Retrospective

Fighting rages across the port while the alliance absorbs a hard truth: readying the flying boat takes half a day at minimum, time during which the Wall Titans could advance 600 kilometers and erase Liberio. Kiyomi Azumabito offers an alternative. Her family keeps a hangar in the Marleyan coastal city of Odiha; if they sail at once and tow the flying boat behind the ship, the craft can be serviced there ahead of the Rumbling's arrival. Theo Magath accepts, and Hange Zoë spreads the word.

Getting everyone aboard is a running battle. Mikasa Ackermann and Hange shield Kiyomi's mechanics from Floch Forster's snipers, while Annie Leonhart's Female Titan and Reiner Braun's Armored Titan soak up punishment; Reiner takes Thunder Spears to the face rather than let Annie fall. Falco Grice, desperate to help despite Pieck Finger's warning that first transformations always spiral out of control, cuts his hand and unleashes the Jaw Titan into the melee. A bombed train wipes out the Jaegerist reinforcements, and as the tide turns, Floch makes a last sprint to put a Thunder Spear into the ship, only for Gabi Braun to shoot him off his feet and into the harbor. Falco, berserk with no enemies left, pins Pieck's Cart Titan before Magath slices open the Jaw Titan's nape and pulls the boy free.

With the ship loaded, Magath hands Falco to Onyankopon and stays ashore to cover the departure. He is joined by Keith Sadies, the man behind the train bombing, and together they board the captured Marleyan cruiser that could otherwise run the Azumabito vessel down. Deep in the ship's magazine, the two commanders trade reflections on the young people they trained and failed. Magath confesses his shame at the childhoods he sacrificed for Marley; Keith insists those children would still be proud of him. As Jaegerists hammer at the door, they exchange names for the first time, and Magath ignites the gunpowder. On the departing ship, Hange breaks the news to Annie that Liberio cannot be saved, and Annie, hollowed out, tells Mikasa she is done fighting anyone, Eren included.

Kiyomi proposes towing the flying boat to the Azumabito hangar in Odiha, and Magath commits the alliance to the plan.

Annie's Female Titan and Reiner's Armored Titan hold the line against Thunder Spear barrages while the mechanics board.

Keith Sadies destroys the Jaegerist reinforcement train with explosives.

Gabi shoots Floch off the dock as he aims a Thunder Spear at the ship; he sinks into the harbor.

Falco's uncontrolled first Jaw Titan transformation ends when Magath cuts him out of the nape.

Magath and Keith sacrifice themselves to blow up the captured cruiser, eliminating any pursuit and killing the Jaegerists aboard.

Retrospective is the 27th episode of the fourth season and the 86th overall, animated by MAPPA. It adapts the chapter of the same name along with part of The Dawn of Humanity, with Jun Shishido and Yuichiro Hayashi directing and Hiroshi Seko writing.

Japanese broadcast came on March 21, 2022, followed by the US airing on April 24, 2022. "The Rumbling" opens the episode and "Akuma no Ko" closes it.

The episode's information segment, titled Enemies and Allies, observes that the enemy has shifted from Titans to countries, and that conflicting beliefs guarantee there will always be another enemy.