Spy X Family – Episode 20 Recap & Review

Investigate the General Hospital / Decipher the Perplexing Code

Episode 20 of Spy X Family begins with Henderson announcing his class’s social studies assignment. The students must research occupations that interest them. He gives them numerous options to tackle it and says they must compile a report to present to the class.

At home, Anya asks Yor about her job, puzzling Yor. She doesn’t know whether to tell Anya about her Clerk or Assassin job. Through her mental debacle, we gather more information about Yor’s assassin’s work. She becomes an assassin to protect Yuri and receives opportunities from a Shopkeeper through phone calls. She receives intel from her client about the target.

Yor states that the Shopkeeper lets her know how many enemies and security are guarding the target. Yor says she studies her target’s photo carefully and must avoid killing the wrong person. She says she doesn’t mind killing people because it’s like she’s protecting humanity from evildoers. At present, Anya says–she’ll do her report on Loid’s work.

Two days pass, and Loid shows Anya his workplace at the hospital’s psychiatry department. In his head, Loid suggests it would’ve been better to fake being a general practitioner. However, he’s against the idea because many prominent figures frequent the hospital grounds. He says it’s better to follow his current plan as he can infiltrate social circles and swipe credible information.

Loid puts on a lab coat, and they head for his office. Anya asks Loid why he pursued this career. Loid says he wanted to help people defeat their illnesses and said it was a decision he made in college. However, Loid’s true intentions are for Desmond to get sick and enter his office seeking help. Anya meets Loid’s colleagues, and they tell her how happy they are to be working alongside him.

While in thought, Loid says it’s excellent for spies to spread their connections because it’s easy to obtain intel and establish support. He says it’s best to remain sociable but not stand out too much. Anya asks Loid what’s the most challenging part about his job. Loid says dealing with people’s hearts is the most difficult because he can’t read his patient’s minds. Anya smugs.

Loid says he must observe his patients assiduously and carefully while establishing trust. At the same time, Loid ponders how his psychiatrist occupation is like his spy career but notes that spies betray the trust of their target. After his colleagues praise him, Loid admits that the most challenging part is balancing his mission and side career.

Loid takes Anya to the consultation room as a substitute for showing him speak with a patient–since it violates their privacy. Anya touches the bookshelf, angering Loid. In thought, Loid says a secret escape passage is set up behind the shelf in case of an emergency related to his mission.
Loid suggests calling Yor to pick Anya up, but Anya wants to monitor his work until completion.

Loid receives a knock from a possible WISE agent. He takes out a box of sand for Anya to play with and warns her not to touch anything. He departs, leaving Anya smirking in the consultation room. A WISE agent disguised as a co-worker hands Loid some documents. Meanwhile, Anya finds a lever that reveals the secret passageway behind the bookshelf.

She receives a montage of her exploration. A ceiling vent allows Anya to spy on a group of hospital workers discussing rumors about deadly ghosts in the hospital. Anya attempts to leave but gets trapped under a pipe. She makes loud noises, startling the workers. She breaks free, returns to the consultation room, and pretends to be playing with the sandbox.

Loid enters and notices the pile of toys injected into the sandbox. Loid pieces together that this could mean Anya’s under immense stress due to her former orphanage days. Loid suggests going home and grabs Anya’s memo pad. He notices her poor handwriting, which relaxes Anya as she takes notes of the spy discussion she read in his mind.

In class, students share their reports one by one. Anya discusses her father’s psychiatric work but discusses the negatives she overheard about how he handles his patients. Everyone, including Henderson, is stunned by Anya’s harsh words as the narrator explains that they summoned Loid for a meeting. Loid discussed things thoroughly with the staff and disconfirmed any suspicions of him being abusive.

This segment concludes with him discussing matters with Handler. The next set piece starts with Anya mimicking acts from the Bondman TV show. Loid tells Anya no one will be able to decipher her handwriting because of how terrible it is. Loid departs to tackle a night shift, leaving Anya in Yor’s care. Anya asks Yor to recreate the secret code document from the Bondman show.

Anya hands the coded document to numerous people like Franky, Becky, and Damian. At night, Anya sleeps and dreams. Meanwhile, Franky drops the document at his home. He assumes a beautiful woman told Anya to hand it to him after sniffing it. Franky heads to a nearby area the following day and awaits the woman’s arrival. He believes the coded language was some love letter to him.

The episode concludes with Anya cuddling her pillow while whispering, “top secret.”

The Episode Review

Episode 20 of Spy x Family remains consistent with previous chapters. It features our cast getting into hilarious mischief and dropping some intel about Yor’s assassin lifestyle. Unfortunately, it feels like the show’s trapped in a bubble. It delivers some intriguing intel but doesn’t pursue those concepts further. While the episode doesn’t offer much value, it had some highlights.

Learning how Loid operates his hospital work was interesting, considering it’s where he established his façade. Viewers will enjoy the hilarious gimmicks he has set up at the place, like the secret passage behind the bookshelf and other WISE agents disguising themselves as workers. It was a pleasure receiving intel on how faking his role as a psychiatrist can lend him a helping hand in getting close to Desmond.

Another notable aspect this week was the time spent informing viewers about Yor’s assassin work. It’s been a while since the series acknowledged her other job, and viewers may find its connection to Loid’s work bewitching. In this second phase of episodes, Yor performs incredible stunts and actions. Even so, it’s rewarding to see her use those skills in an assassination mission.

Unfortunately, we didn’t see her use those skills in real-time, as she was only pondering about her assassin work because she didn’t know which job would best fit Anya’s assignment. Yor pondering this may seem odd to fans, but remember Yor and Loid are new parents and have quirky lifestyles. Apart from those highlights and some other funny bits, this episode didn’t offer anything too practical.

It featured our characters participating in mundane activities like regular civilians. There were no fights, missions, or villains to defeat this week. Hopefully, the upcoming episodes can reignite Spy x Family’s tension and excitement with more plot developments and focus given to other cast members.