Erwin Smith: The 57th Exterior Scouting Mission, Part 4

With the Female Titan pinned by the restraining wires, Eren rides deeper into the forest wondering what the creature really is. Erwin, unwilling to settle for immobilization, orders every remaining wire fired. At the tree line, cadets keep climbing Titans at bay while Jean shares his hunch with Armin: the whole route change was bait to trap the Female Titan.

Squad Levi arrives at the same conclusion, and Eld reasons that Erwin concealed the plan because a spy walks among the soldiers, one likely aware of the plan only if they joined after the fall five years ago, the same infiltrator who butchered the captive Titans Sawney and Beane. Armin frames Erwin's secrecy for Jean in starker terms: leaders who can sacrifice what matters most, even their own humanity, are the only ones who produce change.

Hange exploits the Female Titan's regeneration to stiffen it in place, yet its hardened skin turns away every blade Levi and Miche throw at it, an ability Erwin likens to the Armored Titan's. As explosives are prepared to blow open its wrists, Levi perches on the captive's head and taunts the person inside. The Titan responds with a piercing scream that carries beyond the forest. Miche smells Titans converging from all directions, and moments later a swarm ignores the perimeter guards entirely to sprint at the Female Titan and strip its body to nothing. Erwin, conceding defeat, signals the withdrawal, but orders Levi to resupply first, suspecting the pilot escaped unseen, possibly dressed as a Scout. His caution comes too late: a cloaked figure in Scout gear closes on Squad Levi in the trees, and Eren looks back to find Gunther's body dangling from a wire.

Erwin escalates the capture operation, firing every remaining restraint into the Female Titan rather than settling for a partial hold.

Squad Levi and the cadets independently deduce the expedition's true purpose, and Eld connects Erwin's secrecy to a suspected infiltrator, the same party that killed Sawney and Beane.

Hardened skin defeats every attempt by Levi and Miche to cut the Female Titan, prompting Erwin to prepare explosives against its wrists to expose the pilot.

Threatened by Levi at point-blank range, the Female Titan unleashes a scream that draws a horde of Titans, which consume its body while the Scouts fight in vain.

Erwin orders a retreat but has Levi refill gas and blades, suspecting the pilot fled in Scout Regiment attire; a cloaked attacker then ambushes Squad Levi and kills Gunther.

Wit Studio and Production I.G produced the episode from a Yasuko Kobayashi script under director Shintaro Itoga, adapting the chapters Erwin Smith and Choices and Consequences. Crunchyroll's release used the alternate title Erwin Smith - 57th Expedition Beyond the Walls (4).

Armin's reflection that change belongs to people capable of abandoning their humanity anchors the episode thematically, tying the title character's ruthless calculus to the mounting cost of the expedition.

The lore segment introduces the special target restraining weapon, a new Scout Regiment device whose barrels each launch seven iron tubes trailing spiral wires, built specifically to pin down particular Titans.