©遠藤達哉／集英社・SPY×FAMILY製作委員会

Although this episode takes a little bit to really get going, manga readers will recognize it as the start of one of the most intense spy segments of the series thus far. Already, we can see how that’s possible: both WISE and the SSS have been mobilized to deal with at least one, if not two, moles, one on either side. (Or should I say, at least one on either side. I wouldn’t put it past either organization to have multiple levels of surveillance engaged.) The issue isn’t just that this is happening, though; it’s that both Loid and Yuri have been mobilized.

It’s easy to write Yuri off. Unlike Loid, who thinks like a spy at all times and is demonstrably good at his job, Yuri is most often presented as the siscon goofball whose thoughts and actions have more to do with his obsession with Yor than his work for the State Security Service. He uses his job as a way to threaten Loid in his head, but he doesn’t seem to have made it part of his identity the way Loid has. This is shown once again at the start of the episode, when Yuri takes Yor’s drunken inanity as a way to stick it to Loid…albeit not out loud. (Nominally, this is him protecting his identity as a member of the secret police.) But Yuri isn’t just a sister-loving schlub. As we saw during the busjacking storyline, he’s actually quite good at his job. Yes, he got shot in the course of liberating the buses, but he also took down all of the Red Circus members and saved the kids. Loid may have spotted Yuri tailing him, but that has more to do with Yor being there, too, and both of their need to maintain their respective fictions. When it really mattered, after Yuri got the signal from his superior, he was able to slip away and blend right in.

Further complicating matters is the fact that, technically, both groups are working for the same reason: to keep people safe. Cynically, I’m much more inclined to view WISE as the good guys because, well, government agencies that operate in secret don’t have a great reputation, and that goes double for the SSS’s real-world analogue. But at the end of the day, they’re both purportedly working towards making sure that violence doesn’t erupt (without their help) and protecting the people. Yuri, for all of his many issues, wants to make sure Yor is okay and happy. Loid, despite still telling himself that his family is just for the mission, is clearly devoted to Anya. And let’s remember that both Loid and Yuri rushed to the scene of the busjacking.

All of this is still in the background for this episode, at least to a point. Loid’s concern about Yor’s unhinged gripe-fest is only partially about Operation Strix and his ego as a superspy; the look of utter shock on his face when she tells him she’s unhappy looks much more personal and real than any of his carefully crafted personas. He’s always thrown by the reminder of how much he cares about his purportedly fake family, but we can see it clearly in every little detail of Forger family life. It’s in Bond, comfortably walking through the apartment before settling under the table, the perfectly plated breakfast Loid sets before Anya, the way he plops her hat on her head. It’s checking on Yor when she finally wakes up, and the tiny little hesitation before he leaves for his work emergency. How would this affect facing Yuri on the de facto battlefield? Would he really be able to take him down?

That may be what this entire season of Spy×Family has been leading up to. It could be a moment where Loid has to choose between being Twilight and Loid Forger, another real-world demonstration of Becky and Anya finding themselves in a cage in the zoo as the most dangerous animals. That’s been amply demonstrated this season over and over again, from Loid’s childhood to Damian’s mother to Biddy’s death. Will Loid and Yuri be able to choose to be better? Or is this really a cage they can’t escape from?

**Rating: **

• Spy×Family Season 3 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll. *