WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Season 4, Episode 2 of Attack on Titan, "Midnight Train," now streaming on Crunchyroll, Funimation, Hulu and Amazon Prime.
The four year time skip between Season 3 and Season 4 of Attack on Titan is likely going to continue being a point of intrigue and frustration for anime viewers. On one hand, it's a good way to shift the plot along at a faster pace but on the other, the longer we're in Marley with no clue as to what Eren and Co. have been doing for almost half a decade, the more restless fans will become about being left in the dark. The Survey Corps, after all, have been our main point of entry into Hajime Isayama's bleak fantasy world up until now so it's jarring to suddenly lose that perspective.
There is some light on the horizon, though. Episode 2 of the fourth and final season offers some small but notable insight into what the inhabitants of Paradis Island have been up to, and in the process, hammers home just why Zeke and others in the Marleyan military are so desperate to attempt to invade the Island again. Paradis Island is not just an irritation on Marley's horizon anymore -- Eren and the Survey Corps have been upgraded to an active threat.
Now that the Mid-East Allied Forces have been squashed, the nation is keen to crush its most hated and feared enemy. Paradis Island is not only a key Eldian stronghold -- the Titan-powered race most of the world despises -- but it's also where the Eldian royal family has had the Founding Titan under lock and key for a full century. In order to keep its dominance, Marley wants all Nine Titans under its control but most importantly, it wants the Founding Titan's power to shape the fast-advancing modern world. As we discovered through Grisha Jeager's memories in Season 3, Marley has been plaguing the island with a steady flow of Pure Titans for decades, culminating in Zeke's Warrior Unit going undercover there for five years in an effort to locate the Founding Titan -- an operation that was ultimately unsuccessful thanks to the Survey Corps.
To make matters worse, the Paradisians took the power of the Colossal Titan back from Marley, refortified the Walls, and the whereabouts of the Female Titan are still unknown. Season 3 ended with Eren, Mikasa, Armin and a handful of other Scouts finally reaching the ocean separating them from their true enemy -- which Eren personally identified. Now, in "Midnight Train," Zeke informs his comrades, and the audience, that this ocean has been the stage of constant warfare in the intervening years. Over 30 ships have been sent from Marley to Paradis Island and none have returned. Not only this, but Eren Jaeger's name is on the lips of Marley's top brass, clearly marking him out as Enemy Number One.
It's clear to Marley that the "island devils" are deploying Titans of their own to defend themselves, and while this is the only update we get on what's been happening on the other side of the ocean so far, it's still a tantalizing one. Starting out the final season of Attack on Titan in enemy territory might seem like an unusual choice for fans, but just as Season 4 promotional's material told us, this last section of the story is intended to subvert how things started. Having spent so long cruelly under Marley's thumb, ignorant of their enemy's plans, Paradis is now giving the motherland a taste of its own medicine. Anime fans will just have to have faith that the payoff will be worth that wait.
