Summary:

After the encounter with Father, Envy takes the Elric brothers back above ground to Wrath, though he has Ed take a shower first. While he’s got a moment alone with Al, Ed reveals what he saw at the Gate, and Al reveals that he’s still got May Chang with him, hiding inside the armor. The two are then escorted to a meeting room with Wrath and Mustang, and Mustang explains how his subordinates have essentially been taken hostage. Even though Wrath refuses to reveal anything new about the Homunculus plan, given what he already knows, Ed wants to quit being a State Alchemist. Wrath, however, threatens Winry and forces Ed to remain in the military, though he does allow the brothers to continue their journey to try to return to their old bodies. Mustang is going to stay put as well, though he does ask Wrath if it was he who killed Hughes. Wrath reveals that it wasn’t him, but he doesn’t reveal who really did it. Although Mustang and the brothers are now free to leave, Wrath stops Al first and stabs his armor. Fortunately, the blade comes out clean, and May Chang survived by hiding herself in Al’s leg.

The brothers then run off to call Winry and check on her. She’s fine and is happy that Ed called, and he doesn’t tell her about Wrath’s threat. While the brothers are at the phone booth, Greed finds them and passes along a piece of cloth with some Xing writing on it to give to Lan Fan from Ling. Ed and Al then split up, with Ed going to Dr. Knox’s place to get May Chang treated and to pass along the message. As it turns out, the Xing writing reveals to Lan Fan that Ling got the Philosopher’s Stone, but Al has to break the news to her of how it all happened. In light of this, Lan Fan decides that she needs to get an automail arm replacement as soon as possible. In the meantime, she and May Chang meet and immediately engage in hostilities because of their respective backgrounds, but Knox stops them from fighting in his house. Back at military headquarters, Greed meets Wrath and discusses how Ling accepted him for power. When Wrath comments on how Ling ended up being greedy and losing everything, Greed surprises Wrath by letting through Ling’s voice and telling him not to underestimate humans. Greed, however, is well aware of how Ling is watching vigilantly for an opportunity to take back over.

Mustang meanwhile has met up with Hawkeye and Armstrong and explains the situation to them. In spite of this, Armstrong refuses to quit because he can still remember how he ran away from the Ishval conflict, and he knows now that he has to fight against what’s wrong. As for Ed, he goes to help clean up some of the destruction caused in the earlier fight, and he notices that he can use alchemy again. What’s interesting is that he learns that some other alchemists had failed to use alchemy earlier in the day, and the time corresponds to when Father shut alchemy down. Ed remembers though that May Chang and Scar had still been able to use their alchemy, and he realizes that finding the secrets behind other forms of alchemy might be the key to opposing Father and getting Al’s body back without using a Philosopher’s Stone. He also realizes that he’s still got the gun Hawkeye gave him, and he decides to return it. Back underground, Scar is still trying to find his way out, and he happens to come across Marcoh’s prison. When Marcoh realizes who Scar is, he explains that he’s being forced to help the Homunculus and reveals his role in the Ishval conflict. He wants Scar to kill him, but Scar first wants to know all the details about what really happened during the Ishval conflict.

Preview

After so many straight episodes filled with action, this episode was a relatively void of it. That doesn’t mean it was boring though since there was a good deal of character development and plot advancement instead. My favorite moment was actually the scene between Greed and Wrath because the look on Wrath’s face after Ling’s voice came through was priceless. It does seem to imply though that Ling might eventually find a way to usurp Greed, and I’ll be looking forward to when that happens. Maybe by then Lan Fan will have her new automail arm too (I certainly like her determination).

I did find it a bit frustrating that Ed and Al are basically helpless against Wrath and the Homunculus as long as their loved ones are held hostage. It’s not a big deal in the short term, but they’re probably going to have to do something about it eventually, like finding someone to guard Winry or something. I was also a little surprised that Scar was still hanging around the sewers, but he’s now found Marcoh, and it looks like we’re going to hear a lot about the Ishval conflict next episode. On a related note, I really liked how the opening notes of Tsunaida Te played during the final Ed scene and lead into the ED, but they kept playing the song into the Scar/Marcoh epilogue, and it really didn’t fit that scene at all.

43 Comments

  1. Decent episode. Edward sure looks mature towards the end. And I liked the post-credit scene.

    Man, next episode is going to be so friggin’ awesome. Volume 15 was my favorite volume of the manga. It’s too bad it looks like they’ll only be doing one episode of the flashback, but we did sort of get half an episode of it a few episodes ago.

    The Ishbal material should be collected and reanimated later on for a full-length movie. Tell me you wouldn’t go see Fullmetal Alchemist: Ashes of Ishbal, a full-length Ishbal war movie.

    penguintruth
  2. The ishival flashback will take quite a few episodes, but I its totally worth it. The whole thing about the war is what seperates the two FMA series imo as it explains the characters relationships as well as their motivations what int he previos serieos could only be guessed.

    civer
  3. Can’t wait to see this!! And I totally would watch the war movie, but somehow I can’t see it garnering enough fanbase without Edward. Which reminds me, wow he looks so serious and mature with the sunset. *drools* *loves new outfit*

    QueenTiria
  4. Thank god they didn’t cut the Full Monty Alchemist joke. XD That was funny as! Oh god, they changed it so Ed doesn’t have a towel covering himself XD. Haha, Oh Envy…you saw a little too much when you opened that door. XD

    I cannot agree with you guys more, that Ed is looking really hot and mature. I love that screenshot of him in the sunset.

    penguintruth, i’m with you all the way. Ishbal flashbacks as a movie would just be so epic. Also, It’s such a shame, that the anime is only covering it in one episode. I hope they do it justice.

    I’m looking forward to watching this episode! It looks like another good one =D

  5. Each episode covers about two chapters. Each volume is 4 chapters long. The Ishbal flashback is one volume long; so that’d be about two episodes for Ishbal flashback. But they already covered about half of it in previous episodes so one more episode sounds about right.

    Anyways, I was really surprised to hear Ling’s voice when he told Bradley not to underestimate humans. And the episode almost ended bad with the credits showing abruptly after Ed grabs the gun, but I was glad to see the post-credits scenes.

    damian
  6. I cant wait to see ishbal! i thought that they were going to end this episode when ed arrives at hawkeyes to return the gun, but i guess the scar scene at the end was better. It seems like the people doing this anime hate marcho, because they give him almost none of his scenes from the manga and then change things so that as soon as scar appeares he starts beging him to kill him, its pathetic. cant wait to see kimbly in action though, he is one of my favorite characters and his voice actor is great.

    TakashiD
  7. @TakashiD – “It seems like the people doing this anime hate marcoh”

    No, they don’t hate him, at least they’ve given him 2 eyecatch pics so far. A lot of people are suspectin’ that they hate Hawkeye because she hasn’t got any eyecatch pic now. 😉

    tanukichan
  8. The Ranfan/May part I really felt was better in the manga >: more emotional with the doctor, oh well <3
    Still loving it, …why does “Ling” look like an angry dinosaur? XDDDDDD rotfl
    Bradley’s expression was priceless xD; haha great ep

    Kristyn
  9. I’ve got a question regarding this episode. The scene where Ed uses alchemy to fix the outside of a lady’s house. The lady thanked him and then there was a short clip of this disintegrating head that said thanks too. What was that all about?

    bob
  10. @bob, that was when Ed was using Envy’s Philosopher’s Stone as “payment” to get out of Gluttony’s stomach via the Gate.

    As you know, the PS contains many human souls which are trapped in limbo, and these souls are now thanking Ed for freeing them from eternal misery at last.

    @NaYa, think Charlie Brown. XDDD

    Kinny Riddle
  11. I kind of agree that some of Knox’s story was cut a little this time.

    Because, Hawkeye tells Ed the story, Knox tells Al, and Marcoh tells Scar almost all at the same time, leading into the flashback.

    Don’t worry though. Knox telling Al and what was cut will probably be placed somewhere in the next episode with Hawkeye and more of Marcoh and Scar. I have a good feeling of that.

    Cornwiggle
  12. pretty good episode, although im worried about the next one. the ishbal flashbacks are my favorite parts of the manga in that they portrayed such a hopeless, bleak situation. every line uttered by the characters seems important and nothing deserves to be cut. even with scars story delt with some episodes back i feel that at a rushed pace you would need 1.1/2-2 episodes to cover the material well. if they cut any of basque grans material in particular i will be severely pissed.

    fathomlessblue
  13. gravityoo: i dont know if youve read the manga, but Pride isnt going to reveal himself for a while yet. just wait though, his identity is one of the most epic things in this series. Avoid Spoilers at all costs!

    TakashiD
  14. Just because the next episode after it is the next chapter, doesn’t mean it will only be ONE.

    Let me explain. As someone said 1-1/2 episodes would be good for it, was what someone said, who said it won’t be?

    “Inside the belly” didn’t START off with them getting sucked in, did they? It happened in the very end. There’s no one saying that the first part of 520 cenz will be about that chapter. It could tie up Ishbal from the last episode.

    Chill out until you see it.

    Cornwiggle
  15. Well, nice episode.
    I kinda miss Ed yelling “You didn’t see the body!!” in the shower, and now Al’s body is even thinner than in the manga. I enjoyed (I’m horrible…) how deeply it touched/wonded Ed to see his little brother’s body like that…

    I liked that Ling’s voice changed, I was kind of expecting it, I meen his not Ling anymore.

    //Love

    Lily
  16. Hmm, it also seems like Winry’s boobs have increased in size. Ah fanservice LOL.

    This was a pretty good episode. I loved the fact that Al interacted with Lan Fan. It’s awesome that she finally got some character development.

    TheHollowwithin

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