Special Operations Squad: Eve of the Counterattack, Part 2

Special Operations Squad (特別作戦班) is the fifteenth episode of the Attack on Titan anime. It was produced by Wit Studio and Production I.G. This episode describes Eren's first days in the Survey Corps as he gets to know the members of the Special Operations Squad along with Hange Zoë and her research on the Titans.

Overview
Eren has joined the Survey Corps and is escorted by Levi and his Special Operations Squad to an old castle in preparation for the 57th Expedition beyond the Walls. Eren takes his time to meet the elite soldiers who are going to kill him if he goes berserk. Levi shows his aversion to dirt as he orders everyone to clean the whole castle. While doing the task, Eren gets more knowledge about Levi's past as a thug. Squad Leader Hange Zoë arrives and discuss making experiments to Eren's Titan form, and reveals she has other two Titans in custody, Sonny and Bean, and the experiments she has made to them. However, the next morning the Titans are mysteriously killed by an unknown soldier, and Erwin questions Eren who the enemy is, leaving Eren confused.

Summary
With Eren now being an official member of Survey Corps, he is escorted to their former HQ. Riding horses to get there, Oluo Bozado explains to Eren that it is in fact an old castle they remodeled. In the end, it ended up being useless for Survey Corps, but it will now serve as a hideout for Eren. Afterwards, Oluo attempts to intimidate Eren, but thanks to his horse stepping on a rock, he bites his own tongue, much to Eren's startle.

Now at the HQ, Petra Ral scolds Oluo for talking so much while riding a horse, but Oluo says that first impressions are important, thinking that Eren was scared, but Petra states that Eren was probably just surprised to see Oluo's silly action. She then tells him to stop imitating Levi. Nearby, Eren is watching all of this, knowing that they're the members of Levi's Special Operations Squad, the elite soldiers that will kill him if he goes berserk.

Eld Jinn and Gunther Schultz then observe the castle, noticing that it hasn't been maintained at all while abandoned. Viewing dirt as a serious problem, Levi orders everyone to start cleaning up immediately. As Eren reports to Levi that the upper floor has been cleaned, he finds out that he will once again sleep in the basement, this being one of the rules decided by the higher-ups. Surprised to see that Levi follows the rules without question, Eren confronts Petra who explains that Levi once used to be a thug, until he was taken by Erwin Smith and joined Survey Corps. Levi then returns, telling Eren to redo the cleaning.

Elsewhere, Mike Zacharius discusses the upcoming mission with Erwin. Erwin tells him that they have to quickly prove Eren's usefulness to the central, but Mike sees through this. Praising Mike for his 'smell', Erwin states that he will tell him everything when the time comes.

Special Ops Squad also talks about the operation, surprised to hear that even new graduates will participate. Eld states that it's unfortunate that they had lost the route to retake Wall Maria, but at the same time, he realizes the new hope, as everyone looks at Eren. Eld tries to question him, but they quickly find out that they won't learn more than the reports already contain. At that moment, Hange Zoë arrives to ask Eren to participate in tomorrow's experiment. When Eren asks about her experiments, the squad stands up to leave, knowing what is to come, while Hange is happy to have found someone who will listen to her.

Hange then begins explaining about the two Titans they have captured and the tests being done to them, including attempts to communicate. The Titans were named Sonny and Bean, after a human tribe that used to eat humans. The experiment continued as they tried to deprive the Titans of sunlight. Afterwards, they tested whether the Titans have any other vulnerabilities by directly damaging their bodies, which caused pain for Hange as well. Hearing her talking about the Titans like that, Eren questions how is it that she's able to stay so cheerful around the Titans. Hange explains that she used to hate them as well, but after a certain incident, she realized the mystery of Titans' bodies and tried to look at them from a different point of view since then. Seeing that not only Hange, but whole Survey Corps are people who desire change, Eren asks Hange to tell him more about her experiments, however, even after a whole night, he seemingly learns nothing new.

That is when a soldier arrives to report that both Titans were somehow killed. Everyone rushes to the place just to find evaporating skeletons of two Titans, much to Hange's agony. Apparently, the culprit is a soldier who then used Three Dimensional Maneuver Gear to escape, as Eld and Gunther note. Erwin then approaches Eren and asks him about what he can see there and who is the enemy. This leaves Eren confused, so Erwin apologizes for asking odd questions and leaves.