Attack on Titan Final Season Part 2 - Episode 9 - Yelena Brings Up Everyone's Terrible Acts of Murder

Warning: Spoilers ahead.

Following Attack on Titan Final Season Part 2 - Episode 8, most of this episode takes place sitting around a campfire. Is it filler? Guess you can argue it isn’t.

It begins with Jean thinking how wonderful his life would be if he just sided completely with the Yeagerists. All he has to do is ignore that Hange is knocking on his window, telling him to meet up outside.

But he doesn’t. He meets with her, and Mikasa is there, too. They debrief each other. Mikasa is on board with stopping Eren. But Jean plays devil’s advocate, saying Eren’s plan saves their people and home from being destroyed by the world. But Hange won’t listen. She believes genocide is not an option. Also, she feels responsibility as Commander of the Survey Corps, to all who have fallen. Like Erwin.

So Jean finally agrees. And that’s how they were able to execute the rescue plan in the previous ep.

Cut to the campfire, where you can cut the tension with a knife, just like the potato Hange throws in the stew.

First to antagonize is Magath, calling them island demons. Jean and he spar verbally, about whose side acted immorally first. Magath goes as far back as 2000 years ago.

Hange seems to calm them down. But Annie is the next to bring up a thorny subject. Will Mikasa, Armin, Connie, and Jean even be able to kill Eren?

Mikasa says she wants to stop him without killing him. Which almost sparks a fight between Annie and Mikasa. But Annie accepts her answer and again, they calm down.

Then the focus turns on Yelena. They try to antagonize her to get her to tell them where Eren is going. They believe she would know.

Yelena fires back at most of them, reminding them of the horrible things they’ve done. She’s not the only monster here. And it’s a good way to recap so much of what has happened in this long, complicated story that’s spanned nearly 10 real life years. 

Maybe Yelena says all this because she’s given up and wants it all to burn. Wants everyone to rip each other’s throats out. But Jean actually thanks her. By letting all this stuff out, it clears the air.

One last bomb from Yelena - she brings up the subject of Marco who Annie helped kill. But Reiner reveals he gave the order. He tries to apologize.

That’s the last straw. Jean gets up and starts beating the shit out of Reiner. Then Gabi gets in the way and Jean accidentally kicks her hard in the gut. She bows down, Japanese style, and begs forgiveness for all they’ve done. And begs for their help.

The next day, Jean apologizes to Gabi, but not to Reiner. Reiner’s fine with that.

The Cart Titan scouts ahead and reports that Floch’s Yeagerists have taken the port and Azumabito’s people. Which they need.

Image source: Amazon