“Pain” succeeds as a strong follow-up to the season’s exceptional premiere and the episode ends in a satisfying place where Levi’s team at least knows where to go and there’s the promise of more answers in the form of Historia’s connection to the Reiss family. He’s not exactly excited about his dark turn.
While someone like Levi may view that as the cost of war, Armin struggles with his latest development as a fighter. This isn’t the first time that Eren’s been kidnapped, but the gang feels especially down about their technical “defeat” after what’s gone done as of late.Īrmin finds himself in a particularly dark place as he’s recently taken a life in combat in order to keep his allies alive. While Levi and his team regroup and figure out what to do next, the episode allows some of the series’ typical dread and nihilism to seep into everyone’s actions. Sannes is totally deranged with his convictions, but the irony isn’t lost on Levi that Sannes is as committed to his cause as he is to his own. “Who’s the real monster?” is not a new question for Attack on Titan, but it’s still satisfying to see it get pointed at Levi here in a fresh way. All of this scratches the surface of some interesting, more profound questions when the hostage, Sannes, explains what he and his people are trying to do and that Levi and company seem more excited about torture than some of the most evil people he’s ever met. Thankfully Levi gets some collateral of his own and succeeds in capturing one of Kenny’s squad members, but his interrogation attempts get him nowhere. In spite of Levi’s skills and dedication, Kenny and his crew still complete their task of capturing Eren and Historia. There’s a staggering sequence where Levi goes into berserker mode and takes out a number of Kenny’s troops with scary precision. It’s hard to not view the rest of his team as liabilities at times. His team does a good enough job and survive, but it’s truly Levi that gets the lion’s share of the demolition done. Throughout this attack Levi attempts to keep his squad in check and gives orders to Armin, Jean, and Mikasa as he attempts to juggle all of these balls and not have everything go up in flames. It should be a lot of fun to individually spend time with all of these new madmen. It not only allows more casualties to take place, but his team is just as proficient as he is and they make Levi’s squad feel overwhelmed. It’s great to spend time with this unhinged Bizarro version of Levi, but it’s such a good decision to staff him with a hit squad rather than make his attack one-on-one. While audiences still just get a taste of who Kenny really is, they also get to meet his crew in this episode (think of them as his own personal Black Order). His aesthetic is a mash-up of sensibilities that speaks to his messy past, but it also just looks damn cool for a character design. He’s like if Robocop happened to be a cowboy, which is honestly an idea that I’m surprised has never been done by anybody else before. “Pain” offers up bit of a closer look at Levi’s archenemy, Kenny. So while this battle is quite exciting for the audience, especially with such a lengthy wait between seasons, it also carries the same degree of expectations between Levi and Kenny. In spite of how Levi and Kenny share such an intense history together, they’ve never actually faced off against each other in combat. Not only might this be one of Levi’s first significant losses, but it also happens to come at the worst possible time when the most is on the line, too. Levi is typically someone that can complete any challenge and excels where others fail, so the stakes and pressure that are present from Kenny the Ripper and his squad’s attack aren’t lost on him when he comes home short of a victory. That puts a lot on his shoulders and there isn’t a moment in “Pain” where it doesn’t feel like Levi isn’t crushed down by all of that weight.
Levi faces a large amount of pressure to not only be able to stand up to this intimidating figure from his past, but to also keep his team safe and protect Eren and Historia from the enemy.
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