Thank you for visiting Anime Rants today. We’re back to Spy x Family‘s usual pattern of dividing each installment into two shorter episodes. The first one focused on Handler and her interactions with other adults while they were monitoring a certain political event. The second episode was about Anya and her school life experiences. Both were entertaining. I love Handler, so I was glad she got to shine. Let’s review.

Note: This is the equivalent of Season 3 Episode 4

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Episode 41: Behind the Scandal | The Path to an Imperial Scholar

Episode Rating: 8/10

This episode centered around the Ostanian opera singer Wellman, who became something of a political figure after agreeing to perform in the capital for East-West relations. As a talented performer and handsome older man, Wellman was popular with both sides – or he was until he was involved in scandal allegations. He was known to have multiple mistresses, and these women were the ones who accused him of being involved in political scandals such as having ties to the mafia and insulting people from the East. The public backlash against Wellman was intense and a loud portion of the population hated him. Someone even sent him a serious death threat.

The one overseeing the safety of the upcoming opera event was Handler. She was also working with and training a younger agent – name unknown – who was an important character in this episode. I’ll just call him Rookie since he’s listed as WISE Rookie on the Fandom Wiki. Despite saying how admirable Wellman was just a day earlier, Rookie changed his mind when he saw the magazine stories about Wellman’s alleged scandals. Suddenly, he hated the man with a burning passion. He never questioned the magazines or the loud public claims that Wellman was a scumbag.

Before long, it was revealed that the scandals were largely false and that Wellman’s mistresses had been paid to slander him for different reasons. Once again, Rookie was convinced of Wellman’s innocence and even said he wanted to hear him sing. He was utterly shocked when the news later clarified that the mafia scandal was true while the others were false. Handler tried to teach Rookie along the way that he should use more critical thinking, but he was too dense to catch on even by the end.

For one example, Handler explained that the magazines Rookie picked up were all backed by a certain political party with its own agenda. In response, Rookie just thought to himself that Handler was incredibly nitpicky. The moral of the story was definitely that critical thinking needs to be utilized in our highly political and social world. This hits harder than ever in the age of misinformation – and particularly in the US, where those in charge readily spread lies and frown on good education. I work hard to keep practicing critical thinking, and I hope everyone who reads this will do the same. Anyway, this episode was a good reminder.

I almost forgot to write about the most exciting part of the episode. The man who sent a death threat actually attempted to assassinate Wellman. Luckily, one of Handler’s informants tipped her off to the location of the dangerous assassin disguised as a security guard. Handler headed there right away and knocked the gun out of the enemy’s hand with a belt. When he drew a knife, Handler responded by swinging the buckle against his head, breaking his jaw and knocking him down. Wellman was saved.

In the second half of this installment, the focus switched to Anya at school. The bus going home was delayed, so Anya sat at the bus stop, bored out of her mind. Eventually, Henderson-sensei appeared and asked Anya to help him deliver some documents to the office. In exchange, he would provide sweet tea snacks. Anya agreed and walked alongside Henderson. They talked about a few things and Henderson showed Anya the hall of portraits of Imperial Scholars. Anya felt newly inpsired to become one, too.

After enjoying the snacks, Anya left Henderson – who wasn’t done talking yet, and lamented the difficulties of educating young children. Anya returned home and asked Loid to help her with homework after dinner. This level of motivation from Anya was unusual, so Loid panicked and presumed that she had gotten another Tonitrus. The episode ended on that humorous note. I enjoyed the first segment about Handler the most, but It’s also always good to see cute and funny moments with Anya.

~Thanks for Reading~

Written by 7Mononoke at Anime Rants

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