Recap: Armin suffers a mental a breakdown from the sheer gravity of the situation. Elsewhere, Mikasa reminisces about why exactly she cares so much about Eren.

Gee’s Thoughts:

Sorry folks, if you were expecting the action to get revved up again, you’ll have to wait a little longer. This week we’re treated to a flashback to Mikasa and Eren’s childhood. Remember in the first episode when I said the the 2nd episode would focus on another…turbulent moment in their past? Well I initially assumed they were going to feature this moment next.

So anyone who’s been watching this has likely noticed that Mikasa is just a little attached to her adoptive brother Eren. Why? Isn’t it obvious? Kidnappers killed her parents and would have sold her into slavery had Eren not murdered two adult men in cold blood with Mikasa taking care of the last one! Ah kids.

Suffice to say, Eren and Mikasa’s lives have never been particularly peaceful, even in the best of times, so it’s a little understandable that the two are markedly different from many of their peers. Even before the Titans came, these two already had blood on their hands.

As for the rest of this episode, we get some more bits and pieces of the Trost evacuation. Predictably, the rich and and selfish are still rich and selfish in times of crisis, hammering home the point that most of humanity still doesn’t really understand how horrifying Titans are. Thankfully Mikasa is a fucking badass and won’t take any of that shit. Still, this moment and the sentiments of the noble from one of the earlier episodes seems to imply that even with the situation as bad as it is, everyone is still concerned with their own survival, even if it means dooming everyone else.

Overall, a pretty uneventful episode, but with Eren’s fate still decidedly fatal, it’ll be interesting to see how the story progresses as our remaining heroes struggle against the Titan invasion.

Marlin’s Thoughts:

I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get to see Mikasa’s immediate reaction to the fate of Eren, but I suppose this was a flashback that needed telling. The idea of two children being able to so easily kill adults without any kind of indoctrination like child soldiers do is a little hard to swallow, but this is a brutal world and these children apparently got that lesson early. It does prove just how devastating this next episode will be, as Mikasa will have to face having everything she loved taken from her.