Season 4, Episode 26 - Réplique (La Dernière Attaque de Papillombre - Partie 2) \ Strike Back (Shadow Moth's Final Attack - Part 2)
I start with my predictions for this episode in the post about Risk: I have mistaken the dog Miraculous with the fox, hahahaha!!! It was because I hadn't paying much attention to the image (since it was a spoiler I didn't want to see), the dog and the fox Miraculous users have very similar orange colors (so really, the dog should have used darker brown color), and I was sure Félix had fox-like tail on the picture. I had to imagine it, since I assumed in advance that he got the fox, there was no other options.
Personally I preferred Risk over Strike Back, that's the first time when I liked the first part of the finale more than the second. Though both episodes were better than the rest of season 4. It's because I'm disappointed by the Shadow Moth's plan. Risk had promised an epic battle, in which Gabriel will do something very risky and unusual to him. But in fact he wasn't risking anything, he only sent a very boring sentimonster, very similar to his first akuma: Stone Heart, who is just mindless monster destroying everything in its path. He wasn't even showed up to the heroes or something, just waiting for Ladybug making a big mistake, he did nothing as himself really. So for what was the whole big travel, confiding his wife's ring and his son to Nathalie like he thought he could die soon. He was overdramatic for nothing. So well, though the battle scenes were not bad at all, there were still better than usual, I was expecting something even bigger, more epic.
But I need to say I really, really loved Risk, this boy was so cute with his bravery. Just look at him. So adorable little frog boy. Now I want a frog Miraculous, please. *_* And I want to see him in the future, but that's probably not gonna happen. And I want to draw him, maybe someday.
It's another time I don't know what to say next, because I have too many thoughts in my head and I'm worried that I will forget about something.
Another thing I didn't like in the episode the most. Nothing has changed, Marinette was still treating Alya like a sacred cow. She didn't learn anything even after discovering that her best friend betrayed her trust, did something related to Miraculous without asking the guardian for the permission AGAIN. She immediately forgave her like nothing happened. I'm sure that if that was any other person, including Chat Noir, her reaction would be totally different. We've seen in the New York special that one Chat's big mistake had made her very angry at him and lost all her trust in him (even if only for a moment).
On the other hand, she is showing that Alya can do anything, there woul never be consequenced, Marinette is completely losing the rest of her rationality when it comes to her. Is she really in love with Adrien, isn't Alya love of her life?
"I can't lie to my best friend" blablah, how we are supposed to buy it if Marinette was able to lie to Alya all three seasons and then all of sudden, it became impossible to her in the fourth one? That's not a good excuse that they can't lie to their friends or boyfriends or anyone else. They can, they just don't want, because it's more comfortable. Or they keep in secret what's needed for the greater good, or they should not be superheroes. They can't have a cake and eat it at the same time. Chat Noir also "can't" keep the secret who he is from Ladybug anymore, so why she isn't letting him what she lets her best friend? That's risky because he can be akumatised? Alya can be as well and tell all her secrets to their enemy. Hypocrisy, double standards and favouritism are remain.
In previous seasons Marinette was the one who is overly careful, this season a sudden shift in her behavior happened, at least when it involves her best friend. It was reckless Alya who kept her head on straight at the moment. She was aware she can't be a fox Miraculous holder (at least not a permanent one) when Shadow Moth knows she is still active. For Marinette friend favours were still more important than being a responsible guardian.
Bravo for Alya, that was the first time this season when she was really noble, unlike Marinette at that moment, she learned her lesson and she understood that there are more important things that having fun as a superheroine. She had to punish herself (giving up on the Miraculous), seeing the guardian was unable to do that. Though being selfish at that moment would actually made things a bit better at the end (they would not lose the fox at least), but the girls had no chance to know that.
But really, I still think Rena Furtive being a permanent Miraculous holder was totally pointless. In all episodes from 18 to 24 we haven't seen her being active even once, so we have no evidences that she was doing anything all that time. It means, Marinette just could have given her the fox when she was needed, like she did with every other Miraculous holder.
I can't believe, Félix was was present in only four episodes in total, but he had achived much more than Gabriel throughout all four seasons. Compared to him, Gabriel looks like a pathetic villain even more. If there was no Félix giving him most of the Miraculous on the silver plate, Gabriel's plan would be a total disaster. Once the frog boy got discovered as an akuma, beating him was quite easy, there was no much problems with the sentimonster as well. It was also so lovely to see Félix blackmailing his uncle that he could say Adrien about his mother being hidden in the basement.
So yeah, as I said in my previous post, Adrien's cousin is too good at evil to appear in many episodes, the main characters would have many more problems then. If only he wanted to be an everyday villain. But it looked like he wasn't interested at getting the ladybug and cat Miraculous, fighting with heroes or whatever more. He just wanted the peacock.
I know what that means. Majority of the fandom is all happy that most probably they all were right that Félix is a sentimonster. I can't deny that we got very hard evidences. He was interested only in the peacock and he said he doesn't need Emilie's ring anymore. So it looks like the ring contains his amok, but since he has the peacock Miraculous, no one could control him, so he's safe.
But personally I still hope it isn't true, as I said before I think any "normal" character being a sentimonster, no matter who, doesn't make sense, it would mean that the sentimonster writing is totally fucked up. The show's narration treats every single other one like a tool, even in this episode Strike Back monsters were thrown into magma and no one cared even for a moment. In one of the previous episodes Chat told that akumas are persons, but not sentimonsters. It doesn't really make sense if every single sentimonster, no matter if it looks like a human being or not, is just a tool, but only this one is different and treated by the narration like a person. If Félix is a sentimonster then it means that we have seen persons being killed on screen casually, also by the heroes, in a kid show. Also I don't want Félix who is now one of my favourite characters to be a one.
And some other things give me questions. If the ring contains his amok, Nathalie should have sense that Félix is a sentimonster, and then she could have just transform into Mayura, got the ring, and gain total control over him instead of fighting him. Unless Gabriel wasn't aware that the ring is an amoked object. And it also doesn't look like Amelie is aware that her son is a sentimonster, but how she could if she wasn't gave birth to him, he was created by the magical power? Or why he didn't consider gaining the ladybug and cat Miraculous to get a wish like becoming a real human or a sentimonster who can't be controlled by anyone and erased from the existence? So though we got hard evidences, it doesn't add up fully, but knowing that this show has some major plot holes, it still could be true.
Félix was able to make use of every single information he gained to get what he wants. Gabriel got some "gifts" from Ladybug that he completely missed. If he was smarter, he could have discovered Ladybug's identity or used some of her mistakes against her. Even just after events of S3 finale, he could have noticed that almost all the Miraculous users are from Adrien's class, so instead of telling Optigami to go after teens who had jewels, it could have following other girls to see if one of them is Ladybug. There were other occasions. He discovered that Ladybug and Alya are so close to each other, so when the new ladybug Miraculous user appeared out of nowhere, that wasn't hard to suspect that she could be the same person who was Rena Rouge. But he completely ignored that extremely important information. The same when Cat Walker appeared, and he discovered that there's conflict between Chat Noir and Ladybug. He hasn't even tried to take advantage of the moment when their partnership was so weak.
What he will do next, is he going to remain being a pathetic villain who's wasting most of the occasions to gain any advantage over Ladybug and Chat Noir? He have not only almost all the Miraculous from the Chinese box, but he also know that Ladybug and Rena tricked him, so Alya Cesaire is indeed someone very close to Ladybug. Is he going to finally use that information? Probably not? And what he will plan to do with all these jewels. Knowing him he could be enough crazy to wear them all at once. Or maybe he will try to find more allies, like it's happening in fanfics in which he get access to additional Miraculous. Both Lila and Chloé seems to be perfect candidates. I hope that Lila will get the fox, I think she fits it more than any other character in the show, even Alya.
There's one more thing I'm thinking about. Most probably Félix still has Nathalie's tablet, so if they hadn't copied translation of the grimoire, they don't have access to the information about other Miraculous they could need to use them properly. They are not that stupid to not have have backup of that much important thing, right? And I've checked on the Miraculous Wiki is there's something about when we can expect the start of season 5 and I've seen someone in the comments saying that Gabriel just can use the rabbit to discover the heroes' identities. Yes, but I wonder if he knows about the burrow and how to use it properly? Is there an instruction in the grimoire? Even if yes, from what I remember it was said that Fu hasn't translated everything. Marinette knows how to use burrow thanks to adult Bunnix.
So I wasn't right that Gabriel realized that Félix was pretending to be Adrien in the scene in which "Adrien" said he doesn't want to go on a trip in Risk. But then I don't understand why he started acting weird at some point.
Hyperventilating Ladybug was one of the most serious things that happened in this show ever, it was like she got panic attack. And I just realized that we got one great Ladrien scene this season. I'm not sure, but there weren't any more in S4, right?
All of a sudden, Marinette fully understood how much she was unfair to Chat Noir only because she lost all her other allies. If Félix didn't steal her yoyo, nothing would have changed in her attitude towards him. That wasn't satisfying at all. I don't mean she should have lost him as well, but it would have looked much better if she understood that faster, not when she had no other choice but start treating him like a partner again, not unwanted sidekick. It's not looking really sincerely when Chat Noir is the only one hero who remains. It would feel much better if she chose him as her main partner again when she still had Alya and other options, because she appreciates him.
Adrien is too softhearted and he forgave her everything like it was nothing, and he still sees her as perfection That's not healthy, this boy can be easily used by people he cares about. Though of course, there's no time to hold a grudge. They need to be become better partners than ever before, now when there are no other superheroes anymore but Ladybug and Chat Noir and there are more potential supervillains. Adrien can't be mad at her now even if she deserves it. Saving Paris from the crazy man is more important than his hurt feelings.
Oh, I just realized that Ladybus was all blushing when Chat appeared and there was a thunder rumble. The whole thing felt a lot like the famous final scene from Origins, there was only an umbrella missing. So okay, it looks like it was the moment in which Ladybug felt in love with Chat Noir? It could have been a nice scene, if not that it wasn't believable to me anymore, after all those bad things what have happened between them this season.
Sadly, I didn't like how much melodramatic the end of the episode was and that the Parisians were chanting only Ladybug and Ladybug, like Chat was completely forgotten.
So well, I remember there was a spoiler ages ago that in season 5 Ladybug is going to look for lost Miraculous, now we know what it meant. It wasn't about searching for jewels from other miracle boxes.
I wonder what Su-Han is going to do now. He can't be just a useless jerk anymore, he needs to start helping Marinette like he should have from the start. Knowing him he will try to take away her status of a guardian seeing how incompetent she is, but something will stop him from doing that. And no one should blame him.
And what about Luka, there was nothing explaining why he knows identities of both heroes in the whole season, it was just like it happened only because he is the writers' favourite character. Maybe it would change in season 5, but please do not portray him like a prince on a white horse who will save Marinette and Adrien. I would not stand it, same as her having zero problems with Luka lying to her all the time about that.
What about that thing what Adrien found? I hope it's going to be essential later in season 5 and maybe thanks to it, he will discover that his father is Hawk Moth.
Besides, I noticed that both finale episodes don't have their end cards, I wonder why.
As I said above, I've checked that season 5 is going to premiere this summer, I expected that it will happen this year. But I'm worried that we are going to get the episodes released in even more chaotic order than S4. I hope that at least the first episode will be released as first.
I was very worried that I'm not going to watch the next season willingly. Thankfully, this finale gave me hope that S5 is going to be much better, though due to the fact they ruined some important things to me, this show will never be as much liked by me as it was before season 4 started airing.
