[Review/Recap] Miraculous Ladybug Season 2 Episode 15: "Frightningale" (SPOILERS) · 7:41pm May 12th, 2018
A high profile music video shoot almost leads to the accidental reveal of Ladybug and Chat Noir's secret identities.
International pop sensation Clara Nightingale is filming a new music video inspired by Ladybug and Chat Noir in Paris. She's holding an open casting call for extras and the lead dancer to play Ladybug in the video. A dancer to play Chat Noir has already been chosen--and it's Adrien Agreste! He's being forced to play Chat Noir by his father, who has a strong business relationship with Clara and needs the publicity for his new store openings in Asia. Adrien is worried this will reveal his secret identity to everyone, so he decides to "lose" the mask and screw up his performance as much as possible.
Meanwhile, Marinette's been dragged along with her friends to try out to be in the video. Tikki is worried, but Marinette promises she won't audition for the role of Ladybug and really just wants to meet Clara. However, fate intervenes--when she helps Clara up from a fall, Clara INSISTS on casting her as Ladybug! Marinette almost gives in to the temptation of being Ladybug to Adrien's Chat Noir (OMG), but manages to hold her willpower together and stick to the "I'm just here to be an extra" thing.
But then Chloe shows up in full Ladybug costume, plus wig, and smugly declares herself to be the star of the video. To her credit, she does show off some amazing dance moves. But her overall Chloe-ness drives Marinette crazy. Rather than Marinette's desire to be close to Adrien, this time it's her general hatred of Chloe that gets the better of her, and she decides she'll take the lead role after all.
Chloe storms off in a huff with her dad. After sulking for a bit, she decides to get revenge. She demands her father shut this whole thing down. When he tries to placate her and get her to not pull a Chloe on Clara Nightingale, she pulls a never-before-seen double Chloe on her own father...by threatening to call her mother.
Chloe's mother?!
This FREAKS OUT the mayor, who gives in to Chloe's unreasonable demands on the spot.
Marinette, meanwhile, has realized exactly what kind of a mess she got herself into this time. Like Adrien, she decides to "lose" her mask.
(There's a hilarious bit here where Plagg and Tikki both say basically the exact same thing about the costumes to their respective holders. 
)
Unfortunately for both Marinette and Adrien, Gabriel insists on the masks being worn with the costumes, and a stage hand finds the "lost" masks. Nervous, the two heroes slowly, reluctantly start to put on the masks, knowing with certainty that their identities are SO blown...
...but then Mayor Bourgeois storms in to put a halt to the proceedings, banning Clara Nightingale from shooting a video anywhere in Paris! Devastated, Clara runs off in tears.
Hawk Moth Akumatizes Clara into Frightningale, who has an...unusual ability. Anyone hit with her beam has to either dance, sing, or rhyme nonstop or they'll freeze solid. As both Ladybug and Chat Noir are hit with her beam, they're forced to spend the entire battle dancing and rhyming.
Once Clara is returned to normal, Ladybug makes a suggestion to her that saves herself (and Adrien, too!) from secret identity peril! The video is retooled so that there are no leads--only a crowd (all the extras who auditioned) dancing with Ladybug masks on. With everyone in just the spotted mask and no costume, there's no risk of Marinette's secret being exposed, she unknowingly saves Adrien from the same fate, and everybody has a good time!
In the epilogue, Marinette, Adrien, and all their friends chow down on a giant bowl of diarrhea-inducing irony.
It's funny, roughly 20% of all reveal fics use a setup very similar to this episode, where Marinette and Adrien wind up cosplaying themselves in front of each other and realize the truth. The way the episode plays with a common fanfic theme, teases a reveal, and then has Chloe and her dad be the ones to preserve the status quo? Hilarious, but also supremely frustrating.
Seeing Adrien in a fake Chat Noir costume that had flat tones instead of gloss, with his hair in an even more ridiculous straight-Adrien style, was so weird!
My heart breaks every time I see Clara Nightingale cry. She's so cute, so cheerful, so energetic, and so pure. Seeing her cry makes me cry. 
I give this episode a 9/10. It'd be a 10 for the fun and energy, but I have to take a point off for teasing us with a reveal and then torturing us.
All said, this episode was highly enjoyable.
(Also, Hawk Moth "rapping" )
Wonder how the legit reveal will pan out, though gotta agree, it was great
You know, even if Chloe did save Marinette and Adrian's secret identities from being revealed, she had some nerve having her father ban Clara from shooting her video. Someone should put Chloe behind bars and someone should have the mayor fired for what they did.
Looks like it is another foreshadow of who will figure out the secret identities. Guess who was seen before they walked into the trap set by dark owl? Cloe.
Who saves ladybug two times this season? Cloe.
Cloe is another fakeout reveal episode.
They are hinting at something to do with cloe and Ladybug. I think Marinette identity will be told by cloe after Marinette gets akumitized by cloe herself.
Adrien looks so adowable in his costume without his mask and his hair ungelled or something like that.
He's such a cutie pie doll
But really, they totally left Marinette's name in the music video, that was hilarious
I'm kinda disappointed that they were back in normal clothes before they actually transformed, just because of the missed opportunity for minor hilarity when they 'transform' from the stage costumes to their actual costumes.