The nightmare of the tennis “arc” behind us, SpyFam tills richer soils this week.  Nothing special, but a big step up from the steaming Bond turd of the last two weeks.  And in a reminder of what life is like in anime’s penthouse, the production committee didn’t even wait till the end of the season (Jump Festa being a prime venue for such things) to announce not only a second season but a theatrical film, both in 2023.  That’s what it means to be the biggest commercial blockbuster since Tokyo Revengers – as long as there’s material, Spy x Family will never stop being adapted.

This ep was kind of a place holder for next week’s season finale – which I know from peeking ahead in the manga adapts some pretty strong material.  There’s an end-of-term dorm party coming up, which means – theoretically – a chance to advance Loid’s plan to get friendly with Donovan Desmond.  There are multiple problems with this, not least that so far we’ve seen no evidence that Donovan takes any interest whatsoever in Damian’s life.  But from Anya’s perspective, the peanut of the matter is that she sucks at both academics and athletics, so those eight Stella Stars seem like a pipe dream.  The only option, then, is to get Damian to fall for her (which, given her ability, she would know he already has if she had the experience to see through his denial-fest).

Before that, though, there’s a little hangover (apparently Yor is immune to those, incidentally) of the Fiona fiasco.  Yor is convinced Loid is developing romantic feelings for Fiona, which would end Yor’s usefulness in an acknowledged show marriage.  Loid immediately sees the danger in this (though still not, curiously, in Yor herself) and moves to head trouble off at the pass.  That means a date night with Franky babysitting, but before Loid can explain himself (she’s not listening anyway) Yor gets herself hammered and then proceeds to maim Loid with a kick that would have broken the neck of any actual psychiatrist who didn’t happen to also be a spy.

I’m not crazy about the whole drunk Yor gag – not very funny, really.  The takeaway here is fine, romantic feelings are developing between the two of them.  That’s almost inevitable given the circumstances they’re in, especially with a child in the equation.  Also interesting is Loid flashing back to his mother taking care of him during the war, a teaser surely of some further exploration down the line.  It’s Citizen Kane compared to the last two episodes, but solidly middling in the larger Spy x Family picture.

The shopping trip with Becky and Anya is better – nothing great or anything, but the baseline with the school stuff is higher.  Becky’s idea is to help Anya pick out some clothes for the party which will make Damian fall for her – the irony being that Becky has it completely backwards about who’s fallen for who.  Becky is insanely rich and spoiled, seemingly with no grasp whatever for how the world actually operates (for the shopping trip she rents out the entire department store).  But she’s a decent kid at heart, and her matchmaking is inadvertently serving the larger plot in what may turn out to be important ways.