Hagane no Renkinjutsushi – Fullmetal Alchemist Ep. 24
鋼の錬金術師 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST Episode 24
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood – 24

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Envy pays Dr. Marcoh a visit to bring him food. When Envy mentions Marcoh being a prime candidate for the sacrifice, Marcoh decides to inquire about this sacrifice. He correctly surmises that the homunculi are making a giant transmutation circle to kill everyone in Central City. Since Marcoh wants to save the lives of his own town, he submits to the homunculi even though it will mean even more lives lost elsewhere.

In Central City, Bradley (Wrath) has a chat with Pride, who’s voice we hear but whom we never see. At the end of their chat, Pride says he won’t report Wrath’s near treasonous talk to Father and inquires about the location of Gluttony.

Gluttony is still looking for Mustang to instantly inhale him into the open maw with the giant eye in it where his gut was. Mustang uses his flame alchemy ability to try to burn Gluttony to death, but the homunculus simply consumes the flame. Meanwhile Ling gets the injured Lan Fan to a waiting car driven by Dr. Knox. Riza gets Mustang there eventually as Ed, Al, and Ling tell them to escape and leave the rampaging Gluttony to them. Riza hands Ed a pistol which he’s initially reluctant to take but does so just the same.

After Knox gets his passengers to safety, Ed, Al, and Ling try to figure out a plan of attack on Gluttony. Envy arrives in the form of a dog and warns Gluttony off of consuming Ed and Al since they are needed for the sacrifice. Since Gluttony calls Ed “chibi” again, Ed goes off. Envy doesn’t want to fight since they need Ed. Ed decides to split the homunculi up by erecting a wall, leaving Ling to face Envy while Ed and Al face Gluttony, who now is under orders not to consume or attack them. Since there are no orders against killing Ling, Envy goes all out, having heard of Ling’s skills from Lust. Ling proves quite good though, so Envy ends up taking on the guise of the injured Lan Fan which causes Ling to hesitate. En and Al’s fight breaks through Ed’s wall and Gluttony ends up consuming Ed, Ling, and Envy on accident. Al, watched by Xiao Mei, wants Ed returned but as Gluttony’s maw shuts, Gluttony says that once he’s consumed them, there’s no return.

At Dr. Marcoh’s Knox’s place, the injured Lan Fan tries to get up, wanting to help Ling. Knox snaps at her since there’s nothing she can do in her current condition. He snaps at Mustang as well, who has not heard anything from Ed, Al, or Ling. Mustang is going to leave anyway to do what he can and is driven by Riza to HQ. Even though it is night, he meets with his commanding officer, Lt. General Raven. After some small talk about Roy’s former commanding officer, the two men head to a meeting. Along the way, they continue to talk and Roy jokingly mentions a rumor about Bradley being a homunculus. After a laugh, the two reach the meeting room which is filled with military brass. Raven suddenly turns serious and asks about King Bradley being a homunculus. To Roy’s horror, King Bradley enters the room and readily confesses to being a homunculus. Roy suddenly understands Hughes’ warning about danger and the military to mean the danger IS the military and not there is a danger TO the military.

Ed wakes up in a strange place with the ground naught but fresh blood. There are dead bodies and pieces of equipment as well as other things Gluttony has apparently consumed.

Thoughts/Review:

I think this anime should take the prize for having some amazing cliff hangers. The episodes just smoke by, then we get to the end with one stunner after another (well, stunner to people like me who’ve not read the manga).

For starters, I did not expect for Gluttony to consume Ed, Ling, and Envy. Then again last week, I didn’t expect for Gluttony to have a giant eyeball inside of him either. Ling said he could sense the people Gluttony had consumed, so I’m guessing they are inside of Gluttony. However, that means that Gluttony is something very different than I expected. It is like he has some sort of pocket space within him but why? What’s the eyeball about? Man, my head is buzzing with possibilities, too many to even begin to write down. ^_^;

The next surprise was Envy telling Dr. Marcoh the plan to turn Central City into a giant transmutation circle and kill all the people there. Since we know people are the main ingredient for a Philosopher’s Stone, that’s going to be one massive stone if it gets made. Then again, I think of that ruined city with the transmutation circle part that Ed found (Xerxes) and how it is said to have come to ruin rather quickly. Since homunculi can apparently live forever (though Wrath ages for some unknown reason), my mind says, “they brought the destruction of Xerxes.” Well, I say “they” but since Father is the apparent leader of the homunculi, maybe he did it since he would be behind having Central City destroyed.

Anyway, now I know why Central City is shaped the way it is — to facilitate this sacrifice.

We were introduced to Pride if only in voice. I’m told that Pride should have appeared earlier in the story already as a voice. It is strange but he seems to be the highest ranking homunculi. I say this because when we were introduced to the homunculi, Lust appeared in command. Then when Bradley was revealed to be Wrath, he appeared to be in command. Now with the voice of Pride and Bradley seeming to subject himself to it, Pride would appear to be in command. That would make sense to me in terms of a sin and God’s words against the sin of pride.

Speaking of Bradley, it is so creepy to see him with a wife and adopted son. I kept thinking, “what would they say if they knew Bradley is a homunculus?” Then we come to the cliff hanger ending where Bradley comes right out at a meeting of military brass and says he is a homunculus and the military is fine with that. If that’s the case, then it is very possible Bradley’s wife and kid know the truth too and don’t care. Either way, Mustang is in a bad position and I’m guessing that this is where he will be brought under control.

Where’s Sloth? We’ve only seen a glimps of him and he wasn’t doing much of anything but clearly he must be part of the plan of the homunculi.

Did I hear right? Mustang has a wife? That has to be code, right? Update: OK, I see I misunderstood. Raven mentioned the call from his wife. ^_^;

Finally, while there wasn’t much comedy, Xiao Mei comes darn close to stealing the show a couple of times. The mini-panda being first attached to Mustang’s face, then when everyone is fleeing, the mini-panda clinging to that streamer from Al’s head. *lol* The production team are wise to keep Xiao Mei from stealing the show while at the same time letting the critter do her thing (I assume it is a she).

There is so much more I could write about regarding this episode. Unfortunately while my mind has been racing away, my fingers had no chance of keeping up on the keyboard. Probably just as well since I might have written a book. ^_^;