WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for the episode, "Smoke Signal," from Attack On Titan Season 3

After premiering on American theaters back in May this year, the first subtitled episode of the highly anticipated third season of Attack On Titan is now available to everyone. "Smoke Signal" had a worldwide release online on Monday, July 23, hot on the heels of its release in Japan on Sunday, with an English language dub scheduled to come out in a month's time. Unlike the brutally long four year break between Season 1 and 2, Season 3 has arrived roughly a year after the last one wrapped up, and -- just one episode in -- it's already shaping up to be very different from what we've had before.

From the trailer, it was clear that Titans were, for the first time, going to be taking something of a backseat this season. Promotional images teased the anime debut of an old acquaintance of Captain Levi's, whose name we learned from Levi's dramatic scream that closed the trailer -- and premiere -- out: "KENNY!" This not only signaled the arrival of a different breed of enemy for the show's main protagonists, but also the welcome return of the Survey Corps Captain, a character most were disappointed to see left out out the majority of Season 2's action with an injury.

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In retrospect, this unpopular decision was a smart one. Though the temptation to showcase a popular character as much as possible is understandable, overexposure can be a reputational killer. To their credit, the showrunners of Attack On Titan have always known this about Levi, using him sparingly in the first season so that the few instances he did swing into a battle were instantly that much more exciting, and the stakes that much higher on account of his "pulling out the big guns" status. Having him skulking on the sidelines throughout Season 2 justifies what will presumably be his season now, like Vin Diesel deliberately sitting out a chapter of Riddick or the Fast and Furious films just so he can make a grand comeback in a later installment.

While readers of Hajime Isayama's manga on which the series is based will already know some of what's in store, anime-exclusive fans are still in the dark about the story's biggest mysteries: What are Titans? Where did they come from? And how much of this information has been kept under wraps by those in charge? Season 3 looks like it could delve deeper into the latter, with "Smoke Signal" focussing on Levi's select group of trusted Survey Corps, including Eren, Mikasa, Armin, Historia, Jean, Conny and Sasha, caught in the middle of a conspiracy to cover up what they'd learnt beyond the Walls. This is kicked off by the assassination of Pastor Nick in the Trost District by what Section Commander Hange strongly suspects was the Military Police's First Interior Squad.

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Levi receives word that his ally, Commander Erwin has been arrested, prompting him to take his squad to Trost to test out a theory: that Eren and Historia are the next targets. He's proven correct when the pair are kidnapped, except that they aren't -- the abductees are are actually Jean and Armin in disguise. (Levi is clearly well-versed in his spy fiction.) As Mikasa leads a rescue mission to where the unfortunate pair are being held, Levi has just enough time to name-drop "Kenny the Ripper," an urban legend responsible for the deaths of 100 people, before the killer magically appears to kickstart a fierce shoot-out that we'll have to wait until the next episode to see play out.

Societal unrest and paranoia have long been at the heart of Attack On Titan, but usually get lost in the noise of guts, blood and bones being splattered everywhere in the human-Titan skirmishes. Now, the show is finally bringing its political dystopian themes to the surface. With humanity already dangerously small in number, are the governing forces more concerned with keeping secrets than survival? And will there be a united military front left to deal with future Titan incursions by the time all of this in-fighting is over?