Smile: Assault on Stohess, Part 1

"Enough. I can't listen to any more of this. It's pointless. I'm going to carve you up again...Female Titan!"

- Mikasa confronts Annie Leonhart

Smile: Assault on Stohess, Part 1 (微笑み ―ストヘス区急襲①―) is the 23rd episode of the 1st season and the 23rd episode overall of the Attack on Titan anime, produced by and.

Overview
In Stohess District on eastern Wall Sina, Annie prepares to join her Military Police in a mission to escort Eren to the capital until she is pulled aside by Armin, who asks for her assistance in sneaking Eren away to safety. Hesitantly agreeing, Annie is led by Eren, Armin, and Mikasa to a tunnel leading underground.

Annie refuses to follow the Scouts below, and their suspicions that Annie is the Female Titan are confirmed. Escaping capture, Annie transforms in the middle of the city.

Summary
Annie has a dream of being trained by her father before waking up in her room. In the Stohess District of Wall Sina, the Military Police are ordered to escort the Scout Regiment convoy once they enter the capital. The superiors put all the work on the cadets. The Military Police are shown to be lazy and corrupt which one of Annie's colleagues, Hitch, reveals she joined the police for that reason. Another colleague, Marlo, is disgusted, revealing he joined the police so he could reform it to become a better organization which Annie respects since he reminds her of Eren.

As they begin marching out, they see their commanding officers selling Military Police equipment to the black market. Marlo tries to stop them. They think he wants in and is trying to blackmail, so they give him a coin. He persists and threatens to tell on them, but fails inevitably and receives a beat down. He is rescued by Annie and Hitch, who point out the surrounding crowd. After letting their commanding officers go, they continue to head to Stohess.

After the convoy has entered Stohess, Annie is secretly called by Armin in the alleyways. Armin asks for her help as he is helping Eren escape the capital as the one riding in the convoy is actually Jean in disguise. She refuses at first, noting the problems with the plan, but after Armin begs again, believing she is a good person, she finally agrees, but puts on a ring before following him. Annie, Mikasa, Eren and Armin begin their journey to escape the capital. Soon, they reach an underground tunnel and Armin leads the way into the underground tunnel. However, Annie refuses to enter. Eren and Armin try to get Annie to follow them, but Annie starts to get curious as she states that there are no civilians around, and she notices that Armin was behaving and looking at her strangely as nearby hidden Scout Regiment members disguised as civilians watch over them.

Armin finally reveals his suspicion that Annie is the Female Titan since the omni-directional mobility gear she had presented to check for unauthorized usage after Sawney and Beane were killed was Marco's. Annie asks why Armin did not stop her then and Armin replies that he did not want to believe it. Armin also wonders why she did not kill him during the last expedition, saying that letting him live back then is what led to this current situation. Eren and Armin beg Annie to prove them wrong by following them.

Mikasa believes that they had failed to take her underground. She takes out her swords, preparing to fight the Female Titan once again. Annie, knowing her identity is exposed, laughs sadistically and admits to the group that Armin has won his bet drawing her out and exposing her identity.

Afterward, Annie states that her bet has just begun and tries to transform. Armin shoots a signal flare and the hidden Scouts jump out and rush her, trying to prevent her from transforming. They tackle her limbs from different directions, and gag her to prevent her from biting herself. Despite the Scouts' attempts to stop her, she succeeds in transforming into a Titan using the blade hidden in her ring, confirming her true identity and killing the men that were restraining her. Mikasa was fast enough to see her strategy, and dragged Eren and Armin underground in order to protect them from the transformation blast. The entire district watches as a tower of light and dust rises in the city.

The Military Police Regiment
The Military Police Regiment numbers around 2,000, but if you add the Garrison Regiment under their command, their actual force is approximately 5,000.

''Each walled city has about 200 MPs stationed there. Primary duties are to oversee cadet brigades, monitor the Garrison, and direct fire-fighting operations.''

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