Sunset

Trost lies half-crushed beneath the fallen Walls, and the Military Police dig survivors from the rubble while civilians argue over whether Eren's rampage is salvation or massacre. Following wet footprints into a basement, Hitch Dreyse is jumped by a frail Annie Leonhart, who threatens a transformation both of them suspect she cannot manage. Hitch takes her to the stables anyway. On the road, Annie reveals she stayed dimly aware inside her crystal for four years, listening to Hitch's one-sided chatter, and asks whether Eren truly means to flatten the world.

Prompted by the crushed bodies below, Annie lays out her past: abandoned at birth, adopted by a foreign Eldian who forged her into a Warrior candidate for his own advancement, and beaten so hard in return that he never walked straight again. Only when he broke down before her departure, begging her to come back to him, did she gain something to live for. She would repeat every unforgivable act if it returned her to her father. In Liberio, that same man is kicked to the ground by skeptical guards as the internment zone Eldians plead about the coming Rumbling; remembering his promise, he rises to fight.

Elsewhere, Keith Sadies refuses rescue as Jaegerists seize the fort, Armin sets out with Gabi to overtake Conny before Falco is fed to his Titan mother, and a stressed Armin snaps at Mikasa over Eren before apologizing, convinced Erwin should have been the one revived. Floch executes a defiant Volunteer, announces that Eren shared his true plan ten months earlier, and claims Levi and Hange died at Zeke's hands. Outside Shiganshina, Hange finds Pieck and Magath and gestures toward a litter carrying a fellow too stubborn to die.

Hitch discovers Annie hiding in a Trost basement and helps her leave the city, learning she remained conscious throughout her years in the crystal.

Annie's motive is revealed: her brutal adoptive father's final plea gave her a reason to survive, and reaching him is all she wants.

Floch consolidates power, executing a Volunteer, claiming advance knowledge of Eren's plan, and locking up the Anti-Marleyan Volunteers.

Armin rides for Ragako with Gabi and Nicolo to stop Conny from sacrificing Falco, while Mikasa notices her scarf has vanished.

Hange reaches Pieck and Magath, revealing that Levi survived Zeke's blast.

Sunset is the 23rd episode of season 4 and the 82nd overall, a MAPPA production directed by Mitsue Yamazaki and written by Hiroshi Seko. It aired February 21, 2022 in Japan and March 27, 2022 in the US, adapting its namesake manga chapter.

The ending credits use an instrumental arrangement of Akuma no Ko. The episode's information segment recontextualizes the Rumbling, once King Fritz's empty deterrent, as an active apocalypse now marching outward from Paradis.