Its good to establish that an entire race of segregated people can be thoroughly (at least half) brainwashed and propagandized into servitude of their captors. It gives more weight to the past events when Zeke wasn't some low percentage outlier for turning on his parents. If the real world parallel is the Jewish condition during Nazi Germany, this would be as if they were reviled and regulated for generations, instead of ~10 years. The difference here, of course, also being that Eldians possess the capacity to become dangerous titans.

I somewhat take back what I said about the directing. That slow pull in on Reiner at the dinner table was more effective than I thought it would be, but that scene stayed with me, and I think the show as a whole doesn't need to rely on the bombast of 'potato chip' scenes to carry its dramatic weight.