Summary:

Proving themselves to be quite incompetent, the Dracha army doesn’t even manage to dent the Briggs Wall with giant cannons as they are completely slaughtered by the Briggs army mulling around at the top of the wall. With that the blood crest has been cast and Father’s alchemy circle complete.

Meanwhile, back at Bradley’s office, the king asks Riza what she thinks of having a Homunculus run the country. He goes on to further tell her that apparently the only thing which he ever choose for himself was his wife and that everything else was set.

Back up north, following the phone call from the end of the previous episode, Zampano leads Envy to where everyone is hiding. As Envy is surprises Dr. Marcoh, Marcoh has a surprise of his own, as the entire Zampano betrayal was actually just a rouse to kill the lovable Homunculus. With the power of eastern alchemy, Envy is pounded with ice but he is not so easily defeated. Even Scar’s alchemy is no match for Envy as he proves to be invulnerable to all attacks. As he captures Dr. Marcoh with his tongue, he reveals to Marcoh that all of his former subordinates have now been turned into Philosopher’s Stones themselves. This proves to be the final straw for Marcoh as he reveals that as the most knowledgeable Philosopher’s Stone creator in the country he also knows how to destroy the stones, and promptly goes about deconstructing Envy.

With one final emo face distortion, Evny disintegrates, leaving behind a small green multi-legged worm type creature, apparently Envy’s true and original form. Following some hijinks with Yoki, Evny is finally bottled up and Scar tells May Chang to take Evny along with her back to Xing and worry about her own people instead of the affairs of another country. As they send a 8 year old girl away alone into the deep cold, Scar and Dr. Marcoh set off on a journey of their own to create some change you can believe in. Meanwhile Al, Winry and the rest decide to head off to Lior, as Al is itching for some hot Rose action, oh and apparently the tunnel goes there too where they bump into none other than Hoenheim being a total goof.

The episode ends with some bickering between Olivier and Alex Louis Armstrong, which ends when one of the top brass of the conspiracy finally shows Olivier what she’s signed up for… the Eva production series the immortal army ready to do battle with Gendo Hoenheim.

Reaction:

Overall this was a great episode. The Envy battle was pretty fun, although I would have liked to see more alchemy usage (i.e. Al showing his skills) before the final defeat. There’s a few things of note in this episode that I’d like to discuss.

First of all, we get Bradley’s offhand comment to Riza about the fact that his wife is the only thing that he’s ever chose. I wonder if this will end up being an important plot point later on. We must remember that unlike say Envy, Bradley did start off as a human after all. If he actually did care about his human wife, perhaps the threat of Father disintegrating her to create more Philosopher’s Stones would be something that would change Father’s mind and make him part of the ‘resistance’ himself. Maybe not.

Secondly, we get a bit of fun bantering between Alex Louis and Olivier. One wonders how much of this was an act, and how much of it was Olivier’s true disgust at Alex Louis’ cowardice even if she now knows the TRUE reason behind that war.

Thirdly, we get to see the immortal army for the first time. One wonders whether or not this is really just a clever rouse by Father to get the generals to be complacent to his demands. I mean do the generals really know that the ENTIRE COUNTRY is going to be turned into Philosopher’s Stones? Likely not. What’s the point of having an army that is more powerful than you (i.e. could revolt against you easily) and have an empty country to boot? The generals likely think only a limited amount of people will die or that all the requisite people have already died (making the blood crests). This puts into the question, is this so called immortal army merely just a huge rouse? Are those hanging bodies really going to turn ‘alive’ at some point, or are they really just empty shells which are never meant to be anything more?

Surely if we are to actually get these bodies to be ‘alive’, then some form of human transmutation needs to take place, which sort of explains why Father needs Ed, Al, Izumi and Hoenheim to be sacrifices. But I have a feeling that the entire ‘army’ is just fake and that the generals will all be in for a rude awakening sooner or later. Still if the army is actually ‘real’, perhaps much like the Eva Production Series, they will be even more powerful than the original Homunculus, setting the stage for some even more awesome battles to come.

Finally we get to the issue of the Homunculus themselves. With Evny’s Philosopher Stone being deconstructed by Dr. Marcoh, we get to see Envy’s original form. While Lust never got such a luxury (she was just completely burnt up) and Gluttony just turned into a more tiny version of himself I wonder what of the others? We know that Greed is currently Ling who got turned to look like Greed. Similarly Evny’s worm thing was turned as well. King Bradley meanwhile looks exactly as he’s always looked even after the introduction of the stone to his human body. I wonder what Pride’s original form was and same with Sloth. I also wonder why some Homunculus change shapes and others don’t. And finally I wonder why Envy is able to survive as a worm enclosed in a jar with limited air and no food. Is this as Scar claims some immortal permanent form of a powerless Homunculus, and if so why didn’t Lust survive? The one final thing is, why is it that Envy in worm-form retains his personality, while we’d assume that if Ling ever goes back to being Ling he will be himself and NOT greed? Perhaps Envy really was completely created after all, and not originally a worm given powers?

So many questions… so few answers.

Next week: More Hoenheim shananagans.

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