We begin with several of Bertolt's flashbacks, including one of Marco's death, as he resolves to finish their mission and go home. Reiner's seemingly slain Titan lets out a roar that signals for Bertolt's barrel to be thrown into Shiganshina; contrary to the Survey Corps' expectations, he does not immediately transform. He confirms Reiner is alive and has him lie supine so the Scouts can't finish him off as he regenerates. Hange puts together a plan. Armin and Bertolt confront each other, but humanity's last-ditch effort to reason with their enemy fails and Bertolt remains resolute in his mission. Mikasa attacks Bertolt before he can harm Armin, forcing Bertolt to escape. Finally unafraid and willing to finish things off, he transforms high in the air above Squad Hange, destroying much of Shiganshina in a fiery explosion. Armin is now in command and must think of a way to kill Bertolt with the few soldiers remaining.
Tropes:
- Ambiguous Situation: It's unclear whether Squad Hange got wiped out by the Colossus Titan transforming, particularly Hange, who got pushed out of the way by Moblit.
- Character Development: Bertolt finally Grew a Spine and is self-assured in his purpose and conviction. This is a very, very bad thing for the Scouts however.
- A Day in the Limelight: This is by far the most we've ever seen of Bertolt's thoughts.
- Death from Above: The original purpose of the thrown barrel containing Bertolt is to have him transform and kill everyone before they can react. This ends up happening anyways when he simply maneuvers high into the air and catches several people in the blast.
- Exact Eavesdropping: Marco happens to be nearby when Bertolt and Reiner have a very incriminating conversation.
- Guile Hero: Armin attempts to talk down Bertolt before they engage in hostilities in an effort to learn more about their enemies. His efforts are ultimately for naught; the time that he buys for Squad Hange to finish off Reiner is rendered moot and Bertolt isn't swayed from his goals, if any thing he's even more resolute after coming face-to-face with his former friends.
- He Knows Too Much: Marco is revealed to have been left to die by the Warriors in Trost, for overhearing Reiner and Bertolt talking about their real mission and being smart enough to put the pieces together.
- If You're So Evil, Eat This Kitten!: Loyalty-testing variant. Reiner forces Annie to remove Marco's ODMG gear (thus implicating her too in his murder) to prove that she's still a Warrior after witnessing her save Connie unncessarily earlier in Trost.
- "Instant Death" Radius: One of the most dangerous things about the Colossus Titan is that a sudden transformation can release enough heat energy to basically be a hydrogen bomb, killing anything unfortunate to be close to him when it happens.
- "Just Joking" Justification: Reiner tries passing off his and Bertolt's conversation as a joke. Marco buys it initially but quickly realizes that they were probably serious.
- Never Recycle Your Schemes: Heroic variant.
- Armin taunting Bertolt that Annie is being tortured worked last time because of his knee-jerk emotional reaction regarding someone he cares about- this time, Bertolt has had the chance to think about how unlikely that claim is, and it doesn't work.
- Their unofficial backup plan of having Mikasa sneak up and attack him while he's talking to someone also worked the first time around, but fails here when he suspects that they're pulling a similar trick and spots her sooner.
- Nothing Personal: Bertolt acknowledges that humanity within the Walls aren't devils and have done nothing wrong, but they still need to be wiped out anyways.
- Oh, Crap!:
- As revealed in a flashback, Annie and Bertolt are horrified to witness the beginning of Reiner's mental breakdown when he, genuinely shocked, asks why the man he left to die is being eaten.
- First when Armin sees a barrel containing Bertolt thrown into Shiganshina, then when he realizes that Bertolt is manuevering high into the air to transform.
- Rescue Romance: Reiner jokes that when they rescue Annie, she will probably consider Bertolt her prince and they should get together. Bertolt, who clearly likes her, is non-plussed.
- The Reveal: The Beast Titan is called Zeke. More importantly, the flashback reveals that the quadruped Titan is indeed a Titan Shifter like Erwin suspected.
- Shoot the Dog: How Reiner and Bertolt view their mission at this point, as something distasteful that has to be done anyways.
