Attack is back with a nice breather episode after the action packed last episode.  Here are my thoughts on episode 33 named The Hunters.

This episode was definitely a slower one and one that many fans did not like as much, but I actually really like this episode especially the epic scene in the end.  Before I get into the events of the episode, I wanted to say a few things about this episode.  People did not like the slower moments and flashbacks in this episode, but I think that Attack on Titan has excellent story telling in it and pacing has a lot to with this.  This episode I felt was a good look of the aftermath of what happened with the colossal and armored titans as well as getting a look into what is going on with the other scout members.  I think they did a really good job in this aspect.  If anything, I would definitely say that this is a Hannes centric episode.  Now let’s get to the actual recap.

Armin, Mikasa and the Scouts at the wall

So this episode I split into two parts as we got scenes from two different groups of people in different locations.  The first starts off right where the last episode ends at Wall Rose.  The colossal titan breaks off from the wall and crashes down on the armored titan and Eren’s titan.  This overwhelms Eren to which the armored titan takes advantage of this and rips Eren out of the nape of Eren’s titan’s neck and abducts Eren.

The crash of the colossal sends out a blast wave that severally injures several of the Scout regiment members that are in the blast radius which includes Mikasa.  With many members of this group of Scouts injured and their horses stuck on the other side of the wall, they have no choice but to watch the armored titan run away with Eren in his mouth and with Bertholdt, who has changed back, holding a still unconscious Ymir.

Mikasa is one of the ones severally injured and she is knocked out for five hours.  When she does come to, she immediately asks a nearby Armin where Eren is.  Armin tells her the sad the truth of their situation.  Mikasa still wants to go after Eren right away until Armin talks some sense into her.  There is nothing she nor any of them can do until they get their back up and they get pulleys and levers to lift the horses over Wall Rose since there is clearly no hole to go through.

They are then met with by Hannes. Hannes reminds them that they have to eat even though Armin and Mikasa don’t really feel like eating.  We then get a flashback to time in Armin, Mikasa and Eren’s childhood.  In fact, this flashback takes place just prior to when the colossal titan attacks the first time as we see the first encounter that Eren has with the bullies that were attacking Armin in the first episode.

In this flashback, Eren is confronting the bullies alone for taking food from Armin which was Armin’s family’s food ration.  The bullies could give two fucks about that and taunt Eren to which reacts as Eren usually reacts: he gets angry and gets into a fight.  The fight takes place in the middle of the open aired market, and a nearby vendor calls for the boys to stop fighting.  When they don’t, he calls out to nearby Garrison regiment members to break it up, and who would those members be but the Drunk Hannes and his friends from the first episode.

Hannes doesn’t get up to break up the fight as he says that help will be on the way.  And just as he predicted, here comes Mikasa with Armin right behind her as she charges the three bullies.  Mikasa jumps right into the fray and this fight turns into a full on brawl as Mikasa takes on all three bullies with Eren trying to help.

The fight starts to get bad when they start wrecking the complaining vendor’s stall.  The vendor gets angry that the Garrison has not stepped in yet and he chucks a bottle at Hannes’s group who are playing cards.  Hannes drunk friend gets up to confront the vendor and is being held back by Hannes.  The vendor takes a swing, but accidentally hits Hannes instead of his drunk friend.

Now Hannes and the Vendor are squaring off as the kids are still fighting.  Both fights are abruptly interrupted when a member of the military police jumps in and breaks them up.  The bullies see the things have really gotten out of control and run away to which Eren chases after them despite Armin trying to stop him.

Some fans did not like this flashback, but I thought it added a lot to Hannes’s character and to the bond the trio has.  We get to see that Eren was a reckless hothead even before he lost his mother and Armin and Mikasa have always been there to clean up his messes.  We also got to see that Hannes has some fighting spirit in him which I think greatly adds to his character.  Most people remember him as the man who was too scared to fight the titan in the first episode and because of that Eren’s mother died.  Do I think he really had a chance against that titan?  No, and I also think his decision saved Eren and Mikasa’s lives.  He made the smart choice versus the emotional one.

Back to the episode.  The flashback ends and Hannes reminds the downtrodden Mikasa and Armin that, even though Eren is not the best fighter and often loses fights, he does not ever give up fighting. He tells them that Eren will not give up resisting the armored and colossal titan which gives Mikasa hope that they may still catch up to them.  Hannes has this moving speech how he wants to get back the days when the three of them are together and Hannes was known as a drunken layabout as the Garrison was known before the attack.  He wants those days back and pledges to give his life to get Eren back.  He then tells them that he is coming with them on the hunt to save Eren, and he tells them that they have to eat if they plan on keeping up their strength to fight.  Armin and Mikasa are encouraged by this speech and they voraciously eat their food.

It is at this point that Commander Erwin, the reinforcements and the apparatus to hoist the horses over the wall arrives on top of the very wall they are on.  They rode the top of Wall Rose to this point.  They immediately begin hoisting the horses stranded on the relatively safe side of the wall to the other side of the wall.

Commander Erwin, Levi and the Military Police

This part starts with a sleeping Pixis.  He is waiting on top of Wall Rose for the return of Hannes and his squad to report about the hole in the wall, but even he knows that there will be no hole.He has a funny interaction with one of his female aide that really adds some humor and levity to his character. Pixis then meets Erwin Smith, Commander of the Scout Regiment, and they discuss what their next move is.

Meanwhile at the base of the wall, soldiers from all three regiments are on standby including a few squads from the Military Police.  The Military Police are swaggering around and criticizing how there are no titans and that they are wasting their time.  One of the members of the military police jokingly asks Levi, who is nearby, where he is hiding the titans.  Levi very directly tells him that he is sorry to disappoint him, but if the military police wanted to come with them outside the walls they would get to fight their fair share of titans.  This promptly shuts the military police up.

The next moment a garrison member arrives to deliver the news of the attack of the armored and colossal titan.  Sasha is with him as the news is delivered, and she knows the truth about Reiner, Bertholdt and Ymir.  When Jean hears that there are three more titans amongst the rookies, he is furious and wants to know who they are, but is not told.

Erwin and Levi form a plan to head to the wall to support the scout members along with the military police squads.  They ingeniously take their horses and carts of levers and pulleys along the top of the wall.  When they get to where the wounded Scout members are, they begin lifting the horses from one side of the wall to the other.  Hange points out the most logical place for the armored and colossal titan to rest is a forest nearby.  She correctly theorizes that after their fight with Eren, the armored and colossal titans will need a place they can rest and stay out of the hands of titans.

And I say that Hange correctly theorizes where Reiner and Bertholdt may be at the moment because we briefly get to see a scene with Eren, Ymir, Reiner and Bertholdt in the tree tops of the very forest Hange pointed out.  Eren awakes to find that both his arms have been bitten off by Reiner and are in the process of growing back.  He also sees Ymir awake and her leg is also healing.

The episode ends epically as the united formation charges towards the forest as they go on the hunt for the armored and the colossal titan.  The use of the music and the cool end shot of this charge really hits you hard in the feels as they head towards what will be one of the greatest confrontations of this season and I can’t wait.