"Reflekta. I am Mayura. To help you succeed you'll be assisted by Reflekdoll. She'll be entirely under your control."
— Mayura
Juleka once more becomes Reflekta, but this time the villainess has help. To make matters worse, Marinette and Adrien are having issues with their Miraculous. But could Hawk Moth have made a costly mistake that threatens to test Nathalie once more than before?
Tropes:
- Bad Boss: Hawk Moth orders Nathalie to help him as Mayura in spite of the damage he knows it will do to her, and he downplays how hurt she is to Duusu after the transformation ends.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Zig-zagged. Mister Bug got exactly what he wished for with his Lucky Charm: a mirror to reflect back Reflekta's beams, which was useless because being hit with her own beam does nothing. However, there was still a creative way to use the round mirror: to unscrew an access panel in the back of the Reflekdoll's head.
- Big Brother Instinct: At the beginning of the episode, Luka tells Juleka that she's pretty and encourages her to follow her dreams of being a model, then clips a barrette into her hair, temporarily sealing her confidence.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Juleka's inability to tell Marinette and her friends how much she wants to do the shoot, and why she felt nervous when the shoot was about to start, kickstarts the main plot.
- Continuity Nod:
- In "Sandboy", Tikki started to say Marinette's name to the other kwamis, but her speech gets interrupted by a bunch of bubbles coming out of her mouth, because kwamis are forbidden to tell others their masters' names. In this episode, Plagg, without thinking, starts to remark that Marinette isn't Adrien, only for the name to be interrupted by green smoke coming out of his mouth.
- Marinette asks Plagg if Cat Noir lost his ring again, referencing his excuse for his holder's absence in Style Queen.
- Contrived Coincidence: Marinette and Adrien wear outfits that include jewelry, meaning they have to temporarily remove their Miraculous. If they'd been wearing them when affected by Reflekta's powers, they wouldn't have been able to transform at all. The coincidence also enables the swap when the kwamis try to deliver their Miraculous to identical-looking masters.
- Didn't Think This Through:
- Mister Bug uses his Lucky Charm, figuring it will give him a mirror that he can use to reflect Reflekta's beams back at her. He gets exactly what he wanted, much to Lady Noir's annoyance, but Reflekta is immune to her own power, leaving him with a seemingly-useless mirror and a failing timer.
- Lady Noir uses her Cataclysm on the Sentimonster, but it isn't destroyed. Instead, it goes berserk, firing beams everywhere independent of Reflekta, who can no longer control it. Not that Cat Noir would have known any better, as this is the first time either has fought a Sentimonster without it being dispelled, but Lady Noir was specifically trying to show off at the time.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: Juleka's friends are shocked to see her bangs pulled back. Doing so shows her attempting to be bolder and in the spotlight more, as opposed to her hiding behind her bangs to hide and blend in.
- Facepalm: Lady Noir facepalms in frustration after Mister Bug accidentally hits himself in his face with his own yoyo.
- Glamour: When Marinette gets the Cat Miraculous, it's pink and not silver in camouflaged form. Likewise, Adrien gets silver earrings rather than black ones. The disguised appearance of a Miraculous may be different in shape as well, as seen with the Rabbit Miraculous. This may explain why they didn't recognize the Miraculous as jewelry their friend always wears.
- Glamour Failure: The Peacock Miraculous is shown to glitch between its disguised and natural forms even before it's been activated, a sign of the damage Gabriel mentioned.
- History Repeats: This is the second time Alya has had Marinette step in for an overwhelmed friend as a way to both deal with time constraints and move along her relationship with Adrien.
- How Do I Shot Web?: Downplayed. Just like Ladybug when she first started, when Mister Bug first pulls out his yo-yo, he struggles with it, smacking himself in the face. He picks it up pretty quickly after that. Meanwhile, Lady Noir can spin her staff well enough to deflect blasts right from the start, just like Cat Noir could. Played straight when Mister Bug summons his Lucky Charm, as he has no idea how to apply the item he's been given and needs Lady Noir's help to figure it out. Activating a Miraculous special attack is as easy as saying the name, but knowing how to best use it is not as easy as the usual user makes it look.
- Humble Pie: Ladybug and Cat Noir both start the episode thinking the other has it easy. Once they gain access to the other's powers and muck it up (see Didn't Think This Through), they're forced to admit that they don't know what they're doing and the other has it tougher than they realized.
- I Always Wanted to Say That: When Lady Noir reminds Mister Bug that it's his job to capture the akuma this time, he admits he's always wanted to do that.
- Improvised Screwdriver: Mister Bug uses the round mirror he received from the Lucky Charm to unscrew an access panel on the back of the Reflekdoll's head.
- Instant Expert: Marinette has no more of a problem figuring out Cat Noir's powers than Adrien did. Adrien, on the other hand, struggles to adapt to the yo-yo just like Marinette did initially.
- Internal Reveal: This is the first time that Adrien and Tikki interact with each other.
- In-Universe Soundtrack: When Juleka is moving her bangs aside while looking in a mirror, a pitched-up note plays every time she moves them, and a pitched down note plays whenever she lets them fall back into place. Then the camera angle changes to show Luka playing said notes on his guitar.
- Irony: Seconds after Juleka's akuma is cleansed, she is hit by Reflektdoll's beam, making her look like Reflekta once again.
- Jerkass Ball: Downplayed. Lady Noir gives Mr. Bug a hard time about his use of Ladybug's powers and particularly can't let his previous "humor sense" comment pre-power exchange die so easy. Mr. Bug, in turn, is a little more smug and condescending about her powers and lack of humor than he normally is, which he usually holds in high respect.
- Mirrors Reflect Everything: Mister Bug creates a mirror with his Lucky Charm to bounce Reflekta's beam back at her. It works, though much like his own experience with her powers back in her first appearance, getting hit with a transformation beam is pointless if you already look like the thing it's supposed to change you into.
- Needle in a Stack of Needles: Plagg and Tikki have a hard time finding their owners after they get hit by Reflekta's transforming beams. Plagg ends up running into Marinette first, so she just rolls with it and takes the ring to become Lady Noir. Tikki, seeing her owner is now using the Cat Miraculous, finds Adrien at the car wreck and gives him the earrings, turning him into Mister Bug.
- Never My Fault: Reflekta blames Marinette for her akumatization, since the latter wouldn't allow her to explain her feelings about the photo shoot. While Marinette could have done better, it was Juleka who couldn't bring herself to explain why she was so nervous, leading Marinette to form her own conclusion which Juleka didn't dispute. Alya interrupting Marinette's attempt to calm Juleka's nerves didn't help matters, either. Of course, akumatized people are hardly rational. Marinette is wise enough to read between the lines and make it up to Juleka once she's back to normal.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Alya's well-meaning attempts to give Marinette a chance to ask Adrien out during the impromptu fashion shoot ends up pushing Juleka, the intended model, out of the spotlight, aggravating her complex and making her vulnerable to Hawk Moth's and Mayura's corruption.
- No-Sell:
- Mister Bug comes up with the idea to reflect Reflekta's beams back at her. Forgetting his own experience with her powers the last time they fought, all this does is stagger her for a moment since the primary effect of the beam is to make people look like her.
- Sentimonsters are resistant to Cataclysm. It causes superficial damage, but it doesn't destroy them. It just makes them go out of control and attack more chaotically, which might make things worse. (It almost worked because Mayura was tempted to recall her amok, but Hawk Moth thought the chaos could work to their advantage.)
- No Sense of Humor: Cat Noir accusing Ladybug of this at the beginning of the episode upsets her so much that she just can't let it die when they have their powers swapped.
- Odd Name Out: The first episode named after a sentimonster, rather than an akumatized villain or a Miraculous wielder.
- Oh, Crap!: Marinette and Adrien both react this way when they try to transform and realize their Miraculous was left behind in the trunk of the car.
- Poor Communication Kills: Part of what leads to Juleka's akumatization is her inability to simply tell Marinette that she wants to do the shoot. Coupled with her obvious stage fright and the fact they have a very tight schedule, Marinette offers to take her place, and Alya takes the opportunity to get Adrien in the shoot with her, sidelining Juleka completely.
- Portmanteau: Due to the switch in costumes, many of Ladybug and Cat Noir's catchphrases are changed up in this episode.
- First off, they call themselves Mister Bug and Lady Noir.
- Lady Noir calls Mister Bug "bugaboy".
- Appropriately, Mister Bug calls his World-Healing Wave power "Miraculous Mister Bug".
- Power Makes Your Hair Grow: As Lady Noir, Marinette's hair grows out into a long braid that reaches past her feet.
- Stating the Simple Solution: Lady Noir suggests she and Mister Bug swap back to their own powers, but Mister Bug insists he can handle it.
- Suddenly Always Knew That: Lady Noir is a font of knowledge about the Peacock Miraculous, knowing the terms "amok" and "sentimonster", and vaguely how they work. Presumably, Master Fu filled her in after the first encounter with a sentimonster.
- Swapped Roles: After just saving the day, Ladybug and Cat Noir have a short argument about their respective roles; Ladybug is self-serious and Cat is dismissive that she needs to be so. They get a chance to step into each other's shoes when circumstances seperate them from their miraculouses and put them in each other's hands. Lady Noir revels in her apparent freedom in Cat's role, but her arrogance and the use of Cataclysm makes things worse. Meanwhile, Mister Bug is too hasty and not prudent enough with his powers, seemingly wasting his Lucky Charm on getting a specific item that doesn't work as he intended.
- Tempting Fate: Marinette and Adrien assure Tikki and Plagg, respectively, that they're only removing their Miraculous for the length of the photo shoot. One akuma and Swapped Roles later, both promise to never do this again.
- Transformation Sequence:
- Lady Noir and Mister Bug both get one, with traits changed slightly due to the change in genders and powers, not to mention the fact that both are in the form of Reflekta at the start.
- This is the first time we see Mayura's transformation. In her premier episode, it was done off-camera.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Right after Lady Noir and Mister Bug save Reflekta from her berserk Reflekdoll, she insults their costumes and tries to turn them into Reflektas too.Mister Bug: You can at least show a bit of gratitude!
