Attack on Titan

Episode 49

With Attack on Titan set to go on hiatus until April of 2019, “Night of the Battle to ReTake the Wall” serves as our mid-season finale. As far as bridge episodes go, Episode 49 is both very typical and more than a little bizarre – at times it feels like a recap episode, and at others it comes across like a comedic one-off meant to settle the tone of the show back into something resembling Attack on Titan circa 2013. It does its job of hinting at the big changes that we're going to see in the future, but I'm also not entirely sure if the episode comes together in a satisfying way.

We open with Hange, Levi, Erwin, and the other coup leaders trying to make sense of the serum that Kenny snatched from Rod Reiss before he transmogrified himself into the B.A.T, and Hange admits that their technology simply can't deduce the true nature of the concoction. After a bit of deliberation, Erwin decides to leave the material in Levi's hands, giving him the responsibility of deciding when to use it and on whom. Outside of putting that future plot device into the show's back pocket for the next arc, this scene is largely about reinforcing Levi and Erwin's respective character arcs for the season; Erwin is still determined to push forward and figure out Grisha Jaeger's master-plan, to avenge his father's death by finding out the truth behind this world. Levi's place in the future story is more nebulous, save for a teaser that comes at the end of the episode, but we'll get to that later.

All of that foreshadowing is pushed aside for the most part, as the bulk of the episode actually takes place at the celebratory dinner that the scouts have all earned in preparation for the titular mission to ReTake wall Maria. This entire sequence is largely played for comedy – at the sight of fresh meat, Sasha literally goes insane with hunger enough to try and eat Jean's hand and has to be bound to a pole and gagged for the remainder of the night. Eren and Jean also get into a brawl over Jean's frustrations regarding Eren's tendency to suicidally charge into battle, with the main joke being that the rest of the crew has largely given up on trying to break up their brawling (except for Levi, naturally).

These are cute exchanges that don't do much more than refresh us on character beats we've seen done more seriously earlier in the season, but Conny's brief exchange with Eren does explain why they're still important. They remind us that these traumatized war veterans are only four months removed from the immature dorks we met way back in 2013. Sasha used to be the one who stole food to share with the whole group; now the thought of fresh meat is enough for her to violently attack her friends just to get a taste. These men and women have all been scarred, and while it occasionally manifests as slapstick comedy, the hurt that underlies it all is very real. I don't think that we needed an entire episode of these shenanigans to bring this point home, but it's still a valid one to be making at such a transitional moment in AoT's narrative.

Eren, Armin, and Mikasa also get to do some reminiscing of their own, which is good, because the events of Season 2 and 3 have kept their relationships out of the limelight for a while now. Eren and Armin even get back into their old debate about whether the ocean exists or not, which seems conspicuously appropriate when you take into account the water-focused teasers for the second half of the season (and the opening shot of season 3's first episode). It's still unfortunate that Mikasa has been given so little to do this season – here's to hoping that Season 3 Part 2 will afford our girl some more character development instead of just repeating Eren's name over and over into the wind.

Speaking of next spring, the only other talking point from this episode comes from the post-credits stinger, which shows Eren and Levi duking it out in the ruins of Shinganshina. This feels like one of those teasers that might resonate more with folks who've read the manga, because the seeds of whatever issues that could lead to such a falling-out have barely begun to be sewn; either that, or it all stems from what's inside the Jaeger basement, which anime-only viewers can only guess at for now.

Using a pseudo-cliffhanger like this as a stinger for next year's episodes highlights my issues with this mid-season finale as a whole. Its individual components are valuable to the show's narrative – they foreshadow future events, and they give our characters more time to be their old familiar selves. I just wish either the source material or the staff responsible for adapting it had found a more compelling story with which to deliver all of these disparate pieces. Whether we like it or not, we'll just have to wait until April of 2019 to watch where AoT goes from here. At the very least, we'll finally see Levi Squad take back the wall and kick down the door of that basement once and for all. No foolin' this time, and no take-backs.

Right?

Rating: B-

Attack on Titan is currently streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation.

James is an English teacher who has loved anime his entire life, and he spends way too much time on Twitter and his blog.