Special Operations Squad: Eve of the Counterattack, Part 2

Special Operations Squad is the fifteenth episode of the Attack on Titan anime. It is produced by Wit Studio and Production I.G. This episode describes Eren's first days in Scouting Legion as he gets to know the members of the Special Operations Squad along with Hanji Zoe and her research on the Titans.

Summary
With Eren now being an official member of Scouting Legion, he is escorted to their former HQ. Riding horses to get there, Auruo Bossard explains to Eren that it is in fact an old castle they remodeled. In the end, it ended up being useless for Scouting Legion, but it will now serve as a hideout for Eren. Afterwards, Auruo 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 Auruo for talking so much while riding a horse, but Auruo says that first impressions are important, thinking that Eren was scared, but Petra states that Eren was probably just surprised to see Auruo'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.

Erd Gin and Gunter Shulz 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 Scouting Legion. Levi then returns, telling Eren to redo the cleaning.

Elsewhere, Mike Zakarius 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. Erd 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. Erd tries to question him, but they quickly find out that they won't learn more than the reports already contain. At that moment, Hanji Zoe 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 Hanji is happy to have found someone who will listen to her.

Hanji 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 Sawney 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 Hanji 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. Hanji 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 Hanji, but whole Scouting Legion are people who desire change, Eren asks Hanji 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 Hanji's agony. Apparently, the culprit is a soldier who then used Three Dimensional Maneuver Gear to escape, as Erd and Gunter 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.