Hagane no Renkinjutsushi – Fullmetal Alchemist Ep. 58
鋼の錬金術師 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST Episode 58 review
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood – 58

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Ling’s battle with Bradley ends up with both of them clinging outside the wall, Bradley holding to Ling’s body. Lan Fan attempts to help but the strain is too much for her automail arm. When a Briggs soldier attempts to help, Bradly tosses a knife at him, injuring him. Bradly gets shot and falls into the mote below. Ling grieves over the loss of Fu until Buccaneer calls him over, asking him to protect the giant door from being taken by Central forces. Greed agrees to work with Ling and as the Briggs forces run out of ammo for their machine guns, Ling attacks the Central troops attempting to work their way to the roof. He slaughters them, clearing the stairs down before clearing the gate and the area outside the gate of Central troops. Buccaneer, hearing that Ling Yao is helping them, says farewell to his men and dies in peace.

On the stairs down to the sub-levels of the HQ building, Sig calls for Izumi as Alex tells Olivier what little he knows from Ed and Al about those black arms and the Gate of Truth. Olivier is given a verbal report on what happened with Captain Buccaneer, including the death of King Bradly, something their captive Central general finds hard to believe. Oliver decides that they must find Izumi and so downward they go.

Ed feels the same sensation as when he was at the Gate of Truth and finds himself in another location along with Izumi. Al arrives shortly after but is not speaking. They see a dark, humanoid monster with Hohenheim partially absorbed into its body. Hohenheim tells them this is Father but before he can relay more information, Father sucks Hohenheim completely within his own body.

The gold-toothed doctor has his Wrath candidates press their attack and they soon overcome Roy, Scar, and Riza. The doctor is pressed for time and offers Roy a chance to bring back someone from the dead with human transmutation, thus opening the door to the Gate of Truth. Since Roy knows the truth of human transmutation, he refuses to cooperate. The doctor is not amused since time is short and has Riza mortally wounded with a throat slash. The doctor says he can heal her with his alchemy skills and a philosopher’s stone and all Roy has to do is open the door to the Gate of Truth. In the end, Roy agrees to the doctor’s demands after getting a look from Riza.

Thoughts/Review:

I thought Buccaneer was dead last episode, but the old bastard hung on for one more episode to have a heroic death. I liked how Olivier handled the news after she heard he died with a smile on his face and simply ordered the people with her down the stairs.

I don’t understand Bradley’s throwing a knife at that soldier, but I don’t believe he’s dead yet either. (Update: I just saw the teaser for next week, which I hadn’t seen when I originally wrote this. *_*) This is playing much to much like the supposed train death and although we saw Bradley fall into the water, until we see a corpse, he ain’t dead as far as I’m concerned. If Bradley isn’t dead, then the knife incident may have been to give the impression he was dead so that he could act again and take folks by surprise.

Ling Yao got to kick some serious butt by teaming with his Greed self. With the story killing off one homunculus after another, there’s only himself, Pride, Father, and likely Wrath remaining. So why do I feel that Greed will be the lone survivor in the end and somehow controlled by Ling Yao?

As expected, Ed, Al, and Izumi were transported and not slain despite being labeled as sacrifices. Well, I suppose they need to be in the proper position for the final transmutation circle. Since Al is not responding, I’d say he was still at the Gate of Truth since his body is still there.

What Father did with Hohenheim was rather unexpected though. Whew! Talk about being eaten alive, though how Father intends to retrieve the philosopher’s stone from Hohenheim is more of a mystery to me seeing as it rejected him previously.

Finally, there’s Roy and Riza. Well, I’d speculated that he was the likely final pick since he was nearby story-wise and that seems to be where things are headed. As I said before, the moment I saw Riza alone with Roy in rescuing Ed’s group, she seemed like a dead lady walking. Now, she’s dying with a slashed throat. It seemed like she gave him an odd look before looking to the ceiling which he reacted to, but I don’t know exactly what it means. She wouldn’t have an explosive on her person to take out some folks, would she?

Either way, I can see both choices for Roy as being valid. If he does the human transmutation, he might save her himself at the cost of something from himself but then he’d also be the fifth sacrifice they need. However, if he doesn’t save her, then it seems to me that the gold-toothed doctor would have to force Roy to do it anyway. He twice mentioned being pressed for time so if Roy refuses to go along at the cost of Riza’s life, the gold tooth doctor gains nothing and I tend to think that Roy’s refusal has been accounted for and they’ll force him to do it somehow. Roy has to know this as well and so might choose to save Riza despite the doctor’s condescending way of addressing Roy as “Mustang-kun.” Which choice is ultimately made, I couldn’t say but it will be interesting.

So, another good episode. ^_^