Spy×Family

Episode 25

After twelve episodes of doing other things, spy X family finally gets back to the actual spy plot. Not that I have any complaints about the way this season has gone; it hasn't been quite as good as the first half of the show, but it's still been a delight right along. And part of the problem with a long-running series is that it can't work through its plot too quickly, or else we'll be left with a whole lot of nothing. That said, it was very smart to end the season on part of the actual Operation Strix, because this episode does a very good job of reminding us what the show is all about.

Obviously, espionage is part of what the show is about – Twilight was assigned to this mission to specifically get in contact with Donovan Desmond in order to further his agency and his government's goals of preventing another war. But the family part of the story is equally important, and this episode really brings home those two halves in a solid way. Twilight adopted Anya strictly because he needed her to get close to Desmond; it had little to nothing to do with him actually wanting to be a father. But over the course of the series, he has come, possibly unwittingly, to value that role as much as he does that of spy. He may not understand a single thing his daughter does, but she has become very important to him, and he can recognize that her actions this week are largely in service of allowing him to meet Desmond. and while he may have originally seen Anya as nothing more than a tool, being her father has helped him in ways that even he doesn't yet understand. When he sees how desperate Damian is to interact with his father, Loid launches into a speech about parental understanding and family, something that he may not even realize he has come to believe himself.

He is also unwittingly bringing Damian himself some hope. His goal may not actually have been to make the little boy's day, although he does recognize that the better Damian gets along with his father the better chance he has of interacting with said father, but it's undeniable that he really did. Between encouraging Donovan to pay more attention to his very neglected younger son, he also inadvertently furthers Damian's not-so-little crush on Anya. Loid may think he's just talking Damian up to in his father's presence to further the mission, but he's also giving Damian a twofold sense of hope: that he'll be able to spend more time with his father, and that he has a chance (or at least as much of a chance as any kindergartner has in romance) with Anya.

If there's any one thing that spy x family has consistently gotten right, it's the emotional needs of children. Neither Damian nor Anya are twee stereotypes of what adults assume children to be; they're regular people who are coping with the emotional trauma of abandonment as best as they can. When Anya tells Damien this week that she's not sure if her father loves her, that's both incredibly sad and something that resonates with her classmate; both children, as well as Loid in his past, were almost the detritus of war, and whether he knows it or not, Loid is actively working to make sure that neither of them will experience what he had. Even in this less-good second cour of the season, spy x family has consistently delivered an excellent blend of heart and humor. On that note, this episode was the nearly perfect place to end... for now.

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Spy×Family is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.