After the last episode, which had a suicidal charge with Erwin and his troops, this one has a different suicidal charge in a way. Prepare your BBQ, because things are going to get crispy on here.
Yeah, I’m sorry for that.
As Erwin goes down, Marlo leads the head-on charge with the remaining cadets. Zeke/Beast Titan hates this as they all can’t remembered their stolen memories and having history taken from them. They’re basically leading people down a future on the said charge they’re doing. Zeke is so mad, he crushes one of the boulders to complete dust. He still wants to enjoy things in life, unlike his dad. The next barrage gets ready, as Marlo and everyone fire more green flares. Marlo starts to get scared and think about Hitch, wondering what she’s doing… which is sleeping and drooling. It’s kind of creepy, but for him at this moment, it’s very nice to remind him of his love. It’s better than having a giant rock smash your fa-
I spoke too soon. Marlo and the others get obliterated, and Zeke celebrates what he thinks is a win, but there are still more alive firing flares off and screaming with all their might. Beast Titan wonders why they’re doing this as he throws one more rock that finishes them off.
It’s not long until this plan hits him. Zeke sees all his big Titans have fallen, and a hook goes right into him, where from the smoke appears Levi. Zeke goes into attack mode, but Levi slices his whole arm up to pieces as Zeke then remembers Reiner warning him who is the most dangerous to look out for.
Levi fires another hook into him, this time near his nape. Zeke tries to protect his nape, but Levi doesn’t go for that. He gets his eyes, blinding him. Levi then takes out the legs, causing him to fall. Levi then goes for the nape, which Zeke tries to harden, but Levi is too fast. Levi goes into a super fast blitz from above, destroying the Beast Titan’s hand and launches a barrage of slices on the woolly Titan. Levi slices the nape open, taking Zeke out from the Beast Titan, and having his blade go in Zeke’s mouth.
Levi has him now and knows that Zeke is too injured to transform again as that is being used on healing. He stabs him through his mouth, but Levi won’t kill Zeke yet. Levi then wonders if anyone is left alive. He still has the Titan injection that can make someone a Titan, and they can use that to eat Zeke and get his powers. Maybe it can work on Erwin. However, this is interrupted as Levi hears something coming. It’s the Quadruped Titan, and his mouth is focused on Levi.
Levi dodges, but this was a ploy to take Zeke away. Quadruped Titan runs away with Zeke in tow, and he orders the rest of the tall Titans to kill Levi. Zeke thinks Levi is almost out of blades, so victory is close for them. Levi just wants him to wait, because he promised Erwin he’d kill the Beast Titan. He starts to kill the other Titans. On the battlefield, there is still one person left alive. It’s the one scared recruit who is searching for anyone left.
Jean and the others are still dealing with Bertholdt, but Reiner is also back up. Jean wants them to run away on Eren, but Armin notices something with the Colossal Titan.
As Hange mentioned in a previous episode, the Colossal Titan is weak in an attrition battle, and seeing how Eren took 3 times in training to transform, the wear-and-tear on the Colossal Titan is a lot worse. Plus, Armin thinks his steam attacks consume everything on the Colossal Titan but the skeleton. So Armin has a plan for this, but he needs Jean and co. to handle Reiner as he and Eren will face Bertholdt. The others let him, as Armin takes off to Eren. It flashes back to Armin snapping Eren out of his funk in the first episode of this cour, as Armin wakes Eren up by stabbing his shoulder. He knows if this plan succeeds, he may never see the ocean, but thinking of the outside world gives Armin all the courage he needs. Eren wakes up, and Armin tells him his plan. They need Bertholdt to fall for it.
Back to Jean and co., they try to keep Reiner away from Armin and Eren, but Reiner takes off and ignore them. Mikasa isn’t having this, and she goes at him with the Thunder Spear, taking out his leg, and causing him to fall. Mikasa knows they need to kill him, but they only have 3 spears left, meaning they have to do anything to win it. However, with Reiner, he doesn’t know what took out his knee. In fact, he can barely remember anything at all, other than Bertholdt’s words of telling him to make his Titan form face upwards.
However, Reiner does know that all he needs to do is capture Eren, and they win. He needs to deal with the 4 facing him, and Bertholdt can’t believe that’s all who’s left. Even so, his focus is now on Armin and what he’s planning with a beaten-up Eren. Armin’s plan all depends on how long he can hold out for. Eren doesn’t like it, but Armin says he won’t die until he sees the sea. He’ll quit if it gets to hard and leave the rest to Eren because Armin himself isn’t a hero. Armin made a promise he’ll see through, so he wants Eren to promise to stick with the plan.
However, as this happens, Eren’s footing gives way on the wall, and he falls off. Bertholdt thinks Eren has a severe concussion, and it’s good enough to end this. Bertholdt sends his long, skinny Titan arm towards Armin, who dodges it and goes straight at Bertholdt, but he unleashes a heated steam blast attack right at Armin.
Mikasa hopes the two are fine, but she focuses her concentration on Reiner. Jean knows there’s only one way to beat him, and Reiner is ready. Jean attacks with his blades, acting as a decoy as Connie and Sasha attack him with the spears. They’re aiming for the Armored Titan’s jaws, opening it up with the explosions, and Mikasa can land the finishing blow inside on Reiner. However, Reiner attacks and gets both Jean and Sasha, critically injuring Sasha. Connie manages to get the left side of his jaw, but it’s not enough. Mikasa will still try to finish him.
As for Armin, he’s in a steamed hellfire, but his hooks aren’t coming loose. Armin was proven right, as Bertholdt’s skeleton is the only thing not being consumed. The hooks are in his teeth, and Armin can also see that Bertholdt can’t move when producing steam. Bertholdt can’t believe Armin would go out burning to death. Armin wants to let go, but he still has to buy time. Bertholdt thinks it’s all a ploy as everyone is busy. Bertholdt decides to finish Armin off with a full-on steam attack, and Armin’s body is completely burned. Armin still won’t give up, as he believes in Eren and trusts him with everything he has. He believes Eren will find the sea, and his body drops to the ground.
As Mikasa is about to attack, someone else arrives and fires a Thunder Spear into Reiner’s right jawline, opening his mouth up. It’s Hange, and afterwards Mikasa goes to his mouth, throws the spear inside, and it explodes, sending Reiner out of the Armored Titan’s nape.
Bertholdt is about to finish Eren off, but he notices that Eren’s Titan has become a crystallization on the wall. Eren is out of his Titan and uses his ODM gear to get above Bertholdt. His falling and acting done was all part of the plan to fool Bertholdt. Eren slices open the Colossal Titan’s nape and takes Bertholdt out, and afterwards the Colossal Titan collapses to the ground.
As Eren has captured Bertholdt, he flashes back to the first time he met Armin. He watched him get bullied and asks why Armin doesn’t fight back. Armin tells him he isn’t losing since he doesn’t run. It ends there, with Eren looking at Armin’s charcoaled body.
I said it before on these recaps, and I’ll say it again: the animation dominates this series, and it showed once more. When WIT Studios is on their A-game, they rival that of the best studios. This episode was one of the better animated with the fight scenes. The Levi vs Zeke/Beast Titan fight lived up to the manga’s billing and was a delight, from how it transitions to Zeke attacking to how Levi cuts him up mercilessly. It was beautiful. This, with the “7 Pages of MUDA” this week, were both massive delights for action fight scenes, but it wasn’t just that. Mikasa taking out Reiner, and Armin sacrificing himself were the highlights as well. Mikasa blowing the ever-living shit out of Reiner, and poor Armin going out heroically were shown with great delight. Even Armin’s flesh burning in different colors of fiery beauty, while haunting, were so well done, and it’s amazing how this was all put together.
As much as people have their qualms with the show, especially with what’s to come with the basement’s secret, when Attack on Titan hits, it hits big time Hell, Armin was even trending in the US on Twitter late Sunday for this. That’s how big this was. Yes, there will be actions for Armin’s death on here, as the next episode will showcase this. Manga people knows what is about to happen, but I’ll keep it to myself for now on here. Just enjoy all the animation that was shown, and pay big respects to Armin. He went out like a man. An extra-crispy man fit for a KFC ad, but still a man.
Again, I’m sorry.
Attack on Titan Season 3 is licensed by Funimation. Episodes can be seen on Crunchyroll, Hulu and Funimation on Sunday at 9:45 PM ET. The dub version is airing Saturday at 11:30 PM ET on Toonami and Sundays on Funimation.