[Review/Recap] Miraculous Ladybug Season 2 Episode 11: "Gorizilla" (SPOILERS) · 5:43am May 3rd, 2018
Thanks to one particularly loony fan, Adrien's attempt to sneak out to watch a movie snowballs into an out of control mess which results in his bodyguard being Akumatized and his secret identity very nearly revealed to Hawk Moth.
(Editor's note: Because Adrien's bodyguard is an unnamed character and features heavily in this episode, for the sake of convenience I am referring to him throughout this review as 'Gorilla', which is the crew nickname for him and Adrien's nickname in-canon for him. This is not his actual name.)
Adrien has just starred in a TV commercial for a cologne named after him. This has whipped his Parisian fanbase into an unprecedented frenzy. But more on that in a minute.
The episode opens with Adrien trying to catch a minute to talk to his father. Gabriel is only too happy to oblige--when he's available. Adrien is disappointed because that would be too late (and, frankly, having to schedule time to talk to your father is depressing enough as it is). Gabriel reminds Adrien that he's supposed to be practicing his piano, so Adrien leaves, dejected. As he does so, Gabriel pulls up images of both his son and Chat Noir on his computer and zooms in on their right hands, doing a side-by-side comparison of their rings. Now suspecting his son is Chat Noir, he barges up to Adrien's room, only to discover Adrien is missing and a recording of the piano piece he's supposed to be practicing is playing in his place. Gabriel is enraged, snaps at both Gorilla and Nathalie, and orders Gorilla to go out and find Adrien.
Elsewhere, Adrien is trying to keep a low profile in town, but cursed as he is with rotten luck, he runs into the ABSOLUTE LOONIEST ADRIEN FAN IN PARIS, a guy named Wayhem (rhymes with 'mayhem', can't possibly be a coincidence!) whose Adrien obsession is actually worse than Marinette's. Dude DRESSES like Adrien, wears Adrien the Fragrance, and carries around a life-sized cardboard cutout of Adrien wherever he goes. MENTAL HEALTH CHECK ON AISLE THREE! In his overexcited state, Wayhem snaps a pic of Adrien and posts it online, which triggers an Adrien Alert in the Gorilla's car. More to the point, his panicked flight from both Wayhem and the Gorilla attracts a SUDDEN FLASH MOB OF SCREAMING ADRIEN FANS, and Adrien finds himself on the run.
Meanwhile, Marinette is having an extreme fangirl attack. She's watching the Adrien ad over and over again with the most nauseating expression on her face. A call from Alya snaps her out of it, and Alya reminds her that she's supposed to be meeting the girls at the pool. Marinette rushes out...forgetting that she's still in her pajamas! She turns around to run home to change, but ends up colliding with Adrien, who's panicking and asks if he can hide out at her place. Marinette is confused...until the mob crashes through like the running of the bulls. Going into Ladybug Mode (TM), Marinette leads Adrien into the park, where she pulls him into the (thankfully empty) fountain to hide.
In the brief calm that follows, Adrien gets a good look at Marinette in her pajamas, which brings him up short--boy likes what he sees, maybe? 
The calm is short-lived, though, as the mob finds them and blows up social media. They end up on the run again after Adrien admits to Marinette that he snuck out. Their panicked flight takes them into the Metro, where Adrien apologizes for getting Marinette mixed up in all this and for everyone now thinking she's his girlfriend. Marinette assures him she doesn't mind (especially the last part!). Adrien brings up the Marinette Lucky Charm again, but the brewing moment is ruined when Wayhem (GODDAMMIT, BOY, GET! HELP!) manages to find them again and leads the charge! With the Gorilla in the midst of the mob, Adrien grabs Marinette and pulls her onto a just-departing train. In the middle of the confusion, Wayhem recognizes Adrien's bodyguard and steals his phone.
No, seriously Wayhem, GET. HELP.
The mob finds out where Adrien and Marinette got off the train, and quickly board the next one en masse, leaving Gorilla on the platform with nothing but the dropped Marinette Lucky Charm for his troubles.
With shit going completely sideways, Gabriel retreats to his secret lair, where Nooroo asks him if he really believes Adrien is Chat Noir. (This scene is important, because it josses a popular fan theory that Nooroo stays locked up in the cloister whenever Gabriel doesn't need him--he has very clearly been on Gabriel's person this entire time.) Gabriel replies that since the Gorilla has failed to keep an eye on Adrien all this time, there's only one way to find out for sure.
Gorilla's mounting frustration at Adrien's escape is built into a frothing rage by Agent Roger impounding his car. Hawk Moth ups the ante by calling him to chew him out for screwing up, just to make absolutely sure he stays good and angry this time, then immediately sends out an Akuma, transforming him into the giant, King Kong-esque Gorizilla.
Meanwhile, Adrien and Marinette have "disguised" themselves (Adrien put on a motorcycle helmet and Marinette wrapped a towel around her head and put on swim goggles) and ducked into a movie theater. Marinette is impressed with Adrien's idea to hide in a dark movie theater, but it turns out this is where he was headed all along. It seems Adrien's mother once starred in a movie that's so rare there are almost no copies of it, his father has the only DVD of it hidden somewhere in the house, and this particular movie theater is having a one-day-only screening of the movie. That was why Adrien wanted to talk to Gabriel in the first place--to ask if he could go see his mother's movie.
Of course, their luck couldn't hold out. Adrien takes his helmet off for a second when his mother appears on the screen, and the guy sitting at the end of the row snaps a picture and posts it (HOW DOES HE HAVE SIGNAL IN A MOVIE THEATER?), which attracts the mob, with Wayhem bursting through the theater doors 2 seconds after the picture is posted, looking like he literally just CAME (or is angling up to receive a massive dose of bukkake...seriously, dude's making kind of a "please jizz on me" face, I am not kidding about this.) The one thing Adrien wanted out of this day just got blown clear to shit...
...and then Gorizilla shows up. Gorizilla grabs Adrien, and Hawk Moth orders him to hold onto him until Ladybug and Chat Noir show up. The mob disperses, and Marinette transforms to chase after Gorizilla.
Wayhem is ALSO chasing Gorizilla, determined to save Adrien.
Seriously. Dude. Get. Therapy.
When Ladybug shows up alone, Hawk Moth is convinced this proves his theory, and that if Gorizilla puts enough pressure on Ladybug, Adrien will have to transform to help. Gorizilla begins his attack; when things get hairy, Ladybug uses her Lucky Charm and gets a toy helicopter. Gorizilla grabs her, but can't take her Miraculous because both his hands are full. Ladybug is able to throw him off balance by using the toy helicopter to attack him, King Kong style, even sending it up his nose. Ultimately, he's forced to drop Ladybug, giving her a chance to free Adrien.
(There is an INSANELY cool tracking shot of Ladybug running through an office building during this sequence!)
Ladybug manages to pry open Gorizilla's hand, and tells Adrien to jump so she can catch him. Adrien readily jumps, trusting Ladybug with his life, but before Ladybug can go after him, Gorizilla captures her. Adrien is in freefall, and Hawk Moth is TERRIFIED, desperately pleading for his son to transform before he dies. Adrien, however, has no doubt Ladybug will save him, and makes no effort to arrest his fall with his own powers. Ultimately, Hawk Moth orders Gorizilla to drop Ladybug so she can save Adrien. This leads to a brief, beautiful Ladrien moment.
Ladybug's earrings start flashing. She tells Wayhem to find a place to hide while she takes Adrien to safety before bugging out. Wayhem tries to block Gorizilla, and actually manages to do something useful by spraying Adrien the Fragrance in Gorizilla's face, screwing up his senses.
Ladybug suddenly comes up with a plan involving the Metro station and Chat Noir to deal with Gorizilla before she changes back. While she's setting things up, Adrien flags down Wayhem, having come up with a way to be in two places at once. On the pretext of using Wayhem as bait while he hides, they use Wayhem's Adrien cutout and Adrien's motorcycle helmet to create a fake Adrien. Wayhem is only too happy to pretend to be Adrien to draw out Gorizilla, unaware that this whole thing is a ruse so Adrien can transform into Chat Noir without giving away his identity.
From here, it's a straightforward finish to an Akuma battle. When Hawk Moth sees "Adrien" and Chat Noir in the same place at the same time, he realizes he was mistaken, and gleefully tells Gorizilla to dispose of Chat Noir. (Yikes.) Ladybug and Chat Noir win, Hawk Moth rants, yada yada.
When Adrien returns home, Gabriel is waiting for him in his bedroom. Gabriel asks him to sit down. Then, to Adrien's surprise, he turns on the TV, with the movie Emilie was in. He tells Adrien that if he wanted to see the movie, all he had to do was ask. He goes on and on about how Adrien needs to trust him and how they need to be open and honest with each other--a touching, quiet, bonding and healing moment for a broken family, if not for the horrible truth about Gabriel Agreste and the unfortunate truth about Adrien.
As father and son watch the movie starring the missing piece of their family puzzle, the episode ends on a shot of a strange secret cathedral underneath the mansion, with a butterfly-framed window identical to the one in the cloister...
Oh. My. God.
This episode just has SO MUCH STUFF in it!
We get more Adrinette in this one episode than we've gotten in THE ENTIRE SERIES TO DATE. We get loony fans chasing Adrien and blowing up social media. We finally find out Adrien's mother's name (Emilie). We find out that M. Bourgeois was a movie producer before he was mayor? 
Also, Adrien accidentally did to his father what his father did to Ladybug and Chat Noir on purpose ten episodes back, which is strangely satisfying. Gabriel no longer suspects his son is Chat Noir, and neither of the heroes were even aware there was a threat to Chat Noir's identity!
This episode also marks an important shift in Gabriel's characterization. Sure, he's Hawk Moth, he's cold, he's calculating, he's crazy, he's done horrible things, but that scene of him and Adrien, and his DESPERATE pleas for Adrien to transform during the long fall... I'll be honest? I feel more pity and sympathy for Gabriel than I feel anger. The man is in pain, he doesn't know how to deal with it, and he has done some questionable things--all for what he thinks are good reasons. And really, who can't relate to that?
WHAT THE HELL IS THAT UNDERNEATH THE MANSION?!?!?!
11/10.
That Wayhem guy needs therapy BIG TIME!
yep
Haven't seen the episode, but I have an odd theory about what the cathedral might be based on what I've read in your blogs.
Gabriel/Hawk Moth intends to use the Miraculous to make a wish to bring Emilie back. Also, Gabriel has the Butterfly Miraculous, we've had no explanation as to why, and Nooroo has only ever objected to Gabriel using the power 'for evil' once.
My theory?
Emilie had the Butterfly Miraculous before Gabriel, but never used its power, simply had Nooroo as a friend. The one time she tried to use the power is what resulted in her not being around anymore. The Butterfly themed cathedral is where Emilie told Gabriel about Nooroo and the Butterfly Miraculous, where Gabriel and Emilie were married, possibly where she vanished, and where Gabriel intends to make the wish to bring her back.
Chloe's mother's name also starts with an A, so it could have also been her.
This episode. THIS EPISODE.
HAD ME ROLLING FROM BEGINNING TO END.
I think it might be my favorite thus far! So many cute moments with Adrien and Marinette, and OH that scene when Adrien is falling and Hawk Moth is begging him to transform if he really was Chat Noir. What I'm beginning to love most about this show is the father/son moments. Yeah, he's the meanest guy around, but you CAN'T deny his love for his son. That bond they're building up this season just might be broken in the season to come, which makes it all the more heartbreaking.
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I know, right? I have to give Astruc and his team mad props for making Hawk Moth sympathetic, showing us more than just "cold, bad dad Gabriel" and "hammy supervillain Hawk Moth". He's a rounded character and it's obvious he's got a laundry list of issues, plus being a single parent when he's walled himself away.
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Exactly. He's hurting too, and we get several glimpses of that sprinkled throughout the show, especially in the Christmas Special. He's afraid of losing hos one and only son, and that fear comes off as overbearing a lot of times. I need more hurt/comfort moments with papa Agreste!!!
This was a phenomenal episodes, but definitely the two biggest points were seeing Hawk Moth literally BEGGING Adrien to transform to save his life and the ending with the movie. It truly flushed out Gabriel/Hawk Moth as more than just a distant father and an over-the-top villain, it showed that there was more to this man than a lot of us expected. It almost makes you wonder... what wish is he intending to make with the Miraculouses he so desperately covets?