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There was a random scene in Season 4 Episode 2 of Attack on Titan and if you blinked, you might have missed it. We saw a random guy jumping off a building, and it was really quite confusing. Here’s a quick explanation of what that scene was about, in case you’re wondering.

This article will have spoilers for Season 4 Episode 2, but the article itself is manga-spoiler-free. Please don’t add spoilers from the manga in the comments. Thanks. 🙂 

The Man Who Jumped Illustrated the Horrors the Soldiers Are Still Dealing With

First, in case it wasn’t already obvious, NO that wasn’t Reiner. Even if for a second it looked a lot like him. You couldn’t be blamed if you thought it was him, really. Here’s a photo:

Here’s a better photo of him:

What the scene was meant to depict was the horrors of war that the Eldians were dealing with. For the last three seasons, we’ve watched the Eldians of Paradis deal with the horrors of battling Titans. We’ve seen them deal with PTSD and trauma. Now we are seeing that the Eldians of Marley are struggling with the horrors of their war too. The man we saw jumping off a building was an Eldian soldier, dealing with PTSD, simply unable to deal with it any longer.

First, it’s no big surprise that the people of Marley aren’t offering their Eldian soldiers much in terms of counseling, therapy, or medical help for their war injuries. Remember how that one guy just laughed at how scared they were when he said “Boom!”? This man jumped during a thunderstorm, meaning he likely had a terrible flashback and thought the thunder was an explosion and just couldn’t take it anymore.

Some people think it may be the guy circled in the photo below (credit to u/Ruvrice for the screenshot.)

The people of Marley don’t have any sympathy for Eldians. And these are Eldians who were asked to strap bombs to their chests and go into a suicide mission. They watched their own comrades get thrown out of a plane and sent to their deaths as Titans. There’s no peace for them in this war. And some can’t handle it once they get back home, and end up taking their own lives.

While there might be a different interpretation that manga readers have (this is a manga-free article), this interpretation of the man jumping off the home is most widely accepted among viewers.

And some people in the town could be heard talking about it in the background later. It happens while Reiner and Gabi are walking alone and talking, just around 19:45 into the episode. You can hear one person saying, “I heard it was a soldier.” Then another one says, “That’s awful.”

So yes, this was just a subtle, background story about the PTSD and trauma the Eldians are going through in a heartbreaking attempt to convince their oppressors to oppress them a little less. 🙁 It’s very, very sad.

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Stephanie

Stephanie Dwilson started Post Apocalyptic Media with her husband Derek. She's a licensed attorney and has a master's in science and technology journalism. You can reach her at [email protected].

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