What Needs to be Done Now: Eve of the Counterattack, Part 3

An inquiry follows the deaths of the captive Titans Sawney and Beane, since the culprit acted with unsanctioned ODM gear. The mood among the graduating cadets is bleak. Conny admits he can halfway grasp why someone would do it, and when he asks Annie for guidance she tells him the decision has to be his alone. At Scout headquarters, Eld and Gunther wonder aloud whether any cadets will volunteer, and Eren cannot promise them much.

At the recruitment assembly, Erwin Smith gambles on honesty. He announces that the cellar beneath Eren's old home in Shiganshina may hold the answer to the Titans, then lays out the cost of reaching it: roughly sixty percent of Scouts have died over the past four years. Most of the crowd files out. Jean, Sasha, Conny, Mikasa, Armin, Reiner, Bertholdt, Ymir, and Christa stand their ground, and Erwin welcomes them as new Scouts, praising them for conquering their fear.

Eren reunites with his classmates and only then hears that Marco did not survive Trost. Jean presses him over the rumor that his Titan once swung at Mikasa; Eren confirms it, along with how little control he truly has. Wanting to understand what his own death might purchase, Jean chooses to bet on him anyway. After a month spent drilling Erwin's long-range scouting formation, bells ring over Calaneth District and the 57th expedition passes through the gate.

The military opens an investigation into the killing of the research Titans Sawney and Beane.

Erwin publicly reveals the existence of the Jaeger basement and the regiment's four-year casualty rate during his recruitment address.

Jean, Sasha, Conny, and other members of the 104th formally enter the Scout Regiment alongside Eren's closest friends.

Eren learns of Marco Bodt's death and admits to the others that his Titan power is unstable.

The Scouts depart Calaneth District to begin the 57th Exterior Scouting Mission.

The episode is the 16th of season one, animated by Wit Studio with Production I.G, and it adapts the manga chapters What Should I Do Now?, Opening the Gate, and Long-Distance Enemy Scouting Formation. It first aired in Japan on July 28, 2013, with the US broadcast following on August 23, 2014.

Yasuko Kobayashi handled the script, with direction by Yasushi Muroya and Keisuke Onishi. Die Flügel der Freiheit opens the episode and great escape closes it. Crunchyroll released it under the alternate title What Should Be Done - Night Before the Counteroffensive (3). The episode's information segment explains that only the top ten graduates may pick the Military Police, leaving everyone else to decide between the Garrison and the Scouts.