Episode 5
- Lady Wifi - Tales of Alya the Journalist
Another day brings another akuma. This time, however, Mme. Bustier actually notices that two of her students are missing, asking Sabrina if she knows where Chloé is (along with Adrien, as an afterthought). Unaware that her best friend is actually the one and only Scarlet Lady, Sabrina weakly suggests that she's in the bathroom. Bustier scoffs at the thought; Chloé willingly using a public restroom? As if.
As class lets out, Marinette goes to retrieve something from her locker while Sabrina pulls Alya aside to ask if she happens to know where Chloé disappeared to. Smirking, Alya suggests she might have IBS, disgusting Sabrina. They then go to check on Marinette, only to witness her taking what appears to be a red and black-spotted yo-yo out. Gasping, Alya immediately drags Sabrina aside, declaring this means that Marinette is Scarlet Lady!
Unwilling to deal with this, Sabrina deflects to Nino, who proves... less than receptive to the idea. After all, he witnessed just how nasty the heroine can get at the tail end of the Bubbler incident, coming back to himself in time to see how cruelly she treated Chat Noir. Despite his skepticism, Alya decides that the best way to prove her theory is by breaking into Marinette's locker for more evidence, rather than just waiting for Marinette so she can ask her friend directly.
Unfortunately for her, Chloé heard about her theory from Sabrina and is infuriated by the mere idea of it. The next morning, the two girls tail Alya and Nino, with Chloé snapping a photo of Alya trying to access Marinette's locker. Kim gets dragged into the mess as they haul Alya off to the principal's office where Chloé demands she be punished for her gross invasion of privacy. Damocles somewhat reluctantly gives Alya an hour's detention but swiftly upgrades that to a week's suspension after Chloé invokes her father's name.
"Too bad your friend Marinette isn't Scarlet Lady... or she might have saved you," she sneers.
This proves to be the tipping point; while Sabrina and Kim wonder why Chloé went so far and Marinette races to school (having accidentally slept in), Alya gets contacted by Hawk Moth. When he declares that he can help her unmask Scarlet Lady, she blithely declares that she already knows whom she is; she just has to prove to Chloé and the rest of the world that Marinette Dupain-Cheng is their heroine.
Marinette arrives, and Nino brings her and Adrien up to speed, explaining how Alya got suspended thanks to Chloé. To his confusion, Adrien reacts just as poorly to the notion that Marinette is secretly Scarlet Lady as Chloé did... and he's even more confused when Lady Wifi hijacks the television in their classroom and Marinette immediately recognizes the new akuma as Alya. How can she tell? According to her, her phone charm is a dead giveaway (as opposed to the fact that the akuma clearly looks and talks like Alya).
Class is canceled, and Marinette returns home while Adrien notes that Lady Wifi is likely to target her. Plagg teases him about the possibility that he's been crushing on Scarlet Lady all along, privately noting how his holder's completely forgotten that Marinette couldn't possibly be his "partner" (much like how Chloé seems to have forgotten that she stole the earrings from Marinette in the first place).
Upon arriving, Chat Noir is horrified to see Marinette playing with a spotted yo-yo while wearing a matching mask. As he laments the discovery, the real Scarlet Lady shows up, much to his relief, and begins furiously berating him. While they're arguing, Lady Wifi teleports into Marinette's room and abducts her bestie, taking her to Chloé's room. After failing to find the bully there, the akuma dramatically unmasks Marinette on a live broadcast to all of Paris... right before the actual spotted superheroine shows up, much to Lady Wifi's shock and confusion. Scarlet Lady taunts her misconception, and Lady Wifi swears that she'll rip the Ladybug heroine's mask right off her smug face.
Locking down the whole hotel, the akuma nearly manages to prove true to her word, getting her hands on both corners of her adversary's mask and nearly tugging it free before Chat Noir intervenes. Sneering about how romantic his attempt to save his partner is proves to be the wrong move, as Scarlet Lady flies into a blind rage. Chat Noir exploits this to go after the tower; realizing she'll be screwed if he takes it down, Lady Wifi pursues but isn't able to prevent him from tagging the tower with his Cataclysm.
Both Scarlet Lady and Marinette arrive on the roof shortly thereafter, just in time to witness Lady Wifi pinning Chat Noir down. Snatching the yo-yo away from a shocked Scarlet Lady, Marinette swiftly snares the akuma's raised wrist, knocking her phone free and stomping on it to free the butterfly inside. As Marinette shouts at Scarlet Lady to catch it, Chat Noir dizzily remarks that she'd make a much better Ladybug.
As the healing ladybugs swirl through the sky, Alya gushes over seeing both the heroes right in front of her, asking if she can film them for her blog. Scarlet Lady sighs while declaring that she guesses she can indulge her just this once, right before Chat Noir scoops her up and unceremoniously carries her away, tossing her into a closet so she can detransform safely.
Alya then apologizes to Marinette for her actions as Lady Wifi; since she doesn't recall anything that happened while she was akumatized, she's shocked to learn that her bestie really isn't Scarlet Lady after all. Why did she have a yo-yo, then? Well, that's all for her 'project', which she reveals to Alya the next day: she made child-sized accessories based off of both heroes, including models of both of their weapons. She's also learned some tricks to teach Manon and the other kids she babysits.
While Ella and Etta test out the fruits of Marinette's labor, Alya apologizes for letting her imagination run away with her, forgetting what happened with Stoneheart, and not realizing she could just ask her friend about it in the first place. Still, she insists that Marinette would make a wonderful hero, showing her a photo that she's sketched a mock-up costume over. Marinette laughs at the notion, dismissing the idea, though... maybe it would work if she had her bestie by her side the whole time.
Elsewhere, Adrien tearfully declares to his own photograph of Marinette that he'll never doubt her again while Chloé screams in frustration, having encountered a mysterious spate of bad luck... one that has Tikki chuckling gleefully as she helps herself to some Dupain-Cheng chocolate chip cookies.
This episode contains examples of:
- All for Nothing: Played for Laughs in a bonus panel in which Marinette complains about how she rushed to school after oversleeping, only for class to get canceled after Alya's akumatization, leaving her feeling like she wasted a perfectly good opportunity to get caught up on her rest.
- Answer Cut: When Bustier asks Sabrina where Chloé and Adrien are, we cut over to a shot of Chat Noir fighting some tentacled akumanote while Scarlet Lady is fixing her lipstick.
- Ask a Stupid Question...: When Nino wonders how Marinette is able to tell that Alya was akumatized into Lady Wifi (even though the akuma clearly resembles her), Marinette blandly deadpans that she recognized Alya's phone charm.
- Bad Liar: Downplayed; Mme. Bustier dismisses Sabrina's suggestion that Chloé might be in the bathroom not because it's a weak bluff, but because she can't imagine Chloé willingly using a public restroom.
- Berserk Button: Alya repeatedly and unwittingly hits several of Chloé's throughout the episode:
- Firstly, her mistaken belief that Marinette is Scarlet Lady utterly infuriates Chloé, fueling her determination to see Alya punished by the principal.
- Then, as Lady Wifi, she steals Chloé's phone and uses it as one of her many passages through the locked-down hotel.
- On top of all that, she insinuates that Scarlet Lady and Chat Noir are romantically entangled, sending the spotted superheroine into an utter fury that turns her legs into a whirlwind of PAIN for the akuma.
- Comically Missing the Point: When Lady Wifi "unmasks" Marinette as Scarlet Lady, Marinette yells that she doesn't even like Scarlet Lady. Lady Wifi says they need to work on Marinette's self-esteem.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: It's repeatedly pointed out that all the drama that occurred throughout the episode could have been avoided if Alya had simply talked to Marinette rather than leaping to conclusions and going to extremes to prove her presumptions right. Or, for that matter, if anyone involved recalled that Marinette had been present during Scarlet Lady's debut and was kidnapped by Stoneheart.Marinette: Y'know, I could've told you this stuff if you'd asked me. Or used your own memory...
- Crocodile Tears: Chloé sheds these while insisting that Alya's attempt to break into Marinette's locker without permission was a transgression of privacy that corrupted Marinette's very "essence."
- Didn't Think This Through:
- Though she and Marinette had already exchanged combinations, Alya didn't consider how it might look for her to snoop through her friend's locker without express permission (though, in fairness, it's not like the school even bothered notifying Marinette and getting her involved before doling out Alya's punishment). She also doesn't think anything of telling Hawk Moth that his sworn enemy Scarlet Lady is none other than her best friend.
- It's also repeatedly pointed out that everyone is overlooking how Marinette was present for Scarlet Lady's debut, as well as how she had to be saved from Stoneheart. Even Adrien (who had to rescue her when Stoneheart tossed her down from the Eiffel Tower) forgets this!
- Disproportionate Retribution: Chloé manipulates the circumstances and gets Alya suspended from school for a full week, all because she feels insulted by the blogger mistakenly believing Marinette is Scarlet Lady.
- Dramatic Irony: The whole conflict stems from Marinette being mistaken for the Ladybug heroine, with several characters declaring she'd make a wonderful superhero... all while blissfully unaware that Marinette was meant to have the earrings all along (save for Tikki and Chloé, though the latter blatantly ignores that little factoid).
- Everyone Has Standards: Both Kim and Sabrina are bewildered by Chloé's treatment of Alya, with Sabrina specifically noting that she hadn't expected her friend to demand such a severe punishment.
- Evil Is Petty: Chloé gets Alya disproportionately punished just because the latter thought Marinette was Scarlet Lady.
- Ironic Echo: The only excuse Sabrina can come up with for Mme. Bustier is that Chloé might be using the restroom. Alya later dismissively suggests that she's suffering from IBS, disgusting Sabrina.
- Laser-Guided Karma: It's implied that Chloé's misfortunes during the denouement are due to Tikki getting back at her on Alya's behalf.
- Mythology Gag: Alya thinks one of her classmates is Scarlet Lady because she sees them carrying something ladybug-themed. She later remarks that she thinks Marinette would make a good superhero, even sketching a red and black-spotted costume over a photo of the latter that looks very much like Ladybug's costume in canon.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: One notable side-effect of Lady Wifi's antics was that Alya's mother learned about the one-week suspension and was enraged that she hadn't been contacted before it was handed down, leading to the punishment being lifted.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Chloé invokes her father's name in order to pressure Principal Damocles into severely punishing Alya for a minor infraction before they've even notified the actual victim.
- Self-Serving Memory: As Tikki angrily points out, Chloé should be aware that Marinette was meant to have the earrings, as she stole them from her purse herself. Chloé completely tunes this reminder out.
- Stating the Simple Solution: Nino suggests that Alya either call Marinette or just wait for the next day so she can ask directly. Unfortunately, Alya's lack of patience pushes her to break into Marinette's locker.
- A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: Alya's eagerness to prove her theory spurs her to try accessing Marinette's locker, which leads to her being akumatized and telling Hawk Moth whom she thinks Scarlet Lady is.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Sabrina had no idea Chloé would react so disproportionately upon hearing about Alya's theory.
- Unwitting Pawn: Downplayed; Kim witnesses Chloé confronting Alya in front of Marinette's locker and gets pulled into the principal's office, where she uses him as a Living Prop during her dramatics.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Tikki angrily confronts Chloé over how she got Alya suspended for a week out of sheer pettiness. Chloé brushes her off, claiming Alya "deserved it" for ever believing Marinette could measure up to Scarlet Lady.
