©遠藤達哉／集英社・SPY×FAMILY製作委員会
There are only two words for this episode: wet. Bond. If you’ve ever had a long-haired pet who has gotten wet or been shaved, you’ll be familiar with the phenomenon where your puffy pal shrinks in size dramatically; I used to have two long-haired cats who had to be shaved, and they looked two-dimensional without all of their fur. That’s about where Bond is when he gets doused with a bucket of water after his heroic feats in a fire, and poor Loid has a hell of a time not laughing when he sees his reduced pup.
But that moment is more than just a very funny scene or a little dose of long-haired pet reality. It marks the closest Twilight has ever come (in the show, at least) to breaking character. There’s more Loid in that moment than Twilight, and even in his daddy-est of moments he’s never allowed an emotion to overtake him as much as that attempt to fend off the giggles does. He doesn’t even think that he can’t laugh because it’d blow his cover; he doesn’t want to laugh because he doesn’t want to hurt Bond’s feelings. It’s Loid at his most human, and it shows how far he’s come since he panicked when he fell asleep in front of Anya. He didn’t save the puppy for world peace or follow his dog into a burning building for Operation Strix. He did both of those things because they were right, like when he almost punched an interviewer at Eden College. Loid’s adventure with Bond shows us how far he’s come and builds nicely on every little human moment that has come before.
The entire fire scene is also just an exciting caper for a man and his dog. Bond’s desperation to prove that he’s a Good Boy is something that he forgets only Anya can really understand because of her telepathy, and for much of his walk (or “walk”) all he does is get himself in trouble. But when he charges into the burning building, Loid understands that he probably smells something that humans can’t, beginning a dramatic rescue and escape sequence. We know Bond’s operating using his precognition, but the important thing is that he’s convincing Loid of his value as a member of the Forger family… although Loid’s remark about how there’s someone at home who would be sad if he died once again shows that his spy mask is slipping and that he wouldn’t let anything happen to Bond because of Anya regardless. He wants to use Bond for work because that’s what he’s used to doing: using all available assets, and figuring out Bond’s strengths and weaknesses is just part of the spy game. But what makes this even better is the way that he trusts and protects Bond (and Daisy!). Loid and Bond are a real team here, and I am a sucker for a good “human and their dog” story with a happy ending.
While most of this season has belonged (rightly) to Yor, it’s still Loid who gets the most development. The cruise ship storyline showed the struggle he was beginning to face in keeping his “Loid” self subservient to his “Twilight” self as he caught himself worrying about Anya and being a good dad, not to mention blushing when Yor sees him skipping. Ending with the Bond story completes that bit of growth. He’s stunned when Anya presents he and Bond with badly-folded origami “stella,” and that may be because he’s still surprised whenever they act like a “real” family. That he follows it up by thinking about how he wishes she’d earn real stellas is the old him, and he does need to maintain that persona for work. But the “family” part of the title is creeping up on him, slowly but surely. If a next season happens and it gets to adapting the manga arc about his past, that will make the divide in his character make even more sense.
In the meantime, we have the movie to look forward to, so while we wait for that to be available, I wish you all pleasant memories of wet Bond.
Rating:
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