Thaw

Eren's voice reaches every Subject of Ymir through the Founding Titan's power, declaring that the Wall Titans will grind the outside world flat to protect Paradis. In Liberio, Annie's father grasps what is coming. Amid Shiganshina's rubble, a wounded Reiner explains to Gabi that the collapse of the Walls stripped away his armor mid-battle; he urges her toward the Marleyan airships, but she refuses to give up on finding Falco or stopping Eren.

On the rooftops, Jean rationalizes the genocide as the outside world's own doing while Armin recoils, and their debate breaks off when the Titans Zeke created start attacking soldiers, apparently outside Eren's control. Jean floats reviving a leader by feeding Falco to a transformed soldier, but Conny seizes the unconscious boy and bolts, set on restoring his own mother in Ragako. Nearby, the Braus family flees a Titan that corners Kaya; Gabi blows its head apart with an anti-Titan rifle, and Kaya in turn shields her from suspicious Scouts. Trading confessions about the devils inside everyone, the two girls begin to reconcile with Nicolo's help.

Keith Sadies rallies the terrified cadets, using them as bait to draw the district's Titans toward the fort, where massed Thunder Spear volleys wipe the streets clean. Among the dead is Pyxis, turned Titan by the wine; Armin personally puts him to rest. Floch returns to claim command and turns his gun on Yelena. When Gabi tells Armin that Reiner's armor peeled away the instant the Walls fell, Armin realizes the thaw was universal. In a dark basement, Annie Leonhart breathes free of her crystal for the first time in four years.

Eren addresses all Subjects of Ymir, announcing the Rumbling will trample the world beyond the island.

Conny abducts Falco, planning to feed him to his Titan mother in Ragako to make her human again.

Gabi rescues Kaya from a Pure Titan with an anti-Titan rifle, and the Braus household closes ranks around her.

Shiganshina is cleared: Keith's cadets bait the Titans into a massed Thunder Spear ambush, though Pyxis is among the transformed who must be put down.

Annie wakes, as Armin deduces that undoing the Walls' hardening also released her from the crystal.

Thaw is the 22nd episode of season 4 and the 81st overall, a MAPPA production credited to directors Jun Shishido, Hidekazu Hara, and Kiou Igarashi, with Hiroshi Seko writing. It aired February 14, 2022 in Japan and March 20, 2022 in the US, adapting its namesake manga chapter.

The information segment profiles the anti-Titan rifle, a single-shot weapon strong enough to kill through the nape but so heavy and punishing to fire that its practicality is doubtful, which makes Gabi's point-blank kill all the more striking.