Gabriel and Tsurugi offer to replace the Paris police force with robots. But when Mayor Bourgeois resists and reflects on his past corruption, Lila helps Chloé, whose bratty behavior has gone off the charts, present herself as an alternative.
Tropes:
- Actually Pretty Funny: André notes that his Old Shame script Solitude isn't so bad, citing a "funny scene".
- Adorable Evil Minions: Ms. Sans-Culotte turns people into balloons with cute emoji-like faces to use as minions.
- The Bad Guys Win: At the end of the episode Gabriel, Lila, and Chloé get what they want, with Chloé as Mayor of Paris and Ladybug and Cat Noir deemed outlaws.
- Being Evil Sucks: The weight of constantly doing the bidding of his wife and daughter, coupled with Gabriel betraying him, convinces André to resign as mayor.
- Calling the Old Man Out: During breakfast, Adrien openly tells his father that his pancakes suck and that he doesn't like the idea of going to London forever.Adrien: You should have listened to Marinette's advice, Father. Your pancakes are as bad as ever.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Chloé says she doesn’t need Lila to teach her how to be mean.
- A Child Shall Lead Them: The episode ends with Chloé becoming the new mayor of Paris after her father resigns from the position, even though she's just a young teen.
- Continuity Nod:
- Nathalie still watches Emilie's video diaries, only this time Gabriel finds out.
- Lila's String Theory board has images of Shadow Moth and Mayura, the time Ladybug purified Hawk Moth's giant head, and an image of Monarch from "Deflagration".
- Ms. Bustier brings up the birthday gift Chloé gave her in Season 2 which gave her hope that she could change for the better. It becomes the object used for her akumatization.
- Chloé states (led on by Lila) that if it weren't for Ladybug and Cat Noir supervillains would be running Paris.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: Rose gets so annoyed at Adrien and Marinette being unable to kiss that she threatens to kiss both of them if they don't kiss each other.
- Deadline News: Ms. Sans-Culottes charges onto Nadia’s show while she’s interviewing Mr. Banana and turns both of them into balloons for her army, while criticising how television is used to distract the masses rather than educate them.
- Death Glare: Chloé and Sabrina give these to each other in class at the beginning, before the latter goes to sit with Nathaniel, thus confirming their long-standing friendship is officially over after the events of the previous episode.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Chloé abuses her power in spades during this episode, getting Marinette nearly expelled for an offense she didn't even commit and Ms. Bustier fired for simply trying to talk some sense into her, figuring that with the two most inspirational people in her class gone, the rest of her classmates will finally fall in line and submit to her as the one in charge. When they instead pledge to keep fighting her oppression, and on Ms. Bustier's encouragement to boot, she, determined to break them, angrily orders her dad to send the latter to prison and to have the rest of her class banned from high school. Lila qualifies as well, as she's the one egging Chloé on to do these things, just to get back at them for learning the truth about her.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The episode is an allusion to The French Revolution. Ms. Sans-Culotte, dressed in the French flag colors and wielding a guillotine blade as a weapon, attempts to depose a corrupt leader, but does it in a way that causes chaos and disruption and allows a much more brutal tyrant to take over.
- Dog Pile of Doom: Ms. Sans-Culotte has her balloons dogpile Ladybug and Cat Noir while she goes after Mayor Bourgeois. Understandably, this doesn't delay them very long.
- Don't Celebrate Just Yet: Ladybug is confused when her crown seemingly has no use in stopping Ms. Sans-Culotte, other than as the catalyst for her World-Healing Wave. It's only when Chloé busts in with her army of robots making wild accusations does Ladybug realize that the crown was for her, not Miss Bustier, and she just used it to fix the damage caused by Ms. Sans-Culotte.
- Double-Meaning Title: Collusion is defined as a secret conspiracy meant to deceive others. Gabriel and Tsurugi conspire to get André out of office so they can get his manipulable daughter into a position of power while deceiving the Parisian public into thinking that the Miraculous Heroes have gone rogue. What they don't know is that Lila has her own conspiracy that involved manipulating Chloé into inspiring them with their takeover conspiracy in the first place, bringing her another step closer to stealing Gabriel's Miraculous. Also, André confesses to his own sins of collusion by ruining people's lives with his political authority.
- Downer Ending: With the police robots given to her by Gabriel and Tsurugi, Chloé takes over as Paris' new mayor and uses her authority to label Ladybug and Cat Noir as criminals. Meanwhile, Marinette is (probably) expelled from school and Adrien has yet to tell her that he'll be moving to London forever.
- Earpiece Conversation: Lila feeds Chloé lines and advice over an earpiece to further her plans.
- Engineered Public Confession: As André complains about all the horrible things he's done to stay in his wife's good graces, Gabriel secretly records him and edits the footage so he can release it online and discredit André.
- Evil Is Petty: Chloé disrupts the class' history lesson by loudly playing music, standing up in her seat, and dancing, while singing that nobody cares about the history lesson. She then calls acting principal Mendeleiev just to assert that she can get away with it.
- Evil Overlooker: The ending card of the episode depicts Lila as one, watching over Chloé, who became the new mayor of Paris thanks to her machinations, from the background.
- Forced Transformation: Ms. Sans-Culotte's guillotine blade transforms those hit by it into talking balloons, and combined with the power of Jubliation makes them loyal to her.
- Foreshadowing:
- In the classroom scene, Ms. Bustier gives a lecture on the San-Culottes revolutionaries, telling Kim that they did not only wear swimsuits.
- In Lila's base, her map of Paris is taped in front of a mural based on "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" making it seem that the wave is about to crash into the city. Whatever plans Lila has once she steals the Butterfly Miraculous will no doubt spell horrific disaster for all of Paris.
- Frame-Up: Per Lila's instruction, Chloé acts as though Marinette slapped her while Ms. Bustier left the classroom. Later, she makes it look as if Ladybug and Cat Noir were working with the villain to force her daddy into stepping down from office.
- Glad You Thought of It: At Lila's direction, Chloé barges into her father's meeting declaring that she would make for a superior mayor compared to him. This gives Gabriel the idea to concoct a wicked plot that would place Chloé as the new mayor, exactly as Lila anticipated. Lila then urges Chloé to take the deal after her father's reputation is ruined.
- Happiness in Minimum Wage: André thinks that he and Gabriel were much happier when they were penniless and trying to make their dreams come true.
- Heel Realization: André admits that he has abused his power as mayor for the sake of his wife and daughter who treat him like dirt regardless, and was happier when he had a simple life.
- Heroic Bystander: Knowing that her step-dad is about to be targeted, Zoé races to city hall to convince Ms. Sans-Culotte to give him a chance to explain himself.
- Heroic Willpower: Miss Bustier is able to calm herself and reject Monarch's akuma before it transforms her. While he succeeds on the second attempt, seeing Mayor Bourgeois willingly reinstate her and then quit his job allows her to reject the akuma again.
- Home Base: Lila's lair is revealed, with wigs, equipment, and a String Theory board. She seems to have set up shop in the "Beach Room" of the Paris Catacombs (because of the mural resembling "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" which is a feature of that room).
- Idle Rich: Just like in the last episode, Chloé gloats that she’ll never need to get a job, because her parents are rich.
- Internal Reveal:
- Chloé learns that Adrien is going to be forcibly moved to London.
- Gabriel catches Nathalie watching the videos of Emilie, though he doesn't confront her about it.
- Irony: Ladybug finds it weird how Monarch would support a revolutionary-themed supervillain.
- Janitor Impersonation Infiltration: Lila sneaks into the Grand Palais dressed as a waiter.
- Job-Stealing Robot: André's main objection to Tsurugi's police robots is that it will render his police force unemployed.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Discussed. Chloé at first dismisses Gabriel's offer of power, until Lila points out that her father isn't likely to be mayor much longer due to the scandal Gabriel has caused and all of the consequences of her nastiness will catch up to her real quick once he's out of power if she doesn't find an alternative.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Ladybug and Cat Noir retreat when they're attacked by Chloé's robots, as Ladybug has already used up her Lucky Charm and Cat Noir uses his Cataclysm to destroy a net.
- Like Parent, Like Child: André admits that his father used to be a politician which was part of his motivation in becoming mayor.
- Lipstick Lesbian: Ms. Bustier is revealed to be a lesbian and in a relationship with a black woman named Gisele.
- Manipulative Editing: Gabriel records André's rant about all the things he hates doing and selectively edits it to make it appear as if he's done/will do all of them willingly.Actual Video: Look at me, Gabe. All my life, I've lied, I've cheated and I've abused my power. I used to be a dreamer, an artist. I wanted to make movies. I've become a tyrant in servitude to my family and their friends. Police robots today, and tomorrow, I'll replace teachers with machines maybe. Or perhaps I'll turn the school into a prison, a factory of fools just smart enough to buy products that make you, me and Tsurugi-san rich. And you. Look at yourself. You used to create unique clothing to help people's dreams become a reality. Today you design police robots and connective rings. You know what? Maybe there's still hope. Maybe we can still change, give up our privileges, go back to the way it was before.
Doctored video: All my life, I've lied, I've cheated and I've abused my power. Police robots today, and tomorrow, replace teachers with machines. I'll turn the school into a prison. - Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Ladybug's Lucky Charm generates a crown, and she intuits that part of the solution is City Hall, so she comes to the conclusion that they should help Ms. Sans-Culotte confront the mayor. Ladybug and Cat Noir convince her to speak to the mayor about her concerns, only for him to unexpectedly resign of his own free will. Ladybug is confused, since she never actually used the crown, but rolls with it and triggers her World-Healing Wave. Chloé then barges in with Gabriel's robots and is able to spin the situation as Ladybug and Cat Noir helping a villain force the mayor to resign, allowing her to take over since Ladybug used up her Lucky Charm too soon.
- Noodle Implements: It’s not clear how the crown would’ve helped defeat Chloé and her robots.
- Not Helping Your Case: Ladybug tries to shut up Chloé's accusations by throwing her yo-yo at her, which only supports Chloé's claims of Ladybug becoming a rogue villain.
- Not What It Looks Like: Ms. Bustier comes back to her class to see Marinette with her hand stretched out as if she was about to strike the mean girl. Lila then orders Chloé to roll with it by playing the victim card. Even though the entire class comes to Marinette's defense, Chloé wields her influence to browbeat Ms. Mendeleiev into taking her side.
- Police Are Useless: Tsurugi uses the argument that Paris' current police force are useless in fighting Monarch and how the public has had to rely on two masked underage superheroes to save them every time to sell Mayor Bourgeois on the idea that her police robots would be a better choice. He isn't willing to bite, but Lila talks Chloé into presenting herself as an alternative who would be willing to use them.
- Refuge in Audacity: Chloé becomes mayor of Paris at the end of the episode despite being a 14 year old girl who wasn't elected and can't even pronounce "democracy", thanks to Gabriel's army of robots.
- Sickening Sweethearts: Much to the annoyance of their classmates, Adrien and Marinette manage to both be unable to kiss each other and yet sickeningly affectionate anyway. Rose even expresses as much.
- Significant Wardrobe Shift: Lila's new identity as Cerise gives her a brown jacket and a shorter haircut.
- The Stinger: The final scene has Chloé televising her takeover as Paris' new mayor while labeling all people with superpowers (hero or villain) as outlaws.
- String Theory: Lila's secret base has a giant map of Paris, onto which she's tacked photos and newspaper articles of Ladybug, Monarch and their respective allies, as well as personal acquaintances she either has vendettas against (Marinette, Miss Bustier, Principal Damocles) or has allied with (Chloé), all connected by various lines and arrows showing their personal connections. When she thinks she's dealt with Marinette and Miss Bustier, she drops their photos off the board.
- Take That!: André laments that he abandoned his passions and that he could abuse his political power to make school education poor enough so that people will only know how to buy things from Paris’ elite. This can be seen as a jab at late-stage capitalism.
- Tempting Fate: Marinette boasts to Chloé that she drove Lila out of school, and will do the same to her. Chloé ensures quite the opposite happens, at least temporarily.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Chloé has become dramatically worse, thanks to a combination of Lila egging her on as part of her plans and Chloé knowing that Ms. Mendeleiev is even more spineless than Mr. Damocles was (the previous episode notwithstanding).
- Tyrant Takes the Helm: With the help of Gabriel's police robots, Chloé takes over as mayor of Paris and bans all superheroes.
- Unwitting Pawn: Lila manipulates Chloé into barging into André's meeting with Gabriel and Tsurugi, thereby making Chloé seem like a preferable substitute for her father. Gabriel believes she will be easily manipulated by him and offers her control of the city, while Lila has her own goals.
- Villain Opening Scene: Gabriel speaks with his comatose wife about how a new cycle of life is approaching soon. Later, he walks by Nathalie's room and sees that she's watching Emilie's video diaries.
- We Used to Be Friends:
- Following through with her defection in the previous episode, Sabrina decides to cut all ties with Chloé and sits next to Nathaniel.
- André ends his friendship with Gabriel after his Engineered Public Confession is released along with accepting that his friend has changed for the worse.
- Wham Episode: André Bourgeois finally stands up and refuses to bend the world to Chloé’s whims again. But Gabriel forces the situation to end with his resignation, placing Chloé in charge as his puppet.
