At Utgard Castle the members of Mike's Squad do battle with the Titan Horde. As the Cadets desperately try to stay alive without any equipment Reiner remembers a haunting moment from his past and Ymir reveals a shocking secret that may turn the tide of battle.
Tropes:
- Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Ymir pats Connie on the head after the latter gives her his knife. Considering her usual attitude this gives the audience some warning before she jumps.
- Bottle Episode: A pretty important one as it reveals some of Reiner and Ymir's backstory as well the big reveal that happens at the end but the entirety of the episode focuses on the battle to protect Utgard Castle.
- Cruel to Be Kind: When Connie starts recounting what happened to his village, and the idea that the Titan sitting on his house reminds him of his mother, Ymir seemingly starts acting insensitive by making crude jokes until Connie tells her to drop it. However Reiner believes that Ymir merely wanted to distract him from thinking bout his Doomed Hometown for the moment.
- Cryptic Conversation: Reiner's conversations with both Ymir and Bertolt scream about little tiny hints of a larger story at play.
- Death Glare: The glare that Ymir gave to Reiner at the end of the previous episode is expanded upon since we see the confrontation that was denied last episode.
- Death Wish:
- Ymir accuses Krista of having one saying that while the other members of the Survey Corps don't want to die she doesn't care as long as she can go out like a hero.
- It's also subtly implied with Reiner as the crew mentions that he's always the one who jumps in to the most dangerous situations with Bertolt muttering that it's a bad habit of his. When Connie asks if he's always been like this Bertolt mentions that he used to be more of a "warrior" then a "soldier".
- Flashback Cut: When a Titan's hand reaches through the door Reiner is hiding behind and almost grabs him he flashes back to a point in his childhood wherein he was almost eaten by a Titan before being shoved out of the way by a friend of his who got eaten instead.
- Foreshadowing:
- Ymir's ability to read the symbols on the herring can, when not even experienced members of the Survey Corps are shown being able to do so, indicates early on that there's something different about her before her reveal as a Titan Shifter.
- Ymir and Reiner's conversation about the herring can is particularly noticeable because herring is a fish found only in salt water, yet both of them know what herring is despite in theory never seeing the sea since no one within the Walls has been there in decades.
- The conversation that Bertolt has, wherein he mentions that Reiner used to be more of a "warrior" then a "soldier", will become a lot more relevant to Reiner's character arc later on in this season.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: When Ymir is reading the can and mentions that she's not fond of herring she has a brief Oh, Crap! look on her face when she realises that she unconsciously read the seemingly unreadable handwriting out loud and has outed herself to Reiner.
- Hope Spot: At first it seems like Mike's Squad can hold off the majority of the Titans as they kill the larger ones despite being low on gas and blades. Then pieces of the Wall start raining down, killing their horses and destroying the upper part of the tower killing Lynne and Henning. Nanaba and Gelger then realise that the initial attack was just stage one and that another horde, twice the size of the first, is planning on tearing the tower down.
- How We Got Here: The episodes Cold Open starts where the last episode ended, the Survey Corps staring down a horde of Titans and jumping down to encounter them. The episode then goes back in time two hours to pick up on some scenes that were cut out of the previous episode.
- If We Survive This: Ymir asks Krista to remember a promise the two made at some point in the past before she jumps off the tower and transforms into a Titan.
- Oh, Crap!: See Freeze-Frame Bonus.
- One Last Smoke: Gelger mentions wishing that he had time to open up and drink from the bottle of booze he found earlier in the episode only to land in a part of the tower and finding said bottle. Too bad for him that the contents of the bottle were used to treat Reiner's wounds so he ends up empty.
- Wham Line:
- Subdued, but there. Keep in mind that Reiner and Bertholdt have been with the others, so there are no “old days” from their perspective.
Bertholdt: In the old days, Reiner was more of a warrior.- Another subdued one comes from Reiner when he looks at the unreadable can Ymir idly notes is labelled "herring". Keep in mind that herring is a saltwater fish that in theory no one who lives within the Walls should know about since they haven't seen the sea, yet Reiner is more surprised she could read the can than about a fish he shouldn't know exists.
Reiner: How do you know this says 'herring'? - Wham Shot: The shot of Ymir jumping of the tower and transforming into a Titan that looks almost identical to the one that ate Reiner's friend in his flashback.
- What the Hell, Hero?: When Krista mentions that she wishes she had a weapon so she can fight and die alongside the other members of the Corps Ymir calls her out on using their deaths as justification to enact her Death Wish.
