Direct C−H activation and functionalization offer a convenient protocol for pharmaceutical and material syntheses. Although versatile mechanisms have been proposed to depict transition-metal-catalyzed C−H activation, to date, the shared key agostic hydrogen intermediate in several major mechanisms has not been observed yet, which apparently puzzles the mechanism-based catalyst design. This work reports the direct observations of this intermediate in Pd(II)/Sc(III)-catalyzed C−H activation of acetanilides, and its stability and reactivity in C−H activation are investigated. Remarkably, this intermediate is only observed in electron-rich acetanilides, and the metasubstituent with increased σ m constant generally accelerates C−H activation, a characteristic of the base-assisted C−H activation mechanism. This study has unveiled the masks of this intermediate with an understanding of its first-hand physicochemical properties, shedding new light on mechanism-based catalyst design.