THUNDER! (aaaaaaaa) THUNDER! (aaaaaaaa)

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

The Scouts face down the Beast Titan and his forces as Reiner starts climbing the wall, having avoided being killed by Levi’s strike by diverting his consciousness throughout his Titan body. Erwin tells everyone to wait before attacking while he surveys the surroundings, including that the Titan on all fours and wearing a backpack could also be intelligent since it likely didn’t transform with the other regular Titans. Those Titans begin their attack, which Erwin fears will cost them their horses and leave them trapped, so he sends Levi to deal with the Beast Titan directly.

Next, he sends Erin as bait to lure Reiner back, something Reiner picks up on, but they soon engage in a rematch. With his newly mastered hardening abilities, he’s able to make greater damage to Reiner’s armor, leaving an opening for Hange’s new invention: Thunder Spears, essentially projectile missiles that land several explosive hits right to where Reiner’s human body is sitting.

Meanwhile, Erwin then reflects on how he’s been motivated by his own motivations while leading soldiers who were fighting for humanity as a whole, even thinking of risking his life just to find out what’s in Grisha’s cellar.

OUR TAKE

Does lightning strike twice with having great episodes back to back? It seems so as this week brought us a great continuation of this battle that will be going on for at least a few more weeks. Whereas last time was about bringing everyone back up to speed before the action got underway, this is all about diving back into a fair amount of the character work we had left off with at the end of the mid-season finale, as well as things we hadn’t touched on since the second season. Like he was after the coup, Erwin is looking at how someone as singularly driven as himself has managed to survive over so many others who likely cared more about the future of mankind have died. And newbie scouts like Marlot are seeing a real Titan in front of their eyes for the first time, showing how sheltered he and the other former MPs have been.

Though the real show this week has to be the long-awaited Round 2 between Erin and Reiner, following up on their last titanic brawl when Reiner’s short-circuiting personality caused him to out him and Bertholdt as the Armored and Colossal Titan, respectively. The main advantage and difference Erin and the scouts have now are, as mentioned, Erin’s newly strengthened ability to harden himself and Hange’s new Thunder Spears. And boy, after having so long to stew over his previous losses, Erin most definitely has a hardening-on to ram his Thunder Spear down Reiner’s neck. Especially when the fight is taking place in his home turf, the place where Reiner and Bertholdt destroyed not only his house, but his life. Though given the episode ends without a direct kill AND Reiner has already survived what would normally be a fatal wound, I’m guessing that the multiple penetrations will not be the last we see of our blond armored friend in this fight.

There’s also set up for the bigger showdowns that we’ll be getting down the line, like Levi on his way to face the Beast Titan and whatever the one with the backpack is supposed to be. And we still have Bertholdt basically unaccounted for, even though we know he’s around the area somewhere and will be taking part in the action later on. Whatever the case, the show is definitely keeping me invested, so I’m very much looking forward to how things progress next time.

Score 8/10