Attack On Titan Season 1 Episode 4 Recap – The Night of the Closing Ceremony: Humanity’s Comeback, Part 2

The Graduates

Two years after Eren and the others joined the Corps, Sadies takes them deep into the woods while carrying heavy gear in the rain. After noticing Armin lag behind, Reiner takes his pack and tells him to move quickly. This causes Armin some guilt, so he grabs back his pack and runs to catch up with the front group.

Soon they find a titan dummy, and everyone moves in to cut off part of its nape. More dummies appear and each one takes a turn circling it while slicing its weak point. Sadies inspects each and every one of his cadets and marks their strengths and weaknesses. Armin is physically weak but praised for his wits. Eren was slow at first but managed to catch up with sheer determination. Mikasa, on the other hand, is proficient at every level. She’s a real and unprecedented talent.

Later, they form into pairs and practice fighting in close combat. Eren thinks it’s unnecessary considering their gigantic foes, but Reiner tells him a soldier must be ready for other situations. Reiner points to Annie and wants to punish her for slacking off when the commander isn’t looking.

Eren sees that she’s entirely mad and quite different from before. Reiner tells him to spar with her, and she quietly accepts. She kicks Eren in the shins and throws him down in the next round. Reiner takes his turn to spar with her and ends up on the dirt.

Contradictions

Annie tells Eren that all of this is pointless. They aren’t graded on hand-to-hand combat, and only the top ten students can join the Military Police. Those who want to face titans are better off not going seriously instead. She calls it all a fabricated lie and doesn’t want to fall into the trap of being a soldier.

Eren then realizes that trying so hard in this test will get them farther from his goal. Later that night, Jean and Marco talk about living a comfy life in the interior once they get to the Military Police. Eren calls them out for it since there’ll be no more interior when the titans attack. He spits on the idea of learning to fight titans just to get away from them.

The two clash once again, but Eren realizes he can do more than let his emotions get the best of him. So he composes himself and uses Annie’s move to hurl Jean to the ground. He insults Jean’s reasoning for joining the cadets as he’s down.

Two hundred eighteen of the cadets went on to reach graduation. They’ll have three options: to join the Garrison Regiment who guards the walls, the Scout Regiment who venture out, and the Military Police who serve under the king.

Reunion

They soon announce the top ten cadets, which include Mikasa and Eren. Everyone is surprised at Eren’s choice to join the Scouts despite his standing. One of them tells him humanity can’t defeat titans. Eren admits they’re losing, but only because they lack information. He swears on his dream to drive out all of the titans from the walls.

Jean stares at him, still bent on joining the Military Police. Eren is joined by Armin and Mikasa outside, who also plan on joining him with the scouts.

During their first job, Eren is surprised to see Connie and Sasha join the ranks as well, perhaps due to Eren’s previous speech. Even Sashia is with them, bringing a stolen hunk of meat from the kitchens. They all swear to have some more meat when they manage to free humanity.

Five years have passed without any incident, but then the Colossal Titan appears behind Eren and kicks the wall once again. Eren rallies his squad and aims for the titan up ahead.

Our Thoughts

The pacing has been great so far. Rating: 3.8/5