Close Combat

A flashback opens three years in the past, where Reiner, Bertholdt, Eren, and Armin talk through their motives for enlisting during a nighttime training exercise. Reiner voices confidence that Eren, whose resolve survived the Titan attack, will see his training through.

In the present, Eren transforms and hurls himself at the Armored Titan, furious at the betrayal, and both crash from Wall Rose to the ground. Above them, the Colossal Titan flings Ymir and another soldier into its mouth. Hange leads the Scouts in an assault on Bertholdt, whose sluggish movements leave him vulnerable, but a sustained torrent of scalding steam keeps every soldier's gear from finding purchase. Recognizing that Bertholdt is holding position rather than vanishing, Hange stations squads around him with orders to kill the moment he exits his Titan, then takes First Squad down to support Eren.

Reiner's plated body shrugs off Eren's punches and Mikasa's blades alike, and Eren is battered again and again. Mid-fight he recalls a sparring session in which Annie flattened him with a throw and explained how her technique turns an opponent's own size and power against them. Applying her grapple, Eren slams the Armored Titan down, cracks its plating in a leg lock, and rips off one of its arms. Hange advises crippling Reiner's legs to cover a retreat, but Reiner sheds the armor behind his knees and charges with sudden speed. Eren absorbs the charge, clamps Reiner's head in a hold, and Mikasa slices the exposed flesh behind his knee. As the nape armor begins to shatter, Reiner drags them both forward and roars. In answer, the Colossal Titan's ribcage grip on the Wall gives way, and its flaming bulk plunges straight down toward Eren and Reiner.

The Colossal Titan devours Ymir and another Scout, then stalls the Scouts' counterattack with a continuous shroud of super-heated steam, forcing Hange to switch to a waiting game.

Eren's Titan proves helpless in a slugging match against the Armored Titan's full-body plating, which even Mikasa's blades cannot pierce.

A training-days memory of Annie's throws gives Eren the answer: her leverage-based grappling lets him floor Reiner, shatter armor with a squeeze, and tear off an arm.

Reiner sacrifices the armor behind his knees for mobility, but Eren counters with a headlock while Mikasa hamstrings him, bringing the Armored Titan's nape to the point of breaking.

Reiner's roar summons no Titans; instead, the Colossal Titan deliberately topples from atop Wall Rose, falling directly onto the two combatants as the episode ends.

Wit Studio and Production I.G produced the episode, directed by Takayuki Hirao and written by Hiroshi Seko, adapting the chapters The Armored Titan, Strike, Throw, Submit, and The Hunters from the Clash of the Titans arc. Opfert eure Herzen! opens the episode and Yuugure no Tori closes it.

The Japanese title, three kanji read as "strike, throw, submit," references the martial arts vocabulary at the heart of the fight, and the episode's lore segment notes that grappling holds can hurt a Titan opponent more than any punch.

The flashback of Annie teaching Eren her signature throw, and her curiosity about whether it would work on a "beast" when Mikasa challenges her, sets up the counter that defines the battle.