"Gorizilla, I am Hawk Moth. I'm giving you the tracking abilities you'll need to hunt down the person you've lost and accomplish your mission."
— Hawk Moth
Gabriel's suspicions about Cat Noir's secret identity reach their peak as Hawk Moth decides to discover the truth once and for all. But when he Akumatizes his own personal bodyguard, has our Big Bad bitten off more than he can chew?
Tropes:
- Ascended Extra: Wayhem appeared previously in "Glaciator" as a quick gag when Marinette mistakes him for Adrien. He's much more important in this episode.
- Ascended Fanboy: Wayhem is given the chance to stand in Adrien's shoes, and later become his friend.
- Badass Bystander: For all of their obnoxiousness and lack of respect for Adrien's privacy, the Loony Fans unhesitatingly throw stones at Gorizilla when he abducts Adrien. Wayhem takes it a step further by spraying some perfume in Gorizilla's nose to sabotage his tracking ability and acting as Adrien's Body Double to distract Gorizilla and preserve Cat Noir's identity.
- Big "NO!": Hawk Moth lets out a horrified "NOOOOO!" when Adrien leaps off a building.
- Blatant Lies: Marinette claims she had no idea Adrien was in an ad, only to expose her own lie later when it shows in the theater and she reflexively recites the words along with it like she was doing in her room earlier.
- Central Theme: Trust is brought up through most of the episode.
- Chekhov's Gun: Adrien's helmet and Wayhem's cardboard dummy help the latter to impersonate the former. The perfume Adrien advertises in this episode is used to neutralize Gorizilla's sense of smell.
- Colossus Climb: Ladybug does this while battling Gorizilla.
- Continuity Nod: Adrien's lucky charm bracelet returns again.
- Also, this is the second time an attempt was made to akumatize the Gorilla. Unlike the first time, however, Hawk Moth is sucessful.
- A Day in the Limelight: One of the few episodes where Adrien/Cat Noir is the main focus, also giving some insight about how stressful Adrien's job can be to his private life.
- Didn't Think This Through: Gorizilla manages to grab both Ladybug and Adrien, but cannot take the former's Miraculous because he can't use his fingers without letting go of one of them.
- Enhance Button: Averted. When Gabriel compares pictures of Adrien and Cat Noir's rings, he zooms in on both of them, but they are noticeably pixelated when he does so.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Hawk Moth has Gorizilla release Ladybug when it becomes obvious she is the only hope for Adrien not falling to his death.
- False Flag Operation: In a lesser extension, Adrien managed to pull a similar trick to Gabriel's plan in "The Collector", thanks to Wayhem. Like Father, Like Son.
- Foreshadowing: At the end of the episode, Gabriel and Adrien are watching Solitude and the camera pans into a mysterious room beneath the Agreste mansion with what looks like a capsule.
- Game of Chicken: When Adrien jumps off the roof, he can transform and save himself at any time, at the cost of revealing his Secret Identity to the world. Unbeknownst to him, Hawk Moth is on the other side of the game — able to order Gorizilla to let Ladybug go so she can save him, at the cost of losing his chance to learn if he's Cat Noir. If neither of them flinches, Adrien will hit the ground and die. Hawk Moth flinches first.
- Groupie Brigade: Wayhem, a Loony Fan if there ever was one, leads an especially obnoxious one, tracking down and harassing two fourteen-year-old kids all day without a care for consent or privacy.
- Hidden Depths: Wayhem again. Despite being an obnoxious Loony Fan bordering on Stalker with a Crush with No Sense of Personal Space, he proves admirably brave and remarkably resourceful.
- Humiliation Conga: The Gorilla. Being blamed for Adrien sneaking out, having to drive all over Paris by tracking him through social media, just barely missing him at the train, being assaulted and mugged for his phone by crazed Adrien fans, receiving at least a dozen citation tickets from Officer Roger, getting his car towed and being verbally assaulted by his boss for his failurenote . It would have been a miracle if he wasn't akumatized.
- Identity Impersonator: Adrien gets Wayhem to impersonate him so he can become Cat Noir without Ladybug suspecting. It's a rare case where a hero pulls this trick without knowing the villain is close to figuring out his identity.
- Innocuously Important Episode: The credited director and film studio for “Solitude” will play a role in two major arcs in later seasons.
- "King Kong" Climb: This scene was pretty much expected. Ladybug's Lucky Charm is even an aerial attack one (a toy helicopter).
- Leap of Faith: Adrien jumps off of a building, simply because Ladybug told him she would catch him.
- Logical Weakness: When Wayhem sprays perfume in Gorizilla's nose, he's overwhelmed by the smell and unable to track Adrien via his super smell abilities.
- Loony Fan: Wayhem comes across like this to Adrien, from dressing just like him, to stalking him and following Adrien with a mob of fans all around Paris. Ultimately he helps Adrien save the day and Adrien says if he can cool off a little the two could be friends.
- Manipulative Bastard: Gabriel deliberately berates the Gorilla in order to put him in a state where he's vulnerable to akumatization. This can also be seen as a Call-Back to Simon Says, where he pulled off a similar trick with that episode's titular villain.
- Mistaken for Romance: The mob of Adrien's fans are quick to dub Marinette Adrien's girlfriend when they spot the two together. Not that she particularly minds.
- Needle in a Stack of Needles: Without his sense of smell, it's hard for Gorizilla to locate Adrien among the several billboards featuring the latter.
- No Name Given: Even in the episode where he's the Monster of the Week, the Gorilla is still never referred to by name— only as "[Adrien's] bodyguard".
- The Nose Knows: Gorizilla's main superpower besides his obvious Super-Strength.
- "Oh, Crap!" Smile: Adrien's expression when Wayhem calls out his name:Wayhem: Adrien?! The Adrien Agreste?! This. Is Awesome!!
Adrien: (nervous laugh) Okay, bye. - The Oner: Ladybug wraps her yoyo around Gorizilla's hand then runs across a busy office floor and to the other side of the roof, all in 10 uninterrupted seconds.
- Pajama-Clad Hero: Marinette winds up running all over Paris with Adrien, dodging a mob of paparazzi fans, in her pajamas.
- Palette Swap: One of background characters is just Manon except that she's white.
- Perfume Commercial: A video of one starring Adrien is a Running Gag.
- Pet the Dog:
- Hawk Moth is willing to release Ladybug so she can save his son, even though he suspects his son is Cat Noir and could save himself.
- Gabriel watches his wife's movie with Adrien and tells him how important it is that his son trusts him.
- Rewind, Replay, Repeat: Marinette continuously backtracks through a couple seconds of Adrien's ad just so she can watch his face on a loop.
- Ship Tease: Adrien appears to be checking Marinette out while they're hiding in the fountain, if the camera pan is any indication.
- Shout-Out: The Gorilla's akumatized form is a reference to Godzilla in name and King Kong in design.
- Something We Forgot: Marinette leaves her friends hanging in front of the swimming pool through the whole episode. At least they're kept entertained by following tweets about her and Adrien.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: When Ladybug shows up to rescue Adrien, she gives a speech that's, word by word, the same Wayhem gave a few seconds ago.
- Thundering Herd: To say that Adrien's plan to sneak out unnoticed went awry would be an understatement. At one point Adrien is seen fleeing from a mob of loony fans chasing him (lead by Wayhem), which includes a guy on a moped, a firetruck, and a frigging helicopter. By the time he runs into Marinette, he's at least managed to ditch the firetruck and the helicopter but the two of them end up being chased by an even bigger mob of fans.
- This Cannot Be!: Upon seeing how similar how Cat Noir's Miraculous and Adrien's ring are, Gabriel exclaims "That's impossible..." in disbelief.
