Crushing Blow: The 57th Exterior Scouting Mission, Part 5

During the retreat, Erwin and Hange debate how the Female Titan's pilot escaped, with Erwin concluding they wrongly measured the enemy's stamina against Eren's novice limits. Armin, riding with Jean, works out that whoever controls the Titan must have witnessed Eren's transformation at Trost.

Erwin's fear proves correct: the attacker transforms again and runs down Squad Levi before they can reach their horses. Ordered to flee rather than fight, Eren wavers, then puts his faith in his teammates and rides on. Behind him, Petra and Oruo blind the Titan while Eld carves up its arms, and their flawless coordination seems to vindicate Eren's choice. Then the Female Titan, having concentrated its healing into a single eye, snatches Eld from the air and bites him in two. Petra freezes at the sight and is stomped against a tree; Oruo's last strike shatters against hardened skin before a roundhouse kick snaps his spine.

Eren transforms in a fury and hammers the Female Titan, whose unhealed arms force it to fight with kicks and evasion. He downs it once, wrecking his own hands in the process, and swears to tear it apart as his control begins slipping. Fully healed, the Female Titan breaks free, batters him through the trees, punches through his Titan's jaw with a hardened fist, and finally decapitates him with a hardened kick. It bites Eren's body out of the nape and swallows him just as Mikasa arrives. She harries the fleeing Titan with slash after useless slash until Levi catches her mid-air and orders her to keep her distance. He wonders aloud whether Eren is already dead; Mikasa refuses to accept the idea as the two shadow the Titan together.

Erwin deduces that the Female Titan's operator can transform repeatedly and may have escaped disguised in Scout Regiment gear, while Armin narrows the suspect pool to people who saw Eren's Titan at Trost.

The Female Titan returns and annihilates the Special Operations Squad: Eld is bitten in half mid-flight, Petra is crushed against a tree, and Oruo dies to a spine-breaking kick after his blades splinter on hardened skin.

Eren, blaming his decision to trust the squad instead of fighting, transforms and briefly overwhelms the Female Titan before its regenerated body outclasses his.

The Female Titan decapitates Eren's Titan with a hardened roundhouse kick, devours his human body from the nape, and flees the forest.

Mikasa pursues alone until Levi intercepts her, and the pair track the Titan from a distance with Eren's fate unknown.

The episode adapts the chapters Choices and Consequences, Crushing Blow, and Losers, produced by Wit Studio and Production I.G with direction from Yasushi Muroya and Hiroyuki Tanaka and a script by Noboru Takagi. Crunchyroll released it under the alternate title Crushing Blow - 57th Expedition Beyond the Walls (5).

Eren's anguished monologue, cursing himself for trusting his teammates instead of fighting from the start, anchors the episode's theme of choices and their costs.

The supplemental information segment details the Scout Regiment's purpose-bred horses: around 160 cm tall, 450 to 500 kg, capable of bursts of 75 to 80 km/h, and effectively humanity's only means of outrunning a Titan.