The second season kicks off and picks up right where the finale left off. Suffice it to say, the people in town are sufficiently freaked out when they see the (apparently still living) titan inside the wall.
Questions are raised, but little is gained in terms of answers. We discover that the church (more specifically, the wall worshipers we had seen in previous episodes) is behind it. Their motives remain unclear, but they appear to remain steadfast in their resolve, as the head pastor is more than willing to let Hange drop him off a rooftop instead of spilling the beans.
The scene was appropriately tense, with Hange showing a much more ruthless side than we're used to. Even her eagerness to dissect titans seemed to be played for laughs at points, but here, she's dead serious. The fact that the pastor is unfazed shows what he's capable of as well. It was a good way to let both characters get a highlight in the same scene.
Alas, there isn't time to dwell on this as titans have breached wall rose. At first, I thought that the titans inside the walls were breaking out, but that doesn't appear to be the case. If it is, then they never made that clear. Again, I don't think so, but it was a possibility.
I'm not sure why the episode bothered flashing back 12 hours after this announcement. It didn't really add anything and actually makes things more confusing, as now we don't know what block of time we're in anymore. I think it's safe to say that the next couple of episodes are going to cover the next 12 hours, but I could be wrong on that front.
In any event, we get a large chunk of time dedicated to seeing the scouts scrambling to get ready, evacuate citizens and prepare for another incursion. We, once again, have lengthy sequences where characters are racing on horseback. Given the circumstances and the intense music, it's hardly boring, but it does seem like a case of poor time management.
It was nice to see Sasha Braun get some significant screen time. The early episodes made it seem like she'd be one of the show's front runners, but she kind of got pushed to the background. Between this episode and the preview for the next one, it seems like the writers are attempting to remedy that.
The real show stealer, though, is the titular "beast titan". It's another "abnormal" that looks like a gigantic sasquatch. I was worried that this was going to seem repetitive, but we learn that this titan is unlike anything we've seen to date, and for more reasons than the increased amount of body hair.
Where the female titan was a cold, ruthless, and unstoppable murder machine that had counter-measures for everything that the scouts threw at it; this titan is rather curious and chatty.
....
That's right, chatty, this titan talks. Mike, the scout who is approached is as surprised and freaked out as the viewer likely is.
To the titan's credit, he does seem rather amicable. When one of the other titans starts to take a bite out of Mike, the beast orders it to stop. When said order falls on deaf ears, the beast titan kills its subordinate so that the two can continue to hold palaver.
This shouldn't give you the idea that the titan is on humanity's side. Not only does he brutally and needlessly kill a horse; but while the titan does ask about the tech that the scouts use, it has the other titans consume Mike once their done, rather gruesomely even for this show, without giving it a second thought. It makes for a great episode ending. I wouldn't call it a cliffhanger, but it's a wham moment, to be sure.
Overall, this episode was a mixed bag. It did a lot right, but there were some notable missteps. The chronologically non-linear approach was pointless and it seems like there could have been more progress on the "wall titans". The big scene at the end really changed things up and got me interested to see how things play out from here, though. I have a feeling that the beast titan is going to make for a great villain. It should be fun to watch.
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