SPY x FAMILY 1×21 Review: “Nightfall / First Fit of Jealousy”

In this week’s SPY x FAMILY, we have another brilliant slice-of-life episode with “Nightfall / First Fit of Jealousy”. In the first story, we meet a potential rival for Yor. In the second, we meet a potential rival for Bond.

At last we finally meet Nightfall. I have to admit that I have been looking forward to this introduction for a while. The dichotomy between Fiona’s outward appearance and her inner thoughts is hysterical. The voice acting is what really sells it – that prolonged “suuuuuuuuuukiiiiiiiii” combined with the hearts in her eyes, as she stood there stone-faced. They previewed that scene at Anime NYC last weekend, and the audience lost it.

Fiona thinks that she would be better for Operation Strix than Yor, because she is a trained agent, while Yor is an unknown. But in all of her fantasies about becoming Loid’s wife, Anya wasn’t featured at all. Because for Fiona, it isn’t so much about the mission itself as it is the cover identity. Would she be able to control her emotions and do what’s best for the mission, if she were given her dream of being all domestic with Loid?

I think her vision of how the mission would go with her was perfectly contrasted by the little family moments that happened throughout the story. The Forger family works the way it is because they look like a family. The situation is fake, but there is real affection there. Even Fiona could tell that, by the end.

It would be really interesting to compare Yor and Yuri’s relationship with Loid and Fiona’s. Yuri is creepily obsessed with Yor; he worships her but is absolutely blind to her murderous alter ego. She could come home covered in blood and it wouldn’t occur to him that she had done anything wrong. Fiona, on the other hand, worships an idealized version of Loid, to the point where she doesn’t take into account the fact that he is a human being with feelings.

This is perfectly encapsulated by her surprise that he takes milk in his coffee. She eventually decides that it must be part of his “Loid” character. This could be true – I assumed that when he said he needed the milk to be able to stomach the coffee that it was a joke about how terrible Yor is in the kitchen. Yor made the coffee, so clearly it needs to be doused in milk to be at all palatable.

But it could also be true that the person Fiona knows as “Twilight” is just another mask. Perhaps drinking black coffee is something Twilight does to appear more intimidating. Maybe it’s something he just got used to because he lived through a war and milk wasn’t readily available. The truth is, we simply don’t know enough about who Twilight was before he became Loid. (At least, not yet we don’t.)

The little epilogue of Bond being jealous of Anya’s stuffed animal is cute. I think Bond is not yet secure enough with his role in the family to trust that Anya really loves him. Plus, you know, he’s a dog.

What’s funny to me is how inept Yor is at sewing Anya’s penguin back together. I think it’s hilarious that it’s continually emphasized that Yor is really good at basically one thing, and that’s being an assassin. You would have thought that she would be good at sewing, because I’m sure she’s needed to patch up her own wounds before. But no, she somehow manages to make the situation worse!

Loid to the rescue, as always. It’s so cute that he tries to make up for the patch-job by telling Anya about how scars are a badge of honor for spies. I like that he manages to smooth things over by using a metaphor that Anya will understand, thanks to her obsession with the Bondman cartoon. Moments like this demonstrate that Loid is actually a good father, even if it’s all for show. In fact, it’s times like this when you start to wonder if all of it is for show. After all, he still has that “proud father” smile even when no one is around to see it.

I’m excited about next week’s episode. I love the slice-of-life moments, but it will be great to get back into a spy-related story. It’s been a while!

Author: Jamie Sugah

Jamie has a BA in English with a focus in creative writing from The Ohio State University. She self-published her first novel, The Perils of Long Hair on a Windy Day, which is available through Amazon. She is currently an archivist and lives in New York City with her demon ninja vampire cat. She covers television, books, movies, anime, and conventions in the NYC area.

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