After revealing their true identities a battle ensues between the Colossal and Armoured Titans and Eren and the Survey Corps. After being pushed back by the Armoured Titan's power Eren remembers a lesson from his old mentor to even up the score. However his victory might not be as guaranteed as Eren believes.
Tropes:
- Achilles' Heel:
- The Colossal Titan's giant body gives it the strength necessary to easily kick a hole through the walls. However its giant size in turn also makes it very slow and sluggish.
- Much like an actual suit of armour, the Armoured Titan's body has to have joints that aren't protected in order to provide it with any sort of maneuverability, such as the back of its legs, making it vulnerable to attack.
- Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: The manga expanded on Annie teaching Eren her close-combat skills in more depth. In the anime, she's shown using it against him just once with no mention of extra lessons, which makes Eren seem like an Instant Expert.
- Attack! Attack! Attack!:
- Eren initially tries slugging away at the Armoured Titan to no effect.
- Reiner's main tactic boils down to shedding armor at his Titan's joints, charging at Eren, and trying to take him down with brute force.
- Attack Its Weak Point: Mikasa has a chance to slice up the Armoured Titan's rear knee tendon once Eren has it pinned down.
- Awesome, but Impractical: The Colossal Titan's huge size comes with a major drawback; its lack of speed which for the Survey Corps allows them to maneuver around Bertolt quite easily.
- Belly Flop Crushing: Used for dramatic effect once Eren manages to lock the Armoured Titan into a hold. Reiner calls for help and the Colossal Titan, whom every one forgot about during the fight, comes falling down from the wall to crush Eren.
- Boxing Lessons for Superman: The martial arts training that Eren learned from Annie ends up paying off as it gives Eren the skills necessary to hold his own against Reiner.
- Character Development: Unlike every other time that Eren has transformed into a Titan Eren retains his consciousness and doesn't lose himself in mindless rage which ends up being pivotal in combating Reiner. Even better, he starts utilizing tactics besides Attack! Attack! Attack!, showing that he's getting somewhat smarter with how he approaches things.
- Chekhov's Gun: Annie's martial arts prowess, as well as her combat training with Eren, allows Eren to deal some real damage against the Armoured Titan.
- Cliffhanger: The episode ends with the Colossal Titan falling off the wall and about to smash into Eren and the Armoured Titan on the ground.
- Continuity Nod:
- When the Colossal Titan starts billowing out large quantities of steam the Survey Corps wonder if Bertolt plans to use said steam to escape just like he did when he destroyed the wall to Trost.
- When the Armoured Titan roars everyone gets on guard to search for other Titans remembering the time that the Female Titan called for help from other Titans.
- Friend or Foe?: Mikasa realizes that she failed to kill Reiner and Bertolt when she had a great chance to because she still partly saw them as her comrades, and hesitated when she saw their (rightfully) terrified faces.
- Hope Spot: Thanks to his locks Eren has managed to pin the Armoured Titan to the ground and is able to shatter parts of its armour. Plus Mikasa is able to disable its maneuverability by attacking its unprotected knee ligaments seemingly ensuring victory against the Armoured Titan. Then it roars. And then the Colossal Titan falls from the sky...
- I Am Not Left-Handed: Eren realizes that Reiner was holding back when they were practicing hand-to-hand combat as recruits, right as he gets his ass handed to him.
- Irony: During the flashback Mikasa tells Annie to show her how to use her flip/lock combo that she used against Eren. Annie replies that it's a technique meant to be used for humans and that it wouldn't be effective for a beast like Mikasa.
- The Juggernaut: Once the Armored Titan sheds its joint armor, it becomes a Lightning Bruiser whose powerful charge can't be avoided or stopped. Eren ends up using its strength against it by allowing himself to get tackled, then taking the chance to execute a guillotine choke.
- The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Downplayed. When Hange manages to relay information to Eren in his Titan form (who nods in affirmation), she starts to show overwhelming glee that she finally managed to unambiguously communicate with a Titan.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Poor Connie is completely unaware that Reiner and Bertolt are The Moles and even asks a Survey Corps member to find them once the Colossal and Armoured Titans begin their assault.
- Luminescent Blush: Good old Hange gives a nice moment of levity when she does her usual blushing routine when Eren acknowledges her orders while in Titan form.
- Never-Forgotten Skill: Eren remembers a body lock/flip combo that Annie taught him when the two trained together, specifically designed to use the strength of larger and tougher opponents against them, to flip and counter the Armoured Titan.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: As Eren lampshades the shifters made a whole bunch of mistakes during their invasion and one of them was teaching Eren how to fight.
- No-Sell: The Armoured Titan's plating lets him shrug off Eren's Megaton Punch without any visible effect.
- Required Secondary Powers: Seemingly in order to combat his slow speed the Colossal Titan compensates by releasing a large quantity of steam which forces anyone to step back from it and allow the user time to escape. The steam is so effective Hange orders the rest of the Corps to leave it be for the time as they can't get anywhere near the Titan.
- Shed Armor, Gain Speed: Reiner breaks off pieces of his armour around his legs in order to give him an edge in speed against Eren.
- Shown Their Work: The Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu techniques used in this episode are mostly correct, with some small errors. For example, Eren's armbar that he uses to remove Reiner's forearm works at the shoulder joint, not the elbow joint.
- Annie teaches Eren a standing arm triangle choke that can also be used as a trip/throw to take an opponent to the ground.
- When Eren attempts to catch the Armored Titan in a leglock, it tries to escape by punching him. This is the main disadvantage of leglocks, in that the attacking grappler has to use both hands to try and secure one leg, thus leaving them unable to defend themselves.
- In the episode’s climax, Eren catches the Armored Titan in a guillotine choke, and the Armored Titan begins pushing Eren across the ground on his back. The reason this action is taken in grappling is that part of a guillotine chokes effectiveness comes from the attacker being able to arch their back and put more stress on the defenders neck. By pushing the attacker across the mat, the defender can either force a referee to break the hold from going out of bounds (under or through the ropes in a ring, off the mat in a grappling environment) or press the attacker's back against the wall of the cage and stop them from using their body as leverage.
- Smash to Black: The episode abruptly ends just as the Colossal Titan is about to smash directly into Eren and the Armoured Titan’s prone bodies.
- Something We Forgot: The Survey Corps get so wrapped up in the battle between Eren and the Armoured Titan that, when the latter roars, they all forget about the one titan on the wall they are suppose to be guarding. Cue said Titan crashing to the ground.
- Wrestler in All of Us: In addition to the MMA moves, Eren and Reiner use some wrestling moves to try to gain control of each other.
