Welcome back to World War Titan! The time has come to end things. We are finally watching the final season of Attack on Titan, divided up into three parts. Things our looking pretty grim for our cast of troubled heroes. 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 show, has continued to captivate me. Welcome back readers old and new, as we dig into Attack on Titan season 4, episode 18, “Sneak Attack.”
1. Jean’s house!
Every so often, an episode will follow Jean, the only sane man in the world. As Eren’s friends discuss his betrayal, Jean is the one arguing that Eren is bad news, has always been bad news. Jean claims that he “knew that Eren was a shithead from the beginning,” but he always “envied him for being so cool.” And I love that. A realist who’s emotionally honest? Sign me up!
But the Scouts won’t listen to Jean’s good sense. Armin thinks that Eren is pulling an Armin, and that there’s a larger master plan. I hate to break it to little Armin, but the only other psycho who thinks like that is Erwin, and he’s dead. But Eren is getting brutalized by the biggest army on the globe, so all the Paradisians need to team up for a jailbreak, and then a counter-offensive.
1. Nearly headless Reiner
Though Eren is being assaulted by three enemy titans and a fleet of airships, he is by no means harmless. He practically decapitates Reiner with a yank to the jaw! For a show that spent so long with faceless antagonist, it’s kind of incredible how legendary the Eren/Reiner rivalry (Reinery?) feels. These guys have been duking it out for a zillion episodes now, but I never get bored. Every time they are on the screen, Reiner’s desperate fear and Eren curdled anger feel as titanic as their weird gross bodies.
But just as I am enjoying my Eren/Reiner time, Zeke’s gotta arrives and change all the momentum of the fight.
3. Fastball Special
Never has a story made me fear baseball as much as Attack on Titan. Zeke’s fastball is deadly! Last season, he wiped out a whole battalion of the best troops Paradis had to offer by hurling rubble at them. Here he repeats the trick, but this time he is nailing titans, and shooting freaking airships out of the sky! Zeke singlehandedly changes the course of the battle, and his many enemies on Paradis are forced to come to his aid.
So who do we got? Jean busts all out old friends out of jail. Keith Shadis! Dot Pyxis! And is that Historia gearing up to defend her people? A wily remorseless titan like Zeke is practically an unstoppable force (more on that in point 5).
4. No devils, only people
The story that’s dragging the most right now is Falco and Gabby. They’ve brought an interesting perspective to this last run of episodes, but with such an epic clash, they better be bringing something serious to the table. This episode delivers. Gabi’s recent experiences have left her completely jaded. Though she’s been axe-murdering her way across Paradis, she’s realized that “There weren’t devils on the island. There’s just people.” I don’t know what Gabi’s turn from fascism will mean in the long run, but it feels very well earned.
We also get everyone on the same page about Falco. He admits that he’s in love with Gabi (a sentiment she does not seem to reciprocate). But Falco drank the poison wine, and that means if Zeke screams, he will become a mindless titan, just like everyone else. And that’s exactly what Zeke intends to do until…
5. Pieck playing possum
For an episode called “Sneak Attack,” there sure were a lot of attacks made right out in the open. Pieck aimed her big titan-killing-canon at Zeke, and then pretends to be dead by ejecting out of her fleshy mecha. This lulls the Paradisian force into a false sense of security and the counter-counter-attack is the most brutal one yet. But Eren and Zeke still live, and Eren sure looks ready to take on the mantle of the Beast Titan, along with the rest of his stolen titan powers.
Will Eren cannibalize his brother? Will little Armin get big like Godzilla? Will Gabi do anything meaningful? Hopefully we’ll answer these questions and more, in the next week!
