Hagane no Renkinjutsushi – Fullmetal Alchemist Ep. 52
鋼の錬金術師 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST Episode 52 review
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood – 52

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

The energized Al battles Pride and Kimblee, using the philosopher’s stone to great effect where he eventually traps Pride. Kimblee and Al have a chat where Al rejects the “choose our bodies or choose to save everyone” options. Al believes he can do both until Kimblee reveals a fourth option — not getting his body back and not saving anyone. With that, Kimblee uses his philosopher’s stone to Al’s surprise and frees Pride. Al won’t give up and has a surprise of his own for the wary Pride and Kimblee, in the form of an attack by Heinkel in lion form. Heinkel mortally wounds Kimblee in the neck as Yoki comes in with a vehicle and rescues them all, including Dr. Marcoh. Pride decides to allow Kimblee to live as part of him and then eats him.

In Central, Olivier and Alex battle Sloth to a stalemate, causing the giant to become annoyed at losing a life. As such, Sloth decides to stop being lazy about the fight and reveals his massive speed. However, he is so quick that he cannot control his directions and ends up not doing much damage to either Alex nor Oliver. However, they cannot keep missing Sloth and he gets a bead on Olivier, only to be saved by Alex at the last moment. Despite being sent through the floor, Sloth returns as confused Central soldiers don’t know who the real enemy is. Olivier gets hurt as Alex uses alchemy to drive a giant pillar through Sloth’s head.

As Sloth slowly regenerates, the Central soldiers are torn between arresting Olivier and what they’ve seen. Some sub-homunculi enter the room and kill some soldiers. Even then, there is hesitation by the commander of the troops. More soldiers are killed as Sloth fully regenerates. Olivier has the commander point his gun at her head and gives him a choice — kill her now or fight these monsters with her.

As Mustang heads back into town with a disguised vehicle, Mei Chan battles Envy to a stalemate. When some sub-homunculi appear, things don’t look so good as Envy consumes another one of them to get even stronger. Mei uses this as an opportunity to get away, quickly running on and through the throng of sub-homunculi to put distance between herself and Envy. Despite all she’s seen and the fact that Envy told her the truth of the immortal sub-homunculi, Mei Chan is still determined to unlock the secrets of immortality for her people.

In the courtyard, Ed and company battle the endless throng of sub-homunculi. Scar advises them to go for the feet and legs since that immobilizes them. Even with this change of tactics, the sheer number of sub-homunculi are too much to overcome as Ed and company start to feel the effects of weariness. Ed gets a bit careless and a sub-homunculi takes advantage to make the kill. However, the sealed doorway leading out of the courtyard is blown open, the explosion knocking Ed down and his attacker away. In steps Roy and Riza, ready to do battle.

Thoughts/Review:

“Let the Good Times Roll” by the Cars is the theme song here. ^_^

Well, I got my wish to see Olivier and Alex fight against Sloth. Woo!hoo! It went pretty much as I expected — Olivier got a few licks in, Alex did the heavy lifting, Olivier got hurt, Sloth can’t be stopped. Alex’s making Sloth “eat” the pillar he made was funny in a dark and twisted way. I didn’t expect Sloth to be that fast though. It makes sense that he’d have that ability since “sloth” would be the counter to him going nuts on the others. It will be interesting to see how they eventually overcome Sloth.

I liked that Al briefly held his own against Pride and Kimblee. Then when he was overmatched, he had wits about him for an alternate plan, which he apparently set up with Heinkel before going on the attack. Now, the bailout is a dues ex machina with Yoki coming in and rescuing the group. However, because it is Yoki, it gets a pass from me. Even still, Pride wanted Al in Central, which explains why Yoki gets to do what he did AND why none of them were killed.

Speaking of Pride, ever since he consumed Gluttony, I’ve been expecting him to eat other people. He hasn’t been indiscriminately eating others but with the mortally wounded Kimblee, he eats Kimblee. Needing Kimblee alive must mean that Pride would gain something from consuming him other than that one philosopher’s stone. I suppose Pride could get Kimblee’s alchemy skills since I don’t think Pride has any.

I asked last episode about why Envy would leave Mei Chan alone. First priority for Envy was to regain his normal body and abilities, which was done by consuming the philosopher stones of the sub-homunculi. Having done that, he then goes after Mei Chan, who’s skilled enough to stay alive and smart enough to know when to flee.

Ed’s group simply marked time as we waited for Roy’s obvious deus ex machina save the day moment. Again, I gave it a pass because it is Roy and I wanted to see Roy bust in and kick some bottom. Still, I’m not exactly sure why Roy’s group split up. He only comes in with Riza and that seems odd to me. However, he apparently is having Ross and the others do something else and Riza would go with Roy no matter were. I guess I expected Roy to show up with more people.

So, another action-packed episode with the pacing having slowed down a bit.