Hagane no Renkinjutsushi – Fullmetal Alchemist Ep. 54
鋼の錬金術師 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST Episode 54 review
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood – 54

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

After a flashback with Riza and Roy at the end of the Ishval War where Roy agrees to destroy the Flame Alchemist symbols on Riza’s back, Riza finds Roy in the present. She challenges him, causing Envy to reveal himself and Riza opens fire. Despite emptying several guns into Envy, he begins regenerating and attacks Riza, capturing her until Roy arrives and fries Envy. His anger is so great that Roy burns Envy repeatedly until Envy is forced into his small, creature self. Roy is about to have his final revenge when Riza stops him. Ed and Scar arrive and Ed takes Envy, which does not please the angry Roy. Both Ed and Riza’s words eventually get through to Roy, which astonishes Envy. Envy tries to remind everyone of their previous histories but to no avail. Ed realizes that Envy is envious of humans. Now exposed, Envy is humiliated and kills himself by removing and destroying his philosopher’s stone.

Over in the military HQ in Central, Sloth frees himself from Alex’s pole in the mouth and begins regenerating when other Central troops arrive to arrest Olivier. Olivier takes advantage of their confusion over seeing Sloth to take command as the sub-homunculi attack. It takes Sloth a little bit of time to remember what he’s supposed to do, but by the time he remembers he’s supposed to kill Olivier, Alex intervenes. Alex takes a beating at Sloth’s hands but it is a ploy and soon Alex is back in top form, giving Sloth a sparkly beating.

Meanwhile, Central forces have secured the Armstrong mansion and discovered this is where the Briggs troops had set up shop. The Briggs forces continue their assault on the HQ gate, causing the general in charge to order an attack even though civilians haven’t been evacuated. Captain Buccaneer arrives in the room and has the general in his automail claw. The general is stunned that the building has been penetrated by enemy forces, causing Buccaneer to reveal their ace in the hole — Izumi.

Down under the HQ building, Hohenheim comes face to face with father.

Thoughts/Review:

I had no clue at the end of the previous episode if Roy or Riza were in fact Envy in disguise. The ultimate solution would be for them to be themselves while Envy hid somewhere, but that didn’t happen. Riza’s use of a lie to expose Envy worked for me. Her plugging Envy came off as less about her trying to kill Envy (though clearly she hurts him), but more about announcing her position to Roy for a rescue. Naturally, that comes in the nick of time.

Roy’s going off on Envy also worked quite well. He didn’t give the homunculus much time to do anything, which is how he took down Lust. His stoppage of activity to torment Envy in his true form worked, but I did wonder why the others were so keen on saving Envy’s life. Seriously, if Envy could have escaped and taken over some more bodies, he would have and then they would have had to battle him yet again. Instead, Envy’s basically talked into committing suicide. That felt very Japanese to me and I couldn’t help but think of a scene from Shogun.

Speaking of Riza, it is nice to see a bit more of her and Roy’s back history (no pun intended). So, the markings on Riza’s back were the key to Roy’s extraordinary abilities at flame alchemy and he burned them at Riza’s request to prevent someone else from obtaining the knowledge of her father.

So, another homunculi is gone. That leaves Wrath (Bradley), whom I believe will show up soon, Greed, Sloth, and Pride, to say nothing of Father. I suppose that Oliver and Alex could kill Sloth, but with Izumi’s arrival, the added alchemy power might be just enough to kill the giant (assuming Izumi hooks up with Olivier and Alex). Since I was wrong about Father possibly helping Envy, there’s no reason to believe Father would help Sloth.

I liked how Olivier took command of the troops in the HQ building. It will be interesting to see how she and Roy get on when this is over. I kinda suspect she’d return to Briggs or run the entire military under Roy’s command.

It appears that Father was attached to that “throne” of his. If I had to guess, I’d say that somehow, all those pipes go throughout the entire country and come to him.

Finally, it looks like the city is starting to come under control thanks to the Briggs forces. Since the OP makes it clear that Bradley returns, I expect this event to happen JUST when things appear to be about over. Then Bradley throws his monkey wrench into the works and the fun begins anew. ^_^

In the end, we have another slow-paced episode, which is still a laugh considering how fast the production team felt they needed to go early on. Still, despite the slower pace, the episode is still very good to me.