Episode 56, The Basement
Armin awakens after having a nightmare of a crying Colossal Titan. He has no memory of what happened before. With only eight members of the Survey Corps remaining they explain what happened to Armin. Realizing that his life came at the expense of Erwin’s, Armin is devastated and doesn’t believe he sure have been chosen. Hange, Levi, Eren and Mikasa are left to investigate the basement. Eren, Levi and the others discovers a family photo of a man standing next to a women.
On the back of the photo is an explanation of what a photo is. In post credits, Eren starts reading Grisha’s book, which begins with Grisha recounting his tragic childhood. This episode largely is closing the last arc and opening the next one. As a result this episode wasn’t really that interesting. However, it has set up the next one.
Episode 57, That Day
We get the story that Grisha wrote in his book. A young Grisha drags his sister outside of the “Liberio Internment Zone.” They wanted to see the airship. They are caught by two guards, Kruger and Gross. As punishment, Grisha is offered a beating or hard labor. He chooses a beating for both his sister and himself. While taking his beating, Gross offers to take his sister, Fay home. However, she never makes it. Her corpse is found in the river. Grisha and his mother are devastated, but his father seems unmoved.
Grisha begins to hate his father for his cowardly behavior. His father tells him the long history of the “Eldians and the Marley nation.” As Grisha grows older he’s told how his sister was killed by Gross (fled to dogs) and joins the Eldian Restorationists. The group was supported by an informant named “Owl.” Grisha marries Dina Fritz, the last member of the Eldian royal family. Together they have a child, Zeke(the Beast Titan). Attempting to raise Zeke as an infiltrator, however, he betray’s them to the authorities.
Captured, the resistance are tortured for information about the Owl. They are then taken to the perimeter wall to be forced into becoming mindless Titans. Both Kruger and Gross are present. Gross then turns Dina into the Titan that would later eat Eren’s mother. Gross proves to be an heartless monster, before getting what he deserves. It turns out that Kruger is “Owl,” and he’s also a Titan. He pushes Gross over the wall, leaving him to be eaten by a titan. His transformation appears to be similar to that of Eren’s, as he attacks the other members of the security squad.
There’s a lot to digest in this episode. If you believe what the Marleyans do the Eldians were humans that could transform into Titan’s and used this power for world domination and oppression of other people. Or, according to the Eldians, they only wanted to give everyone to live peacefully in prosperity. Considering that this is Attack on Titan, I highly doubt that either side is really telling the whole truth. For Zeke to betray his parents as a child, would suggest that he believed the Eldians were wrong. The were also so many surprising reveals this episode.
I thought Zeke had some relation to Eren in the previous episodes, I never predicted that they were brothers. Weirdly, Zeke does appear to be enacting the mission he turned his parents in for. I wonder what changed his mind? Another thing that’s interesting is that Eren and everyone living on that island didn’t know that they were Eldian’s. With only two episode remaining for this season I’m not sure what will get answered but I’m very excited for what happens next.
I remember when I read about this in the manga. It was the moment when everything changed.
The first few seasons and the first part of this one gave the impression that the entire world of AOT was confined to the 3 walls. Now we know that it’s just a small island. I think it was really when done, even if it’s a lot to share with your audience at once.
As far as plot twists go, this is actually one of the best ones
There are two eŃ€isodes left, not one. They’ll cover three chaŃ€ters of the manga.
Thanks.