Epi on March 22, 2010 · in Full Metal Alchemist 2

Summary:

With the realization from the previous episode that Hohenheim was near, Pride decides to try and draw him out by capturing Ed (as if he wasn’t trying before). After a few super close calls our heroes manage to escape by a whisker.

With her new automail arm still settling in, RAN FAN stumbles and is almost caught by Pride’s shadow arms but she’s saved by Ed in the last moment as he tells her that he’ll be seeing her later that night… nekkid he’ll need her help later on.

Meanwhile after much calling out, Hohenheim manages to wake up Al from his slumber. Al quickly realizes what has happened, and warns his father about Pride as he starts beating up on himself that he managed to let Pride capture him. It seems that Pride even had control of Al’s soul, which is how Al was put into the deep sleep. Hohenheim explains that since the Homunculus are related to Father who’s somewhat related to him, perhaps that’s how Pride managed to do such a thing. After some careful deliberation, Al asks his father to help him with a plan.

As Pride has Ed, GreedLing and RAN FAN cornered, Hohenheim finally shows himself. Knowing that he is the most powerful enemy of them all, Pride, loosens his grip on everyone and focuses purely on Hohenheim. With Pride distracted, Al makes his move as he makes a mad dash for Pride, but Pride stops him before he gets too close. Amused that this was the best that they could do, Pride is suddenly surprised by exactly what I said would happen last week (well almost anyway) as Hohenheim uses the power of his Philosopher’s Stone to encapsulate Pride inside a giant sphere while Al grabs onto him to keep him still.

With all the light around him blocked out, Pride is no more than just Selim Bradley, useless without his shadow arms. Inside the sphere, Al explains to Pride that they will sit around until after the Promised Day ends. Now that Pride has been subdued, GreedLing makes a break for it, as he plots how to take over the world now that most of the other Homunculus are gone. Meanwhile Ed and Al have a short heart-to-heart before Ed plots what to do next.

Back in Central, Scar and company learn about the terrorist attack on Bradley and also learn that May Chang has returned to the city. Meanwhile, Kimblee makes his return by killing off some of the Ishbal-jin who have joined Scar in Central.

Back in the trap, Pride attempts to dig out, but his girly Selim arms are no match for the giant dome. Realizing that he is defeated, he instead decides to tell Al about the love of Wrath’s wife and how Pride loves her too, and also starts awesomely using Al’s head as a drum.

Finally, Scar manages to meet up with Ed and crew, and they discuss a strategy for the day ahead. As the sun rises, Ed gathers up his new red coat, ready to settle things once and for all.

After the eyecatch, the day has begun as we’re reacquainted with Denny Brosh and his little siblings, excited about the eclipse. Their excitement is short lived though as explosions soon rock Central city. The explosions are caused by none other than Roy Mustang’s crew, as they manage to get caught by the military. The episode ends as the general tells his men to kill everyone (including Wrath’s wife) except for Mustang.

Reaction:

Overall, a pretty enjoyable episode. The end part of the Pride/Ed/Greed/RAN FAN battle ended off pretty spectacularly with lots of awesome action, and the subsequent capture of Pride was just as envisioned.

I am a bit leery of exactly how that plan played out though. As we have learned, Al has been asleep for all this time, but upon awakening and before anything could be discussed (aside for Fu saying he’s out of flashbangs), he immediately asks his father for his help. It seems that somehow Al has also realized that Pride’s power lies in the shadows and that cutting it off with a sphere would do the trick. Considering Al is unaware of where he is, and that Pride has already started to attack everyone, he couldn’t have been conscious of Pride’s movements after he was captured. And the night he was captured he was going in and out of his real body dream, so I doubt he could have noticed how Pride’s power worked. While it’s not impossible for Al to brilliantly put together the pieces, it seems we’re just to believe that he knows exactly how to defeat the little bugger while everyone else in the world never knew.

Although Pride is out of commission, I am quite sure that the sphere cell will not be permanent. Al is an important part of Father’s plan, and while it may not be necessary for Al to be at a certain location, I would wager that Al would need to be brought to a certain physical spot for Father’s plan to work, and with how much Pride hinted to Al that everything was going according to plan, even Pride’s capture may have been accounted for. The other certainty is of course, we can’t exactly have the next 15 episodes or whatever not featuring Al, so for sure Pride will get out, and more hijinks will ensue.

As for Mustang, we all know that there’s absolutely no way that he’s going to die so soon. Not only does the next episode preview show everyone being alive, but you can’t help but realize that getting ‘captured’ was part of Mustang’s plan in the first place. What exactly he was trying to accomplish by capturing Wrath’s wife is not known though unless he really thinks he can use her to ‘turn’ Wrath over to the good side.

Finally, with all the major players slowly assembling (good to see you again Kimblee, and whoa what was Denny doing there?) there’s still a few holdouts we have yet to hear from. Where is May Chang and Envy? Where’s Maria Ross? Where’s Izumi? And of course where’s Winry because we know she needs to keep walking down that corridor!

Next Episode: Someone dares to cross Olivier and gets their ass kicked. (Nooooooooooooo!)

P.S.