"Kagami! You've disobeyed me yet again! And this time with the complicity of these so-called heroes. You are all going to pay!"
Marinette and Kagami find themselves teamed up in a cross-Paris scavenger hunt to win time with Adrien. Kagami's mother is against her participation and becomes akumatized into the giant centaur mecha Ikari Gozen, who can swallow people up and imprison them inside her armor.
Tropes:
- Call-Back: Master Fu has a new job in a cinema now because Hawk Moth found out his identity in "Feast".
- Character Development: Marinette and Kagami put aside their differences and become friends, which allows Ladybug to see Kagami as worthy of a Miraculous.
- Compliment Backfire: Kagami means to praise Marinette when she says "I see why Adrien considers you such a good friend," which is the last thing Marinette wants to hear. Marinette recovers quickly, takes Kagami by the arm, and walks with her, chattering about their new-found friendship.
- Elemental Shapeshifter: Ryuko has the power to become water, wind, and lightning.
- Exact Words: While it's yet to be seen if anything may come of it, Ladybug specifies to Kagami that she can't give her "this" Miraculous again.
- Failed a Spot Check: Adrien switches places with a wax statue and Gorilla fails to notice as he grabs "Adrien" and carries him to safety.
- Feed It a Bomb: Ladybug's plan to defeat Ikari Gozen involves her tossing a crate into Gozen's mouth which has the Dragon Miraculous and a bunch of bath bombs, the idea being for Kagami as Ryuko to turn into water and activate them, disabling Ikari Gozen. It takes a couple tries because Kagami doesn't listen to the plan the first time, but it works.
- Fishing for Sole: The first challenge Marinette and Kagami receive is to fish up the next clue using a fishing rod with a magnet on the end. Marinette fishes up various objects, such as a pot and a rollerskate, before finally getting the clue.
- Getting Eaten Is Harmless: Justified since Ikari Gozen is mechanical and her stomach actually resembles the interior of a car.
- Gratuitous Japanese: Both the new villain (Ikari Gozen) and hero (Ryuko) are examples.
- Hidden Depths: Ryuko brings the reckless side out of the typically reserved Kagami. Upon receiving Longg and the Dragon Miraculous, she ignores Longg trying to tell her of Ladybug's plan and makes the mistake of revealing her identity upon introduction.
- Hypocrite: Once again, the Gabriel Agreste Parenting Guide contains no chapter on self-awareness.Hawk Moth: [detecting Kagami] How tragic it is to feel unloved, alone, deprived of friendship...
- Insecurity System: Kagami records her mother's voice and uses it to override the voice-lock on her self-driving car.
- It's Personal: Why Ryuko ignores Ladybug's plan and fights Ikari Gozen head-on; to her, this is another battle for independence from My Beloved Smother.
- Jerkass Realization: For the first half of the episode, Marinette has been trying to sabotage herself and Kagami so that they, and by extension Kagami, won't be able to spend time with Adrien. It is after Marinette checks Kagami's phone and discovers her contact list is empty except for her mother (not even Adrien is on it) and that she had been referring to an online guide for "how to make friends" that she realizes how horrible she's been to someone who only joined the hunt to make a friend.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Marinette tries fruitlessly to sabotage herself and Kagami, explaining such in video texts between herself and Alya. The game eventually requires them to swap phones, leading to Kagami discovering the texts. Marinette makes it up to her in the end.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Kagami tries to take on her mother all by herself, ignoring Ladybug's plan and worse yet, revealing her identity to Hawk Moth. To be fair, Hawk Moth would have learned her identity anyways as she was the only person who was imprisoned inside Ikari Gozen.
- Linked List Clue Methodology: The main plot focuses on Marinette and Kagami playing a scavenger hunt game in which they solve riddles sent to them through their phones.
- "Meet the Celebrity" Contest: Paris celebrates Friendship Day and has a scavenger hunt that teams up pairs of strangers so that people can form new friendships. The final goal of the hunt is to figure out where famed teen model Adrien Agreste is hiding, and the prize is to spend the rest of the day with him. Marinette initially enters hoping to spend some time with him, but when she gets paired with Kagami, she decides she'd rather try to sabotage their team to keep Kagami and Adrien apart.
- Odd Friendship: The general idea of Friendship Day is to pair up random people and help them become friends. As a result, Marinette team-ups with Kagami, and Alya with Wayhem.
- Offscreen Teleportation: At one point, Marinette is between Kagami and a clue and pushes it away from Kagami with her foot. Kagami suddenly shows up next to the clue, to Marinette's shock.
- Personality Blood Types: Discussed. When Kagami and Marinette are fishing for a clue, Kagami asks Marinette what her blood type is. Marinette doesn't know, prompting Kagami to explain how significant this trope is in Japan, and that she's a type O, meaning she's independent, optimistic, strong-willed and intuitive. Based on Marinette's indecision regarding her favorite season, Kagami determines she's a type AB.
- Punny Name: "Ryuko" contains the Japanese word for "dragon" ("ryu") and altogether means something along the lines of "clever writing" in Japanese. The writers were clever, indeed.
- The Un-Smile: Kagami gives Marinette a very forced smile while trying to make small talk. When Kagami has to take a selfie, she sees it herself and tones it down to something more natural.
