Southwestward

Ragako lies in ruins with no bodies, no blood, and every horse still tethered. As Conny mounts up to leave, the small-limbed Titan draped over his home rasps a greeting at him, words he cannot process before Reiner hurries him back to the mission. Gelgar privately doubts the comforting theory that the villagers fled, and the search teams split off along Wall Rose. Riding with Nanaba's group, Christa presses Ymir on why she followed her into the Scouts; Ymir insists everything she does is for herself, which oddly puts Christa at ease.

The Garrison holds an eastern defensive line, where Rico notes that the whole invasion feels wrong, a suspicion Hannes shares as his own patrol finds the countryside strangely empty of Titans. Eleven hours after the first sighting, both Scout teams meet having found the Wall intact. Exhausted, they bed down in the abandoned fortress of Utgard.

Traveling toward Ehrmich, Hange shows the others a shard of the Female Titan's hardened skin that never evaporated and matches samples taken from the Wall itself. The conclusion: the Walls are built from colossal Titans, and if hardening built them, Eren's Titan might one day plug the Wall Maria breach. In Ehrmich, the sight of refugees cracks Pastor Nick's resolve just enough; he will not break his vow, but he points the Scouts toward a young recruit with the authority to reveal the Walls' secrets, a blonde girl who keeps company with someone named Ymir. At Utgard, Reiner corners Ymir in a storeroom moments before the alarm: a horde of Titans is moving through the darkness with the Beast Titan among them, and the veteran Scouts dive into battle.

The Titan on Conny's house speaks, welcoming him home and deepening the mystery of Ragako's vanished villagers.

No breach exists: Nanaba's and Gelgar's teams sweep Wall Rose and find it whole, then shelter at Utgard Castle.

Hange links the Walls to Titan hardening through Annie's crystal fragment and proposes Eren seal Wall Maria with the same ability.

Pastor Nick identifies Historia, without naming her directly, as the person permitted to speak the truth about the Walls.

Titans attack at night, converging on Utgard while the Beast Titan scales Wall Rose.

Southwestward is the third episode of season 2 and the 28th overall, directed by Kenji Imura and written by Hiroshi Seko for Wit Studio and Production I.G. Japan saw it on April 15, 2017, the US on May 7. It draws on the manga chapters Southwestward and Utgard Castle.

The episode's in-world information segment covers Scout Regiment torches, standard issue gear prized for staying lit when dropped during night operations, a detail that matters as the cast faces the series' first large-scale nighttime Titan assault.