After last week’s terrible entry in Season 2, I really hoped that the show could pull it together. Episode 10, titled “Children”, served as a rebound from its highly disappointing predecessor. Let’s discuss the episode.
I think that this is definitely on the higher end quality-wise when compared to Season 2’s other episodes, and it certainly isn’t as bad as “Opening”, so that’s a plus. In fact, there were some really interesting plot points brought up. Something I have enjoyed (and mentioned in prior episode recaps) is that Season 2 really dominates when it comes to character development. Certain episodes have chosen to focus mainly on a specific character’s backstory. In “Children”, we get to learn about Ymir’s past, one I have wanted to see for a while. But before I talk about that, the beginning of this episode was very interesting. It turns out that the Titan that Conny spotted lying on top of his house does, in fact, share an exact resemblance to his mother.
As explained in this episode, Ymir was once a beggar on the streets and was taken in by a cultist leader who granted her the name of Ymir and told the cultists that she had the “blood of the king”, which would grant them immortality. When the authorities arrested the cult, Ymir was blamed, and they were all given injections thrown off of the Wall, which transformed them into Titans. Ymir wandered outside the walls and one night, after eating Reiner’s and Bertolt’s friend Marcel, awoke in human form. After hearing about Christa, Ymir wished to find her because she lived a life so alike her own.
Now, the pacing is a bit uneven, because, yet again, this isn’t really an eventful episode, but it works because the season is drawing to a close, and the show needed some crazy stuff to go down near the end. There was, in fact, some crazy stuff that went down. Ymir, in Titan form, of course, captured Christa by eating her. Um…I’m not exactly sure how to respond to that. Basically, the Scouts arrived, and when Christa arrives, BOOM! Ymir lunges at her. So that happened.
Ymir, Bertolt, and Reiner escape with both Eren and Christa captured, and the episode draws to a close, with Hannes commanding the soldiers to once again go after Eren.
THE VERDICT
“Children” has some serious pacing issues, but it was acceptable. We finally learned the truth about how Titans were created, which was incredibly shocking, and interesting. Ymir’s past was explained very well, and I heavily enjoyed this entry. I’m going to give “Children” a 9/10.
Stay tuned for my recap of Episode 11 – “Charge”, which will be the penultimate episode of Season 2.
