It seems like hope is lost, as the titans have broken through the wall and are now wreaking havoc with impunity. On the plus side, it's explained that the area was meant to draw the titans' attention, though that comes as little comfort to those who are now getting eaten.
I'd say that the region's defenses should have been stronger if that were the case, but it is shown that even artillery fire has no effect on the monsters. It does make you wonder what sort of force would need to be assembled to take these things down.
On the plus side, there are other walls, giving the remnants of humanity a fall back position. No one brings up the fact that if the titans can bring down one wall, they can bring down others, but that's an issue for another day.
It does bring up an array of problems. The government has no idea what to do and the inner cities are now being flooded with refugees. Considering their already strained resources, the newcomers aren't exactly welcomed with open arms.
While character development is put on the back burner for the first half of the episode, we do eventually pick back up with Eren. He's not faring too well. He spends a good chunk of the episode in what the tropers call a "heroic bsod". While he does eventually snap out of it and continue with the shrieking, you can't say it isn't justified. Given what happened last episode, he's grief stricken, in shock, suffering from survivor's guilt, and filled with a thirst for vengeance. Basically, he's got a lot on his plate, emotionally speaking.
His vows would be impressive, except the episode goes out of its way to undercut him. Again, the titans are nigh-invulnerable. On top of that, every physical confrontation Eren gets into ends with him getting swatted aside or easily knocked down. I'm guessing that's going to be his character arc, a more positive spin on the "from nobody to nightmare" trope, where we see him turn from whiny snit to titan slaying bamf. As it stands, though, I'm not exactly filled with confidence.
We do see him, Mikasa, and their friend Armin join the cadets in order to more effectively fight the titans and win back the planet. While training is great, don't they need weapons that can kill the things first? I'm guessing those rope devices we saw last episode are going to be the primary means of victory, though I'm not sure how.
I'm also not sure how the cadet leader is so certain of his "three year" time table. If the threat is as urgent as it seems, three years seems like it's way too lenient. Of course, even this episode has a time skip, so maybe it's not that far fetched.
The episode has its moments, but it didn't quite have the kick that the last episode had. The opening sequence was probably the major highlight. It did a great job of displaying the horror and scope of the threat. Considering there isn't much else of note, you could argue that it ate up too much time and took away from developing other things, but it was the stronger portion, so you could make arguments for either case. I expect the next couple of episodes will be montage heavy, as Eren tries to acquire the eye of the tiger, but we'll see how it plays out when we get there.
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