Attack On Titan: Final Season – Part 4 Recap, Review & Ending Explained

The Battle of Heaven and Earth

Part 4 of Attack On Titan: Final Season (Season 4) begins with Armin asking Eren in what way he is free. They attack but realise that the Beast Titan is an empty husk and Zeke is hidden somewhere else. Armin is ready to blow Eren’s skeletal titan body apart but is suddenly eaten up by a titan controlled by Ymir. 

Why do the scouts’ plan change?

Armin is taken to the back of the skeleton with several titans blocking the path. The scouts realise that they are all past generations of old pure titans like Porco resurrected by Ymir to form an army. 

Pieck breaks away from their mission and plants bombs on Eren’s neck. However, a titan stabs her before she can detonate them. Meanwhile, Armin feels hopeless as he figures that the attack against them is not by Eren but the invincible Ymir. He sees Bertholdt crying as his titan bites off Reiner’s head.

Jean barely saves Reiner who says to let go so he can transform one last time. Jean teases him that for an Armored Titan, he gets smashed up a lot. Elsewhere, Levi saves Connie but hurts his leg. 

A determined Mikasa tries to save everyone alone but a winged titan shows up behind her and grabs the scouts. Turns out, the titan is Falco who has arrived with Annie and Gabi as they refuse to stay on the sidelines. Annie jokes that Mikasa’s friends are always getting captured.

Levi comes up with a new plan – one group rescues Armin as they need the Colossal Titan’s explosion. The other group attacks Eren. Connie and Jean agree and say while they don’t want to give up on Eren, they cannot win if they hold back even if it means killing him. Annie gauges a distraught Mikasa’s feelings and tells her to focus on Armin.

Is there a stand-off between the Eldians and Marleyans?

Meanwhile, the plane crashes at Fort Salta and the Eldians rescue an unresponsive Onyankopon. The Marleyans suddenly pull out their guns as Leonhart asks for supplies to save Onyankopon. Muller then shows up with a gun. 

Are the scouts able to execute their plan?

Pieck escapes as a human and transforms again. She saves Jean who is trying to get to the detonator. The Jaw Titan destroys her titan but she keeps transforming again and again to escape and attack. Reiner, who is supposed to provide cover, is almost down while raging at Ymir for using Bertholdt as a puppet.

Falco, Levi, Gabi, Mikasa, Annie and Connie reach the tailbone with the girls bickering over what type of titan has Armin (it’s an Okapi). Gabi wants to help with the rifle but Levi stops her. He wants to fight Zeke too but knows with his injured leg he will fail. He thinks about how he always followed Erwin’s order but this last one to take down Zeke is where he will fail. 

The Okapi escapes to the neck and Annie’s titan throws Mikasa in its direction. She almost takes down all the titans in her way but breaks her blades and falls. Annie saves her and Connie says they have to stay together as they are surrounded.

How do Armin and Zeke turn the tide?

The rest of the world all pray and try to escape the millions of Wall Titans. As many fall off a cliff, they try to save a baby by passing it away from the edge, only for the infant to head towards the Wall Titans.

Armin tries to get his body to move but is unable. He touches sand and realises he is not dead but in the Paths. He spots Zeke who points out that they have been eaten by Ymir.

Zeke thinks that there is no escape but Armin doesn’t give up. He sees a leaf and recalls his memories with Eren and Mikasa. For Zeke, it turns into a ball as his precious memory is playing catch with his mentor, Tom. They suddenly see the other generations of pure titans like Tom, Marcel, Porco, Grisha, Eren Kruger and Ymir (the Eldian).

Outside, the scouts are down and surrounded. At that moment, Bertholdt saves Annie, and Porco and Marcel save Jean and Pieck. Levi and Gabi shoot the Okapi while Mikasa cuts its jaws allowing Annie to catch Armin. Zeke too pops up from one of the bones and taunts Levi.

They are all confused by the pure titans taking their side and Armin explains what happened. All Eldians are connected in the Paths. He and Zeke took advantage of it and woke up all the past pure titans, asking for their help. As Zeke enjoys the breeze, Levi beheads him stopping the Rumbling. 

Why do the scouts think they have won?

Jean reaches Eren’s neck and detonates the bombs. The head falls and the skeleton which turns into a glowing centipede tries to connect with the head but Reiner stops it. The scouts escape on Falco as Armin thanks the pure titans and transforms, causing an explosion. 

Armin and Reiner pop up unscathed while the rest of the scouts reach Fort Salta. Falco and Gabi reunite with their parents. Muller helps Leonhart and stops the Marleyans from killing the Eldians. Reiner’s mom tells Annie and she runs toward Leonhart, her father.

But their victory is cut short as Eren transforms into a titan again and heads towards the centipede which is the life source anomaly that gives Ymir power. They conclude that to end it for good, they need to kill Eren as Mikasa cries. 

Why do the non-titan scouts stop fighting?

The centipede emits a vapour and everyone has a horrifying realisation – it is the same vapour that turns all of Ymir’s descendants into titans. Only Ackermans, Marleyans and pure titans are immune which has Levi ordering Falco to take him, Pieck and Mikasa to the skies.

Jean and Connie stand side by side joking as to why they decided to join the survey corps before all of them turn into titans including Annie’s father and Gabi. Reiner holds off the centipede as Armin attacks Eren. The newly-turned titans attack Reiner but Pieck and Annie help him. Mikasa cries as Levi says it is up to them to stop Eren. 

What is the meaning of Mikasa and Armin’s dreams?

Mikasa spirals and suddenly she is in a hut with Eren telling her to wake up. He says it has been two months after the Marley war. They are in hiding and he he hopes they can live his last 4 years in peace. She hugs him and he tells her to throw the scarf after he dies. He asks her to forget him and live for a long time. 

Back in the real world, Mikasa ties the scarf and says she cannot do what he asks. She realises that he is in the mouth and Levi clears the way despite his injured leg. She enters the titan’s mouth and beheads Eren. Back in her dream, she says she will see him later and kisses him as Ymir watches.

As for Armin’s dream, he scolds Eren for pushing them away and wonders what his real motives have been all this while. Turns out, Eren wants to make the Paradis scouts heroes for saving all of humanity so that Marley and the rest of the world don’t target them. 

He also explains Ymir’s motives – she stayed loyal to King Fritz even after he took her tongue and killed her family because she was in love with him. She has been suffering for 2000 years and only Mikasa can save her. Eren also reveals that since he can see the past and future, he tried to change the outcome, but no matter what, the future has been the same — such as him sending the Smiling Titan to kill his mom to save Bertholdt.

He hopes they can all forget him and move on but Armin suddenly punches him. They bicker and Eren breaks down as he reveals he doesn’t want to die or leave them. However, the Rumbling will kill 80% of humanity. This way the rest of civilization will drop to the same level as Paradis and no one will be able to enact revenge.

Armin cries angry tears as Eren says it is his fault that Sasha and Hange died. Armin suddenly says that he is at fault too, he put the idea of a free unoccupied world in Eren’s head. Armin says they will suffer together in hell and hug. As they separate, Eren says he will erase Armin’s memories but he will remember when it is time.

Turns out this conversation had taken place when Armin was on the ship with Annie. Similarly, Mikasa’s dream was also a conversation they had in the Paths which Eren erased.

Does Eren die?

It cuts back to the aftermath and Armin remembers the conversation with Eren. He sees Mikasa holding Eren’s head and starts crying on seeing his dead friend. Mikasa realises that Eren would often visit them. They realise that the outcome Ymir predicted is Mikasa erasing the Power of Titans from the world.

It cuts to Reiner, Jean, Connie and Gabi again turning human. They all realise that Eren had told them this before erasing their memories like him telling Connie that his mother would turn human again. He had also told Annie he hopes that the pure titans will live a long life and her father finally hugs her.

What happens in the aftermath?

Jean and Connie see Sasha’s illusion and tear up. A heavily injured Levi sees his dead comrades and greets them. Reiner reunites with his mother who is glad that he is not a titan anymore.

However, Muller and the Marleyans confront the Eldians, wanting proof that they are not titans anymore. Armin reasons that if they were titans, they would have attacked the Marleyans already on being threatened and he has credibility as he is the one who killed Eren.

As Mikasa quietly sneaks off to bury Eren, she realises Ymir was the one who used to peek into her head. She tells her to rest in peace and Ymir vanishes.

Does Eren’s dream come true?

Historia’s child celebrates her birthday and 3 years have passed. Eldia has formed an army of Jaegerists out of fear that the outside world may want revenge. Eren had confided in Historia that the conflict would never die down and she confesses it to the scouts who are Marley’s ambassadors for peace negotiations.

Reiner fawns over Historia’s letter while Jean is fixated on his hair. Annie is worried that Eldia may be angry at them for betraying them. However, Armin is confident that they won’t be killed as everyone will be curious to know what went down. Levi has retired and looks after the refugee kids while Onyankopon helps him.

As the scouts arrive in Paradis, Mikasa waits for them by Eren’s tombstone. He is buried under the tree on the hill. A bird suddenly fixes her scarf and she thanks it, calling it Eren.

In the epilogue, over the years, they visit Eren’s tombstone. Mikasa dies of old age. The island modernizes. There is war and a bomb blast destroys everything including the tree. Years later, a kid and a dog find a new tree in that same spot.

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The Episode Review

And that’s all folks, the end of an era. Attack On Titan Season 4 Part 4 finally marks the end of this generational anime. And it ends on a high note with exciting fight sequences that take our breath away, sudden jokes that lighten the heavy atmosphere and the bittersweet philosophical discourse that elevates the anime. 

Despite the constant action in the first half, it also allows interactions between the characters, showing us new dynamics and preventing the finale from getting too dark and heavy. However, we can’t help but think back to the shot of the people trying to save the infant from falling off the cliff only to be taken towards Wall Titan, talk about being between a rock and a hard place, literally.

The finale had more of such jaw-dropping highlights including Mikasa with literal wings at her back and Annie throwing Mikasa who whizzes towards the Okapi.

The episode also keeps us on our toes, straying away from predictable moments with back-to-back plot twists such as the second attack with the centipede and Eren’s erased conversations. Eren’s actions make sense but we also can’t help but get frustrated with him and the path he chose. Well, that is the allure of a well-etched-out grey character, huh?

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Read our season 4 review of Attack On Titan here!