As Marinette and Zoé plan a school dance together, Marinette discovers that Zoé has a crush on a student from her year. Meanwhile, Chloé and Lila scheme to frame Marinette for theft.
Tropes:
- An Aesop: Don't hesitate to reveal your feelings for somebody, because even if they don't feel the same way, that doesn't mean telling them will ruin things between you.
- Almost Kiss: Marinette and Adrien are inches away from kissing, when he has a vision of a looming Gabriel telling him "no". Adrien is unsettled, and almost robotically excuses himself. Meanwhile, Gabriel is watching from the upstairs window, rubbing his ring...
- Batman Gambit: Lila is unconcerned when Sabrina runs off, counting down the seconds to when she'll return, akumatized. When it happens, a stunned Chloe asks "Are you a witch?!"
- Call-Back:
- At the start of the episode, Zoé is considering placing a framed picture (of Marinette, presumably) into André's secret stash box, which he showed her in "Sole Crusher".
- Zoé recalls how she and Marinette first met when Marinette tripped and they bumped into each other in the same episode, and has been attracted to her ever since.
- Card-Carrying Jerkass: Chloé shamelessly admits to being a bully, calling Marinette an “anti-bullying party pooper”.
- Double-Meaning Title: Vanisher receives the power of Adoration. The episode also involves Zoé's adoration for Marinette, Marinette's adoration for Adrien, and how Sabrina's adoration for Chloé pushes her to do things she doesn't want to.
- Effective Knockoff: The power of Fetch generally applies only to a single item, even when wielded by Monarch. Vanisher can tag as many items as she wants, recall them as a group or individually, and has no limit to the amount of times she can use it.
- Everyone Has Standards: Sabrina refuses to steal things to frame Marinette and runs off in anguish when Chloé threatens to end their friendship otherwise. Unfortunately, Monarch exploits this conflict to akumatize her into Vanisher, who doesn't have the same scruples, exactly as Lila anticipated.
- Evil Counterpart: Vanisher serves as one to Miss Hound after she's given the same Fetch power. Only now she uses the ability to steal from others and to frame the innocent.
- Evil Is Petty: Monarch akumatizes Sabrina into Vanisher to help frame Marinette, and only orders her to steal Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculouses when the opportunity comes up.
- Exact Words: Gabriel promises to make his son's dreams come true, but then immediately tries to veto him going to the school dance with Marinette. Nathalie turns his own words back on him, and he reluctantly concedes, choosing to instead try to sabotage their potential date indirectly as Monarch.
- Frame-Up: Chloé, Lila, and Vanisher team up to frame Marinette for the theft of the party supplies, claiming she stole them for parts to finish her dress, as a bid to get her expelled. Once Marinette figures out the scheme, she's able to turn it back on Chloé, though as usual Chloé avoids punishment. Lila wisely makes sure she's not involved directly.
- Given Name Reveal:
- André reveals his original name was actually Anaximandré, until he changed it to please Audrey.
- The butler, who Chloé and Audrey typically refer to as "Jean-[something]", is revealed to actually be named Armand.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The spray adhesive Vanisher steals is ultimately used to render her visible, in tandem with Ladybug's Lucky Charm.
- Hopeless Suitor: Zoé has a crush on Marinette, who is already in love with Adrien. Zoé knows as much, so she planned to never tell Marinette out of fear that it would just ruin their friendship.
- The "I Love You" Stigma: Both Marinette and Zoé suffer from this. By the episode's end, Zoé is able to admit her feelings for Marinette, and convinces her to do the same. Marinette finally, finally, gets around to telling Adrien how she feels about him with that encouragement.
- Improvised Weapon: Vanisher wields the baker's peel and guitar she tagged earlier as weapons against Ladybug and Cat Noir once her cover is blown.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Although Zoé has feelings for Marinette, she encourages her to tell Adrien she loves him. Many of Zoé's actions are retroactively revealed to be this.
- In "Gabriel Agreste", she helped with the plan to stop Chloé from getting Adrien removed from school.
- In "Deflagration", she smiled when she saw Marinette and Adrien getting closer.
- In "Perfection", she helped with Adrien's serenade.
- In "Protection", she went along with the "Ferris wheel kiss" plan.
- Karma Houdini: Though Chloé and Lila's plans are foiled, neither suffers any punishment for working with a supervillain because Chloé is untouchable as long as her father is the mayor. Note that Mr. Damocles was ready to expel Marinette just for stealing without knowing the context.
- Karmic Jackpot: Pretty much everyone at the Hotel veers everything into Zoé's favor when Chloé starts barking orders over Marinette being there because unlike her half-sister, Zoé actually treats them with respect. The only exception to this is Audrey, who doesn't care enough to back Chloé up for anything, much less fight her battles for her.
- Kick the Dog: Lila has Chloé back Sabrina into a corner by threatening to not be her friend unless she steals from Marinette, knowing that Monarch will sense that conflict and akumatize her. Chloé is initially annoyed because it seems like all Lila did was drive Sabrina away, but Lila simply does a three-count and Vanisher enters the room on cue.
- Meaningful Look: Zoé doesn't outright say she's in love with Marinette. All she has to do is look at Marinette (complete with Reflective Eyes) when Marinette asks about it and Marinette understands.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Chloé scattering the paper flowers Vanisher stole accidentally reveals her presence, allowing Marinette to figure out how she's being framed.
- Nice to the Waiter: Zoé is polite to the hotel staff and to her step-father, which in turn makes them willing to come to her defense against Chloé, if indirectly.
- Nightmare Face: Gabriel makes one when he manipulates his abused son into not kissing the girl he loves.
- Oblivious to His Own Description: Marinette jumps to the conclusion that Zoé is in love with Adrien because she describes her crush as "loved by everyone", and she uses the Adrien avatar for her Alliance (one of only two options, the other being Lila). Zoé has to tell Marinette directly for her to draw the connection.
- Pet the Dog: In an instance of his authority being used positively, Mayor Bourgeois agrees to allow the school dance to be held under the Eiffel Tower as a favor to Zoé.
- Queer Establishing Moment: Zoé is revealed to be sapphic. This was previously hinted at in "Deflagration", when she flirted with Scarabella.
- Reflective Eyes: Marinette is suddenly reflected in Zoé's eyes as part of her Meaningful Look, just in case the viewer doesn't get the hint.
- See the Invisible:
- Marinette is alerted to Vanisher's presence when some of the paper flowers Chloé brushes away blow right into her. She later uses confetti from a piñata (with some spray-on glue from Cat Noir) to render her fully visible.
- On a similar note, Vanisher summons up items she previously stole as weapons, allowing Cat Noir and Ladybug to counter-attack because they know where to aim.
- Series Continuity Error: Marinette says that Zoé hasn't been in her room before, even though she clearly was in "Gabriel Agreste". note
- Summon to Hand: The extra power granted to Vanisher, who uses it through her whistle instead of the usual ball, and works on as many objects as she can touch.
- Taking the Heat: When Marinette is getting in trouble for the alleged thefts, Zoé suddenly jumps in and says that she was actually the one responsible for it in order to prevent that. Chloé still sees this as a success, because she hates Zoé just as much as she hates Marinette. Marinette is able to use the distraction to sneak away and transform, exposing Chloé as the culprit.
- Three... Two... One...: After Sabrina runs off after refusing to follow through with Chloé's Frame-Up scam, Lila simply counts down from three for Vanisher to appear before them, ready to enact their wickedness.
- Wacky Marriage Proposal: André wrote the movie Solitude so he could confess to Audrey.
- Wham Shot: Gabriel is shown to be able to influence Adrien's behavior from afar, revealing that his influence over him is supernatural, almost as if Adrien is a sentimonster.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: After Vanisher shows Chloé and Lila her new powers, Lila disappears from the rest of the episode.
