Qilin

**Qilin**

**Season 4, episode 20 (Production order); Episode 98 (Overall)**

> "Your mom is really amazing. Even though she's so busy, she always manages to organize so well!"
> "The exact opposite of me. Do you realize Tikki, I'm more than a month late for Mother's Day! I wanted to make her something but with everything going on I barely had time get started on it. It's such a bummer because today would've been the perfect day to make it up to her."
>
> Tikki & Marinette Dupain-Cheng, "Qilin"

**"Qilin"** is a Season 4 episode of the series Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir. As based on the series' production order specifically, **"Qilin"** is the 20th written and produced episode of Season 4. It is also the 98th written and produced episode of the series overall.

## Synopsis

Marinette has an amazing mom! Sabine is great at building harmony around her, always supple and smooth. Every day, her talent is put to the test as she helps her clumsy and forgetful daughter grow. And because of one of Marinette’s careless mistakes, Sabine ends up being accused of committing an offense. She protests her innocence, but no one believes her. A terrible feeling of injustice comes over her, and she gets akumatized into Qilin. This time, Ladybug is the one who will have to help her mom!

## Plot

The episode starts with Sabine preparing for the day, showering, reading her calendar, adjusting the house decor to align with the concept of Feng Shui, preparing the kitchen for Marinette's accidents, making coffee and tea for Tom preparing baked goods for the Chinese ink painting class she is teaching later, all the while doing Tai Chi. She books a reservation at noon for herself and Marinette at Dim Sum delight.

Marinette wakes up sleepy, tripping down the stairs as she does so, landing in the laundry basket full of clothes Sabine planted there on purpose. Sabine greets her and asks about her tired disposition. They are interrupted by an urgent newscast, reporting Ladybug and Cat Noir's victory in stopping a turbine from exploding at the coco plant factory and saving the city from an explosion of hot chocolate denied by the CEO arrested for professional negligence. Marinette goes along with the scenario Sabine presented. Sabine asks Marinette to do the laundry, measuring her height as she does so, acknowledging new growth. Marinette eats breakfast, but spills the milk as she does so. She apologizes, but Sabine simply picks up a soaked sponge on the floor. Marinette notices the shoe advert Sabine placed earlier, remembering that she is growing out of her current shoes, and asks for a new pair as shown in the advert, which Sabine agrees to and sets up a meeting after her painting class and their lunch.

Just then, a breaking news report alerts Marinette about the reappearance of Lollipop Boy, kicking Marinette into action. Marinette makes up an excuse about being late to class. Sabine reminds her it is a Saturday, which Marinette backtracks and clarifies it is about a meeting with Alya Césaire as they are doing a project together. Sabine gets Marinette to promise that she will not forget their lunch, to buy a ticket for the bus, and to change out of her pajamas, which causes Marinette to freak out and run upstairs. Tikki comments about Sabine's impressive organisation skills despite her busy lifestyle, which Marinette reflects on how it is the opposite of her, revealing how she is more than a month late for Mother's Day thanks to her duties as Ladybug. Marinette realises she could buy a gift for her before meeting her, giving it to her at the restaurant. They proceeded to transform to take care of the Sentimonster as Sabine leaves the house, collecting the pastries from Tom for her class.

At the school, Sabine teaches a class about Chinese ink brush painting, highlighting the differences between western styles of painting and emphasising certain features of the eastern style. Ladybug and Cat Noir pass by, battling Lollipop Boy. Sabine sympathises with them as they have been up all night dealing with other issues, yet are already back in action. The heroes defeat the villain and leave. Sabine's students head out, while she packs her things up and goes down to the bus station. She calls Marinette, but she doesn't pick up; Sabine ends up leaving her a voicemail, telling her to hurry up.

Once the bus arrives, Sabine leaves her bag next to bus driver, so that she can pull out her wallet. Marinette arrives shortly after, but realizes she forgot her bus ticket. Unsurprised, Sabine then takes out two spare tickets, as if she expected Marinette to forget about the favor. Sabine and Marinette then walk down in the bus and come across a handicapped person, who's struggling to fit their wheelchair in a tight spot, because a rude passenger is busy discussing business plans on a phone call. After Sabine is shut down by the rude passenger upon asking him politely to let the handicapped person stay in the special spot, made for their use, she forms a plan including a traffic light, the rude passenger, a gear on the handicapped person's wheelchair and a paintbrush. Sabine then places the paintbrush on the ground in front of the rude passenger. Once the bus pulls to a stop, the rude passenger trips on the paintbrush, which moves him out of the spot, and the handicapped person is relocated uncontrollably, yet swiftly to the desired spot.

Sabine thanks the man for letting the man in the wheelchair go to his designated area as the bus drives past a flower shop. Marinette suddenly realizes that she has forgotten the Mother's Day present she wanted to buy for her mother. Marinette gets off the bus and buys a flower just as the bus drives off and Marinette chases after it. Marinette calls her mother and responds calmly. Sabine tries to get off the bus as the ticket inspector asks for her ticket. She tells him that her daughter got off with her ticket. She then suggests that her daughter is supposed to be at this stop. The inspector gets on the bus and issues Sabine with a fifty euro fine.

The bus continues to drive and stops at a police car with Officer Roger who on the outside and is eating his food. The inspector and Sabine gets off the bus as she asks Roger to tell the ticket inspector that she does indeed have a daughter and that she and Sabrina, Roger's daughter are in the same class at school. Roger tells Sabine reminds Sabine that given that she was on the bus without a ticket and that she doesn't have any ID, she must be taken in for an identity check. Suddenly, Sabine's phone rings as the inspector takes Sabine's purse from her and hands it to Roger before she can answer it. Roger empties Sabine's bag as he accidentally drops, damages and breaks some of her belongings. Sabine starts getting frustrated as some guards appear and take Sabine with them. Roger places handcuffs on Sabine as the guards walks with her away.

In his lair, Shadow Moth finds Sabine frustration and sends a akuma to her after creating one. The akuma flies out of Shadow Moth's lair and infects Sabine's handcuffs. At first she tries to resist the akuma, saying that she does not want to hurt anyone with her powers but eventually gives in and succumbs, getting akumatized into Qilin as the guards run away from her and scream in terror and in fear.

The scene then switches to where Marinette tries to call her mother but fails. She suddenly spots several police vehicles all heading in the same direction and a police helicopter being blown by a strong gust of wind as Qilin orders that her handcuffs be removed. Marinette hides and transforms into Ladybug. She asks the bus driver what happened to her mom. Ladybug uses her yo-yo and swings away as she sees QIlin blowing away the guards. QIlin uses her powers to blow the helicopter away to City Hall. Qilin makes a building collapse as it falls right on the inspector and Roger.

Ladybug puts the building back and Qilin moves nearby objects to where she is. Cat Noir comes just in time and saves Ladybug with his umbrella staff. Qilin throws Cat Noir in the Seine as more guards arrive with shields. She blows them away into the police vans. Ladybug asks the guards what happened and finds out. Cat Noir distracts Qilin and decides to talk to Qilin. Ladybug promises Qilin that if they find Marinette all of this will cease. Roger and the inspector refuses to take off Qilin's handcuffs. Police helicopters arrive and try to trap Qilin with nets but the attempt fails.

Ladybug receives a ray gun as her Lucky Charm. She looks around and soon comes up with a plan. She grabs a shield from the police guards, cuts a hole the shape and size of a manhole cover on the shield as Cat Noir crawls into the sewers and activates his Cataclysm, just after Ladybug places the cut out circular piece of the police shield where the manhole cover is supposed to go. Ladybug lures the guards and Roger to where Cat Noir is hidden. Given that the piece of plastic Ladybug cut out is translucent, Cat Noir easily identifies Officer Roger as he cataclysms the piece of plastic and falls into the sewers with Cat Noir.

He takes the keys to the handcuffs from Roger and runs off. Ladybug is given the keys from Cat Noir and shows QIlin that she has kept her promise. Shadow Moth tries to tell Qilin that she should not listen to Ladybug but instead, rejects the akuma. QIlin is deakumatized into Sabine and breaks the handcuffs, releasing the akuam and purifies it back into a white moth. Throwing her Lucky Charm in the air, all of the damage is repaired as Ladybug gives her the Magical Charm.

Roger and the inspector appears as Ladybug and tells Roger not to use the handcuffs and to wait for Sabine's daughter to arrive. Roger agrees as Ladybug and Cat Noir run off and detransform. Marinette runs over to her mother with the flowers and gives it to her. Marinette gives the inspector her tickets as he validates them. Finding out that they are indeed valid, he admits that Sabine was telling the truth. When asked about the fine and ID check, he decides to cancel it as Marinette apologizes and decides to pay for the fine. Marinette asks her mother if she can hand over the money for now to which she smiles as the episode ends.

## Characters

### Major characters

* Marinette Dupain-Cheng/Ladybug
* Gabriel Agreste/Shadow Moth
* Tikki
* Akuma
* Roger Raincomprix
* Ticket Inspector
* Sabine Cheng/Qilin

### Minor characters

* Cat Noir (Adrien pictured only)
* Nadja Chamack
* Tom Dupain
* Clara Contard
* Lollipop Boy
* Florist
* Lila Rossi (background)
* Sarah (pictured)
* Audrey Bourgeois (pictured)
* Armand D'Argencourt (pictured)
* Jagged Stone (pictured)
* Alya Césaire (mentioned)
* André Bourgeois (indirectly mentioned/pictured)
* Sabrina Raincomprix (indirectly mentioned)
* Unnamed bus driver
* Police Officers

## Trivia

* Internationally, this episode first premiered in the USA on Disney Channel.
* In Chinese mythology, Qilins, also known in Japanese as Kirins, are East Asian creatures that resemble a unicorn, being one of a great number of East Asian creatures to have one horn.
	+ That makes this episode the sixth one where the titular villain is named after a mythological creature, after "Dark Cupid", "Befana", "Sapotis", "Anansi", and "Oni-Chan".
* Sabine is fully akumatized for the first time, after her transformation into Verity Queen in "Ladybug" was not completed.
* The lollipop sentimonster is revealed to be named Lollipop Boy.
* As of this episode, Marinette is the only member of her family not getting fully akumatized since her transformation into Princess Justice in "Ladybug" was not completed because of Nathalie Sancoeur's illness.
* This is the fifth episode in Season 4 where a character is fully akumatized for the first time, following "Psycomedian", "Furious Fu", "Sole Crusher" and "Wishmaker".
	+ This is also the third episode in season 4 where a character from season 1 is akumatized for the first time after "Furious Fu" and "Wishmaker".
* This is the sixth time Miraculous-related content premiered in the US, following "Captain Hardrock", "Ikari Gozen", "Miraculous New York", "Wishmaker", and "Ladybug Saves Christmas", later being followed by "Risk".
* This is the second time where Cat Noir uses the umbrella feature of his staff following "Glaciator 2" and before "Ephemeral".
	+ But this is the first time he uses it in combat.
* Thomas Astruc has stated on Twitter that this episode would have themes of racism.
	+ This is one of the few episodes with obvious sociopolitical themes. It deals with themes of racism and police aggression. This makes it one of the few episodes confirmed to have mature themes, after "Reverser" and "Mega Leech".
		- The episode was written during the Yellow Vests movement in 2018, which explains the political themes.
* The Dupain-Cheng's bathroom and Tom and Sabine's room are seen for the first time.
* This is the second time Marinette spills milk on the table, after "Ladybug & Cat Noir".
* This episode takes place on Saturday the 14th of an unknown month.
	+ There is no Saturday 14th except that before Mother's Day in 2016, the year in which it is assumed the episode takes place. The only possible days are November 14th 2015, January or October 14th 2017, all of which are too far from late May.
	+ Mother's Day is celebrated on the second Sunday (in China) or last Sunday (in France) of May. This difference, however, does not affect the error.
	+ Since Marinette mentions she is over a month late for Mother's Day, which takes place in May, the episode would most likely take place in June or July.
	+ This would be impossible, as each episode happens during the same school year, and as seen in future episodes, the school year still has not ended.
		- The following episode, "Dearest Family", takes place in early January.
* Sabine's thinking pattern is revealed for the first time, being whitish-yellow with drawings resembling plants.
	+ This is the twelfth episode where the thinking pattern of someone who is not Ladybug is seen, following Fei's in "Miraculous Shanghai", Adrien's in "Oblivio", Marinette's in "Oblivio", "Ladybug", "Heart Hunter", "Hack-San", and "Simpleman", Pegasus' in "Startrain", Félix's in "Félix", Cat Noir's in "Psycomedian", Master Fu's in "Furious Fu" and Alya's in "Sentibubbler".
* Sabine is one of the few akumatized victims who at first tries to resist Hawk Moth/Shadow Moth's control.
* Sabine is the third person to break free from Shadow Moth's control while akumatized following Alya in "Gang of Secrets" and Nino in "Rocketear".
	+ When Nino broke free, the akuma expelled from his glasses, however, when Sabine broke free the akuma had to be released when Ladybug destroyed her handcuffs.
* This is also one of few times someone has seen the akuma before it hits its target.
* It is revealed that Sabine teaches Chinese painting classes at Marinette's school.
	+ Some of her students include Nadja Chamack and Lila Rossi.
	+ This makes Sabine the fifth character who is a visual artist, following Marinette, Nathaniel, Master Fu, and Kagami.
* This is the second time Cat Noir runs up a wall, following "Stormy Weather".
	+ This is the second time Ladybug ties herself down to something so she does not get blown away.
* This is the fourth time Adrien is Cat Noir for the whole episode, following "Prime Queen", "Christmaster", and "Furious Fu".
* This is the eighth episode where Adrien is a minor character following "Style Queen", "Truth", "Gang of Secrets", "Mr. Pigeon 72", "Furious Fu", "Sole Crusher" and "Crocoduel".
* This is the tenth episode where Plagg doesn't appear following "Prime Queen", "Despair Bear", "Malediktator", "Animaestro", "Christmaster", "Truth", "Furious Fu", "Guiltrip" and "Crocoduel".
* This is the eighth episode where Alya Césaire is absent, the others are "Riposte", "Reverser", "Sandboy", "Weredad", "Silencer", "Heart Hunter" and "Furious Fu".
* This is the third time Marinette leaves the house in her pajamas following "Gorizilla" and "Sentibubbler".
* This is the second episode of Season 4 where the other kwamis from the Miracle Box don't appear following "Psycomedian".
* This is the second time Cat Noir gets tossed into the river following "Princess Fragrance".
* The names of Qilin's attacks come from various idioms and phrases.
* Cat Noir talking to Qilin while sitting on a lamppost is similar to what he did in "The Pharaoh".
* This is the third time Ladybug gets tangled in her yo-yo following "Ladybug & Cat Noir" and "Psycomedian".
* It is revealed that Sabine had been marking Marinette's growth for the last five years (sometime after Marinette's 8th birthday), which is a reference from "Ladybug & Cat Noir" (4 years in the same class with Chloe).
* This is the seventh time where Ladybug's Lucky Charm resembles an akumatized villain's object from before it got akumatized following the handcuffs in "Frightningale".
* Even though the ray gun is a weapon of science fiction this episode is the second time where the Lucky Charm is a weapon following "Malediktator".
	+ This is the sixteenth time where Ladybug's Lucky Charm is an object from a previous episode.
* When TF1 aired the episode in France, they cut out the scene of the ticket inspector harassing Sabine on the bus, and her being arrested and akumatized, making the episode only 18 minutes long. The exact reason for this is unknown.
	+ Although TF1 has stated that the cut was due to them believing the episode's theme was too mature for young children, several have believed it was politically-motivated censorship, as it very clearly portrays police officers and state officials as aggressors.
	+ However, according to Thomas Astruc, the episode was sent in its original form to TF1, so all other broadcasters which air the show in French aired the episode fully. (RTS, Disney Channel France and Belgium, Disney+, Télé-Québec).
* When Shadow Moth was talking to Sabine about him being misunderstood that isn't completely true if he had explained his problem in the first place, then the people would understand his problem but not agree with Gabriel on how he is handling it.
* What is also interesting is that Ladybug could've used the ray gun to blast the cuffs off of Qilin but instead she handled the problem with diplomacy.
* This is the last episode where Lila is a background character.

### Errors

* When Sabine and her class were looking at Ladybug and Cat Noir jumping on rooftops after the battle, Ladybug's suit was in its upgraded version despite her doing Miraculous Ladybug.
	+ Even after that scene, when Ladybug was about to detransform in an alley, she is still seen in her upgraded suit.
* When the policemen explain to Ladybug why Sabine was arrested, Ladybug’s earrings are in their activated mode instead of their charged one.
* Marinette's eyelashes disappear in multiple scenes.
	+ The same happens with her eyeliner.
		- Both are also applicable to Cat Noir.
* Sabine's hair is discoloured with dark tones throughout the episode.
* All the characters hold their paintbrushes incorrectly during the episode.
* Sabine's closing form from her Tai Chi routine is incorrect.
* Shadows from character models on the environment disappear in multiple scenes.
* When Cat Noir was defending Ladybug with the umbrella feature of his staff, her suit was in its upgraded version.
* When Shadow Moth releases the akuma, his mask has missing details.

 File:Qilin (233).png
* When Sabine tells Shadow Moth she doesn't believe him about not hurting anyone before the full akumatization, the Butterfly Miraculous is shown tilted to the side in the following shot of Shadow Moth.
* The number of passengers on the bus changes drastically between shots.
* Most of the time Cat Noir has a grey suit.
* Characters' eyes become desaturated in many shots.
* Marinette's hair becomes a very light shade in several shots.
* Multiple characters have discolored hands in several scenes.
* When Ladybug creates Sabine's magical charm, the bead is coloured blue instead of orange.
* When Roger Raincomprix puts away the handcuffs, they are discoloured black.
* When Cat Noir proceeds to attack Qilin, his gloves are deformed.
* When Marinette is grabbing flowers for her mother, the cuff of her sleeve is miscolored green.
	+ Her sleeve cuff also discolours grey while pleading with her mom to let her off the bus.
* The extent of damage caused by Qilin differs in multiple shots.
* In TF1's censored version of the episode, the bus' wheels are not animated when it was driving away from the ticket inspector's bus stop.
	+ As the bus was added in post-production, it doesn't have any shadow either.

## Gallery

Click here to view the image gallery for Qilin.
*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,6907.0.html
3. ↑ https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tfou-parc\_communiqu%C3%A9-de-presse-tfou-parc-janvier-activity-6890250378173054976-mx9B/
4. ↑ https://twitter.com/Winny\_IRL/status/1499353597095645186
5. ↑ https://twitter.com/Thomas\_Astruc/status/1488575960739946501
6. ↑ https://twitter.com/Thomas\_Astruc/status/1500435214228770817

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