The following contains spoilers for Episode 22 of Spy X Family, "The Underground Tennis Tournament: The Campbelldon," now streaming on Crunchyroll and Hulu.
Following in the path blazed by Shooting Star Anya and her Killer Shot Star Catcher dodgeball technique, episode 22 of Spy X Family has the show fully embrace its true calling as a sports anime. We get to see the details of the joint mission assigned to agents Twilight and Nightfall in the previous episode. The two spies must become professional amateur tennis players and win an underground tournament, hosted by shady antique collector Cavi Campbell, to prevent the re-ignition of war between Westalis and Ostania. As Anya would put it, "WORLD PEACE IS IN DANGER!"
Of course, the actual reasoning behind the mission is a bit more sensible. Since the end of the war between Westalis and Ostania, rumors have abounded about the existence of a certain document owned by ex-colonel Eric Zacharis. This figure was a pivotal player in brokering the end of the war and was naturally privy to many secrets, which are said to have been recorded in a dossier that has since been lost to time. However, a potential lead on the dossier has been discovered to exist, hidden in one of Campbell's antique paintings. Securing that dossier and ensuring its contents never come to light is critical to maintaining the tenuous peace between the two nations. That's where the tennis tournament comes in - the winner gets to claim a single item from Campbell's collection.
Rigged From the Start
Unsurprisingly, given that this is an underground tournament, all manners of cheating and illegal maneuvers are commonplace - even encouraged for the sake of entertainment and testing new questionable products. Twilight and Nightfall's first opponents are already former legendary tennis champions that would destroy any amateur team. Thankfully, Twilight is a master of dabbling in anything and proceeds to showcase why he's the number one agent at WISE by completely outplaying their opponents. Shocked by his skill, their opponents instead try to target Nightfall, thinking she's the weak link in the team. Except she proves to be equally skilled as Twilight in tennis, but with infinitely less reservation and patience to their absolute dismay.
At this point, the two agents become a dark horse favorite among the betting spectators. Even when faced against the Boric brothers, who are using government-backed performance steroids and have turned into what can only be described as (barely) sentient slabs of muscle meat, the pair of agents come out ahead. Incidentally, Nightfall showcases her brute strength by rendering both roid-ragers on the brink of death with merciless volleys to their various organs. With little resistance, the two reach the finals without a single loss and square off against Campbell's own tennis-prodigy children, Carrol and Kim.
Naturally, both are cheating playing with special equipment. Carrol wields a racket powered by miniture rocket boosters for devastating swings, while Kim uses a racket capable of extending like a whip for nigh unlimited court coverage. Even worse, both Twilight and Nightfall are suffering from the effects of a numbing neurotoxin that had flooded the waiting room they were in earlier. While the agents managed to stave off the worst of the effects, their performance is initially sluggish and beaten by Campbell twins' equipment. Yet with the odds stacked so heavily against them, the two agents rally to buy enough time to recover from the toxin and turn the game in their favor once again. But losing isn't an option for the Campbell twins, and they decide to go all out with cheating. With the enemy pushed into a desperate corner, Twilight and Nightfall resolve themselves to win regardless of the odds and complete the mission.
Nightfall's Ambitions
While completing the mission remains the highest priority for both Twilight and Nightfall, the stone-faced female agent has a more long-term secondary objective: prove that she's the most suited woman to stand by Twilight's side (in all facets of life). Throughout the episode, Nightfall continues to imagine Twilight being so impressed with her skill and displays or prowess that he can't help but fawn over her. Ranging from calling her the perfect woman to asking her to be his doubles partner in life, Nightfall's fantasies showcase her true emotions as she practically squeels like a maiden in love.
While this isn't remotely shocking to any viewer who watched last week's episode with Nightfall's introduction, it remains hilarious to hear the sheer contrast between Nightfall's spoken words and her inner monologue. This is all made even better by the performance of her voice actress, Ayane Sakura. However, Nightfall's sheer deadpan manner of speaking completely masks any affection she holds for Twilight, leaving him with the belief that she's merely acting recklessly to advance in the organization. As befitting of an utterly foolish kuudere, Nightfall even slaps away Twilight's hand when he checks her for injuries. Her subsequent look (aka. emotionless glare) leaves him aghast with the belief that she's furious at his concern, while she's actually gushing with a mixture of joy, love, and (concerningly) lust towards Twilight.
However, it's Nightfall's reason for falling in love with Twilight that is the most poignant part of her character in this episode. She admired Twilight for being the ideal role model of a spy, someone who was willing to sacrifice everything about himself to ensure the sake of peace. It's why she chased after him initially, hoping to catch up to the man who taught her to be the spy she is today. At some point that admiration evolved into love, and she wants nothing more than to desperately prove that she has reached the caliber necessary to stand by him as an equal. Even if she can't win his heart today, she wants to be someone he can count on, so she steels herself to not leave the mission solely up to Twilight.
Family Influences
Though the episode is largely focused on Twilight and Nightfall's efforts in the tennis tournament, it also gives us a subtle look at how the Forger family is changing both Loid (Twilight's alias) and Yor's outlook on life. Twilight preached in the past that spies were expendable tools, yet he shows concern towards Nightfall when he notices that she's been overexerting herself in the tournament. It's just one of many gradual shifts in Twilight's mannerisms towards a gentler approach throughout Spy X Family, but is remarkably important as he's even applying it to a fellow WISE agent. Given that he initially kept his family and spy mentalities largely separate, it shows the steady blurring of lines between his identities.
As for Yor, ever since Nightfall made her presence in Loid's life apparent, Yor has been struggling with the fear of being replaced. Her concern is that her brother Yuri would be incredibly worried again if she became single, yet she continuously focuses on agonizing over the relationship between Loid and Fiona (Nightfall's alias). It's telling that Yor even briefly considers... removing Fiona to be a viable solution. While her relationship and family may be fake, it's clearly become an important part of Yor's life - one that she cherishes dearly and is willing to kill for. Only the calm reassurance (and mind reading) of Anya is enough to break her out of her funk and eagerly await Loid's return.
Next Time: "The Unwavering Path"
With the mission on the line, Twilight and Nightfall will have to put all of their spy training to use to eke out a victory, as their opponents continue to ramp up their cheating. All is fair in love (tennis) and war (for Twilight's heart) after all.
Though with Campbell's pained and shocked expression in the ending teaser, we're fairly confident in the WISE agents' success. But something even more important than securing world peace crops up, as Yor and Fiona are set to seemingly confront one another with Anya looking on in shock.