Board Thread:Anime/@comment-27321453-20180722183806/@comment-1327106-20180725165141

I think you're confusing two different events.

After the battle in Trost, there was the trial and Eren was given to the Survey Corps because they said they could keep him in line. At this point, that was where Eren was supposed to be. There was no future handover to the government or the MPs in the works.

Then the Female Titan attack happened during the expedition, the Survey Corps got wrecked, and Eren was nearly kidnapped. When they returned, they were told to hand over Eren (it was obvious they couldn't take care of him as well as they said they could). This is when Jean was disguised as Eren and Eren, Mikasa, and Armin baited Annie into revealing herself.

The bait worked and they captured the Female Titan the day Eren was supposed to handed over. But before anything could go further, the Wall Rose invasion happened (which I believe took place entirely within the span of 48 hours).

We don't know how long there was between Episode 37 and 38, but assuming it hasn't been more than a few days, we're looking at maybe a week or so since the hand off was originally supposed to happen. It's long enough for the government to have gotten impatient, but not long enough that it's looks weird.