This episode is basically split into two parts. The first part focuses on Mikasa reminiscing on events that happened during the time skip between the end of Attack on Titan Season 3 Part 2 and Attack on Titan Final Season. It was amusing to see when Eren and the others made their arrival on the other side of the sea, and seeing some of their reactions to the new things they’d never experienced before. My favorite was Hange reacting to seeing a car for the first time. But rather quickly, though, things become more serious after Levi catches a child pickpocketing Sasha’s purse. They quickly see just how prejudiced the people of Marley are against the Subjects of Ymir.

There’s also an important scene between Eren and Mikasa, where Eren asks her point blank why she’s so dedicated to him. After some awkward fumbling, Mikasa declares she sees him as family. We don’t get to see how Eren reacts to this, because at this point, they’re interrupted by the arrival of a member of the tent city that they’ve been looking at. It turns out this is the home of the boy who had pickpocketed earlier in the episode. There’s a light-hearted scene of Eren, Mikasa, and most of the others from the group sharing food and drink with this group, and it’s really the last light-hearted scene in this episode. Right after this, the group goes to a meeting and hear that a group wants to protect the Eldians, but just not the Subjects of Ymir. We learn it’s during this meeting that Eren left the group and didn’t come back. At the end of this reminiscing, Mikasa wonders if things might have been different if she’s given Eren a different answer when he asked her why she was devoted to him.

The second half of the episode primarily focuses on Eren after he leaves his former comrades behind, which also helps to fill in some of the gaps in the timeskip. With Eren being absent from recent episodes of Attack on Titan Final Season Part 2, it was nice to see him reappear here. After we see Eren’s side of things, the episode returns to the present time… and to the arrival of The Rumbling to Marley.

I thought the start of The Rumbling was an effective way to end this episode, because it’s enough to establish that the event has started, but makes the viewer want to come back and see what’s going to happen. Before I saw this episode, it had been announced that another season of Attack on Titan is scheduled to begin airing in 2023, and the title of the season makes it clear that it will actually be the end of the series. It’s kind of a bummer that we have to wait about a year for the remainder of the story, but I was happy to see that there will be another season of the anime instead of an anime film to wrap things up.

This episode did a great job of establishing Mikasa’s thoughts and mindset, as well as Eren’s motivations for what he’s doing. This, along with the beginning of The Rumbling, establish a strong foundation to begin the next season on. Hopefully, the next season, along with the conclusion of the story, will be worth the wait.

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