Primal Desire: The Struggle for Trost, Part 9

With Rico Brzenska's squad nearly annihilated, the defense of Eren's Titan hangs by a thread. On the rooftops, Jean Kirschtein struggles to salvage working omni-directional mobility gear from a corpse while a Titan closes in; Marco Bodt, Conny Springer, and Annie Leonhart each intervene in turn, buying him the seconds he needs to escape to the top of the Wall. From there the cadets witness something extraordinary: Eren, restored to control of his Titan, hauling the massive boulder toward the breach.

Armin Arlelt tells the elite squad that Eren has won his inner battle and means to finish the mission. Ian Dietrich commits everything to the effort, ordering the remaining soldiers to shield Eren with their lives, and Mitabi Jarnach's squad descends to street level to bait the Titans away, an act Armin calls suicidal. The cost mounts quickly. Mitabi is crushed, and Ian dies pulling a comrade from a Titan's jaws. As one last Titan blocks the path, Rico blinds it and Mikasa Ackermann cuts it down. Roared on by Armin, Eren slams the boulder into the gap, sealing Trost. Rico, weeping, fires a yellow flare to mark the mission's success.

Two Titans reach the exhausted group moments later, but both are slaughtered by a soldier bearing the Wings of Freedom: Captain Levi. In the day that follows, the Garrison and Scout Regiment purge the remaining Titans from Trost and even capture two alive. The victory is unprecedented, and the toll horrific. Sorting corpses in the aftermath, Jean discovers Marco's half-eaten body, learning his friend died unseen and unremembered. Eren later wakes shackled in an underground cell, where Erwin Smith holds up the key to his family's basement and asks about the secrets it hides. When Eren snarls that he wants to join the Scouts and butcher every Titan he can find, Levi claims responsibility for him, warning that he will kill Eren himself if he ever turns, and approves his enlistment.

Marco, Conny, and Annie save Jean when his broken gear leaves him stranded among Titans.

The elite squad and cadets sacrifice themselves as decoys; Ian Dietrich and Mitabi Jarnach are killed shielding Eren's advance.

Eren drops the boulder into the breach, the first human victory over the Titans, signaled by Rico's yellow flare.

Levi makes his entrance by cutting down two Titans and rescuing Eren, Mikasa, and Rico.

Jean finds Marco's corpse during cleanup, and Sasha learns that Titans vomit the people they swallow because they have no digestive tract.

Erwin and Levi interrogate Eren in custody; Levi personally vouches for him and accepts him into the Scout Regiment.

This is the 13th episode of the first season, produced by Wit Studio and Production I.G. It adapts the chapters Primitive Desire and What Should I Do Now?, with direction by Masashi Koizuka and Hiroyuki Tanaka and a screenplay by Noboru Takagi.

The Japanese broadcast was June 30, 2013, with the US airing on August 2, 2014. Crunchyroll lists the episode under the alternate title Primal Desires, The Battle for Trost (9).

The episode closes the Struggle for Trost arc's battle; its information segment recounts humanity's first recorded clashes with Titans 107 years earlier and the failure of cannon fire against their regeneration.