Recap / Attack On Titan S 4 E 25 Night Of The End

• Admiring the Abomination: Played with, as this is a story depicting Grey-and-Grey Morality. As Pieck reveals Yelena's lies to the rest of the group, the former can't help but to be impressed by the latter's desire to "save the world", as Yelena convinced herself of.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The Yeagerists realized that the Alliance is trying to stop the Rumbling, and so they beat them to the port. The episode ends with Floch holding Kiyomi at gunpoint.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Annie asks an obvious question to Eren's friends, especially Mikasa: If there is no other choice, when all options are exhausted in persuading Eren to cease his genocide, will any of them have the will to kill him?
• Both Sides Have a Point: Hange is fervent in stopping Eren because they believe that mass genocide is under no circumstances the right way to end the conflict between Paradis and the world. Jean, however, brings up that now since the Rumbling has already started, if they stop it now, it will leave Paradis vulnerable, and that the Rumbling is happening because they were unable to come up with a solution in time. Hange acknowledges this (as they already feel like it's their fault that things escalated to this), but refuses to give up and let the Survey Corps' sacrifice and Erwin's dream be in vain by watching the world be trampled to dust, something that Jean ultimately agrees with.
• Call-Back: Yelena brings up many events from earlier in the story to point out how both factions siding together to stop Eren aren't that different from each other:
  • She brings up how Reiner is responsible for opening a breach on Wall Maria that allowed the titans in Paradis Island to invade the walled territory.
  • Next Yelena reminds everyone that Annie killed many members of the Survey Corps and many residents of Stohess district during her rampage during the events of the Female Titan Arc.
  • She mentions how Armin destroyed Marley's port by transforming into the Colossal Titan and how he killed countless civilians in the process.
  • Next it's brought up Jean trying to kill Pieck while Falco was in the line of fire for Jean's thunder spear (although it's ambiguous if he was holding back or not because of that).
  • Finally, Yelena mentions how Gabi killed Sasha, and takes some time to remember how good Sasha was.
• Daydream Surprise: The episode begins with Jean imagining a life with his future wife and child, which interrupted by Hange banging on the nearby window.
• Internal Reveal:
  • Yelena's real origins are revealed: she is in fact a regular Marleyan. After meeting Zeke, she became ashamed of this and fabricated a backstory about being from a nation annexed by Marley.
  • The Survey Corps finally learn what really happened to Marco.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Reiner receives one from Jean after the latter learns that the Warriors killed Marco and lied about it.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Having the common goal of stopping Eren is not enough for a party of former life-long enemies to just get along. For starters, Mikasa and Armin are not fully willing to accept the possibility of needing to kill Eren to end the Rumbling, and Magath is not a Noble Bigot as to not continue his Fantastic Racism, which infuriates the Paradisians and makes the Warriors very uncomfortable. While Yelena stokes the fires, the tension was already very tangible, and eventually one too many secrets getting out results in a physical altercation and with everyone needing to sleep the night off without proper closure.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Yelena's rant is this to the Alliance, insinuating that they are using the pretense of "saving the world" to hide their own guilt and hatred for each other, all while reiterating the various crimes they committed against each other.
• This Is Unforgivable!: The day after the campire, Jean tells Reiner in no uncertain terms that he will not forgive him for what he did to Marco. Before Jean can confirm to Annie if he feels the same way about her, they are interrupted by the revelation that the Yeagerists have made to the port before the Alliance.
• Tranquil Fury: Yelena never raises her voice, but it is apparent that having her backstory outed as a lie enraged her, as she decides to remind the Alliance of their own lies, secrets, and crimes. When Jean dismisses her speech as her trying to keep the group together, she reveals what happened to Marco seemingly out of spite.