The Friendship Scheme
Episode 6 of Spy X Family begins with Yor, Loid, and Anya at a tailor shop where a worker takes Anya’s measurements for her Eden Academy uniform. The worker asks Loid a couple of questions relating to his educational history. The worker warns Loid that there’s an imaginary hierarchy in place at Eden Academy. This results in children succumbing to bullying or kidnapping due to their social statuses. Although Anya shows concern, the tailor worker assures her that she’ll have a fun time at the academy regardless. The tailor shop worker finishes Anya’s measurements; she tells Loid she’ll get everything completed soon and that he can pick up any remaining necessities at a local store. After picking up those materials, the family decides to eat at a restaurant to cool off. Unfortunately, Loid doesn’t catch a break and receives a message in his Pork Sauté dish regarding a briefing he’ll need to attend in five days. Despite not showing a lick of care, Loid feels fed up that they decided to notify him with a message in his food. Who could blame him? Then we receive a quick five-day time skip. Loid gets off the phone and tells Anya that her Eden Academy uniform and other goodies are ready for pick-up. However, Loid needs to attend his meeting and asks Yor to take Anya with her to pick it up and order delivery since he’ll be home late. Of course, Yor accepts his request. Furthermore, Loid leaves his home, heads into an abandoned photo booth, and inserts a coin into a slot. Instead of taking his photo, it transports him into a secret base. Upon entering, he meets Sylvia Sherwood, aka Handler, who serves as the middle man between the agents and the agency leaders. She gets on his case for making them spend oodles of money, to which Loid responds by handing her a few more bills. After their skirmish, Handler gives Loid a brief run-down of the next phase of Operation Strix, involving a social gathering. Before that, she explains how Eden Academy works regarding its student body and curriculum. She explains that Loid needs to help Anya become an Imperial Scholar (this school’s honor students) as these scholars and their parents can attend a social gathering that Donovan Desmond attends. To achieve this status, the students must earn eight merits “Stella Stars.” Students earn these by making fantastic contributions and maintaining exceptional grades. However, she warns Loid that terrible behavior and grades can earn Anya demerits, “Tonitrus Bolts.” Eight of these will result in her expulsion, resulting in Loid’s failure. Considering Anya’s behavior and attitude, Loid assures himself that this won’t be simple. Then we transition to Anya and Yor at the tailor shop. Anya’s thrilled about her new uniform and asks Yor if she looks cute in it? She says yes, encouraging Anya to tell everyone around her that she looks adorable. They depart the store and head for the park. While Anya’s showing off her uniform to everyone, Yor ponders how to become a mother to Anya instead of playing pretend. She then reconnects with Anya and tells her they’ll be going to the supermarket and that she’ll be cooking dinner tonight. This was all influenced by a flashback she had concerning Malcolm’s rude remarks. Unbeknownst to the two, a group of thugs planning to take Anya for ransom since her uniform insinuates that she airs from a rich family. When Yor is at the checkout line, Anya wanders off, gets kidnapped by the thugs, and before they can do anything heinous, Yor knocks one of them out. Then, she performs another display of her raw assassin strength, causing all of her groceries to fall to the ground. She warns the thugs to leave the scene before they end up like her squashed groceries. After the thugs flee, Yor comforts Anya, apologies, and claims she’s a bad mother. Anya reassures her that she’s an amazing person and asks Yor to train her in combat. Yor realizes that despite not exhibiting normal mother behavior, she can still be a great mother to Anya in her way. Later in the day, Loid arrives home and see’s Yor training Anya in combat, leaving them more anxious about his mission’s next phase. We transition to one of the headmasters addressing the families and their children in an auditorium. Anya, Loid, and Yor are present among them. Loid recalls the conversation with Handler about Imperial Scholars and the importance of their mission. This only bothers Loid more, as he has less confidence in Anya’s ability to reach said status. This leaves Anya puzzled as she mind-read Loid’s inner thoughts about his concerns. After this, the headmaster shares information regarding each academy’s different houses and which housemaster will be in charge. As students get called one by one, Loid details that he switched up the results before this conference. This is to allow Anya to end up in the same house (class) as his target’s son, Damian Desmond. This is a part of Loid’s second plan, which he refers to as the Friendship Scheme. The Friendship scheme involves Anya befriending Damien and him inviting Anya and Loid to his home. This will help Loid make direct contact with Donovan Desmond. Although he knows the plan may not go off on a hitch, he trusts that Anya’s time at the orphanage has given her enough communication skills to assist him. As predicted, Anya ends up in Damien’s class, only to discover that he’s a wisecracking boy who thinks Anya’s got the heart for him. Anya reads his mind and is a bit grossed out about his interpretations. While in line, she comes across more students, who Loid points out have direct connections with higher-ups who are friends with Donovan Desmond. Unfortunately, the other kids aren’t kind either, which makes Anya detest them and leaves Loid feeling more anxious about Anya’s purpose in his plan. It’s revealed that Master Henderson is their headmaster, which gives Loid and Yor a sigh of relief, as he was one of the nice ones they’d met during their parental conference. The students undergo a short tour with their headmasters, while the parents attend a meet and greet elsewhere. We transition to Anya, whose undergoing the short academy tour. Headmaster Henderson reconfirms earlier information about Stella Stars and Tonitrus Bolts to the students. Meanwhile, Anya and Damien have a little discussion, in which Damien brags about his wealth and belittles Anya. Although Anya tries to stick with Loid’s friendship scheme script by requesting to visit Damien’s home, Damien’s friends bully Anya. Although she wants to fight them, she recalls Yor’s wise words about keeping a smile on her face, as violence isn’t the best solution. As such, Anya smirks her anger away. This causes Damien to throw a tantrum and a girl named Becky to rethink her earlier claims about Anya being a baby. This riled tension causes Headmaster Henderson to yell in response, asking the children if they wanted to receive punishment on their first day. They all stop their shenanigans. While in the hallway, Damien tries to throw Anya off her guard, but she continues to destroy his attempts with her smirking. But he proves futile, as his consistent harassment leads to Anya landing a devastating punch to his face, knocking him into a wall of trash. Headmaster Henderson hears the commotion and aims to find out what had happened. Anya remembers her mother’s words about fighting to protect others, even though Damien’s friends tried to blame her. This encourages Anya to tell her headmaster that she only punched Damien because he had stepped on one of her friend’s shoes, which provoked her. The headmaster buys her story but says that she will be punished slightly. We return to Loid and Yor in the meet and greet area. Unfortunately, Donovan is not in the area. Headmaster Henderson tells Loid and Yor that Anya punched a student. However, since she did it to protect someone else, she’ll only gain one demerit. Despite the minor punishment, Loid is upset that Anya’s already found herself in trouble and that she’s already ruined his second plan by punching Damian’s lights out. The episode concludes with a group photo involving all the parents of class one and their children. After the group photo shoot, we receive a short counter regarding Anya’s demerits, her friendship points with Damian, and the amount of Stella Stars she needs to become an Imperial Scholar.
The Episode Review
Like the previous episode, this one had a lot of hilarity and new information that kept me hooked and engaged. Anya continues to be a darling on screen with her great facial and vocal humor. It’ll be interesting to see if her relationship with Becky grows after seeing her fist collide with Damian’s face. Yor’s character progressed quite nicely in this episode too. She’s learning how to become a great mother to Anya in her way, and it’s nice to see that play out onscreen. Seeing her train Anya in combat was also an adorable sight to see. Loid’s inclusion in this episode did spark a red flair in my eyes for all the characters. We should’ve seen Loid struggle to get Anya to appear in the same class as Damian. I also feel that we need to see the characters stumble more. Although they won Headmaster Henderson’s heart, it would’ve been fascinating to see him slam Anya with three demerits on the first day. Situations like all of Anya’s new classmates having ties to Loid’s target or Loid getting Anya into Damien’s class–loosen the series’s tension. It feels like Loid will achieve his mission based on luck alone, and that doesn’t sit right with me. Also, Yor’s assassin life needs to be addressed more in the series as it feels like her assassin lifestyle no longer matters. It’d be nice to see Yor take on a mission while compiling a swift ruse to keep Loid from finding out about her secret occupation. Our characters’ challenges and obstacles will hopefully be heightened in future episodes to shed light on this issue.
