Boy howdy, it's been a looooong time since we last talked about this one. Part of this is the usual schedule slip. I did lose interest in the show's new direction. Though before deciding to continue, I did go back and rewatch it from the beginning and that took a bit of time as well. The good news is that this won't be an "I haven't seen this in forever, so I have no idea what's going on" type of post.
Here we see the scouts start to gain their credibility back through the trial of Erwin. He pleads his case and says that humanity needs the scouts to act as an offensive means against the titans. Apparently, the government just wants to hunker down. This would be a viable option if it wasn't already abundantly clear that the walls don't really act as an adequate defense against the monsters. Oddly enough, this never comes up. The officials seem to think that the wall will work and that the titans will eventually lose interest as their food supply dwindles.
Sure enough, the council does get word of a titan attack that has resulted in the breach of Wall Rose. The soldiers in the room get ready to gear up and roll out, but the higher ups order that the gates be sealed and that those outside the wall be left for dead. After all, if they got in, they could start an uprising.
This decision ends up biting the council as the whole thing is revealed to be a ruse. Still, it is all the proof Erwin needs to show that they are acting in their own interests rather than those of the people. They have an official law that says that you have to put humanity above yourself. It was something Erwin himself was being charged with and the turnabout is quite satisfying to watch. I have to admit, implementing a similar law for government officials might not be such a bad idea. The death sentence is a bit much but having a similar protocol at least in general concept could theoretically yield positive results. That's neither here nor there, though.
It's a pretty dramatic and triumphant moment as several characters get to deliver big speeches to rousing music. The looks on the council's faces (a mix of shock, anger, and fear) help sell it. The real showstealer though is the king. He looks utterly bored. His facial expression doesn't change at all, and he just rests his face on his palm through the whole thing. It actually becomes a little amusing to see, as it stands in stark contrast to everything happening around him. The reveal that he was actually asleep gives some explanation, though the guy's eyes were clearly open.
Oddly enough, Erwin starts to question his plan once they end up winning. He starts to think that this new path is uncharted and maybe sticking with the "devil they know" might have been better. It was a little forced, but maybe the writers were trying to plant a seed for future plot development, who knows?
The scouts themselves are happy to be free and clear. Now that they aren't fugitives anymore, they can set their sights on getting Eren back.
It is at this point that Hange drops an exposition dump about Historia's family and the circumstances surrounding their deaths. We got some of this before, but with new information, Hange thinks that they may have ties to titans. It's a pretty well done scene, with ominous organ music to accompany the whole thing. It is clearly meant to set the stage for the next couple of episodes, but it does help tie the government stuff with the larger conflict.
Overall, this episode was OK. I'm still not all that vested in the nuts and bolts of the city's political landscape, but this was well paced, had some highlight moments, and it does seem like we're moving back towards the show's main conflict. We'll see how things play out, though.
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