Episode 18

UNCLE THE PRIVATE TUTOR / DAYBREAK (MISSION: 18　家庭教師の叔父 / 〈〉) is the eighteenth episode of the SPY x FAMILY TV anime series and the sixth episode of the second cour.

UNCLE THE PRIVATE TUTOR
Next week is the midterm exam at Eden College. It's the same day as day of the new moon during which Anya cannot use her psychic powers, so she can't cheat. At Yor's suggestion, Yuri will be tutoring her...

DAYBREAK
The midterm exam is over. Loid, concerned about Anya's performance on the exam, goes to the Eden College to alter her answers. There, he finds an overtly suspicious man who is planning to infiltrate the school as well!

UNCLE THE PRIVATE TUTOR
Henry Henderson announces to the students that their midterm exams will be in two weeks. He says the top two students in each subject will receive a Stella Star, while students who fail an exam will receive a Tonitrus Bolt for each failed one. Henry proceeds to return their history quizzes from the day prior and is disappointed to show Anya her 13% mark and tells her to stay after class for remedial lessons. Meanwhile, Damian got 91% which he brags to Anya about, to her irritation. In her remedial class, Anya realizes she should read Damian’s mind when taking history quizzes and tests and begins laughing to herself, upsetting Henry, who gives her extra homework.

On the bus ride home, Anya notices the full moon and starts panicking. Rushing home, Anya asks Loid what phase the moon will be in two weeks, to which he replies the new moon. Anya is shocked by this, as her power will not work on the day of a new moon due to her weakness known as "Eclipsing," meaning she will be unable to cheat during the exam. Anya attempts to get Bond to show her the test questions from the future but instead sees her dinner for the night. Distracted, Anya forgets about her worries for the rest of the night, then wakes up anxious the next day, realizing she has not studied yet.

Loid attempts to help her study, but he ultimately makes no progress, as Anya cannot concentrate with his mind being so talkative. Yor then remembers that Yuri offered to help Anya study so they call him up. Yuri arrives and is introduced to his niece. Anya attempts to read his mind and is overwhelmed by his thoughts about Yor. While Loid and Yuri chat about the recent peace talks, Anya reads their minds and is excited over their secret identities. Loid takes his leave to do some errands, but not before telling Anya that she and Yuri should get to studying.

Yuri starts by giving her difficult problems to solve, which Anya does by reading his mind and surprising him and Yor. Yuri asks why Anya even needs to study, who, after remembering her Eclipsing, tells Yuri it was dumb luck, which he hesitantly accepts. They try studying again, but Yuri gets upset after realizing she is not that bright. However, when Yor asks Yuri for help and Anya exaggerates her love for her, Yuri begins being kinder with his critiquing.

The two continue studying, but after hitting some roadblocks, Yuri questions if Anya likes to study. Anya questions him right back after saying she hates it, to which he replies that he studied hard so that he could take care of Yor. Yuri explains to Anya that “knowledge is power,” and she can be or do anything she wants if she studies. Anya gets confused when Yuri tells her it is “the whole enchilada,” mishearing it as “a swole Chihuahua.” Despite that, she gets very excited about the concept of studying, and the two intensely continue their work. After an exhausting study session, Yuri questions whether Anya has mastered grammar yet, to which Anya asks what grammar even is.

Feeling that he just wasted his time, Yuri angrily storms out of the house. While making his exit, Yuri realizes that he is the one who should be studying and that he does not have enough "power." Yuri believes that if he had more knowledge, he could have captured Twilight during the terrorist incident and says he is still powerless to protect his sister or his country. However, he returns inside for a brief moment to eat all of the snacks Yor just made, once again screaming at how good it is while eating and throwing it up.

Anya contemplates the idea that if she had been smarter, she might have been able to disarm the bomb herself during the terrorist incident. She decides to go to her room to study hard on her workbook. When Loid returns home, Yor tells him how hard Anya has been studying. After picking up a workbook Anya was working on, he discovers it is a subject that is not one of her midterm subjects. Dumbfounded, Loid chuckles to himself and thinks that Operation Strix may very well be doomed. Two weeks later, the students at Eden Academy are sat down in the exam hall and prepare to take their exams. Anya gives Becky a statement of confidence before Henry announces that the midterm exams will now begin.

DAYBREAK
After the exams, three professors wheel the midterms down a hall to the vault in two boxes. They chat about how it seemed the first-year students had performed poorly before locking the tests in the vault.

Twilight goes to Eden Academy, worried that Anya has failed her exams. His goal is to alter Anya's answers before they start grading the tests to prevent her from getting Tonitruses. Twilight then disguises himself as an Eden Academy professor, and begins his infiltration. On his way to the vault, he spots a suspicious man heading in the same direction. The man is a spy, going by the name "Daybreak," and is a self-proclaimed rival of Twilight. His mission is also to try to break into the vault. He was hired for this job as his first real mission and displays a lack of concern when carrying it out.

Daybreak moves towards North Hall, where the vault is, but almost gets caught by some security guards. However, he hides by holding himself horizontally high off the ground on a signpost. He continues to the building but finds that the door is locked. Instead of trying to pick the lock like Twilight was planning to do, Daybreak blatantly breaks a window on the door and unlocks it from the inside, shocking Twilight. He then plants a soccer ball by the door to make it look like an accident caused by the soccer team.

Daybreak tries to pretend to be an Information Sciences professor but has no I.D. prepared to prove his identity. Twilight intervenes to give him the fake I.D. of Mr. Brown, an Information Sciences professor. While handing him the I.D., he is bewildered to see that Daybreak wrote down his mission details in his hand. The orders are to change the Desmond brothers’ test answers, and Twilight suspects that Donovan Desmond hired Daybreak for the same goal as him.

After showing their I.D.s, they gain access to the vault. Daybreak attempts to enter the passcode to the vault but fails. He pretends to leave and lets Twilight do it in his stead. After opening the vault, Twilight is clumsily knocked to the ground and dragged inside the vault, where Daybreak proceeds to alter Damian and Demetrius Desmond's test scores. He then decides to gain exposure by signing his name on the tests. A shocked Twilight jumps up, shouting that spies are not supposed to leave a trace. Realizing that he blew his cover, he quickly tries to cover up for his mistake. However, Daybreak, wanting to gain exposure, insists that Twilight tell everyone about him without telling anyone about what he did. After Daybreak rolls away, Twilight checks the tests and discovers that Daybreak changed the answers to give the brothers failing scores and was hired by a rival of the Desmonds. Needing their success for his mission to continue, Twilight reverts the changes. Afterward, he checks Anya's tests and is surprised by what he sees.

Five days later, the midterm scores are posted in the Quad. Damian and his gang look for his placement and find him in 11th place in the class. Not only that, but Damian also placed in the top 2 for History with a score of 94, earning him a Stella Star. Meanwhile, Becky finds herself next at 46th place and looks for Anya's score. Having read Loid's mind beforehand, Anya knows she did not fail the tests despite not doing very well. Becky finds Anya placed 213th out of 228 students, and Damian makes an attempt at consoling her. Anya is satisfied with her results, as she got no Tonitrus Bolts. Despite Anya being proud of this, Loid decides that he will need to be stricter about her studies. Nevertheless, he is surprised Anya did not fail a single test, considering it impressive by her standards, and thinks about how she barely managed to keep Operation Strix alive. Hearing this, Anya gives him a smug smile. In response, Loid tells her to think about her grades, and they will see if she will be smirking after their studying session, to her shock.

Meanwhile, Daybreak gets a call saying that he failed his mission and he ends up getting fired.

Anime Notes

 * The anime's English subs and English dub translate Anya's misunderstanding of Yuri's speech as "no [dog] leash is power" instead of the manga's "knowledge is a swole chihuahua".
 * Becky's name is shown on the midterm scoreboard and is spelled as "Beckey Blackwell."
 * In the manga, we never actually see Demetrius' exam papers that Daybreak meddles with, only Damian's. In this anime episode though, when Twilight goes through the stack of exams, we actually get to see his midterm paper - it's History, the same subject Damian earns his Stella in. Given what Twilight thinks about when he ‘corrects’ the Desmonds’ papers - that the elder boy barely got any answer wrong - we now know that both Demetrius and Damian are very good at History.