After the last phenomenal episode 6, Attack on Titan is back.  Here are my thoughts on this action packed episode 32 (episode 7) named Close Combat.

Season 2 of Attack on Titan has yet to disappoint as I watched another great episode.  I still love episode 6 of Season 2 (or episode 31) the best so far, but this episode was a nice action packed counter part.  As see in the last episode, fans got the sad reveal of who the armored and colossal titans were.  Last we saw, Reiner as the armored titan was sliding down the wall holding a captured Eren.  In the last moment, Eren transforms into his titan.

Well one would expect this episode to pick up straight into the fight, but it didn’t.  This episode started with a flashback to a scene fans saw in episode 3 of Attack on Titan that established Reiner and Bertholdt as friends to Eren.  It was an emotional scene to see after Reiner and Bertholdt’s betrayal.  I feel like Reiner’s betrayal was worse that Bertholdt’s.  Bertholdt, like Annie, remained quite aloof from the other cadets whereas Reiner became everyone’s big brother.  He even recently pulled a superman move and saved Connie.  So seeing this flashback in light of this betrayal was a sad reminder.

The fight, though, kicks off almost immediately with Eren transforming and punching Reiner.  This is really the only good punch he gets in this episode.  Traditional fist fighting is what Eren goes for, but it is not something that will work on the armored titan.  He realizes this after he keeps getting knocked out by Reiner while his punches do nothing to Reiner and his armor.  Even Mikasa’s swords have no effect on Reiner.

And Reiner is determined to get Eren.  Armin can see this and tells Eren several times not to fight the armored titan.  Reiner’s armor makes his titan slower than Eren, but it is also nearly impossible to land a good blow on him.

Meanwhile, Hange and the rest of the scouts are on the wall watching the colossal titan, who is only partially formed and sitting on the wall.  The colossal grabs Ymir and a dead scout soldier and throws them in his mouth presumably for safe keeping.

The scouts on the wall are regrouping and Historia (Christa) is helping a wounded soldier.  She asks a nearby soldier to please try and save Ymir.  Connie is also nearby and is also helping soldiers wounded from the colossal and armored titans’s transformation.  He asks the same soldier to try and save Reiner and Bertholdt as they have no ODM gear.  This part made my heart break a little as Connie did not see the transformation and still does not know of Reiner and Bertholdt’s betrayal.  I could see the sad dismay in the seasoned soldier’s face as he makes this request.

As Eren is trying to fight the armored titan on the ground, Hange and her team take on the colossal.  Unlike the armored, the colossal is much slower.  One of the few advantages he really has is his height.  They fly up his arm and go for his neck in an awesome coordinated attack on the colossal.  But right when they have his nape in sight, the colossal titan lets out a cloud of hot steam which is unbearable for the scout regiment soldiers to handle.  They quickly have to retreat from the cloud of steam.

The colossal titan continues to emit a constant smoke screen of steam which acts like a protective barrier for him.  The colossal can’t move or attack, but it can’t be attacked either which is a point made by Armin.  At the moment, the colossal is kept in check.

The real fight is happening below as Eren keeps getting knocked around by the armored titan. Eren is punched and falls onto his back.  While Eren is down, he has a flashback to a moment in their cadet training when he is working on his hand to hand combat with Annie.  Annie was constantly taking Eren down, and at one point had him pinned to the ground.  And that is when a flying Reiner lands on top of Eren.  The person who sent Reiner flying: Mikasa.  Mikasa then challenges Annie to a fight which gets the attention of all the cadets who seem to have been waiting for this fight for awhile.

Unfortunately, fans do not get to see how that fight ended as we are brought back to the present and Eren’s titan gets back up. Reiner goes to punch him and Eren dodges the punch and flips Reiner on his back finally getting an upper hand on him.  This does not last for long though as they tussle on the ground for  a bit.  Soon they are both back up.  Armin tells Eren to get to the wall presumably to use it as a way to protect Eren’s back.  He reminds Eren of Reiner’s goal which is to kidnap Eren.  At first Eren ignores this, but then does exactly as Armin says.

Hange is there as well.  She tells them that the only way they can stop Reiner is to go after the weak spots in his armor which is behind the knee.   Eren and Reiner are separated for a moment as if they were in their separate sides of the boxing ring.  Hange tells Eren’s titan to get Reiner down so that they can attack those weak spots.  Eren’s titan nods and we see the old Hange come out as she blushes with excitement that a titan responded to her command.

At this point, the armored titan breaks off pieces of his armor behind his knee, charges Eren and tackles him.  Eren sees it coming and allows himself to be tackled.  He then puts Reiner in a head lock, and using moves like a pro MMA fighter, Eren wrestles Reiner to the ground.  He keeps Reiner in a head lock and tries to break Reiner’s armor.  Meanwhile, Reiner’s weak spots on the back of the knees are exposed and Mikasa uses her swords to slice them up which greatly weakens Reiner’s ability to get up.

Fans think that Eren has Reiner, but Reiner pulls one last move. Reiner is strong enough to push them both across the ground.  At first, fans and the characters are confused as to why Reiner is doing this.  But then Reiner uses his titan scream which we know pulls in titans.  Luckily, there were no titans left near them.  Unfortunately though for the scout regiment and Eren, Reiner moved himself and Eren just below the colossal titan.

On top of the wall, Connie watches in dismay as the partial colossal titan breaks off from the wall and falls down towards Reiner and Eren.  The episode ends with the colossal titan’s mouth opening to get the both of them.

Now I really liked this episode.  I think some people thought the wrestling moves looked a little weird, but if you think about it that was the exact right way to take on the armored titan.  There was no way Eren would have won in a straight fist fight.  Eren had to pin Reiner down and break that armor.  That was the only way he would have stopped him and I think he would have stopped Reiner if it weren’t for the colossal titan.  This season is definitely heating up as it gets closer and closer to the last few episodes!