The Wings of Freedom

Marching at the head of the Wall Titans, Eren reflects on the walls that have stood before him his whole life and on the childhood dream of seeing lands beyond them; the view he finally reaches is carpeted with the crushed dead. The alliance's ship docks after dark in Odiha, a port already emptied of people, and everyone sets to work readying the flying boat. Falco wakes to the realization that Magath, and probably his own family, died when the Titans flattened most of Marley, and Pieck cannot find anything comforting to say.

Annie tells Mikasa she is done. With her father surely dead, no reason to fight remains for her, though she pities the Azumabito for their tireless effort. Noticing where Annie's gaze keeps landing, Mikasa works out her feelings for Armin, then answers Annie's pointed question plainly: she will not kill Eren to save humanity, she is only going to bring him back. A revived Yelena, questioned aboard the ship, points the group toward Fort Salta, a mountain fortress tied to airship research that Eren would logically want erased. Levi, still wrecked from his injuries, insists on being present and later flexes his maimed grip, declaring two fingers will do.

Pieck entrusts Gabi and Falco to Kiyomi, who plans to lock the children in a cabin so they cannot follow. Reiner and Pieck commit to the Scouts' mission, honoring Magath's last wish, while Annie shares a farewell with Reiner in which she admits how often she wanted to kill him, smiling as she says it. Fueling has barely begun when Floch, dragged across the sea clinging to the ship, staggers into the hangar and empties his gun into the flying boat before Mikasa's ODM hook tears through his neck. The punctured tank needs an hour of repairs the group does not have; the ground is already shaking.

Armin volunteers to hold off the approaching Wall Titans, but Hange overrules everyone, claiming the duty as the leader who brought them this far. Hange formally names Armin the 15th commander of the Scout Regiment, calling him the one person suited to a role that demands endless pursuit of understanding, and jokes that Armin should work his new subordinate Levi hard. Passing Levi on the way out, Hange asks only to make a cool exit; Levi answers with "dedicate your heart," words he has never before spoken to them.

Floch dies still convinced of the Jaegerist cause after crippling the launch. Hange alone topples the leading Titans, buying the mechanics just enough time, until the searing heat ignites their cloak and consumes them; in death Hange rejoins Erwin and the fallen Scouts. The flying boat clears the harbor alongside the Azumabito ship as Odiha burns.

This is the 30th episode of season four and the 89th overall, a MAPPA production directed by Yuichiro Hayashi and Kiou Igarashi from a Hiroshi Seko script, first streamed in Japan on November 5, 2023. It adapts the manga chapter of the same name and is the middle installment of the three-episode split of THE FINAL CHAPTERS Special 1, a version available only through Japanese streaming services.

The public information segment profiles Odiha, a southeastern Marleyan port city hemmed in by mountains to the north, the direction from which the Rumbling would arrive. A trivia point: Ian Dietrich appears among the dead wearing a Scout Regiment emblem instead of his correct Garrison insignia.