Attack on Titan Season 4 Episode 11 Review: Counterfeit
Falco recognizes that there’s a human that’s in front of them, whereas Gabi tries to put up more barriers so it’s easy to preserve her view that the Eldians are monsters. She can’t allow the fire that’s been fueling her aggression to go out. It’s also just fascinating how Falco, Gabi, and Kaya all trade the fragments of information that they’ve been fed and how this is able to coalesce together and give them an accurate representation of what’s going on. Falco and Kaya can accept this flawed reality, but Gabi is now too far gone to stray from the path that she’s on.
Of course, another twisted level to all of this is that the Eldians who open their home and their hearts to Gabi and Falco are actually Sasha’s parents. This isn’t a detail that’s necessarily obvious, nor is it one that Gabi and Falco learn. This means that Attack on Titan doesn’t go full The Last House on the Left or A Clockwork Orange on these houseguests, but it adds another layer to the complexity of all of this. A nation’s ideals don’t speak for every person that lives there and it’s the perfect microcosm for how neither Eldia or Marley are bad, but there are just some bad people that come from these places. The Blouse family can run a selfless orphanage for lost children while other Eldians can scream about rebellion and threaten the government. The one thing that is common between everyone is that these people want something to believe in, but that desire is manifesting in more dangerous and unhealthy ways.
An interesting turn in “Counterfeit” is that most episodes of this nature function as a way to open up a stubborn character’s eyes. Kaya shows Gabi kindness right up until the episode’s final moments, but she doesn’t seem changed at all from the experience. It actually seems likely that Gabi could murder Kaya after she helps them get back home. “Counterfeit” doesn’t operate as the cliché turning point for Gabi’s character and it instead only horrifies Falco over his friend’s loss of innocence. It’s the same stark realization that Armin and Mikasa are currently working through with Eren and it finds another parallel between these two figures.
Eren doubles down on his dangerous compulsions and Gabi does the same as she attempts to break free of her assigned role. “Counterfeit” lingers on the fact that she likely kills the prison guard that looks after her and she’s ready to turn to murder as a solution with increasingly less provocation. Gabi’s ready to rewrite history, just like Eren, and it’s fascinating to see how Attack on Titan continues to juxtapose these narratives.
Every episode makes Eren a little more terrifying and unforgivable. There used to be a degree of empathy that accompanied Gabi and her mission, but her rage to hold the innocent responsible for the sins of their ancestors is shockingly similar to Eren’s perspective.It’s incredibly satisfying to see these two contrasting wild cards get closer to collision. At this point every moment with Gabi generates just as much electricity as the scenes with Eren. And Gabi’s still just a regular girl and hasn’t even inherited a Titan yet.