The following contains spoilers for Spy x Family Episode 11, “Stella,” now streaming on Crunchyroll
It’s a new day at the Forger household, and Loid Forger aka Twilight is reviewing his daughter Anya’s exam scores while she’s watching her favorite anime. Her scores are abysmal, and Loid realizes she needs to change Anya study habits in order to earn better grades and at least eight stella in order for him to progress his own mission.
Loid starts by having Anya study through conventional methods, but notices this is not helping her retain information better. He then realizes he needs to develop a study method that Anya finds more engaging to help her learn concepts better. He tries everything from art to music to sports to figure out what method works best for Anya, with his wife Yor even trying some methods of her own like jump roping. All methods fail and Loid decides to try community service next as this is another way Anya can earn stella in place of academic performance.
The next day, Loid takes Anya to volunteer at a hospital and are first tasked with cleaning duties. Unfortunately, Anya is not able to do the job without breaking stuff and the forgers are re-assigned to the hospital library to help rearrange the books. Once again, Anya is unable to complete her task as she ends up distracting herself with manga. After trying various other tasks, the nurse on charge of overseeing the volunteers tires of the Forgers messing things up and asks them to leave. Anya feels bad about ruining Loid’s mission, though Loid remains chill about Anya’s poor performance to not make her feel worse. Internally, however, Loid finds himself running out of options if Anya fails at community service as well.
On their way out, the Forgers pass a boy named Ken and this therapist on their way to the rehabilitation pool to start his physical therapy. The therapist briefly leaves the boy unattended while she does change. Ken unfortunately ends up falling into the pool and is unable to swim due to his leg injury and begins to drown. Anya telepathically notices that Ken is in distress and runs to his rescue. Unfortunately, Anya doesn’t know how to swim and nearly drowns herself. Both kids are rescued thanks to the timely arrival of Loid.
The therapist is grateful to both Loid and Anya for saving Ken’s life, which earns Anya the recognition she needs to progress at her school. Anya is awarded her first stella at her school, and is the first first-grader to earn it. This earns Anya the admiration of her classmates and teachers, but the envy of Damian Desmond for beating him to the punch. Loid and Yor are similarly proud of Anya for earning her first stella, with Yor offering to cook her a special dinner. Given Yor’s terrible culinary skills, however, Anya asks Loid to cook instead.
Much later, Loid meets with his superior on a train for a status update on Operation Strix. Loid is disguised as an old man and his superior is disguised as a young widow. Loid’s superior communicates that she is aware of Anya earning her first Stella, but wonders if they should involve other WISE agents to help speed up the process of Anya earning more Stella to help progress the mission. Twilight is against the idea as going this route would arouse suspicions at Anya’s school, which would effectively put the other WISE agents in danger if their identities get exposed.
Loid asks if there are any concerns at HQ he should be aware about to see if he needs to modify his own plans. His superior confirms they are concerned about some of Donovan Desmond’s more recent financial dealings that are suspicious in nature and advises against being too laid back. This means they need to speed up the process of getting in contact with Desmond, which also means they need to find new ways to motivate Anya to befriend Desmond’s younger son Damian as quickly as possible.
With Anya now having a higher level of respect amongst the other students, she goes to school feeling more confident she can speed up Loid’s mission. Now that she has one stella on her record, Anya thinks this will be enough to earn Damian’s respect. Unfortunately for Anya, she quickly learns her success has only intensified Damian’s contempt for her. In class, the other students similarly begin to show their contempt by spreading false rumors about Anya’s rescue of Ken. More specifically, her classmates seek to discredit Anya by pointing out her violent nature and that she most likely staged the drowning in order to cheat her way into earning a stella.
When her classmates try to involve Damian in their gossip, he surprisingly defends Anya by pointing out Eden College is not a third-rate school that just hands out unearned stella to troublesome students or by error. Damian further shuts the other students down by telling them to transfer to a different school if they don’t like Eden’s merit system, which surprises the other students. Internally, Damian is actually upset that Anya didn’t cheat because this means she got ahead of him in the school’s merit system.
At lunch, Anya and Becky Blackbell discuss what Anya wants as a reward for her rescue apart from her stella. Since Anya has no concept of wealth she asks for something as ordinary as peanuts, but Becky asks her to think of something more expensive and extravagant. Anya then thinks about living in a castle, only for Becky to tell her that’s now asking for too much. Anya reverts to her original answer of wanting a whole year of peanuts, which Becky then considers isn’t such a bad thing. After all, Becky herself enjoyed getting a puppy a lot more than receiving any of the expensive gifts she earned.
Learning about Becky’s puppy gives Anya the idea of getting a puppy herself as this could be one way for her to bond with Damian, especially if he also has a dog. She then pictures a scenario where she and Damian introduce each other’s dogs to one another and Damian finally invites her and Loid to his house to progress Operation Strix. When Anya returns home that day, she asks Loid to get her a puppy, which surprises Loid and Yor. Interestingly, Loid thinks having a dog would be advantageous to improving their home’s security, but Yor thinks dogs are too violent and bringing one home could potentially kill Anya. Furthermore, Yor points out animals are a huge responsibility and require maintenance.
After hearing both her parents thoughts, Anya requests that they get a cute small puppy. Loid agrees on getting Anya the puppy and suggests they go to the pet shop over the weekend. While Anya is deciding on the type of puppy she wants, an abused telepathic dog at a low-quality dog shelter picks up on Anya’s desire for a dog.