Recap: An investigation is taken to discover who killed the test subject Titans. In addition, the trainees must choose which division of the army they join.

Gee’s Thoughts: While this episode was comparatively slow to last week’s, it was definitely one of my favorites. To be fair, as most who have read these posts know, I’m a huge Jean fanboy, so being able to see one of my favorite moments form the manga in glorious animation was a treat. You hang around the likes or Eren, Levi, and Mikasa long enough and you almost forget that the average person in the Titan universe is weak, scared, and most importantly, desperate to survive. Jean is a perfect summary of those traits, and with this episode, we reach a wonderful point in his character arc. With Marco’s death and firsthand experience with the Titans, we get to witness just how much war and suffering can change a person, sometimes for the better.

It’s definitely an emotional point in a variety of ways. As Erwin’s speech stated, more than 60% of Recon Corps die within the first 4 years of service. It’s absolutely heartbreaking to see Sasha and Connie’s resignation in the face of their inevitable demise. Even the likes of Bert and Ernie Berthold and Reiner are clearly effected by their life changing choice. While most of the Titan cast has been saved so far thanks to varying degrees of plot armor and/or lack of presence in the main narrative, joining the Recon Corps basically guarantees that at least some of them will die. Whether that ends up being Jean himself or some of the lesser-known recruits, we’ll have to wait and see.

The other subplot of the episode is the Recon Corps’ planning for their next mission: taking back Wall Maria and Eren’s hometown. The name of the game now is the elusive basement from Eren’s childhood, which if his flashbacks are any indication, hold the secrets and truth of the Titan menace. Whether the guaranteed dozens of deaths to follow this mission will be worth it or not, I don’t know. On one hand, it’s uplifting to see humanity given a concrete goal. On the other, Titan knows how to dangle hope in front of your eyes only to crush it, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the entire basement business ended up being a sham. Seeing as they haven’t even reached said basement in the manga, I legitimately don’t know how the anime will address things if Titan is only getting 2 seasons. Here’s hoping they don’t go for some shitty anime-original ending though.