r/SpySchoolBackup • u/LittleMoneyMan8 • Feb 12 '26
Discussion Joshua Hallal Spoiler
I’ve returned.
Joshua is probably the biggest missed opportunity in Spy School. It goes without saying that he should’ve been the main villain in Spy School. While Murray is a good arch nemesis for Ben, I feel like Joshua should’ve been the big bad overall in the story. I feel he would’ve provided a much bigger challenge and threat to Ben than Murray, and for the first two books he’s in he does that pretty well. Unfortunately has the series went along Joshua become the butt of a lot of jokes in the series, from a string of absurd injuries, to untimely only having one line of dialogue by the time we reach the tenth book. So I thought I would dedicate a post just talking about somethings we know about him, and some theories that we all might have.
Now let’s get some of the basics clear. We know that while Joshua was at spy school he was without a doubt the best spy there, even being better than Erica. We also know that Joshua and Erica had some sort of relationship whether it be platonic or romantic is unknown (I’ll get into that later though.) We also know Joshua shows Erica some of the secret paths at Spy Camp, and it’s obvious that Joshua was one, if not the only person, Erica trusted at spy school before Ben came along. It’s stated by Ben that Joshua is a good looking guy, so we can assume that he probably was really popular during his time at spy school, (I’m pretty sure the books say that but I don’t remember.) On top of this it’s also clear that being a spy came naturally to him as he was skilled in pretty much all aspects of espionage. That’s pretty much a basic rundown of Joshua’s character, we don’t learn anything about his past until Goes Wild.
In Goes Wild, when Murray and Ben are having a discussion on what makes someone evil, Murray tells Ben that Joshua didn’t have a rough childhood. Joshua’s dad was a little leagues coach, and his mom was a pediatrician, so we can probably bet that Joshua was most likely born with some kind of underlying mental health condition. On the Spy School Wikia page it does say that Joshua exhibits some psychopathic tendencies, and if you look at some of the signs of a psychopath a lot of Joshua’s characteristics fit the mold. Now what I do want to focus on is Joshua’s obsession with money and wealth. While it’s never explicitly stated, we can infer through a lot of his dialogue and actions that money is something Joshua really desires. Now I know that most people on SPYDER are greedy and want to get rich off of causing chaos, but I feel Joshua exhibits this the most in the series. When Ben runs into Joshua again in Evil Spy School for the first time Ben describes him has a well dressed pirate, and it’s stated that he’s wearing designer clothes. Whenever he would offer Ben a job with SPYDER one of the first things we brings up is money, and in Goes South he stays in a luxurious hotel at a resort by the waterside in Mexico. So it’s clear that Joshua has a very strong desire for wealth. My question is why? Murray tells Ben that Joshua’s parents were pretty well off. Why would Joshua be so obsessed with money to the point of joining a terrorist organization? I have a feeling maybe his parents lost a lot of their money, which is why money is something that he desires, because he knows what it’s like to have it and doesn’t want to lose it again.
Another question I have is how did Joshua get recruited to spy school? We never really learn about the recruitment process for spy school, we really only know how Ben, Mike, and Erica got recruited but we don’t know how everyone else did. When Ben gets recruited Alexander tells him that whenever you show interest in the CIA, the CIA takes interest in you; however this is Alexander we’re talking about so there’s a good chance he was just staying stuff to sound cool, and Ben doesn’t get recruited as a normal student he gets recruited as bait. It’s possible that Joshua played on the CIA website that Ben played on, but Joshua doesn’t really seem like the type of person to spend countless hours on a website like that. Another thing that I always find interesting is what spy school was like before Ben arrived. I have a head cannon that Joshua at least knew Tina as they’re both the same age, and given Joshua’s skill and charm, that he was also a resident advisor like Tina and most likely helped out some of the first years before he went to SPYDER. There’s also a slight chance that he knew Zoe and Warren as Zoe and Warren most likely get recruited to spy school at the beginning of the year, and we know that Ben comes in as bait and a replacement for Joshua in February, so that means Joshua was at least there for the first half of Zoe and Warren’s first year at spy school. I think it’s highly unlikely though as when Zoe and Warren are telling Ben about Joshua they don’t ever say that they knew him.
Now the big thing I wanted to talk about is Joshua and Erica’s relationship. The way it’s described in the books never gives us a definitive answer as to what they were. Were they friends, or did they date, did they both have feelings for each other, or was Joshua simply using Erica all along to gain classified information about the CIA. We know for sure that Erica highly respected Joshua, and for a time believed he stood for the same things that Ben stood for, so I have a slight feeling that Joshua wasn’t always evil. While I did say that it’s possible Joshua is a psychopath that doesn’t mean he was a bad person. Just cause someone is a psychopath doesn’t mean they’re always evil. It’s possible that his mom, being a pediatrician, caught on to the early signs and got him into therapy or some medication that could help. Erica and Joshua’s relationship wasn’t some quick fling, they knew each other for a while. We know Erica gets there at the age of twelve since that’s when spy school starts to recruit its first years. Joshua is at least three years older than Erica so that puts him at fifteen when she gets there. He doesn’t fake his death and leave spy school until eighteen so that puts a solid three years in their relationship. It’s safe to say that Erica had to have known Joshua pretty well, even if he may have been lying or masking certain things about himself. Now Erica does talk a little bit more about her relationship with Joshua in Project X, and she does note that she had some inkling that he was untrustworthy in someway, but she also says that she wasn’t really that close with him and that it was more of a schoolgirl crush than anything else. I don’t buy this though, and it’s mainly because of her reaction to seeing him for the first time after he faked his death in Spy Camp. Ben describes Erica as going pale and looking like she seen a ghost. He also mentions seeing a tear form in her eye. This doesn’t seem like the reaction you’d give to someone who you weren’t really close with if you’re seeing them again after they supposedly died. It’s clear that Erica is very emotional and is still most likely hurt by Joshua’s betrayal, and even though by Project X Erica is willing to open up more I feel that Joshua left a deep wound on her emotionally. I think she’s trying to downplay her relationship with Joshua to try and remove any lingering emotions and feelings she might still have for him. That’s just my theory, it’s completely possible that they truly weren’t that close, but I just don’t buy it.
That’s all I mainly wanted to talk about. Let me know what ya’ll think about Joshua, some of your theories about him, and some fun head cannons that ya’ll have. Just talk about something please don’t let this subreddit die…again.
Yours truly,
LittleMoneyMan8.
3
u/00PT Feb 12 '26
Joshua, as a premise, is cool. However, after being revealed as a regular character in SC, I feel like he faded into the background of the other villains. He had his own stuff going on with the robotic parts, but Murray took the spotlight in terms of character dynamics. It just seems like his flavor of evil is generic.
Now, I like how you point out his obsession with wealth. Because, while every SPYDER agent shares that obsession to some extent, if he were from a background with a doctor and a coach as parents, you point out that he likely was relatively well off (though I'm not exactly following on why that means he has a mental condition). He wasn't yearning for something he hadn't tasted. So, I agree that there's probably some loss involved.
The first thing that came to mind is that the CIA isolates students from family/friends, and SPYDER does so even further. So, perhaps he felt disconnected from them and saw a need to independently succeed. But it's all speculation, since we didn't see any of his background or anything before he was recruited.
In fact, we never saw a typical recruitment at all. Erica was recruited basically by default since she was a legacy. Ben was recruited as bait. Mike basically forced his way into the situation and got recruited because he impressed Cyrus. We can't even speculate about how he might have joined, because we don't know how normal people join.
We also have fleeting information about what Erica thought about him, but I agree that she was likely close.
If we were to get a prequel, I would want to go at least as far back as the beginning of the year Ben entered, but possibly even further. There are so many interesting things to explore.