With the female titan having transformed back into a human, now under the guise of a scout, I was expecting this episode to play with that paranoia. Have the human pick off people one by one as the scouts realize that anyone among them could be the enemy. Alas, that doesn't play out here.
Instead, the mole doesn't even bother with the cover and returns to the female titan form that we had seen prior. It does make for a great "oh crap" moment, but it still seems like a missed opportunity.
Thus, once again, the group finds themselves being pursued. Eren contemplates transforming, but has the "trust yourself or us" card pulled on him by the others again, as the team insists that they'll hold it off while he rushes back to HQ. It's very much a rehash, but at least this episode is quicker about it. On top of that, Eren knows that the team can handle themselves, so he has a much easier time of agreeing.
I do still find it odd that they just expect him to trust them explicitly when he really has little reason to. The fact that they don't trust him at all also makes the whole setup seem a little disingenuous.
It's a moot point as Eren agrees. His faith appears to be rewarded as, unlike the other scouts, this team is able to put the female titan on the defensive and actually land some devastating hits. They blind her and begin slicing at her extremities in order to incapacitate it. As the titan does have a healing ability, the team knows that they have to work fast.
Alas, it isn't enough, and the titan is able to turn the tables in pretty brutal fashion. I was thinking that the monster was getting taken down anticlimactically. It was especially odd as there wasn't really anything that this group was doing that others hadn't tried before to no avail. Thankfully, the criticism addresses itself as, ultimately, this group really didn't do any better than those that had come before.
Suffice it to say, Eren doesn't take this well. With no one to protest, Eren transforms and the two titans duke it out. It's a fairly fast paced fight, but Eren is still able to internally monologue about his survivor's guilt and how it was a mistake not to transform. You can understand his logic, but given the way the fight goes, it may have been a moot point.
As to the fight itself, I'm ambivalent. As said before, it's fast and seeing two big monsters throw down is quite entertaining. Still, neither side lands a hit. The female titan is fast enough to dodge all of Titan-Eren's attacks and the female titan doesn't really go on the offensive a whole lot. The only injuries Eren sustains are due to his fists hitting things when the female titan dodges his punches. As well directed and choreographed as the fight is, it feels hollow because nothing much of substance actually happens for a significant chunk of it.
Ultimately, Eren loses and ends up getting eaten. Like the fight itself, one can be of two minds on this. One, the show already had this happen, so it's not like we're going to fall for it again. To the episode's credit, though, it does have Mikasa witness the whole thing and conclude that Eren is still alive. She's still shocked and angry at what she saw, but at least we all know (both in and out of universe) that Eren can and will come back.
Even if there was no casualty in the fight per se, it still doesn't bode well. Eren's titan form was supposed to be the nuclear option or the godzilla threshold. If the female titan can beat that as easily as she did, than the remnants of humanity have a real problem and no viable solution.
Mikasa makes a valiant effort to get her friend back, but the titan's defenses are still too effective. To her credit, though, she fared just as well as Levi's team, only with the good fortune to have Levi pull her back before things could go awry.
The two do continue their pursuit from a distance as they do still plan on getting Eren back. Levi just wants to bide his time as the titan seems to be exhausting itself. It makes sense, as tough as it is, the titan has had a rough go of it as of late. It would make sense that it could only withstand so much. It gives the heroes a small nugget of hope despite the terrible odds right now.
All in all, the episode worked, but it still feels like it could have been more. It's a shame that they completely wasted the potential of having a psychopath lurking and stalking the team. That made for a great cliffhanger and it would have been a nice way to change things up, but what we see here works well enough. The titan fight was also simultaneously entertaining and disappointing. Having either of the two monsters actually land a couple of hits probably would have helped. The episode did still manage to keep me entertained and engaged throughout, though, so I can't say that it was a total bust.
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