Attack on Titan Episode 9: Where the Left Arm Went: The Battle for Trost (5)

The episode opens with the Survey Corps on an expedition beyond Wall Rose, where soldiers discuss the high casualty rates of 30% per mission despite being mankind's elite. A soldier devoured by a Titan vows that Captain Levi will exterminate them all as he stabs its face. Levi effortlessly slices the napes of two Titans on the left flank, expressing disgust at their identical faces and meticulously cleaning the blood from his hands afterward before rejoining Petra and the soldier he saved. Elsewhere, Hange enthusiastically confronts a Titan, promising not to hurt it, then dodges its grab, severs its nape, and asks if it felt pain.

News of the Trost attack reaches Commander Erwin, who orders an immediate retreat.

The scene flashes back to Eren inside the stomach of the bearded Titan that swallowed him, surrounded by dismembered soldier corpses; he bursts out as a Titan, ripping through its back. Driven by rage, Eren stomps and decapitates the Titan that ate him, then punches a smaller one's mouth to kill it, repeatedly crushing its head in a bloodlust frenzy.

Eren regains human form amid the Titan corpses, with no memory of his actions.

In the present, Eren, Mikasa, and Armin are brought before Garrison leaders, including Captain Kitz Woermann, who accuses Eren of emerging from a Titan, labeling him the enemy based on witnesses. Eren pleads he is human and fought for them, but Woermann dismisses it, ordering cannons to fire on the trio to prevent further risk. Mikasa threatens to kill anyone harming Eren.

As the cannon fires, time slows; Eren recalls his father's words about mastering his power to protect Mikasa and Armin if he wishes to join the fight. Eren bites his hand, partially transforming into a Titan that catches the cannonball with its massive hand, shielding his friends amid the smoke and terrifying the soldiers.