Thaw
Episode 22 of Attack on Titan Season 4 begins with the Titans marching, ready to do Eren’s bidding. With Reiner’s powers dwindling, Gabby sets out to try and find Falco. There’s no stopping Eren now, given he has control of the Founding Titan. The only choice is to run. With Reiner giving up, Gabby refuses to succumb to the same fate. Mikasa and the others reflect on what Eren plans to do, watching as the Titans march from the rooftops. This is mass genocide on an unprecedented level. Suddenly, random Titans begin attacking their forces, as they realize Eren doesn’t have control over these. The gang contemplate jumping into the thick of action to thwart their threat, leaving an opportunity for Conny. Conny snatches up Falco and takes off, intending to feed it to his mum in a bid to bring her back. The others try in vain to stop him but the Titan threat is a frustrating distraction. Eventually, they lose Conny. In the streets, Gabby jumps into the Titan action too. With an anti-titan gun cocked and loaded, Kaya looks to meet certain doom as a Titan corners her. As fate would have it, it’s Gabby who jumps in and saves the day. As Kaya looks up, confused, she believes it’s her sister Sasha until her image fades and materializes into Gabby. It’s a nice way to redeem her character from what took place earlier in the season with Sasha. The other townsfolk there protect her too, shielding Gabby from the soldiers hovering above on the rooftops. They don’t compromise her, given she saved their lives. Meanwhile, Commander Shadis rallies the troops, bringing in all the extra soldiers to thwart the growing Titan threat. One among the Titans rampaging happens to be the turned Pyxis too, and there’s a really nice moment as the gang reflect on how far they’ve come up until this point. With the Titans defeated, the group reflect on what’s happened. Gabby arrives before Mikasa, Armin and the others and pleads for Falco’s life. She drops to her knees and pleads with Armin to try and do something to stop the unthinkable from happening. Unfortunately, Conny has gone and Falco’s fate is unknown right now. As Gabby mentions Reiner and how his hardening has come undone, a cold shiver runs down Armin’s spine. After all, if the hardening has stopped then that means… yep, Annie is back. Oh my god!
The Episode Review
The latest episode of Attack on Titan starts to see Eren’s plan take shape, including his desire to commit genocide on a massive level. The thing is, this whole war has been propagated by those in power and if this episode proves anything, there are people on both sides of the conflict that want to try and resolve things peacefully. The ending, with Gabi on her knees pleading with Armin to try and stop Eren, definitely hits hard and it’s testament to the great work done to develop her character. Of course, there will be a contingent of fans that hate her for killing Sasha but the thing is, she’s also been a product of propaganda, a tool to use in war. Now that she’s seeing the true horror of what this means, she just wants to try and stop that. However, the ending involving Annie is a massive cliffhanger and something that could well change everything. It’s been a long time since we saw her and now it looks like this conflict is about to get a whole lot more interesting. The door is left wide open for the rest of the season now and next week looks to be an unmissable episode!
