Right off the bat, the show changes things up with a new theme song. I'm not crazy about it to be honest. I mean, as a song, it's fine. It just doesn't scream "Attack on Titan". It doesn't even have that trademark chant that the first two theme songs had. It's pretty jarring.
Of course, if this episode is any indicator, it seems like the plot is shifting. There is the occasional reference to the titans, but they almost seem to become an afterthought, as the characters talk about food rations and a potential government conspiracy.
Said conspiracy centers around...Christa's secret heritage? Or the wall? Something about Eren? I don't know. It seems like they're interested in all of it, but I'm not particularly interested as of yet, so it's kind of hard to care. They do kill Hange's informant and make an attempt to kidnap Eren and Christa, so they're not messing around, but it feels like a strange turn for the show.
Things do pick up, as Mikasa and crew's rescue attempt goes off without a hitch. The fact that the perps had nabbed body doubles shows that this was just a ploy to draw out their enemies. It was good tactics on Levi's part and both Mikasa and Sasha get some nice highlight moments as a result of it. Poor Armin, though. That must have been awkward on several levels.
There is an interesting plot twist, as Levi realizes that this has been too easy and maybe the players were really the playees. He suspects somebody else is involved. This leads to the revelation that, apparently, Levi used to live with a serial killer. Said killer is Levi's prime suspect and it turns out that he's 100% right.
This was a bit of a clunky twist, but it isn't helped by the fact that the killer's nom de guerre is "Kenny the Ripper". Using "the ripper" alone was eye roll inducing enough, but Kenny isn't the most menacing name they could have picked. I'm not sure what name would have worked, to be honest, but that name doesn't exactly strike fear into the viewer's hearts.
It's a shame too, because otherwise, Kenny has a lot of potential as an adversary. He's clearly cunning and capable, but he also has a personal connection (and a vendetta from the sound of it) with one of the main cast. He might just be a hired gun or he might be an independent wild card, we don't know. The fact that he seems to have a squad backing him up would suggest the prior, but it could still go either way. Unlike the government stuff, this has a lot more intrigue behind it and it ends up being the more engaging plot element.
Overall, though, I found this episode to be disappointing. After such a long break, this episode needed more umph. There are still 23 more episodes, leaving plenty of room for plot progression, but alas, this wasn't the most auspicious start.
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