WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Attack on Titan Season 4, Episode 17, "Judgment," now streaming on Funimation, Hulu and Crunchyroll.
To say that Attack on Titan returned with a bang would be putting it mildly, as the first episode of the Final Season: Part Two picked up in the middle of an all-out war between Paradis Island and Marley. After Eren and the Survey Corps' successful raid on the Liberio Internment Zone earlier in the season, the various feuding factions on Paradis Island were completely blindsided by Marley's revenge attack. Despite most of Paradis Island's forces being either infected with Zeke's spinal fluid or imprisoned, Eren led his Jaegerists into battle anyway -- and it did not go well.
Marley is not here to play games. They unleashed the full might of their formidable military on Shiganshina. Even though Marley has fallen behind other nations in terms of technological advancements in warfare, they're still a century ahead of Paradis Island's capabilities. Marley's air superiority quickly decimated most of the Jaegerists, as their 3DMG was no match for Marley's gunners and superior numbers. Shiganshina was being painted red with the blood of its own soldiers, proving that Paradis does not stand the slightest chance against Marley on the battlefield (when Marley is not discreetly allowing the attack to occur as they did in Liberio).
Crippling Paradis' military in order to gain control of the island is coming back to bite Eren in the worst of ways, as even he was not expecting Marley to muster a counterattack so soon. Eren probably should have heeded Yelena's advice to escape underground, because his decision to meet the attack head on backfired almost instantly. Not only does Marley boast greater numbers and advanced weaponry, but they also brought the Armored, Jaw and Cart Titans. Eren's possession of three Titans doesn't do him much good as he cannot wield the Founding Titan, and while the War Hammer's powers are keeping him alive, his newest Titan's powers are quickly exhausting him.
Ganged up on by Reiner and Galliard, Eren just might have overpowered them both were it not for Pieck's long-range cannon blowing his brains out from atop the Wall. Piloted by General Magath, the self-proclaimed best gunner in Marley's military, there's little Eren can do as none of his Titans possess any long-range powers to halt Pieck and Magath's assault. At the edge of his endurance and pinned to a building by Reiner as his soldiers are wiped out around him, things are looking very bleak for Eren and the Jaegerists. Though Eren is stirring at the episode's end, it seems his only option left is to retreat and escape from Marley's vicious assault.
Freeing the infected and imprisoned soldiers might help Paradis Island's chances because even if these troops aren't big fans of Eren anymore, they should fight for their own survival if nothing else. However, even these reinforcements may just end up as cannon fodder for Marley. Eren's brother Zeke has now fully recovered from his confrontation with Levi and appears to be headed for Shiganshina. The Beast Titan may, in fact, be Eren's only hope as his brother's throwing ability would be the only means by which Paradis could hope to eliminate large amounts of Marleyan troops at once.
Unfortunately for Eren, it's not clear how far Zeke is from Shiganshina, meaning Eren can't afford to wait for his brother to ride to the rescue. Things are so bad that Zeke might be forced to use his power to turn the remainder of Paradis' military into mindless Titans, which would devastate both sides, but create enough chaos for him and Eren to slip away and enact their plan. With his friends just freed from their cell and on their way to back him up as Zeke moves for the city, it's clear that things in Attack on Titan are about to get even crazier.
