Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood Episode 23 & 24

Epi on September 21, 2009 · in Full Metal Alchemist 2

I apologize for the lateness of my post, was quite busy in the past week, so I’m going to condense two posts into one.

Summary:

Following the fast-paced rhythm of the past few episodes, episode 23 begins right where 22 left off. With a well-placed jump out the window, Ling Yao manages to escape from King Bradley and Gluttony with Ran Fan on his shoulder. Knowing that she is slowing him down, Ran Fan does the unimaginable and cuts off her arm to throw off the chase. (noooooooooooooo!)

Meanwhile Ed and Al are off fighting Scar, but before they can finish him off Gluttony pops up. Amazingly Ling Yao has all the answers as he cuts down Gluttony and then gets Ed to create some metal wire to tie him up. Ever expanding to reheal, Gluttony ends up being trapped inside Ling Yao’s version of the Chinese finger trap… in a ball. As Ling escapes with the bound up Gluttony in Riza’s car, the Elric brothers go to finish off Scar. Before they can finish the job, the panda loli girl comes back to save the Scar with some cool Xing-style alchemy. She leaves a bit too fast though, and accidentally leaves her panda friend behind who ends up befriending Al. As Riza, Ling and Gluttony speed away, Ling convinces her to go pick up Ran Fan, and it is that which causes Riza to be discovered by King Bradley as he finally confirms that Mustang knows too much.

After seeing Winry off at the train station, Ed and Al rendezvous with Roy’s crew at the safe house in order to try and interrogate Gluttony. Meanwhile Ran Fan is saved as the doctor dude from a few episodes back comes and saves her life even as she is down an arm. At the safe house Ling Yao reveals to everyone that ugly truth, that King Bradley is actually a Homonculus. As the episode ends, we see Gluttony breaking free of his bonds when he sees Mustang, Lust’s killer.

Episode 24 starts with a reminder that Dr. Marcoh is still alive, but a prisoner of the Homonculus. He is blackmailed into helping the Homonculus achieve their aims as long as his home village is spared. Back at the safe house, Gluttony shows his true form. No longer the lovable brainless and ever-hungry bad guy you just can’t help loving, Gluttony in fact has an evil eye with an evil all-powerful eating ability inside his abdomen. Wanting revenge for Lust, he chases after Mustang and company. Some quick thinking manages to allow our heroes to escape safely, but Ed, Al and Ling Yao volunteer to stay behind to defeat Gluttony once and for all.

Meanwhile back at King Bradley’s house, we’re introduced to yet another Homonculus: Pride who is seemingly a butterfly. We’re reminded yet again of Bradley’s human side as he relishes at the ‘fun’ of having up and comers like the Elric brothers try to oust his secret. As well we’re treated to a short story written by his son, showing how Bradley has managed to keep a loving family the entire time.

At the doctor’s house, Ran Fan is alive and well, but now fully depressed that she has no arm. (Don’t worry we still love you!). Meanwhile Mustang doesn’t linger as he decides that he must find allies if he is to defeat King Bradley and he sets out for headquarters.

Back in the forest, Ed, Al and Ling Yao meet up with Gluttony and Envy and learn unequivocally that Ed and Al cannot be eaten as they are valued sacrifices. As they split up, Ling Yao shows Envy who’s boss but before he can finish Envy, Gluttony ends up eating Al, Ling and Envy in one giant gulp.

Back at headquarters, Mustang befriends Lieutenant General Raven in his attempt to find allies. As he lets up that he knows about King Bradley’s true identity, Raven escorts Roy to the main meeting of the highest echelons of the military. There Roy realizes the horrible truth — the entire establishment knows King Bradley’s true identity and is in fact supporting him behind the scenes.

As the episode ends, we see Ed waking up in a pool of blood in a strange world, the world inside Gluttony’s stomach.

Reaction:

After a few plot episodes, the last few episodes have been pretty action packed. Just when I thought that all the mysteries had now been revealed, the series drops a huge bomb in our faces. It seems that entire military establishment is in on the secret of King Bradley. How will Mustang manage to stay alive now that they all know that he knows? Will Mustang now be captured and turned into a sacrifice? I’m waiting Riza to come in guns blazing and to save the day, but that’s pretty hard in a room full of the top alchemists in the country.

Meanwhile, one has to wonder what the real plan of the Homonculus really is. Dr. Marcoh hinted that they may be trying to create a giant philosopher’s stone using all the people of the country. If stones are powered by lives, and if the power of the stone is dependent on how many lives were sacrificed for it, sacrificing an entire country would surely create a massively powerful stone. But Evny did not let up their true intentions, only saying that Marcoh was on the right track. What is the actual plan?

In episode 24, we see Al ending up in Gluttony’s stomech. Does this mean that Al will be reunited with that priest from the first episode? How about all the other people Gluttony has eaten? It would be pretty cool if he manages to escape with an army of the previously thought to be dead, but I wouldn’t hold my hopes too high. Seeing the skeleton in the blood pool implies that everyone inside the stomech is long dead.

Just one note about episode 23. I’m not too thrilled about that loli panda girl coming back and I still have absolutely no idea what the point of having her in this story is. Unless she becomes Cal and quickly grows up into another Ran Fan, I’m not amused.

Finally, will we ever get to see Ran Fan under the bandages? Will she get another arm? Ran Fan, you must continue to kick ass!