Hagane no Renkinjutsushi – Fullmetal Alchemist Ep. 20
鋼の錬金術師 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST Episode 20
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood – 20

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

At the grave of Ed’s mother, Ed’s father Hohenheim speaks with the angry Ed and asks why he burned down the family house. He rejects Ed’s excuse that the burning of the house was to prove his determination to move forward, but in fact was a means of running away from his human transmutation attempt. Ed storms away angrily. That night, Hohenheim looks in on his sleeping son and reaches out to him but does nothing else.

Ed is awake and gets up to overhear a conversation between Hohenheim and Pinako in which Hohenheim asks if it really was Trisha that Ed and Al transmuted. Since she didn’t pay attention to the hair color of the body nor the eye color, she realizes that Hohenheim is suggesting Ed and Al didn’t bring their mother back at all, even if in grotesque form.

Back in Central, Al reveals to Ling, Winry, and Lan Fan how his soul was attached to the armor. Ling is excited at the prospect of being immortal, so Al has to correct him based on what he learned from Barry the Chopper — the soul being placed in something not its original body will eventually reject the transplant; it is only a matter of time. Winry gets angry with Ling’s happy attitude about this subject and leaves for her room. Al joins her and she remembers Al after he became a suit of armor and asks if Al’s original body can truly be returned.

In Resembool, Hohenheim gets permission to take the only photograph showing him, Trisha, and the boys together, then leaves and gives a warning to Pinako to leave as something bad is going to happen to this country. She dismisses the warning, citing how often bad things happen and tells Hohenheim to come back more often to eat. As he walks away, Hohenheim reflects on how he’ll never again eat a meal from Pinako as Ed observes Hohenheim leave from his bedroom.

Ed and Pinako head to the ruins of Ed’s former home as a storm builds up. Ed is determined to dig up the remains of the body he and Al transmuted to determine once and for all if it is his mother or not. Despite throwing up a few times and the pounding rain, Ed unearths the body and with Pinako’s help, recovers the remains. Ed is able to determine that this is not his mother’s body and Pinako figures it to possibly be a male body. Ed makes a call to Izumi and asks her about her own attempt to transmute her child back to life before revealing what he knows.

Sometime later, Ed and Pinako visit the graves of Winry’s parents and Trisha when Pinako remembers she forgot to give Trisha’s last message to Hohenheim. As such, she relays the message about a promise not kept to Ed, who’s not keen on seeing his father again to relay the message. Ed returns to Central where he’s worried about Al chastising him for going off alone when he finds Al’s damaged state. After kicking Ling and Lan Fan out, Ed and Al exchange information on what each other has learned as Ed repairs Al’s body.

Ed verifies that indeed Al’s true soul was taken from “Truth” and attached to the armor and figures that Al’s body can also be restored. Al remembers being inside the body that they transmuted for a short time before Ed affixed Al’s soul to the armor, the transmuted body rejecting the foreign soul. Izumi calls and verifies that the child she attempted to transmute was not her child and to Ed’s surprise, she thanks him. Izumi is then held by her husband, relieved that she didn’t kill her child twice.

With renewed determination, Ed and Al talk and get back to work on recovering Al’s body.

Thoughts/Review:

This turned out to be another surprising episode. So, neither Ed and Al nor Izumi actually brought their loved ones back to life, even if for a short time in grotesque form and with a terrible price. Instead, they transmuted what? A homunculus of sorts? Someone else? I’m a bit fuzzy here but I did find it very interesting that Ed’s father seemed to know the truth of what happened.

Speaking of Hohenheim, I wonder what brought him back to Resembool. Was it to ultimately warn Pinako about this vague danger that is coming? And just what sort of thing is about to happen to Resembool? Also, is Hohenheim older than he appears since I’d like to say the one photo shows a young Pinako with Hohenheim looking about the same age. What was Trisha’s promise to Hohenheim that she couldn’t keep?

So, a lot of questions from me but not a lot of speculation comes to mind because there are too many possibilities. *lol* Still, I have to say that this series is very good and I like being surprised. ^_^