MLB Rewatch: Simon Says
The first time I’ve done a rewatch post on a season one episode. Gasp!
Okay, so Simon Says (or Jackady, depending on which dub you watch) is my favourite episode of the first season. I am going to begin by summing up the many reasons why:
· Gabriel hugging Adrien for the first time (more on that below);
· The more layers and significance so much of the episode gains after you’ve seen season two (ditto);
· The first proper Ladrien interaction;
· The shower thing;
· The episode that makes me question how on earth it took me SO long to wonder if Gabriel was Hawk Moth*;
· The timing of character movements, which holds much amusement by imagining what is NOT shown.
(*To be fair, I immediately guessed he was involved somehow, but the thought of him actually being Hawk Moth didn’t cross my mind until about my fourth viewing of the season. At the point when it finally occurred to me to think, “I wonder if we’ve seen Hawk Moth as a civilian in the show already?”. It didn’t take me long to make the connection, which was based as much on his eye colour and shape of his face as it was his obvious interest in the Miraculouses. Some time after seeing season two, I re-read a plan of one of my pre-watching-season-two fanfics, which featured the line “Mr Agreste explains his involvement with the Miraculouses (whatever it is)”. I haven’t decided if I’ll ever write up and post that particular fic, but if I do it will be updated in certain areas.)
“I’ve never noticed your earrings before,” he interrupts her to say. Subtle, Gabriel. Really subtle.
And that is definitely the look of an innocent person who’s just been saved from a supervillain.
It’s the first episode in which we get to see Gabriel act like a human being, in the moment he hugs Adrien. Especially priceless after the way he behaves up until that point. It’s the moment when, watching the show for the first time, I realised that he actually did love Adrien after all.
Anyone who follows me will be WELL aware that I am a Gabriel fan, but it took me a long time to become one. He started to grow on me a short while after I’d seen season two; until then, I really didn’t like him much at all. But I stopped actually hating him when I saw that moment for the first time. (Now, he’s my second-favourite character, after Nathalie. Though he’s not the main subject of this entire post …)
After The Collector, obviously certain episodes of season one are watched in a new light—for instance, it’s fair to assume that Gabriel deliberately provokes people where he can in order to create negative emotions that he can exploit. In the instance of Simon Says, it could just have easily been Alec instead who was akumatized, if he had taken the insult to heart—Gabriel probably wasn’t aiming specifically for Simon.
(Even that chair swivel away from the portrait holds so much more meaning now!)
And although it’s clear that Alec is, well, not the most sensitive or respectful guy, it occurred to me for the first time that he probably didn’t contact Gabriel under false pretences as Gabriel claims. Gabriel says “I was told this was an interview”, but he has already, as Hawk Moth, demonstrated that he is aware of the TV show—and André Bourgeois clearly knew what he was getting into. If someone working on the show had spoken to Gabriel in person and explained, then Gabriel would not have got away with this, since they would have known he was lying. But if they had spoken to Nathalie instead, then he can get away with pretending to have been misinformed. (Blame the assistant. Sorry, Nathalie.)
Speaking of Nathalie …
We’ve seen in Félix that she could easily have taken on those hypnotised people who came in to grab Gabriel (for that matter, he probably could have as well; I know we haven’t seen him demonstrate combat skills as a civilian, but I’m sure he has some), but instead she chooses to hide. (With quite a fierce expression, I must say.) Which means that being taken to the studio was obviously part of Gabriel’s plan, which he says himself is “risky”. I have to wonder what his backup plan was; if Simon Says had not been de-akumatized, if he had actually got the Miraculouses, then Gabriel himself would have been faced with the options of plunging to his death or exposing his identity by transforming into Hawk Moth on the way down. I’ve said many times that Gabriel has an “act now, think later” problem, but I’m also now wondering if Nathalie was keeping a close eye somehow, ready to jump in if things got too risky. Though where she was, and how quickly she could have stopped him jumping, I don’t know …
Moving on from my precious villains now. (Mostly.)
I have to laugh at Simon Says’ cards. First of all, there’s the fact that when he turns people into “soldiers”, they act like zombies; yet that can’t just be because they’re hypnotised, because the other commands don’t work like that. So inconsistency there.
But of course the best ones are the ones which take on a whole new significance when rewatched in context. I didn’t get into the online fandom until after Miracle Queen had been released in English, so it wasn’t until then that I discovered the fandom name for Adrien’s bodyguard.
That makes me laugh every time—but not as much as Gabriel being a butterfly! I remember almost choking with laughter the first time I saw that after having seen The Collector, because it wasn’t until then that I got it. (No, I did not notice the hint all those times I watched that episode very closely when trying to figure out if Gabriel was Hawk Moth or not. It was the fact that it’s the only episode in which Hawk Moth does not do an ending monologue from his lair which was what made me 99% convinced.)
It’s so much fun going through episodes and pausing to get screenshots, because you notice things you might not see when watching it all the way through …
He’s finally starting to look worried here. “Oh, now you agree it was a bad idea?” I can hear Nathalie saying.
Also, the zombies are cross-eyed.
Apologies if this hasn’t been the most well-structured post! As often with these things, I write the post, then look for accompanying screenshots, and discover extra bits to add in while doing so, which can jar the flow a bit.