This image seems appropriate for the episode. We find the recruits finishing up the jobs of rifling through the dead for their identities and facing the choice of which branch to enter. A very good mix of a conversation during 3D gear inspection and a flashback to a pyre covers the gamut of most of our MC.
Annie herself makes an excellent point of confronting the point of asking someone which branch to join with the counter question of "If someone ordered you to die would you want to?" The point obviously being for each to make up their own mind.
Armin impresses her with his own answer, a rare moment of surprise from Annie. She herself bluntly states she wants to survive. It is Jean that surprises as well with his reversal of joining the Recon Corp. It is not the the confident declaration of Eren, but a more humbling realization that he knows what he wants to do in the aftermath of Trost and all the friends he lost.
Commander Erwin is the dominant part of this episode at the ceremony to convince cadets to join him on the next expedition in a months time to take Eren to his basement and hopefully some answers.
He gives a very brutal rundown of the statistics of the last 4 years and the prospects of what is to come. Characters on both sides wonder why he is being so forthright and frightening, but I think it is an excellent time for this. These are not raw cadets with no idea what they are looking at, they have already faced the nightmare and now need solid truth slapped at them again.
No shocks that the majority leave when told they are free to go, but aside from Annie, all the cadets we have come to know are now in the Recon Corps. Mikasa and Armin never wavered but this episode did a good job of showing that while the others made their choice, it was not an easy one by any stretch.
We also get a confrontation between the newly minted Recon Corps members and Eren about his instability as a Titan. Eren does not try to defend his failures, but neither is he rejected by them. Jean makes an excellent argument that going in with eyes fully open, everyone can make the informed decision about what they may be asked to die for.
Shockingly it is Jean that now says he is counting on Eren, not just for the mission, but as so many have been saying as the hope of humanity. Eren himself quietly agrees to take on the burden but his confidence is not as evident as it once was. They are doing an excellent job of showing the humanity in the characters and how it is not going to be easy for them to move forward.
The show ends on a kind of full circle note for Eren, leaving for the mission with small children exclaiming they are cool. We are left feeling like we are on a high note in many respects, but with the humbling cost to get here not forgotten.
Aside from a few personal convos between Eren, Mikasa, and Armin about his Titan abilities I would have loved to have seen as well (they do not exist in the manga either for the record) this episode makes an excellent bridge for the next step. We are moving on from the horror and chaos of Trost to battles of Titans versus Eren and the Recon Corps.
The dark twists to come, that I know of, have chills already going down my spine and I look forward to them. It is one thing to read on a page, but quite another to have these phenomenal voice actors breathe life into them. Get ready for a bumpy ride folks.
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