S3E02: "Papa Garou" ("Weredad")

My policy here is not to link to unauthorised uploads of Miraculous episodes, so I'm afraid you're on your own. But it's out there, albeit only in French right now. There are English subs, which are mostly pretty good, though.

I wasn't expecting it, but the second episode of Season Three appeared in 2018, albeit only just. It's called "Papa Garou" in French, a name which has been translated as "Weredad", though I'm not sure how official that English title is. One of my less favourite things about this fandom is its frequently cavalier attitude to major spoilers, so I'll put my thoughts about the new episode past a page break.

If you don't want to read that, then I'll be starting a new series here in the next day or two, in which I have a watch-through of Seasons One and Two, and write a couple of paragraphs about each one in the light of what we know now. "Now" will be defined as "Up to the end of S2" unless/until that becomes unsustainable, so you still won't see spoilers for "Papa Garou". Talking of which...

Spoilers ahoy!

...this was a strange episode. We started out by being teased with the possibility that the two densest teenagers in all Paris would finally realise what had been staring them in the face since early S1. But no – as the episode ended, Marinette still didn't know Cat Noir was Adrien, and Cat Noir still didn't know Marinette was Ladybug. I know this show is (in theory) aimed at kids, but come on.

Then it was time for the shippers to go wild. Okay, Miraculers do this all the time, but spending half an episode on Marinette having a romantic dinner (or romantic macaron, anyway) with Cat Noir is just trolling the fandom at this point. They did kiss – but that was just because they're French, and so did the two-cheek-kiss thing. And Marinette has even kissed Chloé like that.

So Cat Noir rejects Marinette, to her secret relief (though it wouldn't be if... oh, you know the rest) but public dismay. Her overprotective Papa goes up the wall and is thus easy prey for an akuma. This turns him into... well, frankly he looks like he's in a panto and about to go, "Fee Fi Fo Fum!" I'm not sure whether Jack and the Beanstalk is popular in France, but it's the obvious inspiration for the look.

Up there on the roof beanstalk, we discover something much more worrying: with the right magic, a Miraculous holder and her kwami can be forcibly kept apart. My guess is that this was actually the most significant thing in the episode, and that we'll see it happen again. Still, after one of the silliest of the show's many silly Lucky Charm saves, everyone is all right again for now.

A pretty different episode in tone to "Chameleon", with no school scenes and no sign of Lila. Although I generally found it interesting, the pacing felt a little off, with too much time spent on the ship teasing and so the akumatisation squashed into just a few minutes. It's not the first time Miraculous has done this, but it's something that rarely works very well for me. Oh well, another episode ticked off!