Two Transfers to Two Better Places
Ms. Rossi arrives home late to find her daughter in tears, confessing that she "did a bad thing": she secretly went behind her back and got a modeling job with Gabriel Agreste. Now that he's been exposed as Hawkmoth, she's terrified that he might have been manipulating her the whole time... or worse, that he'll paint her as a willing accomplice, or target her out of petty revenge. Horrified, her mother agrees to request an emergency transfer, though it will take a few days to arrange... and in the meantime, she wants to take her to make an official statement to the police.
Lila acts reluctant, but this is actually a critical part of her plan. The next morning, the pair meet with Lieutenant Raincomprix, and she plays the role of the Unwitting Pawn... not just to Gabriel, but to her 'loving boyfriend', Adrien. When she 'realizes' their budding suspicions, she pleads with Lieutenant Roger, insisting that Adrien's completely innocent and had nothing to do with his father's crimes.
Afterwards, she heads to school, where Alya is just finishing up an audioblog bragging about being Ladybug's bestie and promising exclusive interviews to come. She then takes Lila aside to gently ask about her story about being BFFs with Ladybug despite not getting along with Marinette, but she deflects by sobbing about how Gabriel manipulated her. Alya decides to give her a few days to calm down, promising to talk about everything on Friday.
Then Marinette arrives to cheers and acclaim; however, she doesn't react the way anyone expects to their warm welcome, or to Alya's pressing for more information. Ms. Bustier declares that the Principal wants to hold a special assembly, but she rejects the invitation to speak as their guest of honor, and gives her some papers: she's transferring into Ms. Mendeleiev's class.
When she walks out, Adrien follows, and Lila follows him, listening in as he proudly informs Marinette of his crush on Ladybug and that they can get together now. But to his shock, she turns him down outright, leaving him to wonder if she's still stressed out after defeating Hawkmoth. Lila picks up on what he fails to notice: that she's not interested in him anymore, and isn't going to try and shield him from what's coming...
This chapter contains examples of:
- Batman Gambit: Played With; Lila sets up her plan initially believing that Marinette will rush to Adrien's defense. However, once she sees how unlikely that is, she's unbothered; even if Marinette doesn't help him, others will likely assume that she will, and thusly that anything she claims about Lila is just trying to protect him at the other girl's expense.
- Cassandra Truth: Lila tells Lieutenant Roger outright that it would be a grave miscarriage of justice to assume that Adrien helped his father with any of his terrorist acts. Mentally, she notes that she's actually telling the truth this time, but is fully aware that she likely won't be believed (in fact, she's counting on it).
- Cannot Keep a Secret: Alya is implicitly responsible for their whole class knowing about Marinette’s 'secret' crush on Adrien. Including Miss Bustier and Adrien, with the latter stating outright that Alya was the one who told him about it. This further reinforces Marinette's refusal to trust her with where her family's been staying.
- Dramatically Missing the Point:
- The Dupain-Chengs have started staying in a secret location in order to avoid being swamped by the press and other forms of unwanted attention. Alya still expects to be invited over, and when Marinette rejects her attempts to weasel her way in, fails to recognize that she might fall into that category.
- Marinette tells Adrien point blank that "I can't love someone who let Lila do what she did to me." He interprets this as being envious of his Fake Relationship with Lila, reassuring himself that he just needs to let the other girl down gently so he can start dating Marinette.
- Entitled Bastard:
- Alya has wasted no time in using her supposed status as Ladybug's bestie to promote her Ladyblog, promising exclusive interviews and plenty more to come. She also tries to get Marinette to spill where her family has gone in order to avoid the Paparazzi, attempting to invite herself over for a sleepover.
- Ms. Bustier and Principal Damocles want to use Marinette's newfound status as Paris' favorite superheroine to promote their school with a special assembly; Bustier is clearly disappointed when Marinette flatly turns the invitation down.
- Entitled to Have You: Adrien is convinced that Marinette has to get together with him now that he knows she's Ladybug, and is completely flummoxed when she rejects his confession.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Lila doesn't understand why Marinette doesn't immediately confront her the moment she walks in the door. Notably, this is also rooted in her self-centered nature, as she can't fathom the notion that she's not Marinette's top priority.
- Fair-Weather Friend: Alya and the bulk of the class flock back to Marinette, expecting to be welcomed with open arms now that they're no longer avoiding her. Marinette gives them a taste of their own medicine with a frosty reception, ignoring their efforts to reach out and cozy back up to her.
- Guilt by Association: Lila acts afraid that this will happen to her, since she worked as one of Gabriel's fashion models. At the same time, she's deliberately setting Adrien up for this.
- Internal Reveal: Adrien reveals that thanks to Alya, he was actually aware of Marinette's crush on him, and confesses that he had a crush of his own on Ladybug.
- Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: Played With; Lila initially inverts this when Gabriel's exposure as Hawkmoth spurs her to confess to her mother how she lied and got a job with him behind her back. She then uses this to plant seeds of suspicion around Adrien, with her minor crime seemingly exposing much larger machinations... but in reality, she's the one pulling the strings.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Played With; Lila pretends to have realized, much to her horror, that Gabriel was manipulating her the whole time. She uses this specifically with Alya to buy herself a few days grace before talking about the discrepancies in her claims about being Ladybug's best friend.
- Open Secret: In Chapter 1 it appeared as though Everybody Knew Already regarding Marinette's crush on Adrien, which is why they believe she's just jealous of Lila. Here, when Adrien asks to be excused to talk to Marinette, the entire class — including the teacher — respond knowingly. However, Adrien offhandedly mentions to Marinette that, rather than he himself figuring it out, Alya had actually told him about Marinette's crush behind her back.
- Playing the Victim Card: This remains one of Lila's favorite tactics; this time, she's specifically aiming to convince others that she was an Unwitting Pawn of the Agrestes.
- Plot Parallel: Like Lila before her, Alya wastes no time in bragging about being 'Ladybug's BFF' and trying to leverage that supposed status to her advantage.
- The Power of Apathy: Though she was expecting seeing her classmates again to be a painful experience, Marinette finds that she isn't nearly as bothered as she'd anticipated, having Stopped Caring about her Fair-Weather Friends.
- Pull the Thread: Downplayed; Alya asks Lila why she seemed to have such a rocky relationship with Marinette despite her supposed friendship with her heroic alter ego. She's willing to give Lila some time to compose herself before they discuss the matter at length.
- Saying Too Much:
- During her statement, Lila invokes this by mentioning that Gabriel followed up on questions Adrien had been asking her, leading Roger down a line of questioning that makes her 'boyfriend' look increasingly suspicious, all while Lila acts ignorant of the implications of what she's saying.
- Adrien barely avoids blurting out that "It's destiny!" for him and Marinette to get together, recognizing that this likely isn't the best moment to reveal his own Secret Identity as Chat Noir.
- Unrequited Love Switcheroo: Adrien informs Marinette that he was crushing on Ladybug all this time, and happily accepts 'her' confession, only to be bluntly informed that she's not interested in him anymore.
- Unwitting Pawn: Lila pretends to have been manipulated by both Gabriel and Adrien.
- Wrong Genre Savvy:
- Alya and Nino speculate that Marinette's parents might be the ones forcing her to transfer to another class, afraid that her friends might exploit her... something both dismiss as a concern despite planning to do just that, since they're so used to taking advantage of her generous nature.
- Adrien misattributes Marinette's rejection to misplaced envy of Lila, deciding that she must want him to 'break up' with Lila first before she'll agree to date him.
