English Dub Review: Attack on Titan “Above and Below”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)
Zeke is gravely injured by the explosion but is picked up by an unknown pure Titan who puts his body inside her stomach. Back in Shiganshina, the Jaegerists have fully taken over, with everyone who joined willingly being in the higher ranks while those who accidentally drank the Zeke Spine Wine being conscripted. Yelena explains Zeke’s plan to the Scouts, with Armin pretending to be moved by her speech. Eren meets with Gabi, but is ambushed by Pieck, who then offers to join his side if they can take down Marley, but Eren only offers to take her word if she can point out other infiltrators. However, this proves to be another trap, as Galliard appears with his Jaw Titan and bites Eren’s legs off. Eren transforms into his Attack Titan just in time to see the rest of Marley’s forces, including Reiner, arrive by airship. The final battle begins.

OUR TAKE
To no one’s surprise, the mid-season finale for this final season is…not really a finale at all, no matter what the Toonami Facebook page says. This does make sense, seeing as we do have several manga chapters left to adapt and they have announced the second part of this season to be coming out…NEXT YEAR?! Come ON, dude! The manga is all done, so why not just put it out now?! I distinctly remember Full Metal Alchemist releasing its final chapter and final episode (of Brotherhood) within weeks of each other. Ah well, I haven’t read the manga of this to catch up before, so I’m probably not gonna start now, even if I basically already know the broad strokes of how everything wraps up. But I have to say, it just sucks that this is where we have to stop talking about the series for the rest of the year. It is very much a tease for bigger things to come, though thankfully it leaves with a few more character bits to dissect.

Obviously Zeke got the brunt of development last time, though the place this episode leaves him certainly raises an eyebrow, even knowing what this is connected to. Even more so, actually, since however they cram in the explanation for that is going to be even weirder. The Jaegerist cause (glad I finally learned how to spell them right by the end) is pretty well understood by now since we know Zeke’s plan, though the way they expect the Eldian population to keep things going until they all die out seems like a LOT of wishful thinking, which makes me think that this is probably not how its going to go anyway. And I think it’s fitting that we end this portion of the season with a bit more eye opening for Gabi, who is told straight up by one of her allies that becoming a “good Eldian” under Marley supremacy is a pipe dream within a pipe dream. So at the very least the Eldians within that system have her back, even if there’s still a battle going on. Plus it was neat to get to know Pieck’s allegiances a bit better, since she and Galliard have been a bit sparce on the development side. But alas, this is where we part ways with Attack on Titan for the time being. When we return, we finally see how this epic tale concludes.