Spy×Family Season 3

Episode 49

Despite its title, Spy×Family isn't often about actually spy missions. We know that Twilight is amazing because we've seen him pull off myriad disguises and do some light spywork, but mostly we're just told about his skills. So this week's episode is a departure from the series' norms – in more ways than one. That's because not only is Twilight on the case chasing a rogue agent, he's also not at the top of his game, and that may be the biggest surprise of all.

Just why Twilight makes so many rookie mistakes may come down to Loid. What I mean by that is that he's become comfortable in Loid's skin, doing the sort of small spy exercises that an embedded agent might have to carry out rather than big missions like this one. And he still may have been able to pull it off if it hadn't for Yuri. The State Security Service is also on the job, and that puts Loid into direct conflict with Yor's brother – and he is Loid when faced with Yuri, even if he's still able to pull off some of Twilight's ruthless moves. But he makes careless mistakes – leaving behind a footprint while wearing Yuri's sneakers, for example, leading the other man right to him. And there's no surer sign that Twilight is on the scene than when he shows up looking exactly like the guy he's fighting.

But what really seals the deal is that Loid can't kill Yuri. Twilight would be able to, but he's not entirely present. And Loid looks at Yuri and sees his wife's brother and his daughter's uncle, and, yes, even his own annoying brother-in-law. Through Operation Strix, Twilight has become human again, and that's a problem right at this moment. Although…maybe it isn't. Is it really a bad thing that Loid lets Yuri live? It shows that he's valuing life, something that he perhaps lost sight of during his time in the army, and even during his own troubled childhood. He became a spy to save people, to make children feel safe – and by killing Yuri, Anya would feel the opposite of that. It's perhaps not so much a change of heart or of practice, but instead a return to what Loid valued in the first place.

I'm sure he's not able to think that clearly, especially since his attempt to impersonate Yuri failed pretty spectacularly. It's one thing for the man himself to figure it out, but Winston and Fiona also did, and Loid's currently passed out on the ground after being beaten to hell and back by his target and shot by his enemy. I'm also not certain that Loid would put the pieces together about why he failed this time. (Fiona sure won't; it says too much about how well his Operation Strix family is doing.) But the answer's right there in the newspaper headline we see clearly towards the start of the episode – the war is cold. Cold wars take their toll, of course, but there's a big difference between plotting to kill and actually killing. And as annoying as Yuri is, his death won't actually bring about world peace.

Loid may be a ways away from deciding if he wants to be Loid Forger or Twilight, or even realizing that he might one day have that choice. But despite his failures on the spy front, I think he ultimately made the right decision. More deaths won't heal a still-wounded world, and I'd say he certainly saved Yor's world by not killing her brother.

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Spy×Family Season 3 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.