Reaction to “Mister Agreste” (S6, E9)
Great glorious day, how long have we waited! I made a point of dropping in for the .to broadcast to be among the first to see it!
Sometimes it’s easy to forget that Luka wasn’t just Marinette’s secret-keeper—he was Adrien’s as well.
Marinette isn’t tortured just by the Big Secret; she also feels guilty about Luka. Not only did she break his heart, but she feels responsible for him carrying the burden of both hers and Chat Noir’s secret identities, and for having to leave his family. She has absolutely no one she can talk to anymore. Alya got so freaked out by the Big Secret she demanded a memory wipe (see “Revelator”). And as for Luka, he’s got a whole new life on the other side of the Atlantic. So now she’s talking to everyone in the form of Freudian slips that thankfully no one seems to register.
If Adrien suspects Plagg isn’t telling him everything he remembers, he doesn’t pursue it. He’s used to Plagg not giving him straight answers.
We’ve missed a few episodes, so we don’t know how exactly the first statue of Gabriel Agreste (presumably the one we saw dedicated in the season 5 finale) was destroyed.
Adrien’s dilemma matches the disconnect felt by so many abused and neglected children: natural inborn filial attachment mixed with confusion and pain, clinging to moments of kindness that ultimately cannot obscure the prevailing theme of manipulation and cruelty. It’s even worse when that parent is a public figure who only reveals their true self to the people closest to them… the people least in a position to fight back.
Who exactly was that sitting in the occasional chair in the corner, watching Marinette console Adrien? Could it be our least favorite disguise artist?
Nathalie may be Marinette’s new secret-keeper, but she is no confidant, at least not here. She treats Marinette like a fellow conspirator in a crime drama, subtly threatening her not to squeal to anyone because they’re both “in too deep”. Her reasoning makes sense, which Marinette ultimately understands and concedes. Furthermore, her emotion obviously comes from a place of fear mixed with love. But her demeanor leaves much to be desired.
At first, I got excited that Luka found someone new after all… and I was immediately let down. But Irupé genuinely seems to care for Luka… maybe she’d like to be more than just Luka’s beard?
The real tragedy of what Monarch did, and what Chrysalis is now doing, is that it makes feeling or expressing an emotion a risk. Talk too much about your feelings, or even experience them too deeply, and you could become a monster that attacks everyone and everything you love, all while being exploited by an evil entity that wants to use your pain as a weapon. Luka realizes his lingering desire for Marinette could not only ruin her chance for happiness with Adrien. Indirectly, it could destroy the world. The only way to protect his friends, his family, and his city was to leave them all behind. And it’s obvious that lying hasn’t gotten any easier for Luka; it goes against his nature.
The full-body shots of Luka allow us to appreciate his physique in full. He still has those thin fingers and long limbs, befitting the holder of the Snake, and a lean core peeking out from beneath the shirt.
The Ladybug-Snake fusion looks fierce, with echoes of Marinette’s Shadyverse civilian look. Too bad we’re seeing it only briefly, and under such dire circumstances.
Luka and Marinette both already understood that the Snake Miraculous let the user hit “rewind” and tape over a conversation. That was the original game plan for providing Su-Han with Chat Noir’s civilian identity, only Marinette changed things up at the last minute. Now they’re using it to speak, then erase, truths they can’t share.
Luka’s reaction wasn’t any more encouraging than that of Alya. Just what was Luka planning to do with the Ladybug Miraculous? Was he planning to hunt down Chrysalis himself, or reveal the Big Secret? Either way, Marinette didn’t like what Luka had planned, and now that’s one less safe person on an already short list.
Once again, Adrien accidentally triggers Theo’s akumatization. Perhaps Theo Barbot’s outrage is just as much about his idol being slandered as it is his pride being hurt. His statue of Gabriel Agreste, built to the dimensions in the model, would rival the Eiffel Tower in height, making him world-famous.
Chrysalis, ever the ham, mimics the poses of various famous sculptures as she brainwashes Theo to her cause. “The Thinker” and Michelangelo’s “David” are the first and most obvious. Can you name the others?
“You’re… you’re no one’s father!”
Past episode callbacks: Chat Noir cataclysming Mister Agreste’s arm is almost exactly what happened in Season 5’s “Destruction”, and the scenes where Ladybug decapitates and wire-cuts Mister Agreste are callbacks to other episodes where Marinette fought statues of heroes and public figures (“The Puppeteer 2” in Season 3 and “Determination” in Season 5).
At first, Marinette calls up three Lucky Charms that won’t help, or at least she can’t figure out what to do with them. She’s not thinking straight after her trip to Brazil. But as often happens, a Lucky Charm that seemed useless at first ends up being the silver bullet.
Adrien defeats Mister Agreste not as Chat Noir, but as himself, with the truth as his only weapon. He finally gets to blow the whistle on his publicly sainted father while confronting the hurt and anger he’s held inside. The collapse of that statue didn’t hit the ground as hard as that dropped bullhorn. But for all the catharsis it offered, it still didn’t resolve Adrien’s greatest question: how a person so outwardly noble could be so terrible to his own child.
“Sometimes it’s better to put ideals rather than people on a pedestal, because you never truly know someone.”
One of the most compelling aspects of Ladybug and Chat Noir’s relationship is that they support each other as superheroes and friends, despite not knowing each other’s true identity.
It’s never explained why Luka, Jagged, Penny, and Su-Han ended up in Brazil as opposed to anywhere else. The real-world reason is obvious: the show has a huge following in Brazil, and the Brazilian children’s channel Gloob gets all the episode premieres before anyone else does. Is it any wonder that one of the forthcoming specials will be “Miraculous Rio”? But the stinger suggests an in-universe explanation: Su-Han knew there was a secret Miraculous holder in Brazil who could shelter him and his companions. Naturally, Su-Han introduced Luka to Irupé, and then Luka somehow roped her into… whatever this is. I’m betting that since her Kwami is a hummingbird, Irupé’s Miraculous power is related to flight.
