Ephemeral

**Ephemeral**

**Season 4, episode 22 (Production order); Episode 100 (Overall)**

### New Unifications:

> I've proven to you a hundred times that I'm a good guardian, and Cat Noir and I have proven to you a hundred times that we were exceptional superheroes!
>
> Ladybug, "Ephemeral"

**"Ephemeral"** is a Season 4 episode of the series, Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir. As based on the series' production order specifically, **"Ephemeral"** is the 22nd written and produced episode of Season 4. It is also the 100th written and produced episode of the series, overall.

## Synopsis

To defeat a villain, Ladybug calls on nine superheroes when she only needed Cat Noir and his Cataclysm. But she could not reach him, since she doesn’t know his secret identity. According to the Celestial Guardian of the Miraculous, this situation cannot go on. It is too dangerous to leave the Miraculous of the Black Cat to a stranger. If Ladybug wants to remain the Guardian, she must find a way to tell Master Su-Han who Cat Noir really is. Someone needs to know. When faced with such an ultimatum, what will Ladybug do?

## Plot

The episode starts with Gabriel standing in front of Emilie's cryogenic pod in the repository. He says to her that he had done everything for her, and if necessary, he will do it hundred times over again. Then he gets a call from Nathalie telling him it's time for the conference of the 100th collection of *Gabriel* brand, and he leaves the repository.

Outside the Agreste mansion, Bob Roth's coin falls in a roadside sewer, and he becomes upset at the thought of losing money. As a result of Bob Roth's negative emotion, the Butterfly Miraculous glows, alerting Gabriel just as the limo pulls up to the conference. He tells Adrien that he is not feeling well and Adrien will represent him instead. Adrien tries protesting, but Gabriel insists while twisting his ring. Adrien sadly obeys and is dropped off alone.

Moolak, the akumatized form of Bob Roth, converts people into coins and storing them in his safe. Shadow Moth reminds Moolak about the Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses, and if he will not obey him, he will take his powers back. Just then, Ryuko uses her lightning power on the safe but is unable to break it. It is shown that Ladybug, along with Ryuko, Pegasus, Vesperia, Pigella, Purple Tigress, King Monkey, Carapace, Viperion, and Polymouse are fighting against Moolak. Ryuko says that it is impossible to enter the safe without opening its door. Then, Ladybug tells Pegasus to use Voyage to get inside the safe. But, when he uses it, he is unable to get inside the safe due to the lack of space in the safe. Vesperia says that it must be cataclysmed to defeat him, but Ladybug replies that she had been sending Cat Noir messages but he isn't picking up. During the conference, Adrien is watching everything unfold in the building while Nathalie coaches him through an earpiece when the battle above the building distracts him. Ladybug eventually gives up and uses her Lucky Charm which gives her a fire truck. Ladybug then ties up Moolak with her yo-yo while Polymouse distracts him by using Multitude. Vesperia who is then protected by Carapace's Shell-ter allowing her to safely paralyze Moolak, with help of Venom. Viperion uses Second Chance and rewinds time every time he gets the safe password wrong. After 100 attempts, he cracks the code, takes out the akumatized coin and tosses it to Ladybug. Ladybug takes the coin and uses Miraculous Ladybug on it and repairs everything back to normal. Adrien watches the Miraculous Ladybug effect from the conference place and the heroes do their signature "Pound It" fist bump. Meanwhile, in Shadow Moth's Lair, Shadow Moth vows to get their Miraculouses, even if it takes another 100 attempts.

Back in the sewers, Viperion detransforms into Luka. When he is about to give the Snake Miraculous to Ladybug, Grandmaster Su-Han appears and grabs Luka's hand to stop him from giving the Miraculous. Grandmaster Su-Han gets angry at Ladybug for giving out nine Miraculous, although she needed only Cat Noir and his cataclysm to defeat the supervillain. Ladybug protests that he was unreachable, but Su-Han counters her by saying that, what if he uses the power of Miraculous for his own good, like Shadow Moth. Ladybug asks what she should do about it, to which Su-Han replies that she should know his identity to control him. Ladybug protests that she can't do it in case Shadow Moth captures any of them. Su-Han says that he doesn't care about it and if she does not do it, he will take back the Cat Miraculous and appoint a new Cat Noir. Ladybug thinks of an idea and asks Su-Han if it is fine if he directly knows the identity of Cat Noir. To this, Grandmaster Su-Han agrees and reminds Ladybug that if she fails in that task, the Cat Miraculous will be taken away and Ladybug agrees to it. Then, Grandmaster Su-Han hops away out of the sewers.

The scene changes to Adrien's bathroom where he tells Plagg about how Ladybug must have called his help during the fight. He quickly transforms into Cat Noir and checks his cat phone to see that there are 14 voice messages. He comments that Ladybug must have been furious and calls her. Cat Noir gets worried about how he will get into trouble, but Ladybug says it's ok and tells him to meet him at the Eiffel Tower.

Back at the sewers Luka and Marinette are detransformed and feeding their kwamis. Luka asks Marinette how she is going to tell Grandmaster Su-Han Cat Noir's identity. She tells him that a superhero may know Ladybug's or Cat Noir's identity, but not both, since they need one of the superheroes to fight. However, this is not the case for Ladybug and Cat Noir, because if one of them gets akumatized, it would mean that the other's identity would be in jeopardy. Marinette and Luka then transform back into Ladybug and Viperion respectively.

Ladybug now tells Viperion her plan. Viperion is to stay back in the sewers while Ladybug goes and meets Cat Noir at the Eiffel Tower. When she asks Cat Noir's identity, Viperion will hear the name through the ear piece and will then turn time back. Viperion will remember the name but Ladybug won't, hence their identities will be protected. Viperion will tell Grandmaster Su-Han Cat Noir's identity and their mission will be accomplished. Viperion asks why he shouldn't directly ask Cat Noir his identity as it would be less complex and easier to achieve. Ladybug tells him that Cat Noir won't tell anyone but herself his identity. She hands Viperion an earpiece from her bug phone and puts one on herself. Viperion asks if it is ok if he knew Cat Noir's identity and Ladybug says as long as she doesn't know who he is, it is okay.

The scene changes to Ladybug standing on the Eiffel Tower waiting for Cat Noir when Viperion asks her if Cat Noir will tell her his identity. She tells him that Cat Noir has been wanting to find out their identities since the day they first met. She spots Cat Noir approaching the Eiffel Tower and tells Viperion to stand by. She checks her clock and waits until it's 1 am and tells Viperion that they are in sync. Viperion uses his power of Second Chance, beginning the 5 minute countdown. Ladybug tells Viperion to rewind at her signal and turns around to meet Cat Noir.

Cat Noir apologizes for not coming to the akuma battle but Ladybug waves it off. She tells him about how great her team is, but Cat Noir quickly asks why Ladybug wanted to meet him her. She tells him that ever since she became the guardian she has been thinking about why they should reveal their identities. Cat Noir is shocked and tells her that their secret identities are meant to protect them. Ladybug counters by saying how they need to communicate when they are not transformed and beat Shadow Moth faster. Cat Noir sighs and says that he is Adrien Agreste, but Ladybug doesn't take him seriously and starts laughing, saying that she is Audrey Bourgeois. He promptly detransforms, leaving her shocked. Viperion asks Ladybug if he should rewind since he heard the name but Ladybug says nothing as she is too shocked.

Adrien asks Ladybug to reveal her identity but she isn't comfortable doing so. Adrien talks about how hard it is to reveal your identity. He tells her about the stories he had to invent when she saved him as Adrien and when she trusted him with the Snake Miraculous. He talks about how hard and terrible it was to conceal his identity from his partner, but now he doesn't have to anymore. He also tells her about how amazing she is, whoever she is beneath the mask. Viperion warns Ladybug about the countdown but she doesn't pay attention. Viperion detransforms and tells Sass that she knows what she is doing. Ladybug is going to tell Adrien her identity but she tells him she is uncomfortable. Adrien says it is okay and Ladybug leaves.

Ladybug goes back to the sewers and Luka hands his miraculous back, asking Ladybug why she changed her mind. She replies that she was curious to see what will happen now that she knows Cat Noir's identity. Luka says that knowing Cat Noir's identity was too dangerous but Ladybug says that as long as Cat Noir doesn't know her identity, it would be alright. Ladybug goes and tells Grandmaster Su-Han Cat Noir's identity and he is pleased with the result and goes his own way.

Marinette sits on her bed staring at her pictures of Adrien. Tikki says that because Cat Noir loves Ladybug, he loves Marinette, making it easier to tell him that she loves him. Marinette doesn't agree, she says she loves Adrien, not Cat Noir. She is confused if she is in love with Adrien or if Cat Noir is the real Adrien, since they both act like completely different people. Tikki suggests talking with Alya, but Marinette says that Alya already knows Ladybug's identity, she can't know Cat Noir's.

Meanwhile, Adrien is in his room talking to Plagg about how Ladybug will tell him her identity when she is ready. He says that she will know the real him, saying how he is charming with or without a costume. Plagg remarks that he loves strong cheeses, but that he thinks that Adrien will feel bad afterwards.

The next day at François Dupont, Miss Bustier asks the class who wrote the book *I Am a Cat*. Adrien makes a pun saying that the poet is "meow meow". The class laughs and Adrien gives a proper answer of "Natsume Soseki". Marinette sees him as Chat for a second, but she shakes her head. Later on in the locker room, Marinette bumps into Adrien. Adrien offers her a hand, but Marinette sees him as Cat Noir and she shakes her head at him again. She stumbles, grabs her books and runs away from him in shock. Adrien looks at her retreating and is confused.

When Marinette wakes up she sees her pictures of Adrien and she sees Cat Noir instead and she yelps and hides under her blankets. This happens again whenever she sees a picture of Adrien, or Adrien himself. During a concert at the Liberty, when Marinette sees Adrien as Cat Noir playing the organ, she leaves, confused. Luka asks her why she is on edge, and Marinette asks that if he found out an unexpected secret of someone you think you know so well, how would he react to not knowing them as well as he thought. Luka said he had come to understand and love that person more (referring to "Wishmaker"). Marinette smiles.

Some time later, during a battle with the Lollipop Boy Ladybug calls Adrien for help. Adrien is in the middle of a fencing lesson with Kagami as he receives the call and makes an excuse to his fencing partner in order to transform and leave. Together, they both defeated the Sentimonster and later Syren with ease, and Ladybug smiles knowing that she's with Adrien. After defeating the Mime, Cat Noir hands Ladybug his staff as an umbrella to shield her from the rain, similar to the umbrella scene in the Origins Story. Thunder and lighting clap in the distance and Cat Noir's face briefly changes to Adrien's, before they do their pound-it.

In an alley, Cat Noir detransforms back into Adrien and prepares to leave, but Ladybug grabs his hand to stop him; telling him that she is ready to reveal her identity too. Adrien blushes as Ladybug detransforms into Marinette. She blushes and looks away, embarrassed, asking him to say something and that he must be disappointed. Adrien admits that the girl he loves has been one of his best friends the entire time and hugs her. The two of them hug while Tikki and Plagg exchange glances and look back at their holders.

Back in class, Adrien passes a love note to Marinette and she smiles at him. Gabriel starts to enter Adrien's room when he hears Adrien talking to Marinette on the phone, and when Adrien says goodbye to her by saying "M’Lady", Gabriel realizes that Adrien is Cat Noir; he closes the door and walks away.

The next day, Gabriel tells Adrien to get up and follow him. Adrien sees Gabriel entering the secret path to the repository, Gabriel then tells him to join him. Adrien follows and is shocked to see the underground repository. Plagg asks him whether he knew that this place was present in his house, to which he replies that doesn't even know that if he is at home. He walks to the cryogenic pod and is shocked to see his mother in it. Gabriel suddenly appears and tells him that it had been 100 weeks since Emilie's disappearance. Gabriel transforms into Shadow Moth, shocking Adrien. He tells that he has tried 100 times to get Cat Noir and Ladybug Miraculouses but he never thought that the solution was under his roof all the time. With this, he takes out an akuma, which flies into Adrien's phone and begins to akumatize him. Adrien tries to resist yet when Shadow Moth twists his ring and asks if Adrien understands, the latter agrees he does and hands his Miraculous to his father. Plagg attempts to cataclysm Shadow Moth but he tells the kwami he is his new owner and silences him, leaving Plagg with no choice but to obey. Shadow Moth becomes Shadow Noir as Adrien gives in to the akumatization and becomes Ephemeral.

An expectant Marinette is at the cinema already, just seconds before Shadow Noir bursts in, and calls her Ladybug. She instantly transforms and summons her lucky charm, which is a digital watch with the time 1:00 AM on it. Ephemeral touches her from behind, apologizing, and puts the minutes of her transformation that he stole from her into him, which makes her earrings lose two spots, leaving just 3 minutes until she detransforms. With an instant plan, Ladybug runs up the stairs and takes a picture of the watch with her yo-yo, and sends the photo to Luka, just a second before she runs out of time and transforms back into Marinette.

Luka receives the text from Marinette which says "Sass is in my sewing box". Realizing what she meant, he races over. Marinette crawls in a passageway to try and hide from Shadow Noir but to no avail as he grabs her to take her earrings. Marinette calls out to Adrien to help her, he is in no state to do so. Once Shadow Noir has the Miraculous, he throws her to one side, declaring his greatest wish will be granted. Luka bursts into the bakery on his bike startling Tom and Sabine, and runs up the stairs into her room. He shows Sass what Marinette sent to him, saying she wants him to go back in time but it's too late. Fortunately, Sass can go to any tagged point back in time, even though a kwami using a power on their own is unrestrained and causes catastrophes. A shining pink light appears, with the Kwamis declaring it is the end of the world. Sass tells Luka that Shadow Moth has combined the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses, which has let him make his wish, and explains that he is erasing the current universe to make a new one where his wish is granted. Another kind of explosion makes Luka hurry Sass up to use Second Chance, which he does, back to the time when Ladybug was on the Eiffel Tower waiting for Cat Noir so she could ask him his identity.

Cat Noir starts to tell his identity to Ladybug, when all of a sudden, all of the lights of the city start to flicker, alerting both of them. The clock at Gare du Nord starts to go haywire and they see that a dinosaur and a zeppelin appear. Ladybug says that it looks that several times are co-existing. Then Jeanne d'Arc appears before them and proceeds to attack them, thinking they are her enemy, but she disappears before she can do anything. Ladybug, sensing that it has to do something with the Snake Miraculous, tells Cat Noir to follow him into the sewers. There she tells Viperion that she needs to talk with Sass. After that, Sass explains that he used Second Chance because of the lucky charm picture sent by Ladybug. Ladybug explains to Cat Noir what happens when a kwami uses their power without any owner. They hear a commotion out of the sewer and leave to investigate.

When they come out, they see Gamer, Captain Hardrock, and Gorizilla causing havoc in the city. Seeing this, Ladybug comments that she has a feeling of major Déjà vu, and Cat Noir says that they need a genius plan. So, Ladybug summons her Lucky Charm, which is revealed to be a scale weight. Ladybug explains that it symbolizes the International Bureau of Weights and Measures which coordinates all the clocks with the help of the satellite, present above Paris. Cat Noir understands and replies by saying that if they fix the satellite's time, all problems will be solved, but then Cat Noir asks how they are supposed to know the exact time. Ladybug replies that she had started a countdown and when it reaches zero, the time will be 1:05 A.M. Both of them transform into Cosmobug and Astrocat and fly up to the satellite in space. There they fix the satellite's clock and Cosmobug uses Miraculous Ladybug and everything returns to normal, then, they do another fistbump and start to go back to Earth. On the way, Astrocat asks Cosmobug what she wanted to ask him about at the Eiffel Tower, to which she responds that it was nothing important and Astrocat appears to be sad.

Back on Marinette's balcony, Cosmobug detransforms into Ladybug and sees that Grandmaster Su-Han is already present and he asks if she knows the identity of Cat Noir. When Ladybug replies with no, Grandmaster Su-Han begins to berate her, but Ladybug stops him by saying that she doesn't want to know it and doesn't need to know because she is a good Guardian and says that Grandmaster Su-Han's judgment is only based on his fears instead of their actions. Grandmaster Su-Han admits that he is afraid and says that Ladybug is a guardian like no other that he had seen in his time of 100 years being a Guardian. After that, Ladybug and Grandmaster Su-Han do the "Pound It" and the end card appears.

## Characters

### Major characters

* Marinette Dupain-Cheng/Ladybug/Aquabug/Cosmobug (Aquabug in the alternative timeline only)
* Adrien Agreste/Cat Noir/Aqua Noir/Ephemeral/Astrocat (Aspik indirectly mentioned; Aqua Noir and Ephemeral in the alternative timeline only)
* Luka Couffaine/Viperion
* Gabriel Agreste/Shadow Moth/Shadow Noir (Shadow Noir in the alternative timeline only)
* Tikki
* Plagg
* Sass
* Nooroo (alternative timeline)
* Duusu (alternative timeline)
* Akuma
* Su-Han

### Minor characters

* Emilie Agreste
* Nathalie Sancoeur
* Bob Roth/Moolak
* Clara Contard
* August's mother
* Vesperia
* Rose Lavillant/Pigella
* Kagami Tsurugi/Ryuko
* Juleka Couffaine/Purple Tigress
* Lê Chiến Kim/King Monkey
* Nino Lahiffe/Carapace
* Max Kanté/Pegasus/Gamer
* Mylène Haprèle/Polymouse
* Jeanne d'Arc
* Gorizilla
* Captain Hardrock
* Ivan Bruel (alternative timeline)
* Nathaniel Kurtzberg (alternative timeline)
* Alya Césaire (alternative timeline)
* Alix Kubdel (alternative timeline)
* Caline Bustier (alternative timeline)
* Chloé Bourgeois (alternative timeline)
* Sabrina Raincomprix (alternative timeline)
* Lila Rossi (alternative timeline)
* Lollipop Boy (alternative timeline)
* Armand D'Argencourt (alternative timeline)
* Syren (alternative timeline)
* Fred Haprèle/The Mime (alternative timeline)
* Tom Dupain (alternative timeline)
* Sabine Cheng (alternative timeline)
* Wayzz (alternative timeline)
* Barkk (alternative timeline)
* Pollen (alternative timeline)
* Roaar (alternative timeline)
* Longg (alternative timeline)
* Daizzi (alternative timeline)
* Fluff (alternative timeline)
* Trixx (animation error)
* Gimmi (alternative timeline/off-screen)
* Audrey Bourgeois (mentioned)
* Natsume Sōseki (mentioned)
* Bertrand de Poulengy (mentioned)
* Gilles de Rais (mentioned)
* Civilians

## Trivia

* Internationally, this episode first premiered in France on TFOU.
* This is the 100th episode of the whole show and is implied to be very important and impactful.
	+ Ezra Weisz reconfirmed this episode along with "Glaciator 2" and "Gabriel Agreste" being very important on social media, and that they're the three episodes to watch out for.
	+ However, the episode had little impact on the story as the events were erased by time-travel.
	+ To honor the achievement of the show of reaching the 100th episode, the number 100 is often used during this episode:
		- Gabriel tells Emilie that he would be able to start over everything he had done 100 times if necessary. He would also try 100 times again to get the jewels.
		- The *Gabriel* brand celebrates its 100th collection.
		- Viperion tries 100 times to open Moolak's safe.
		- 100 alternate timelines have been created. 99 when Viperion failed to open Moolak's safe and one where Sass uses his power to go back in time to prevent Shadow Moth from destroying and re-creating the universe.
		- Ladybug and Viperion sync their watches at 1:00.
		- During the alternate timeline where Gabriel finds out Adrien is Cat Noir, it has been 100 weeks since Emilie's disappearance.
			* Because at that moment, 100 weeks have passed since Emilie's disappearance, almost 2 years have passed since, and almost a year following "Félix". However, because it's unknown the amount of time that has passed ever since Ladybug found out Cat Noir's identity, it's not known how far the revised timeline is from the 100th week of Emilie's disappearance.
		- During the alternate timeline where Gabriel finds out Adrien is Cat Noir, he mentions he has wanted to tell Adrien 100 times the truth about his mother.
		- Su-Han has been a guardian for 100 years; that means Su-Han is over 100 years old, similar to Master Fu who is 186 years old.
			* It's unknown which 100 years Su-Han was referring to; the time he spent inside Feast or it could be he was close to 100 years old when he had Master Fu as his student.
		- Ladybug says she has proven to Su-Han 100 times that she is a good guardian.
			* 100 times Ladybug has proven that she and Cat Noir have been exceptional heroes.
* According to Thomas Astruc, this episode has the same style as "Cat Blanc", showing a possible outcome to a situation. This episode possesses many similarities to "Cat Blanc":
	+ Both episodes show what would have happened if Ladybug and Cat Noir discovered each other's identities. However, unlike "Cat Blanc", where Cat Noir is the one to discover Ladybug's identity, "Ephemeral" shows what would happen if Ladybug was the one to discover Cat Noir's identity. It's shown that both moments would culminate with both discovering their respective identities and starting dating.
		- It would appear Ladybug and Cat Noir would react differently to those revelations. While Adrien would express his love to Marinette openly, she would struggle to realize her feelings for both Adrien and Cat Noir, wondering who she was really in love with, eventually coming to see them as one and the same.
	+ The fact that Adrien and Marinette would start dating after discovering their superhero identities would cause Gabriel to discover that his son was Cat Noir. In "Cat Blanc", he would find out after Nathalie watched Adrien transform to protect Marinette from an akuma, while in "Ephemeral", he would eavesdrop on a call between Adrien and Marinette where the former would call the latter "My lady", the same nickname Cat Noir normally calls Ladybug.
	+ In both episodes, Adrien would discover the truth about his parents. However, both moments would result in different akumatized identities and outcomes. In "Cat Blanc", Adrien was akumatized into Cat Blanc and, because he got divided between his loyalty to his loved ones, he ended up losing control of his power, destroying Paris, and damaging the Moon. In "Ephemeral", he would be akumatized into Ephemeral and subjugated by his father to capture Marinette and take her Miraculous, so Gabriel can use the Absolute Power.
	+ In both episodes, Adrien's akumatization would lead to a great catastrophe. As Cat Blanc, he would destroy Paris and kill all of its inhabitants, including Ladybug and Hawk Moth, while also damaging the Moon, which would lead to great disturbances on the tides. As Ephemeral, he would allow his father to get both the Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses, being able to use the Absolute Power to grant his wish, which would cause the current universe to be destroyed, so it could be rebuilt.
	+ Both episodes' events were erased from existence thanks to time travel. While the events of "Cat Blanc" were erased thanks to the time-traveling powers of the Rabbit Miraculous used by Bunnyx to allow Ladybug to fix the mistake that started that chain of events, the events of "Ephemeral" were erased thanks to Sass' Second Chance, who used it to go back to the last marked time done by his holder and prevent Ladybug from knowing Cat Noir's identity.
	+ Both episodes were based on the feelings of others that led to said events, as "Cat Blanc" dealt with feelings of love bordering obsession, this episode dealt with Su-Han's fears getting the better of him causing the guardian to push said fears onto Marinette and the same thing she called the guardian out for by the episode's end.
		- Although it's unknown if this is completely true or not, Su-Han's fears reasonably imply that maybe the Cat Miraculous was in the wrong hands at some point during one of Plagg's past activations.
	+ Both episodes involved where Sass and Bunnyx knew how the past was messed up but couldn't completely tell others how it was done so both due to the rules of time travel.
	+ Both episodes involved where Cataclysm was used on Hawk Moth in anger but was stopped in "Cat Blanc", it was done by Cat Noir while this time it's done by Plagg.
		- The feelings of both were the same anger and guilt: for Plagg it was after figuring out Gabriel's identity he was mad at Adrien's father for what he put his owner, his siblings, and the people of Paris through but guilty towards himself as his two missing siblings were in the same place he was and didn't notice anything. For "Cat Blanc", it was Adrien because he was angry at his father for the damage he caused and the secrets he kept but guilty towards himself for his obliviousness or ignorance in the depths of his father's pain and as well as many other emotions he felt because of his father's actions.
		- When Gabriel puts on the Cat Miraculous, Plagg attempts to Cataclysm him. This is the first and only time Plagg tries to Cataclysm a living person.
		- The fourth time where a Cataclysm was used in anger following "Santa Claws", "Cat Blanc" and "Hack-San".
	+ Coincidentally, both episodes are the 22nd of their respective season.
	+ Both episodes explain why Gabriel wanted the jewels but he didn't fully explain how his wife ended up in her condition.
* Unlike "Cat Blanc", Ladybug didn't fight Adrien's akumatized alter ego and she completely knew how to stop the alternate events from happening.
* "Ephemeral" is an adjective for something lasting for a very short time, whether a feeling of emotion or a plant, for example.
	+ Ephemeral events in the episode include the short time Marinette and Adrien dated, the short time the titular villain is on-screen (only 20 seconds pass between his first and last appearance, of which he's only seen on-screen in around 10), and Gabriel's victory.
* This marks the third time Shadow Moth finds out Adrien is Cat Noir in a timeline that doesn't exist anymore.
	+ Shadow Moth's reaction to finding out Cat Noir's true identity differs from the episode "Gorizilla" when he suspected Adrien could be Cat Noir, and in "Wishmaker" when he found out Adrien was Cat Noir due to Wishmaker's powers. This left him shocked and unhappy. Here, it resembles his reaction in "Cat Blanc", where he was more happy than shocked because he knew how he could use this information to his advantage. In the episode "Wishmaker" Shadow Moth finds out Ladybug's identity and then forgets it thanks to Viperion also happened.
* This episode has Ladybug recruiting the greatest number of allies to defeat an akumatized villain with them being nine.
	+ Likewise, this episode also features the greatest number of activated Miraculous being 13 in total. Thus, surpassing the previous record of 11 in "Miracle Queen".
* When Ladybug is seen failing to contact Cat Noir, she is left with a voicemail greeting. According to Ezra Weisz, the voicemail greeting was improvised by him and Bryce Papenbrook to include a cat-related joke for the English dub.
* This is the first time Ryuko's lightning power is seen on-screen.
* It's revealed that Shell-ter can be deactivated by saying "Unshield".
	+ Like Mirage, the power has two deactivation phrases.
* When Viperion was using Second Chance to open the safe, if every reset lasted approximately 4 seconds, that would mean it would've taken Viperion around 6 minutes and 30 seconds to open the safe.
* This is the sixth episode in Season 4 where a character is fully akumatized for the first time, following "Psycomedian", "Furious Fu", "Sole Crusher", "Wishmaker", and "Qilin".
* Grand Master Su-Han kept his word about watching over Marinette, as he is aware of the difficulty Ladybug had to defeat a villain because she couldn't contact Cat Noir.
	+ It also appears that he's still unaware of Cat Noir's true identity since he cannot use his staff to locate him the same way he located Ladybug. As a result, he demands Ladybug find out who he is to secure the Cat Miraculous' exact location.
* When Luka is separated from Marinette on the other side of the wall in the sewers, he is seen feeding Sass a whitish item which according to Wilfried Pain is Tofu.
* Ladybug tries saying she's Marinette but instead says "madly awkward", which is reminiscent of her saying "madly clumsy" in "Ladybug & Cat Noir" and she even says it when she trips in the school.
* When Cosmobug and Astrocat fly up into space, the New York special soundtrack starts to play for a few seconds and stops when Ladybug opens the satellites' time controller counterpart.
	+ They used the same music in this episode, when Ladybug was about to confess her secret identity and when Marinette revealed herself to Alya in "Gang of Secrets"
* As of this episode, Luka is the third Miraculous holder to know of Su-Han's existence.
	+ Fourth if counting Alya as she was going to be told everything by Marinette in "Optigami".
	+ Overall he is the fifth member of Team Miraculous to know about the existence of the guardians.
* As the 100th episode of the series overall, this episode is considered to be special containing Ladybug and Cat Noir's reveal as well as Adrien learning the truth about his mother and tries to resist the akuma.
	+ As well as being the second time this happened following a future alternative reality that occurred in "Cat Blanc".
* This is the sixth time the heroes use their ear communicators following "The Dark Owl", "Gamer 2.0", "Lies", "Queen Banana", and "Glaciator 2".
	+ This is the first time someone other than Ladybug or Cat Noir uses the communicator, in this case, Viperion.
* It's revealed that the Miraculous tools have synced digital clocks that aren't affected by GPS time satellites.
* This episode features the space power-up sequence for both Ladybug and Cat Noir, despite the first appearance of the suits in "Miraculous New York".
	+ This transformation is more unique than others, having a full space-themed background.
* Being a fire truck, this is the fifth time the Lucky Charm is a vehicle, following "Sapotis" (a unicycle), "Weredad" (a sailboat), "Queen Banana" (a moped), and "Glaciator 2" (a sports car).
* As of this episode this is the seventh time Ladybug doesn't catch her Lucky Charm object following "Robostus", "Weredad", "Oni-Chan", "Queen Banana", "Guiltrip" and "Glaciator 2".
* This is the sixth time where the Lucky Charm object is huge following "Malediktator", "Weredad", "Queen Banana", "Glaciator 2" and "Dearest Family".
* This is the fifth time an episode has involved time following "Timebreaker", "Desperada", "Timetagger", and "Cat Blanc".
* It's implied that Ladybug and Cat Noir have fought Lollipop Boy so often that they have developed "usual maneuvers" for their fights the same with Mr. Pigeon.
* This episode features the akumatizations of previously akumatized characters:
	+ This is the third time Ondine gets akumatized into Syren, following "Syren" and "Mayura".
	+ This is the fourth time Fred gets akumatized into The Mime, following "The Mime", "Catalyst" and "Mayura".
		- It is unknown if the two of them got magical charms but most likely they got them offscreen. However, due to Sass' Second Chance rewinding time to the night of Cat Noir's reveal, it's unknown if Fred and Ondine will get magical charms in the new timeline.
* Moolak, Syren, and the Mime's akumatizations are not shown, making this the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth time this happens, after Magician of Misfortune in "Princess Fragrance", Vanisher in "Antibug", the Unnamed boy in "Sandboy", Alya and Nino's akumatization in "Oblivio", Vivica in "Desperada", the current Chris in "Christmaster", the adult Chris in "Timetagger", Mr. Pigeon's akumatization in "Truth" and "Lies" and the two akumatizations of André in "Glaciator 2".
* The scene where Cat Noir shields Ladybug with his staff is a direct reference to the umbrella scene in "Stoneheart".
* The poem Miss Bustier reads is "Le Chat" by Charles Baudelaire.
	+ She also mentions the novel *I Am a Cat* by Natsume Soseki.
* The scene where Adrien passes a note to Marinette in class is similar to a scene from "Guiltrip".
* As in "Cat Blanc", "Ladybug", and "Miracle Queen", Shadow Moth doesn't use the light mask when akumatizing Adrien.
* Carapace protected Vesperia with his Shell-ter similar to how Senticarapace protected Lady Bee in "Optigami".
* The scene where Gorizilla climbs the Montparnasse Tower is a reference to *King Kong*.
* Shadow Noir's costume greatly resembles Marvel's *Black Panther*.
* Gabriel manages to acquire the Cat Miraculous and merges it with Butterfly and Peacock Miraculous calling himself "Shadow Noir". Afterward, off-screen, he unifies the Ladybug Miraculous along with the three Miraculouses.
* Sass uses his power without an owner for the first time; his power causes them to go back to any time the Second Chance was used before, even if it was more than five minutes earlier. However, multiple eras will coexist, making objects from different periods appear and disappear at random times and anything that uses time to move like a clock would go haywire.
	+ This is the seventh time where a kwami uses its powers without an owner, following Plagg in "Style Queen" and "Catalyst", Trixx in "Gang of Secrets", Kaalki in "Sole Crusher" and "Optigami" and Tikki in "Dearest Family".
* It's revealed that when the Ultimate Miraculous Absolute Power is used, the current universe will be destroyed and a new one will be recreated.
	+ The way Sass described is similar to the butterfly effect which is one of the many weaknesses of time travel.
* This is the first time a past Miraculous holder is seen physically, in this case, Jeanne D'Arc.
* This episode confirms that Marinette knows Kim's secret identity as King Monkey as they were fighting together against Moolak.
	+ For that to be possible at some point Xuppu must have shown Marinette who his owner is since kwamis can't speak the names of their owners due to the magical spell (unless she put his miraculous on to reveal the former's identity since he wouldn't be his holder at the time).
	+ Or it could be when she got the miraculous back in "Party Crasher" or "Miracle Queen".
	+ It also shows Ladybug still entrusts Kim with the Monkey Miraculous despite Shadow Moth knowing his identity, considering Ladybug needs his help, along with several other superheroes, since Cat Noir was unavailable.
* Another weakness of Voyage is revealed that if the user teleports to a place that has no space, then they can't go through their portals.
* Luka became the sixth Miraculous holder to know about the Absolute Power following Gabriel, Marinette, Adrien, Max, and Alya (if told in "Optigami").
	+ He also became the fourth Miraculous holder to know what happens when a kwami uses their powers following Ladybug, Cat Noir, and Alya.
	+ In the alternate timeline when Sass sees Luka coming into Marinette's room he told the other kwamis that he knows. Confirming that Luka knows Marinette's identity as Ladybug and possibly briefly as the Guardian of the Miraculous through her message.
	+ But it's unknown if she ever told the other team members about her status as the guardian before this episode.
		- But if not for Sass' version of Second Chance, Luka has lost this knowledge as he did not use the power himself.
* When the computer malfunctions, some of the code reads "T13M15D3D" (leetspeak for "time is dead"), "dr", "wh0", and "t4rd15" (a reference to the science fiction TV series *Doctor Who* and its famous time machine the TARDIS)
* This is the second episode where a Miraculous superpower is used the most in a single episode with Second Chance being used 102 times following "Desperada".
	+ Additionally, if it were to be assumed that Luka used Second Chance every five minutes for every reset, it would mean that in his perspective, when trying to find the combination to open Moolak's safe he had been trying for 500 minutes equalling over 8 hours.
* Astrocat's song, which he calls "Thus spoke Catathustra", is a parody of "Also sprach Zarathustra", a theme often used to represent space since it was used in the film *2001: A Space Odyssey*.
* This is the second where Ladybug's Lucky Charm was used three times following "Miraculous New York".
* Based upon Sass' description and what the other kwamis said, this means they were there when the Quantic Universe was destroyed and recreated when the power was used the first time.
	+ It's unknown if this happened before or after the kwamis' first owners.
* Jeanne d'Arc mentions Bertrand de Poulengy and Gilles de Rais, who are her friends and allies in real life. However, it's unknown if the latter were allies to Jeanne as fellow Miraculous holders in this universe.
* This is first time Ladybug gives a Magical Charm off screen.
* If anyone takes a head count of all the people Hawk Moth had akumatized not counting reakumatizatons as well as future ones he akumatized a total of close to 70 people.
* Su-Han worried Cat Noir might start acting like Shadow Moth technically came true in an alternate future of "Cat Blanc" when Cat Noir was akumatized and destroyed everything in Paris, he wanted to use his and Ladybug's Miraculous to fix everything.
	+ Su-Han also acted like Gabriel, when he ignored Marinette's warning about the consequences of Hawk Moth finding a way to use the identities of the heroes to his advantage.
* Ladybug didn't need to hand out all 9 Miraculouses to defeat Moolak. She ended up not using Uproar, Gift, or Clout, and didn't really need Voyage or the Dragon Miraculous Superpower. And yet, it did seem reasonable why she did:
	+ This implies:
		- That the reason why she summoned Ryuko and Purple Tigress was that Ladybug thought they could break into Moolak's safe without Cat Noir's Cataclysm.
		- For Pegasus it was on the idea if Moolak's safe was capable of holding an infinite number of coins or housed them in another dimension similar to Feast.
		- For King Monkey it was an idea of knowing since Pegasus' powers didn't work or if Vesperia missed her target. Then if Moolak's powers were struck by King Monkey, they would go haywire probably turning all the coins Moolak had including in his safe into bigger objects filling him up quicker, and with him full he'd have to empty his contents therefore his akumatized object.
		- The same for King Monkey, Pigella would've used her powers by extension to remove Moolak's greed, therefore, losing his will to fight and giving up his akumatized object willingly.
			* All these plans are a callback to what Ladybug said in "The Dark Owl" about having many contingency plans.

 File:Ephemeral (06).png
* In one scene, when Gabriel's brooch glows in the car while he is with Adrien, it reuses the scene from "Backwarder".
* On the Eiffel Tower, Adrien mentions the events of "Desperada".
* There was a shortened scene from "Risk" from when Adrien when down the atelier's elevator in the same fashion as when Felix disguised as Adrien did the same.
* Su-Han seemed puzzled when Ladybug said Cat Noir was "missing"; this may be because he forgot that Miraculous holders couldn't contact each other (today's holders) when detransformed.
	+ As mentioned in "Furious Fu", past Miraculous holders used messenger doves to communicate, suggesting they knew each other personally; this may be the source of his confusion.
* This is the second time three Lucky Charms are summoned in an episode following "Miraculous New York".
* With Sass rewinding time this is the twenty-third time in which the Lucky Charm is summoned twice, after "The Bubbler", "Antibug", "Sapotis", "The Dark Owl", "Syren", "Style Queen", "Anansi", "Malediktator", "Mayura", "Miraculous Shanghai", "Reflekdoll", "Weredad", "Miraculer", "Oblivio", "Desperada", "Ikari Gozen", "Timetagger", "Heart Hunter", "Psycomedian", "Glaciator 2", "Hack-San" and "Dearest Family".
* This episode marks the final appearance of the normal Akuma because from now on, Gabriel sends out Megakumas to break through the magical charms that Ladybug continues to give the Parisians.

### Changes

* Ephemeral (465).pngOriginal version
* Ephemeral (466).pngOriginal version
* Ephemeral (465)-v2.pngDisney Channel EU version
1/3
* When Disney Channel Europe released the episode, the background of Ladybug's Lucky Charm explanation toward the end of the episode was changed to no longer include the Rising Sun Flag.
	+ This change also brought a minor redesign with it.

### Errors

* Although Ryuko has used both her wind and lightning powers, the signs on her costume which resemble the two elements, respectively, are still active.
* In the English dub, Ryuko opens her mouth but doesn't say anything, just before Moolak taunts the heroes about his coin.
	+ However, in the original French version, Ryuko does have a line at this moment, in which she tells Ladybug that her powers can't break Moolak's safe.
* In the shot that shows all of the heroes chasing after Moolak, several errors can be seen:
	+ King Monkey is initially seen running alongside Purple Tigress but is seen running on his own in this shot.
		- He also appears to clip through a wall while running rather stiffly.
	+ Ladybug, Ryuko, Vesperia, and Pigella appear to suddenly shift upward while running onto a rooftop of a higher elevation.
* Before Ladybug calls on her Lucky Charm during the fight with Moolak, she has her upgraded suit.
* Despite being shown in Ladybug's thought process, Purple Tigress didn't have a major role in Ladybug's Lucky Charm plan.
* During the "Pound It" scene, with all the heroes several errors can be seen:
	+ Ryuko's hand is miscolored grey.
	+ Vesperia's fingertips are missing the black part of the suit.
	+ Purple Tigress uses her right hand to pound it, but her Miraculous is missing.
* At various points in the episode, Luka isn't wearing the Snake Miraculous when he's supposed to:
	+ The first time happens when he's talking to Ladybug in the sewers after Su-Han leaves.
	+ The second time happens after he de-transforms from timing out the Snake Miraculous.
	+ The third time happens just before Ladybug and Cat Noir exit the sewers after Sass used Second Chance.
* After collecting the Snake Miraculous from Luka, it disappears from Ladybug's hands.
* A single frame of Luka about to transform is spliced in the transition scene at the end of the first act.
* Ladybug and Viperion's watches show the time passing by each second when it displays only the hour and minute.
* Adrien mistakenly rotates 90 degrees spontaneously when Ladybug reveals her identity to him.
* The note Adrien passes to Marinette has no writing on it.
* When Gabriel transforms into Shadow Moth in front of Adrien, Nooroo, and Duusu appear to come out of nowhere near Gabriel himself.
* Throughout the scene where Adrien discovers Emilie, his phone is in his left hand. But while being akumatized, his phone somehow moves to his right hand.
	+ Adrien also uses both hands when he removes his ring under Shadow Moth's influence, during which there is no indication of where his phone may have gone to.
* Gabriel states that he's tried to steal Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous 100 times. This ignores every akumatization and/or amokization that happened off-screen, with 72 of those attempts involving Mr. Pigeon.
	+ This may simply be Gabriel being poetic as part of the episode's theme centered around the number 100.
* When Sass explains his power to Luka, the scene appears to be less saturated than usual, as Barkk and Wayzz look less brightly colored.
* When Luka goes to see Sass in Marinette's bedroom, Trixx is shown popping out of the Miracle Box, even though he is supposed to be in Alya's possession at this point.
* When Shadow Noir steals Ladybug's earrings, black bubbles similar to those that appear when a Cataclysm is activated can be seen around the Cat ring.
* Several of the objects shown to be affected by the satellite, such as car headlights and clocks on ancient monuments, do not depend on GPS time in real life, and so will not go haywire when the satellite does. Also, most objects that *are* connected aren't connected every minute of the day, so will not act up and/or repair themselves the exact moment the satellite does.
* When Cosmobug and Astrocat reset the satellite, the clock on the Gare du Nord resets itself to 1:00, not 1:05.
* At the end of the episode, North America is in bright sunlight. Because New York, is on the East Coast and is 6 hours behind Paris, it would have been 7:05 PM on the eastern side of America at that time, considerably darker, assuming the episode takes place in winter. The time difference varies depending on the date, but it would've been dark in America either way.
	+ All of Greenland is brightly lit, including the parts north of the Arctic Circle, so this episode cannot take place during winter. East Greenland Time is two hours behind Central European Time, which means this is 11:05 pm in Wikipedia:Ittoqqortoormiit, and that the terminator is just east of there indicates it is almost sunset there; that indicates this episode is set in either May or early August, and the timing of "Qilin" two episodes earlier and a month after Mother's Day at the end of June argues in favor of the canon-timeline parts of "Ephemeral", at least, being in August.
* Even though Su-Han's seen wearing the shoes Marinette gave him in "Furious Fu" throughout the episode, he wears his old shoes in the scene at the end.

## Gallery

Click here to view the image gallery for Ephemeral.
*Click here to view the gallery.*

## References

1. ↑ https://twitter.com/MLadybug\_Blog/status/1502605498956324865/photo/1
2. ↑ https://cabletvt.powerrangermail.net/index.php/topic,6887.0.html
3. ↑ https://twitter.com/TF1Pro/status/1450473657059454986
4. ↑ https://www.tiktok.com/@ezraweisz/video/7058795811190361390
5. ↑ https://twitter.com/Winny\_IRL/status/1457657875044741124
6. ↑ https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/greenland/ittoqqortoormiit

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