When we last left off, the plan was for Loid to stall the SSS, thereby buying enough time for the rest of WISE to locate and capture Wheeler. Unfortunately, the SSS had laid a trap specifically for Twilight. Surely, our super spy dad can’t allow himself to get caught, right? Of course not. You always gotta be prepared for all contingencies, so naturally, the park’s fountain is booby-trapped. “Naturally”, I say, as if I know a damn thing about being a spy. It also helps that the SSS have stormtrooper-level aim. They have Loid surrounded, but they can’t manage to hit him with even a single bullet. The bad guys aren’t exactly recruiting the best of the best, huh? I actually think it would’ve been better if Loid had at least been grazed by a bullet or two. It might not have been Loid’s fault that he fell into a trap, but mistakes should have consequences. Raise the stakes a little, y’know?

Loid then dons the disguise of the only SSS member he personally knows: Yor’s own brother. Unfortunately, he then literally runs into just the worst possible person: Yor’s own brother. This encounter has been a long time coming, though. We first met Yuri all the way back in the first cour of the first season, and tensions have been mounting ever since. Of course, Yuri doesn’t know that he’s face-to-face with his brother-in-law, but we finally get to see these two in a direct conflict. No more humorous banter across the coffee table. This time, they’re fighting for real. Mostly, I just want to see Loid knock Yuri around a bit, because I dislike the latter. His fans will defend him to the death, but you’ll never convince me that he isn’t a weirdo siscon. Still, this encounter is only possible, because Yuri noticed his own shoe print that Loid had left behind. That’s not a huge mistake by any means, but it’s still a mistake nonetheless. Even Yuri agrees. Has Loid gotten rusty? Has he been domesticated by his wife and daughter?

If this had been anyone else behind the gun, Yuri would’ve died right here and now. Loid pre-family would’ve pulled the trigger, a fact that he bitterly implies to himself. My point is, Loid endangered himself in order to spare Yuri. More specifically, he endangered himself to protect his wife’s feelings. His primary concern should’ve been to escape the situation at all cost, but he not only doesn’t kill Yuri, he allows his brother-ln-law to shoot first and thus draw blood. Loid’s mental game isn’t at 100%, so his physical game suffers as a consequence. You can even argue that Loid’s hesitance is the wrong move morally. Yuri works for the SSS, after all. He tortures people for his day job. We can sit here and argue until we’re blue in the face about how a sad Yor would jeopardize Operation Strix. At the end of the day, however, if the current mission ever runs into a stumbling block, a colder, more calculating Loid would simply ditch the baggage. He could just start and over and try to reach Donovan Desmond some other way — a way that doesn’t put the burden on a 5-year-old to achieve academic success. But for all the good and bad, Loid continues to protect his family in spite of his ultimate mission.

We’ve gotten hints of this before, but Yuri isn’t really good at anything besides torturing people. Even injured and slowed down, Loid has no issues besting Yuri in close-quarters combat. It’s not as if the latter is lacking in motivation. He thinks he’s fighting to protect his sister, after all. There’s just too much of a skill gap. What he does have, however, is amazing endurance. Loid keeps taking Yuri down, but the latter keeps getting back up. Apparently, this is the direct result of Yor’s love… or so Loid speculates. His resilience actually manages to freak out the unflappable Twilight if only briefly. Oh well, more fun for me. Again, I’ve been wanting to see Yuri get his ass kicked. The fact that Loid’s the one doing it just the cherry on top. The problem, however, is that Loid is wasting too much time and energy on a guy who is obviously not the final boss. Rather, it’s Wheeler he needs to be concerned about. Loid even admits in last week’s episode that the double agent is at the top of his spy game, so the last thing our super spy dad needs now is to bump into Wheeler down here in the sewers. Welp, you can be sure that this is exactly what we’ll get.

Elsewhere, we get to watch Fiona in action. Of all the WISE agents, she’s the only one who can see through Wheeler’s ruse. I can’t help but wonder how much she’s grown on her own. Sure, Loid personally trained her, so you can attribute a lot of her success to him. But she has also been an independent agent in the field for quite some time now. I’m sure she has racked up quite a resume of wins all on her own. So how much better has she become? Is it possible that she might even be a better overall spy than her former mentor? Just wonderin’. At the very least, maybe she has him beat on the combat front. Loid’s remarkable for his preparation, but we know Yor could probably beat him up. Maybe Fiona can as well.

But I feel like nobody’s thinking straight, because even Fiona lets Wheeler slip away. Why is WISE even trying to capture the guy? Why isn’t he a target that you shoot on sight? Initially, I thought maybe they needed him alive to secure the files, but they were apparently just on his body after another agent did a quick pat down. Fiona then says he must have memorized the information, but who cares? That’s just another reason why he’s too dangerous to live. When he takes one of the agents hostage, Fiona claims that everyone in their line of work is prepared to die, but she still doesn’t pull the trigger. Tsk tsk. After Wheeler slips away, Fiona then tries to convince herself that she needs to pursue him at the cost of her own life. But she wouldn’t have to do this if she had just shot him in the first place. I guess WISE is just full of softies all around. Loid never stood a chance against his family.

I previously asked if Loid was getting rusty. The answer is a resounding “yes” since he actually allows Wheeler to get the jump on him. Loid also fails to plan for the possibility that his foe might see through his disguise, because the latter swiftly delivers a brutal kick to his chest. We don’t even get to see the ensuing struggle, because there probably isn’t one. Instead, we jump immediately to Fiona running in just as Wheeler is about to unmask Loid. I guess that’s to be expected. Our super spy dad is heavily enfeebled by the injury he sustained against Yuri. It wouldn’t have been much of a contest against a double agent in his tip-top physical shape. Wheeler likely knocked him out in no time flat, and no fans of the show wants to see our super spy dad defeated in such a humiliating fashion. Well, Fiona will never be able to marry her senpai, but she can at least redeem some of his honor.

For some reason, Wheeler decides to yap like he’s some kind of Bond supervillain. “Look at me, I’m strong because I rely on nobody!” This, of course, earns him immediate karmic retribution. He’s probably right about their combat prowess. Like with Loid vs Yuri, there’s a skill gap between him and Fiona. But unlike the previous bout, the skill gap isn’t as large. Maybe he could easily beat both Loid and Fiona on paper where feelings don’t factor into the equation. But that’s the thing: all of our successes are largely tied to our motivations, and as corny as it sounds, there’s nothing more motivational than love and hatred. And boy, Fiona’s got to be feeling a whole lot of love and hatred right about now. I was expecting a drawn out duel, but the episode is about to end. As a result, she simply knocks him out with a single punch. Bravo. She actually breaks her own arm in the process, but I don’t think that matters to her all that much at the moment. Again, has she surpassed Loid? Well, no one can match his disguises.

The credits roll, which means we’re getting one more episode. I shouldn’t be surprised, since 50 is a nice, round number to end on. Like I said last week, this has been a fantastic season, and this week’s episode only bolsters that belief. We might not have made much progress in terms of Operation Strix, but we got a lot of substance in return: Loid’s backstory, the busjacking event, meeting Melinda, etc. Unsurprisingly, the common thread through all of these story beats is family, and it’s no different now in the final arc. If all Loid wanted was to maintain mission success and preserve his life, he would’ve taken Fiona’s advice, i.e. pull out of Ostania and cancel all current missions. He would’ve killed Yuri, someone who literally works for the other side. But Loid’s family is never far from his mind, and I expect the final episode to hammer this point home. Loid left his home this morning thinking that he and his wife are in a fight, but seeing her again will probably feel like paradise after what he has just gone through.

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Stray thoughts & observations:

• Yor must still be rattled by her fight with Loid. Well, she instigated it…
• Yuri is so close to realizing the truth: “Could [Twilight] actually be someone close to me who’s observed me closely?” So, so close. And if you really think about it, Loid is suspicious as hell. Gosh, my sister just married some dude out of nowhere! That’s rather shady! But again, it feels like Yuri is kinda bad at everything besides torture.
• Yeah, Fiona is such a nutcase. She’s almost as bad as yuri. She just doesn’t have the weird siscon thing hanging over her head, so I find her a tiny bit more tolerable. There’s also the torture thing.
• I love how Fiona can’t imagine herself being lovey-dovey even in her wildest fantasies. She simply tacks herself onto the photo as if she acknowledges that she can never be considered family. She wants to be Loid’s wife so badly, but she literally cannot picture herself becoming a caring, maternal figure in Anya’s life. She wants to “overcome any obstacle with the power of love,” but she has no love to give anyone but Loid. In her mind, Anya is expendable, and, well, that’s why she will never win Loid over. If only she could realize this…
• Why is this lady blushing? I know Yuri almost embraced her because he mistook her for his sister, but I expect SSS agents to be a little more calm and collected than this.
• Yeah, why didn’t he? Hm, try and really think about it, Yuri.
• Remember Billy from Red Circus? He was probably dead shortly after the SSS took him into their custody. Not before they tortured him for all the information he had, though. Meanwhile, I can imagine WISE keeping Wheeler jailed indefinitely unless we want to pull some kind of bullshit “both sides are bad” equivalence. All I’m saying is that there’s no justice in this world.