Welcome back! Are you prepared?! Assuredly, you are not. Hunker behind what remains of the walls. It’s time for another episode of Attack on Titan. This is the part where I let you know that I am very much not a regular anime watcher but that this strange and at times horrifying show continues to captivate me. We are continuing on through the third season, as part of our 2020 Summer TV Binge and beyond. Let’s get into it! Buckle up your Omni-Directional Movement gear and lets swoop into Attack on Titan season 3, episode 18, ‘Midnight Sun.’
1. Mourning after
The first striking thing about this episode- no theme song! That’s a move you’ve seen a ton of times in other shows, but never in this one. It makes sense though. For a show filled with a lot of killing, the last few episodes are unmatched in the sheer quantity of carnage. The lack of theme song seems like the least they can do to make recent events feel momentous. And the credits playing over the actual episode is just downright eerie. Very affecting.
Though most of the episode is spent with our human survivors, we do briefly check in with the Beast Titan aka Zeke. He’s back on his bullshit, talking about ‘rescuing’ Eren. He knew Grisha, Eren’s pops, but doesn’t seem to think too highly of him. In his monologue, he accuses Grisha of brainwashing his son. Zeke is also terrified of Levi now. Good. This seems to be Zeke’s typical demeanor, but we saw the facade slip when Levi kicked his ass. He can act like a (monkey) man with a plan, but he’s a petty cruel coward. No amount of charming sports analogies will ever make up for all the murdering he’s done.
2. The full Hange Zoe
Oh man, I thought a disfiguring wound would change Hange Zoe but nope, they are in full scary Hange Zoe mode. They chopped all of Reiner’s limbs off, blindfolded him, and are now going to work with the interrogation. We know where this leads. When Hange Zoe gets like this, they make Jack Bauer look like Jeff Lebowski. There’s no excitement to all the torture and mutilation, just a resigned commitment to getting the job done. Reiner admits almost ruefully that he is not planning on breaking. Hange Zoe admits that they are gonna mess him up. They find a letter from Ymir to Christa. Mysterious.
But that’s all a lot of work so they come up with this plan- Mikasa is going to swing over to where Eren is keeping Bertholdt. Figuring that he’s the easier foe to interrogate, Mikasa will signal if he is alive and then Hange can execute Reiner and get to work. But they never really get a chance to see that plan through because Zeke (riding his Mule Titan) comes in for the attack. Jean barely has time to push Hange Zoe away before Zeke rescues Reiner because it is against the law on this show for Reiner to actually stay dead.
3. No one ever dies (except when they do)
Mikasa finds Eren and Armin and Bertholdt on a roof. Armin you will remember fucking melted in the last episode. But of course, no one really dies and Armin gives out a little cough. He’s still clinging to life. So the plan seems simple. They’ve still got the titan syringe they confiscated from Kenny. The thing to do is to inject Armin and feed Bertholdt to him. Then he would regain his intelligence, his health, plus he’d have the tremendous powers of the colossal titan. Seems simple.
Until it gets complicated. Remember that recruit who survived the battle in the last episode? His name is apparently Floch. And he’s dragged another survivor with him who is battered and bleeding out, but clinging to life. Erwin Smith is somehow still alive.
NO ONE EVER DIES ON THIS SHOW!
3. The moral dilemma
So now we got a classic moral dilemma. One syringe, two dying people.Obviously we have to fight this out. And that takes up most of the runtime of this story and feels like a very dark Star Trek episode. Who is the most worthy of life? What value does a person have? It’s one of those stories that’s just a conversation, and a totally gripping one at that.
Continued belowOn the surface, Erwin seems like the more important of the two. He had the rank, the experience, and the notoriety. And Levi makes that point, acting like it is the clear objective truth and ignoring the ways in which he may be emotionally invested. Men, am I right? Eren and Mikasa don’t subscribe to that faux-rational stoicism, so they do what they do in these sorts of situations. They lose their marbles and attack Levi, to get the syringe to use on Armin. Everyone is so injured at this point that the fight itself is pretty pathetic. Eren is injured, Levi is injured and exhausted, so Mikasa nearly takes his head off. It takes the arrival of Hange Zoe to hold Mikasa back. They get to the point where they aren’t going to imminently murder each other, so they get to talking.
Eren Yaeger’s real superpower has always been making scary inspirational speeches, so it stands to reason he’d be good at debate. He has a pretty compelling point, one I’ve been making throughout my reviews. All those traits that make Erwin the kind of leader these people respect- his intelligence, his ruthlessness, his big picture thinking- Armin has got all of those in spades. Eren lists off Armin’s resume, and it’s true, Armin has been the one with the plan that won most of their victories. He came up with the plan to plug the wall at Trost, he discerned Annie’s secret identity, he planned the journey to Castle Utgard, he found Reiner’s hiding place. Eren isn’t even pretending to be objective, he’s just using Levi’s strategy against him and exposing the underlying hypocrisy.
Floch, by virtue of not being dead, also thinks he gets to weigh in. This is a brilliant writing coup because no one cares about Floch so he gets to be an outsider, and represent the perspective of someone who doesn’t know these two guys personally. Of course that’s also a lie, because Erwin just gave a speech so inspiring that Floch was willing to follow him into hell. He’s still high on the commander’s supply. Floch gets bolder and bolder, even pushing Eren at one point. He says, getting somewhat baroque, that Erwin is the devil and as long as they all live in hell, you want a devil on your side. The audacity of this punk! I sort of respect him.
Hange Zoe plays to emotion, holding Mikasa in a way that got me pretty teary and pointing out there are hundreds of people they would bring back. But they too think Erwin is the right choice. Armin may be just as smart, but he’s an obscure soldier. Erwin inspires the people, people like Floch. Back and forth they all go and again, I can’t remember a more gripping episode of television.
4. A reasonable choice, an emotional choice
In the end, it’s hard to know why exactly Levi chooses to save Armin over Erwin. Eren and Mikasa were just about ready to let the issue go. Maybe the last thing Eren said is what convinced him. Or maybe it was something that Floch said. Or maybe it was something unspoken.
Before accepting Armin’s death, Eren talks a bit about hopes and dreams. He realizes that all of his dreams have been consumed by hate. He dreams of vengeance and of killing the bad guys. He wants to take down Reiner. He closes his eyes and sees blood. But Armin never became that guy. He still held onto the dream of seeing the ocean. Eren knows that he and Mikasa have been destroyed by this life, but Armin was strong enough to be the most ruthless of any of them and still hold on to hope. Eren tearfully pleads to let Armin’s dreams live on.
Levi tells Hange Zoe something different. He says it’s time to let Erwin go free, to spare him the hell of living on and making awful decisions. He seems moved by Floch’s words, but not in the way they were intended. Levi saw Erwin become great at the fascistic military lifestyle, but he also so the pain that caused. It consumed him, turned him into a monster. If Levi really loved Erwin (and he does more than anything) he’s got to let him go and shoulder the pain and responsibility himself.
Continued belowBut I think the decision is even more simple than that. Levi already got closure. Erwin had resigned himself to a disappointing death, to never getting to learn the secrets in the basement. It hurt, but he still chose that pain. He and Levi got a chance to say goodbye. Going back on that is hard! Erwin died after giving up on his final dream. Armin never did. And I think that emotional choice is ultimately what drives Levi.
5. The Colossal Titan returns
So a new titan rises up, one that looks exactly like Armin but also like a huge baby. And he devours the injured Bertholdt who cries and screams and begs for help. The characters unfeelingly look on to the gruesome killing. So do I. Pretty bold of Bertholdt to beg his victims for life after causing more deaths than any single individual in the world. Titan Armin chows down on him and now the power of the Colossal Titan lives in him. I don’t know how he plans on using it, but it’s gonna be messed up. Ruthless. Brilliant. All the things Armin is.
And now the Survey Corp is reduced to nine. Eren, Mikasa, Armin, Hange Zoe, Jean, Connie, Sasha, Levi, and of course Floch. These are going to be the ones entrusted with the future of humanity. And I have no idea what they will make of that mission.
