Spy×Family Season 3

Episode 43

The face game is strong in this one. Not only do we get a new Anya face (or at least one we haven't seen in a while), but we also have a variety of weird faces from Loid and the return of Anya's always amusing mental image of Damian. I love that the meanest thing she can imagine is Damian with an open mouth, perpetually runny nose, and weird, wide eyes. It says a lot about where she is developmentally, sure, but it also reinforces that at this point, Damian's totally-not-a-crush-I-swear is very unrequited.

Still, it's telling when he thinks that it's a relief that Anya just wants cake rather than some sort of favor from his powerful family. No six-year-old kid should feel used like that, and it helps to drive home the hands-off way his family treats him. His first thought at this age shouldn't be that someone wants to use him for his connections, but that's really why he's attracted to Anya in the first place: she never treats him like his family name is all that matters. She's weird, sure, and he rarely understands what she's up to, but she treats him as Damian, not a Desmond, even if she thinks she's doing the opposite. Even though she's very likely younger than the rest of her classmates, she's the only one who consistently acts like a real first grader, which says a lot, especially since she's a telepath.

That's doubtless going to come in handy once the bus hijacking plotline kicks into high gear in the next episode, and man, is Billy Squires of Red Circus going to regret having picked this bus to hijack. Not only is Donovan Desmond's kid onboard, along with the daughter of the Blackbell group, but he's also got the daughter of a spy and an assassin who is also the niece of an SSS agent and who happens to be psychic (and has a psychic dog). The only way things could get worse for him is if there were also a bomb on the bus.

But we have to wait a week for that, as this episode was just setting up the looming fiasco (for Billy) while also including a school bus so realistic that I could smell those horrible vinyl seats. Really, it just needed one duct-taped seatback to be the real deal. The rest of this episode is tasked with reminding us that Loid is really, really good at his job, something that does occasionally get lost in the antics that make up the “family” portion of the title. Not that the man he's up against is all that devious; he appears mostly motivated by an unrequited affection for Fiona and burning jealousy of Dr. Forger. In one sense, this shows that perhaps Loid is too good at what he does, because his attempts to integrate fully into the hospital have made him look like the most godly psychiatrist to ever walk the halls of a venerable institution. Although no one says it, there's a sense that the director is afraid Loid will replace him, which has him hatching a variety of asinine schemes to humiliate Dr. Forger. None of them gets past Loid (probably even the toilet paper is on purpose), so he resorts to calling in the big guns: the secret police.

Or at least he thinks he does. I'm surprised that Loid only just had Franky tap the hospital phones when he found out he was being targeted, because that seems like a pretty basic precaution to me, but in any event, all three of the main WISE agents get to strut their stuff. I find it funny that Loid goes all-in on exaggerating his reactions to better convince his audience, because it's much hammier than he typically is and really reads as overacting. But maybe that's just another indication of how good Loid is: he's read his audience and understands what he needs to do to convince him – even if Franky whipping out the handcuffs wasn't on the menu.

Hard to blame, Franky, though. Sometimes you have to seize the moment when it arises.

Rating:

Spy×Family Season 3 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.