I have to say, I'm liking these episode titles much more than I did those we saw in the first season. It's much less of a hassle.
Beyond that, though, this episode is something of a disappointment. Of all the various plot threads that the last episode introduced, this one doesn't really advance any of them. Scouts are still frantically preparing for an oncoming horde of titans while Eren and Levi attempt to press the priest for information regarding the titan walls to no avail.
As Sasha races to her old village, she flashes back to her pre-scout life. It turns out that Sasha was a far different beast back in the day. She was a solitary hunter, who was more focused on protecting the forest than humanity.
The way the episode was structured, I thought that the ensuing scenes were still in flashback. It's one of the problems of doing non-linear story telling without clearly indicating the shifts in time.
Knowing that it was present day Sasha does help explain the jarring shift in Sasha's demeanor (and also justifies another flashback during Sasha's attempted escape,) though even taking her more current persona into account, it still seems like it comes out of left field.
Still, it's a step up as Sasha shows more courage, competence, and heroism than she had prior. We see her rescue a young girl (who bears a freakish resemblance to Armin, so much so that I thought it was him during his youth, again I thought this was still a flashback) from a titan.
We even see that she's pretty capable with a bow and arrow. After this episode, it makes sense, what with the whole "hunter" thing. I couldn't help but think that Sasha would have fared better with "trick" arrows, but they don't really make much sense in this setting. It's a pity, trick arrows are cool.
The arrows are obviously unable to kill the titan, but she is able to blind it, giving her and the child enough time to reunite with other villagers and escape. Having Sasha's father let his daughter know how proud he was of her was a rather tender scene. It's brief, but it's still fairly memorable.
On other fronts, fellow scout Conny finds himself in a similar situation, returning home hoping that the titans didn't get there. Of course, they did. Alas, his village didn't fare so well as it seems that everybody is gone. It's a harrowing moment as the shock hits Conny like a ton of bricks. Said shock only gets worse when he sees a still living titan....stuck on its back like a turtle. I still find it very strange how the titans go back and forth between menacing and goofy and stupid.
It's made worse by later dialogue that reveals that the titan's legs are too skinny and weak to even support its weight. It begs the question of how it got there in the first place. I'm guessing hurricane force winds carried it out there, but we'll see. It's not quite as tantalizing a mystery as the beast titan in all honesty. This one seems a bit too doofy, but who knows? It might bear some fruit later on in the season.
While it was nice to see Sasha get the spotlight and some character development, I don't know if it was enough to save the episode. It seemed like a majority of this was padding. Considering the season is already half of its predecessor in terms of episode count, it seems like the time could have been used better. Still, fleshing out the other member of the cast is sure to pay dividends in the future, so we'll see how things play out.
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