortunately, even down in the sewers, the area around the tower is well labeled... due to how often it gets destroyed during akuma attacks.
As they engage Desperada directly, Viperion finds himself using Second Chance over and over to compensate for Scarlet Lady's recklessness. This spurs him to snap at her, much to her confusion. Viperion then distracts Desperada long enough for the other heroes to surround and snare her, breaking her guitar. Once she's purified, Chat Noir volunteers to escort her back to the houseboat while the others return the Snake Miraculous. Scarlet Lady declares that she's coming too, wanting to see where they get all the Miraculous, but balks when Marigold invites her to return to the sewers with them.
With their "fearless leader" scared off, Marigold retrieves the Snake Miraculous without actually taking Luka back down there. Sass praises how efficiently Luka used him, remarking that most new Snakes either have to use it many more times or try to use it selfishly. Marigold praises him as well, making Luka blush from all the compliments.
Jagged Stone apologizes to Vivica, admitting that her eating his cereal and drinking milk that was meant for Fang wasn't a good enough reason to fire her. He invites her back to his band. After she walks off, Anarka calls him out: those were just cheap excuses he'd used because he'd secretly wanted to play with their kids.
Meanwhile, Juleka sits down with Penny, noting that her parents think they've successfully kept her and Luka out of the loop. Penny isn't surprised by the fact she knows but still does a Spit Take when Juleka casually refers to her as her "step-manager."
Sitting down with Luka while he tunes his guitar, Marinette apologizes for being so "weird" around him lately. Luka reassures her that he likes "weird Marinette" as much as all her other facets and that he's just happy she didn't become "avoiding-me Marinette." He didn't tell her how he felt in order to pressure her into anything; he just wanted her to know how much she means to him. Marinette declares that he's important to her, too, and that she'll never run away from being his friend. She's not happy to hear how he plans to keep complimenting her in order to see "blushy Marinette" more often, though...
Observing this from nearby, Adrien expresses his relief that they're not dating. Kagami notes that's not the case yet, noting that Marinette can date whomever she wants... but Adrien hasn't put himself out there as an option. Why not? Adrien responds that there's an obstacle in the way. A big, tall, annoying, dumb obstacle with bad fashion sense and who's incredibly selfish. Kagami commiserates, remarking that his father is a difficult person to overcome... unaware that Adrien was actually describing Hawk Moth.
This episode contains examples of:
- Adaptational Intelligence:
- Because she isn't obsessively crushing on Adrien, Marinette immediately recommends Luka as Jagged new guitarist (though it probably also helped that Jagged was practically offering the job to Luka directly with how specific his suggestions were).
- When offered the Snake Miraculous, Adrien realizes immediately that he won't be able to maintain two secret identities. Thus, he decides repeatedly mess up as Aspik on purpose (while also getting back at Scarlet Lady by shoving her into Desperada's line of attack) to create an excuse for why he shouldn't be called on again.
- It turns out that Luka and Juleka already know that Jagged Stone is their father, with the tags explaining that they figured it out after learning that Anarka stopped playing music with Jagged around the time she was pregnant.
- Bad Liar: Jagged Stone repeatedly tries to bluff Anarka and the others, to little avail; she sees right through his lies and calls him out on them.
- Big "NO!": Played for Laughs; Marinette cries out this way when Luka declares that he's going to keep complimenting her just to see her blush more.
- Call-Back: Luka teases Marinette by calling her "Ma-Ma-Marinette," referring back to how she stammered back when she first introduced herself to him.
- Discontinuity Nod: The author's commentary under the final strip indicates that Luka's remarks about how glad he is that Marinette didn't start avoiding him were a direct jab at the canonical version of "Crocoduel."
- Dramatic Irony: Kagami mistakenly assumes that Adrien is referring to his father when he describes the "annoying obstacle" preventing him from confessing his own feelings to Marinette. This confuses Adrien, since he was talking about Hawk Moth... unaware that they are, in fact, one and the same.
- Hypocrite: Desperada sees Jagged offer her old job to Luka and is furious her former employer is trying to replace her with a school kid. Jagged reminds her that she's only two years older.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy:
- While Adrien is clearly not happy upon hearing about Luka's Love Confession, he shoves his feelings aside in order to give Marinette some honest, heartfelt advice about how to handle the situation (although it likely helps that Marinette freely admits she doesn't want to date Luka but is worried about damaging their friendship).
- Luka also calmly accepts that Marinette doesn't want to get together and would rather stay friends, stating that he only wanted her to know how important she is to him and didn't want her to feel pressured into reciprocating.
- In-Universe Catharsis: Adrien as Aspik manages to get back at Scarlet Lady for all the mistreatment he's endured from her, taking advantage of the Second Chance ability to push Scarlet Lady into the path of the villain's attacks over and over again. He even tells her at one point that he is really Chat Noir just to see the look on her face (as she knows Aspik's secret identity).
- Internal Reveal:
- Marinette explains to Adrien how Luka confessed his feelings to her during the Silencer incident.
- Aspik exploits Second Chance in order to reveal his other secret identity to Scarlet Lady, exulting in her horrified expression before retconning it away.
- Jerkass Has a Point:
- Chloé hunts Jagged Stone down and angrily demands he reimburse her for her shoes, which Jagged had Fang eat in "Silencer" after learning her role in Bob Roth and XY's attempt to plagiarize Kitty Section. It might've been Laser-Guided Karma, but she is still justified in demanding restitution for property damage.
- Marigold actually agrees with Scarlet Lady's insistence on giving the Snake Miraculous Adrien, feeling he'd be a good candidate for a temporary hero. There's also the fact that Adrien is actually one of the two original heroes.
- The Millstone: Invoked by Adrien, who plans to Be as Unhelpful as Possible in order to get off of the temporary hero roster, so he can continue being Chat Noir unimpeded.
- Oh, Crap!:
- When she and Adrien see Luka teaching Marinette how to play the guitar, Kagami looks at Adrien as if he were a ticking time bomb.
- Scarlet Lady's reaction when Adrien tells her he's also Chat Noir.
- Saying Too Much: Juleka and Luka exchange glances when Jagged states that Vivica is only two years older than Luka, thus accidentally revealing he knows Luka's age. The author reminds him in the captions that he's not supposed to know that since it's a secret that he's the Couffaine twins' father. Subverted when it turns out Luka and Juleka long already figured it out themselves.
- Spit Take: Penny does one when Juleka implies that she knows the former's more than just Jagged Stone's manager.
- Twitchy Eye: Adrien combines this with a frozen, forced smile when Marinette reveals to him how Luka confessed his feelings for her.
- Wham Line: It's revealed near the end that Luka and Juleka already know that Jagged is their father.
