Spy X Family – Episode 13 “Project Apple” Recap & Review

Episode 1 of Spy x Family season 2 begins with a group of thugs placing canines inside a white truck. The dogs are all locked up in cages and appear miserable. Shortly, we see a news report stating that the Foreign Minister of Westalis, Brantz, has arrived in Ostania and plans to coordinate a summit between the East and West territories. This leads to a heartwarming breakfast session between Yor, Loid, and Anya.

After their meal, the Forgers head for a pet shop. Loid plans to adopt a canine companion for Anya as a reward for earning her first Stella Star. He argues rewarding Anya for her accomplishments will encourage her to succeed further in school. Remember earning eight Stellar Stars grants her access to the social gathering that Donovan’s known for attending.

The agency Loid works for owns the pet shop and sells war dogs. Loid feels owning a dog from this shop would be beneficial since they’re well-trained, protective, and strong. Unfortunately, Anya doesn’t find any of the dogs to her liking, leading Loid to ask the shop’s owner if they have any cute and small dogs. The owner informs him that there’s a nearby pet adoption event that sells cute dogs, though.

Before Loid informs the others, he is summoned to attend a spy-oriented excursion, leading him to fake a restroom break to depart from Yor and Anya. He asks Yor to take Anya to a pet adoption event. Although Yor tells Loid they can wait, Anya clever covers for him. While in a car, Loid learns of an assassination plot involving Foreign Minister Brantz that’s taking place at the summit.

The suspects in question are Berlint University students who formed an isolationist group. These folks have been on the Secret Police’s radar, but Loid’s agency kidnapped one of the plotters at the embassy. The agency has tried interrogating this plotter for information, but he won’t budge. The agency wants Loid to disguise himself as this plotter’s leader Keith to persuade them into confessing any juicy details.

Meanwhile, we see the plotter conversing with Handler (Sylvia Sherwood). Sylvia tells him they’ve caught Keith and that he won’t be necessary anymore. They escort the plotter out of the room, where he notices Keith (Loid in disguise) escorted by one of the agency members. Loid takes note and throws a tangent, placing all the blame on the plotter.

Having fooled the plotter, the agency obtains intel about the rest of the group members’ names, hideouts, and assassination plans. Apparently, Keith wishes to strap bombs on a few dogs and ambush Brantz. At the same time, we see Loid and the agency’s summoner chatting about Loid’s swell impersonation skills. Loid watched a short video of Keith’s past activities, allowing him to imitate and fool the plotter.

After learning about the bomb dogs, Loid’s confused. He’s unsure how these students could afford to pull off a stunt like this. The summoner speculates that these students have support from a wealthy authority that could either be an enemy sympathizer or a right-winged third power. We transition to a meeting between everyone in WISE.

Sylvia argues they’ll need to make the first move to prevent the students from carrying out their attack. They learn that canceling the summit wouldn’t look great in the public eye, resulting in Sylvia suggesting they leak intel to the ruling party to encourage them to act swiftly in preventing any public outcry.

In another area, we see two terrorist students walking dogs. One of them is the telepathic white canine from episode eleven, who had a vision concerning their interaction with the Forger family. While one of the terrorists leaves to grab a coffee, the white canine rushes toward a toddler to save them from a sudden injury.

The coffee-drinking terrorist returns and converses with the other to find out what happened. Although one is doubtful of the plan, the coffee terrorist says there is no turning back now. They agree to return to the hideout since they’ve checked their surroundings for suspicious citizens.

At the pet adoption event, Yor and Anya are amazed by the numerous animals present, making Yor wonder why Loid didn’t consider attending here in the first place. Anya rushes to each pet stall to greet each animal, and Yor warns her not to wander off. Yor asks Anya to promise her that she won’t leave the area with any puppies in hand. Anya promises, as the two compliments the cuteness of each animal.

Yor consults with an employee about possible dogs to adopt and turns her back to Anya. Suddenly, the white canine from earlier walks by, grabbing Anya’s attention away from the animals. As she stares into the canine’s eyes, Anya reads its mind and uncovers that the dog was thinking about her, Yor, and Loid. The terrorist calls for the dog as Anya questions if the canine’s thoughts are accurate.

Anya glances at Yor, who’s busy consulting with the employee about dog breeds. Anya decides to investigate and follow the dog and his owner’s trail, as she’s weirded out by what she picked up in its thoughts. This leads Anya to discover one of Keith’s hiding places, as she overhears their assassination plan involving Brantz and bomb dogs.

Anya’s startled when she finds out she’s infiltrated a criminal hideout. Before she could flee, one of the terrorists catches her and lets the others know that she heard their plan. Keith plans to murder Anya to avoid detection. Before Keith could strike, the white canine frees itself and defends Anya. While Anya and the canine plot their escape, Yor notices that Anya’s missing and starts searching around the event.

When she reaches a dead end, Yor leaps into the area’s ceiling and observes the event from above. A child predator may have abducted Anya, and she wonders what happened to her. She dives deeper into the thought of Anya being forced to marry some crude man, leading her to yearn for Loid’s return. At the same time, the WISE agents and Loid continue their search for Keith’s whereabouts.

Loid informs Sylvia he found a lead regarding two white vans being rented out by one of Keith’s henchmen. In return, Sylvia tells Loid that Keith’s dogs are all remnants of Project Apple. Project Apple was a government research project conducted by the Ostanian government. Their goal was to create high-IQ animals for military use.

Loid knows that the project had its issues regarding mediocre results, government confrontation, and reckless experimentation. Consequently, the government canned the project, and some animals were sold on the black market. Sylvia warns Loid to keep his guard up because these canines could be packing dangerous abilities.

At Keith’s hideout, he warns Anya to step away from the white dog. The white dog walks closer to Anya, and she reads his mind. She finds out that Keith’s phone will ring soon. Suddenly, Keith’s phone rings and the caller informs him that agents have infiltrated two of his hideouts. Keith’s bewildered, assuming that one of his men had ratted him out.

He tells everyone not to panic as he has an alternative idea. However, Keith realizes Anya and the canine have fled. While fleeing, Anya realizes that the white dog can somehow peer into the future and wonders if it is a telepath like her. Once they make it outside, Anya and the dog run toward the pet adoption event and scream. This catches Yor’s attention.

In his hideout, Keith’s flustered and orders his comrade, Kurt, to come with him to capture the dog and Anya. Although the others tell him to forget about Anya, Keith informs them that she’s seen their faces and knows about their plans. He orders them to tear the map off the wall and they abandon their current location.

After running around the block numerous times, Anya and the canine find themselves cornered by Keith. Keith threatens to murder them. However, his desire is put to rest when Yor arrives. Yor quickly knocks out Kurt and threatens to do the same with Keith.

The episode concludes with Anya hugging Yor tightly as she plans to beat up Keith, confusing him for being a human trafficker.

The Episode Review

What a way to kick off Spy X Family’s next season! This episode was jam-packed with intense physicality and enjoyable laughs.

While I enjoyed Anya and Loid’s bits in this episode, I can’t help but feel like Yor’s going to be stuck displaying a worrisome mother persona throughout this show. Granted, we receive some instances of her leaping up walls and knocking out bad guys. However, it just feels off-putting to see Yor, a well-trained assassin, make common mistakes a typical mother would. Hopefully, peering into her assassin livelihood will free Yor of her current repetitive predicament.

Otherwise, I’m pleased with the new content in this season thus far. Judging by Spy X Family’s promotional material, we can assume the white canine will be the one the Forger family adopts. While the canine’s abilities can serve as a fine addition to their household, he also comes with his potential set of issues the series can latch on to for incredible sub-plot potential.

The camera work, scenery, and animation in this episode were breathtaking. The scene involving Anya and the white canine rushing down the stairs was immersive and genuinely neat.

This episode also touched upon dark topics, which is surprising. Animal experimentation and child trafficking weren’t on my bingo card for Spy X Family season 2!

There’s much time for the series to expand on protagonists, side characters, and antagonists. Here’s hoping this season will deliver elegant content that’ll leave a lasting impression on the anime’s growing audience.