Episode 10 - The Reprise

So, I had several ideas for this episode’s song, but in the end I went with Going Under by Evanescence. Although this is about the breaking apart of a romantic relationship, there are elements that carry across quite well to Adrien and Gabriel’s relationship. At this point, Adrien feels like he’s drowning in Gabriel’s expectations of him.

The Reprise

I’ve been trying to leave hints throughout the season that the Maelstrom wasn’t quite over yet – the box that Korvid’s Mimic left in The Maelstrom was dislodged in Rubber Robber and last episode ended with the box landing on an island further up the Seine. It’s an homage to a lot of shows I watch, with long-running arcs. Although I can’t ever claim that I’m pulling it off this well, I’m probably drawing a lot from She-Ra and the Princesses of Power to try this sort of storytelling. There’s a theatre term called “Chekov’s Gun” where you don’t introduce something to a plot without it being used later on. That is exactly what I was trying to do with these trapped Akumas.

Just in case someone doesn’t know (never mock someone for not knowing something, everyone learns things at different points) a reprise is a musical term for a section of a performance where they repeat an earlier section. I always thought it was pronounced to rhyme with prize, but it actually rhymes with ease.

Adrien and Marinette’s Date

Last season we had a moment which almost felt like a date between these two. Now we finally get to see an AdriNette date happening. I really liked the idea of Adrien taking Marinette to The Happy Plates, the same café he took Kagami to in Season 1’s finale. I never managed to complete the triangle by having Marinette and Kagami go as well, but it would have been nice.

Tomoe

In the show, we know that Tomoe helped Gabriel create the Alliance Rings and the Monarch Rings – I suppose this episode clearly states that was their plan here as well, if Tomoe hadn’t lost faith in Gabriel’s chances. I say a lot when I’m talking about this that, even if Tomoe is following a different path in Miraculous: Contingency, she is still not a good person. She’s a better parent than she is in the show, that is for sure, but she’s not a good person.

My cousin helped me with the dialogue in this scene – the disbelieving “WHEN you succeed” was her idea, and we brainstormed a lot of the rest of the interaction. I wanted to have Tomoe lose her temper with him, and for it to be believable. Gabriel’s threat is the most alarming part of the confrontation, obviously. When you’re next to Gabriel Agreste, it’s going to be difficult to appear as the bad parent.

Adrien’s Anger

Fairly obviously, I never had Gabriel attempt to control Adrien using the wedding ring in my first draft. It was one of the biggest changes. I needed a way for Adrien to defy his father, so having Félix visit him back in season 1 was the best place to put it. One of the things I’ve tried to show over the course of Miraculous: Contingency is that Gabriel is slowly becoming less and less stable; this episode and the next are probably the final nails in the coffin. For the rest of Season 3 and Season 4, Gabriel has lost control and will be acting more and more erratically.

And the first step is that Adrien is allowing himself to show his anger to his father for the first time. It was hard to write the moment when Adrien loses his temper and shouts at his father, because I didn’t want to put the boy through that pain, but every word was deserved and spoken from Adrien’s heart. Over the rest of Miraculous: Contingency Adrien and Gabriel are going to be growing ever more distant (if that were possible) building up to the ultimate conclusion in Season 4.

The one benefit of Adrien’s anger is that he’s experiencing it while he has a solid support structure – he’s got his best friend, and two loving girlfriends, plus Master Fu and the Gorilla.