Attack on Titan Episode 44: Wish

Rod Reiss returns with a satchel, relieved to be alone with Historia and Eren. He tells Historia that her sister, Frieda, is not entirely gone and her memories live on, asking if she would like to meet her. When Historia agrees, Rod kneels and takes a syringe from his satchel. Eren recognizes it as the kind his father used on him.

Elsewhere in the Underground Chapel, the Anti-Personnel Control Squad prepares for an attack. The doors above burst open, and barrels of gunpowder augmented with oil roll down the stairs. Levi, Hange, and their squad charge in. Sasha fires a flaming arrow into a barrel, causing an explosion. Other squad members fire signal flares into the air, creating a smoke screen.

Levi and Mikasa begin their attack. Levi counts thirty-five Anti-Personnel Control Squad members and calls out their locations. Traute shouts for her squad to spread out and surround their enemies, but the smoke makes it difficult for them to fight. Their Anti-Personnel ODM requires them to fire in the same direction they shoot their anchors, preventing attacks from directly behind them. Once the Scouts close the range, their swords have the advantage.

Jean and Conny take out enemy soldiers while Sasha and Armin provide covering fire. Traute realizes the Scouts' swords are advantageous in close quarters. As the Anti-Personnel Squad faces being wiped out, Kenny arrives and shoots at Levi to draw his attention.

Kenny tells Levi that even if he gets past this point, it will be for nothing, and they engage in combat. Kenny wounds Levi, who throws a bag of oil at him. Kenny shoots the bag, creating a fireball that Levi leaps through to attack him. Levi slices Kenny in the gut, wounding but not incapacitating him.

Seeing Hange approach, Traute fires wildly off target to feign weakness and create an opening. Hange pursues her. Traute lands on a wall and shoots an anchor from her Anti-Personnel ODM into Hange's shoulder, swinging Hange across the field until momentum tears Hange free, throwing them against a crystal cavern pillar. Hange falls motionless. Taking advantage of the Scouts' shock, Traute calls for the Anti-Personnel Squad to fall back to their final defensive post. As they pass through a cavern mouth, one squad member cuts down a large net to prevent immediate pursuit. Kenny goes ahead to guard the ritual.

Hearing the combat, Rod tells Historia they need to hurry. Eren frantically tries to communicate through his gag, knowing what the syringe means for her, but she doesn't understand his distress. Rod tells her Eren knows they intend to return the power his father stole to its rightful place, inside her.

He explains that a hundred years ago, this cavern was created by the power of a particular Titan. This power also built the three Walls and altered people's memories. Some bloodlines were excluded, but their descendants and the rest of humanity no longer retained memory of the world before a century ago, with one exception. Eight years ago, when Frieda was fifteen, she ate her uncle and inherited the Founding Titan and the memories of the old world. This process had been done for a hundred years, passed down through generations of the Reiss family.

Rod tells Historia that with Frieda's power, there would have been no problems. She probably could have eliminated the Titans if she chose, but Grisha stole that power, and now it resides in Eren. Since Eren does not have the blood of the Reiss family, Frieda's power cannot be properly used while it is in him.

Hearing this, Kenny interrupts and asks for confirmation that Reiss blood is a requirement. Upon receiving it, Kenny is upset to learn it will mean nothing if he eats Eren himself. He grabs Rod and points his gun at his face. Kenny dislikes that Rod has been using him while knowing what he was after and that he wouldn't be able to get it. Undaunted, Rod tells Kenny he is still grateful for his service and calls him a stray dog his younger brother took in. Kenny defends Uri and threatens to shoot Rod, but Historia interrupts and yanks away Kenny's gun.

She tells Kenny to let her father go. Kenny regards her with exasperation, calling her pitiful and explaining that her father intends to turn her into a monster so she can eat Eren. Historia does not back down, saying she will eat Eren and inherit her sister's power and memories. Kenny asks if she remembers everything Rod has done to her. He states that Rod only cares about her blood because he doesn't want to become a Titan himself. Rod defends himself, struggling against Kenny, saying he must not become a Titan and asking Historia not to believe anyone else.

Kenny drops Rod, and Rod frees him from his service, telling Kenny to find another purpose and live out his years. Unmoved, Kenny says that would bore him. He climbs to the platform where Eren is restrained and says he will no longer interfere, but he will not give the Reiss family any advantages. Kenny removes Eren's gag and cuts his forehead, injuring Eren. This way, he and Historia can fight as Titans. If Historia wins, they will have peace. If Eren wins, things will stay as they are.

Rod panics and puts the syringe into Historia's hands. He explains it will turn her into a powerful Titan, and then she must bite Eren's spine and consume his spinal fluid. Kenny pulls back to watch, and Rod steps back, urging Historia to hurry. Historia's expression is fierce as she points the syringe at her arm, her hand shaking. She then looks up and realizes Eren has not transformed. She asks him why, and he tearfully explains that this situation should not have happened. They would not be in this position if his father had not come here five years ago.

Eren remembers everyone who died because Frieda was unable to act: Armin's grandfather, several of their classmates from the Cadet Corps, the original Squad Levi, many people in Stohess District, and the soldiers who died saving him from Reiner and Bertholdt, including Hannes. He feels he can never atone for it all. Eren tells Historia that he should not have happened, causing her to remember her own relationship with her mother, and he asks Historia to eat him so she can save humanity.

Historia reminds him of the time he called her a normal person and how it made her happy. She prepares to inject herself but recalls how Ymir would badger her whenever she tried to do something "nice" for others rather than herself. She asks her father why the Reiss family did not do anything about the Titans in the last hundred years. Rod explains it was the wish of the First King that humanity be controlled by the Titans, believing it was the only path to peace. He does not know the reason itself because it is only known to those who inherit the world's memories.

Years ago, Rod and his brother Uri tried to convince their father to free humanity from the Titans, but he would not. When Uri inherited the Founding Titan, Rod understood. His brother had become a higher being, a god, which is necessary to govern the foundation of their world. He calls it his mission to bring that god back into their world and takes hold of the syringe to guide it to Historia's arm.

Historia remembers Ymir's words on top of Utgard Castle and her wish for Historia to live a life she is proud of. This causes her to slap away the syringe, and it shatters on the crystal floor as Rod looks on in horror. He lunges at Historia, but she throws him over her shoulder, and he lands on the floor with a sickening crack. Historia calls him out for being manipulative and refuses to let him kill her.

She grabs his satchel and runs up the stairs to Eren. Seeing this new development, Kenny cheers as Historia takes the keys from her father's bag and begins to free Eren, much to Rod's dismay. Eren urges her to hurry and eat him so everyone will stop suffering, but she punches him and tells him to shut up. She pulls the first set of chains free and tells him she wants nothing to do with exterminating the Titans. She says humanity can get wiped out. Historia calls herself humanity's enemy and the worst girl who ever lived. She wants Eren to escape, and then she will destroy everything else.

Below, a crippled Rod pulls himself across the floor to the remains of the syringe and laps at the spilled injection fluid, causing him to transform into a Titan.