Review: Attack on Titan Episode 426, “Traitor”

Floch and the Jaegerists have taken over the port on Paradis Island. They’re holding Kiyomi Azumabito and the engineers hostage and rigging the flying boat to explode at the first sign of trouble. In order to have any hope of stopping Eren, our heroes have to clear them out of the harbor, but there’s disagreement on how to do that. We get kind words from former enemies and harsh words from former friends in this week’s episode of Attack on Titan, “Traitor.”

The episode opens with Hange and Magath spying on the dockyard and basically relaying everything that I just did. The flying boat remains intact for now, though the Jaegerists have rigged it with bombs. It is vital that the flying boat remain undamaged, or else all hope of chasing Eren is gone.

This is a really well-balanced episode with about equal parts introspective drama and action. We’ve got the clear goal of needing to save the flying boat from the Jaegerists, and the first half of the episode is a conflict between the Eldian and Marleyan sides debating how to do it. It’d be easy enough to kill them all, but the Eldians don’t want to raise their weapons against their former comrades.

“Traitor” has action and character development in equal measure

We get some interesting developments out of this. General Magath gives a surprising speech where he expresses regret over the history of unnecessary  war that has led to this point, and the damage it has done to both sides. But he argues that this act of violence is necessary. As the two sides argue back and forth, we don’t get any of the hostility or aggressiveness that was there around the campfire. They still have their differences, but they’ve learned to work together and respect each other, at least.

Armin, naturally, comes up with a plan to rescue the flying boat without killing any Jaegerists: convince Floch that the Armor and Cart Titans are swimming away and that they need the flying boat and its crew of captured Azumabito engineers to catch them. Sneaky sneaky Armin.

But alas, Floch and many of the other Jaegerists aren’t so quickly sold. However, they agree to at least disarm the explosives.  Their cover is blown when Mikasa breaks in to to the building where Floch is holed up to stop him from killing Lady Azmabito. After that, Floch sounds the alarm, Annie and Reiner transform, and the guards that Armin and Conny had just tricked toto disarm the flying boat turn their guns on them.

Part of what makes this a good episode is that it’s not just part of a greater whole. “Traitor” has a simple A to B story carried by Armin and Conny. They were very adamant that this mission could be done without spilling the blood of former friends, but in the end they can’t keep to it, as Conny kills the two guards before they can reset the bombs or kill Armin. It’s a gripping bit of drama to end the episode with. Elsewhere, Annie and Reiner become Titans, setting up greater stakes for next week.

This is a solid episode from end to end. How will this skirmish at the harbor conclude? I haven’t read the manga, so I don’t know. So if you are like me, you’ll just have to wait still next Sunday.

Grade: B+ 

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