Welcome back to the titan war! The time has come to end things. We are finally watching the final season of Attack on Titan, and I got a feeling that not everyone is making it out of this one alive. If you are new to our coverage, this is the part where I explain to you that I’ve never been what you’d call a regular anime watcher, but something about this strange and at times horrifying has never failed to captivate me. And so now, as part of our 2021 Summer TV binge, we will revisit the days of the Omni-Directional Movement gear. Lets charge into Attack on Titan season 4, episode 3, “The Door of Hope.”
1. Welcome to The Reiner Show
Well they did it. I didn’t think they could. I am interested in Reiner, I think he is one of the most compelling characters this show has created. This entire episode was Reiner flashbacks and we got his origin story, and best of all saw the events of previous seasons from a new perspective, a trick I always like that was pulled off masterfully here.
But the star of the show is the character work. Reiner Braun is half-Eldian, half-Maryean and in the cuckoo bananapants bloodline mythos of this show, that means he can wield titan powers and is considered a second class citizen. So he becomes obsessed with the idea of “becoming” full Marlyean, which is more of a cultural idea and damn if it didn’t make for convincing motivation. The thing is, despite knowing Reiner as a stoic agent of violence he kind of started out as a crybaby. Couple that with the moments of vulnerability we see in the present day and I am very compelled by what the show seems to be saying about heroes and villains. No matter what side you are on in this war, you came from nothing and fall asleep in tears every night. War messes ya up.
2. Little orphan Annie
By far my favorite part of the episode was seeing little Bert and little Annie! The two of them took to titan training a lot better than Reiner, who was the runt of the group. Annie was always the kind of aloof goth girl I always inevitably root for, and it’s kind of cool to see her at different stages in her life. She leaves much more of an impression than Bertholdt, who has real Cedric Diggory vibes. He’s good at everything, nice to everyone, and I still don’t find him very interesting. Later when he becomes a soft foil to Reiner’s hardened badass, he gets a lot more interesting.
3. This message will self destruct
Attack on Titan does a good dossier, and this episode had briefings on all the titan shifters and their powers. Reiner is the most determined, so he gets the Armored Titan. Annie is the most versatile, so she gets the Female. Bertholdt excels at everything (except charisma) so he gets the Colossal Titan. And the Jaw Titan, used by Ymir in season 2, goes to… Marcel? Apparently he thinks quickly. Don’t worry, you won’t have to keep track on him for long.
I found this sequence especially stylish. The format of the dossiers had a cool secret agent World War II aesthetic. When things look like Indiana Jones or Cassablanca, I’m happy. It’s when they go Schindler’s List and Grave of the Fireflies that gives me pause. But for a dark fantasy show, this was the perfect tone for me.
4. Between the panels
We see flashbacks of what happened between scenes, and again, I love that stuff. The pivotal moment happens when the Warriors are a day out from the walls and they are attacked by a titan that we now know to be Ymir. She totally eats Marcel and steals his powers, and Reiner totally loses it. He freezes, then runs off like a coward. Annie and Bertholdt call the mission a failure and are ready to return home. That’s when Reiner snaps. He’s not going to let all this have been for nothing.
Annie’s not hearing it though and she kicks the SHIT out of poor Reiner. We know Annie has always been the best hand to hand fighter, and Reiner doesn’t stand a chance. But when she turns her back on him, he grabs her and chokes her until the blood vessels in her eyes burst. This is the mood they took to the very first episode of the show. When Bertholdt and Reiner knock down the walls, traumatizing Eren and kicking off our story, they had just watched Marcel killed in a random act of violence. Everyone is a victim, and everyone pays their victimhood forward viciously. Reiner completely loses himself. “Reiner is dead!” he shrieks. “If we need Marcel, then I will be Marcel.”
5. A serious man for a serious time
I kind of wish we got more of this, and perhaps we will, but we never see the precise moment that Bert and Reiner transform on the far side of the wall. We get a sort of montage, placing them across the series in various familiar scenes, but with new context. We do learn something though. Last episode I was questioning Reiner’s motivation, but here I understand it and believe in him. Reiner’s life has been pain, and all he wants is to become the person giving out the pain. He fights Eldians because he’s taught himself to hate them. He did not befriend Eren and the others on his mission. He is a true believer. In the course of this episode, Reiner went from a mildly interesting antagonistic force to one of my all-time favorite villains. I can’t wait to see what happens when he comes face to face with the foes who thought him a friend.
