My friend (anime only) watched the new episode twice- which included the preview. She picked up in the “surprise/shock for Reiner” bit and saw Falco with him and went “WAIT— EREN’S BEEN TALKING WITH FALCO??? ARE EREN AND REINER GONNA TALK?!” and obviously, I panicked a little because I don’t want her to KNOW that. So, in a move of absolute genius I asked her: “What goal are Reiner and Falco both working towards?” And she, remembering the scene in the train, went “Oh shit— GABI?! IS GABI GETTING CHOSEN FOR THE ARMOR?!” And now she’s convinced herself of that. Crisis averted. She’s gonna smack me for tricking her next week but at least she’s not gonna catch on to the big moment before it happens.

BONUS: i’ve been coming up with a lot of bullshit to throw her off from spoilers since i don’t want her to catch on to things (shes always on social media too). so i’ve also been talking about udo and zofia as if they’re still alive and doing stuff in the manga. and she’s also convinced sasha isn’t dead because i said she has a boyfriend. and, i managed to get her to start thinking eren is kinda calmed down now and seems to be turning a new leaf based on the convo he had with falco. back when she was still watching through s3 i mentioned armin’s timeskip design and had to come up with a fake idea for erwin so she wouldn’t be sure if armin lived or what bc i could be bullshitting on either. i told her erwin got a ponytail. good times. (edit: i’m not confirming or denying my claims as real i usually just bring up random hypotheticals and try not to talk about alive characters more than dead ones. it’s all in good fun haha- she does the same to me with shows i’m watching for the first time).