To the Other Side of the Wall

At a military conference, officers fret that revealing what the Survey Corps found in the basement will plunge the Walls into turmoil. Pixis counters that a government hoarding secrets would be indistinguishable from the regime they toppled, and Historia, persuaded, decrees the findings be published. When Hange and Levi later call on Berg Newspapers, Roy and Peaure report that the story is out but belief is far from universal, and unrest has followed. Roy wonders what anyone is supposed to do with the knowledge that the whole outside world wants the Walls' inhabitants dead.

Before a ceremony honoring the Shiganshina survivors, Hitch arrives asking after Marlowe. Jean vouches for his bravery and has Floch tell the story. Floch praises Marlowe for steadying the doomed recruits, then adds that the man surely died regretting his choices, which sends Hitch away and outrages Jean. Floch defends his bluntness, then goes further, declaring that everyone who read the mission report thinks Erwin should have been the one revived. He accuses Eren, Mikasa, and Levi of letting sentiment override judgment, mockingly credits Mikasa with the maturity to give Armin up, and demands future recruits be told the truth so no cowards like himself enlist again. Armin concedes that Erwin was the right choice, but Eren refuses the premise, arguing no one can know which future would have been better, and recalls the freedom waiting beyond Wall Maria.

At the medal ceremony, Eren considers that while he would spend his own life freely, he cannot accept sacrificing Historia. The instant his lips touch her hand, a memory of his father floods in: on the night Wall Maria fell, Grisha stood in the Reiss Chapel, revealed that he came from beyond the Walls, and begged Frieda Reiss to destroy the Titans before everyone inside was devoured.

Over the winter, the Executioner from Hell clears every Titan out of Wall Maria, and by spring, elevators along the Wall open transport past Trost. A full year on from the Trost battle, Shiganshina is resettled and the Survey Corps launches its first venture past Wall Maria in six years. As Hange predicted, the land outside is nearly empty of Titans; the sole specimen they find crawls on the ground, too malformed to stand, telling Eren they are near the site Marley uses to transform Eldians into Titans. Beyond it lies the ocean. Armin wades in, ecstatic that the sea from his book is real, and the others play in the surf, but Eren stares across the water in melancholy. The freedom they dreamed of, he says, will only exist once every enemy waiting on the far shore is dead.

Historia, backed by Pixis, orders the basement's revelations released to the public, which reacts with disbelief and unrest.

Floch tells Hitch that Marlowe died regretting his final choices, then openly argues that Erwin deserved the Titan serum over Armin.

Kissing Historia's hand triggers Grisha's memory of pleading with Frieda Reiss at the chapel on the night Wall Maria fell.

Wall Maria is purged of Titans over the winter and Shiganshina is repopulated a year on from the Trost battle.

The Survey Corps reaches the ocean for the first time, where Eren concludes that freedom requires killing the enemies across the sea.

To the Other Side of the Wall closes volume 22 as its fourth chapter and stands as the 90th chapter overall, authored and drawn by Hajime Isayama. It capped the Return to Shiganshina arc upon its Japanese release on February 9, 2017, a day after the English edition. The anime splits its content between the episodes Smoke Signal and The Other Side of the Wall.

It follows Meeting and hands off to The Other Side of the Ocean, ending the series' first half on the iconic ocean scene and Eren's ominous question of whether the basement held hope or despair.