Hagane no Renkinjutsushi – Fullmetal Alchemist Ep. 62
鋼の錬金術師 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST Episode 62 review
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood – 62

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Father begins to harvest souls for philosopher stones but is stopped by Hohenheim, who challenges Father’s view of humans and his lack of an ability to truly procreate. In response, Father expunges some of the people from Xerxes from his body, including the King. They are drawn to actual bodies and Father takes advantage of Hohenheim’s hesitation to launch a massive, widespread attack that destroys half of the HQ building. Olivier receives a report on this and though she wants to fight, Greed angrily tells her to stay behind and she’s convinced to do so by a further call from her troops. With that, Greed, Alex, Roy, Riza, and others leave for the roof to engage Father.

Meanwhile, an injured Mei Chan regains consciousness to find that Al used his armored body to protect her though it severely damaged him. Izumi and Ed also are injured somewhat and find that Hohenheim had shielded them from certain death. Weakened, Hohenheim is easily knocked aside by Father and easily protects himself from the military’s barrage. Roy, guided by Riza, also enters the fray to try to force Father to burn through the souls and loose his defense. Greed has another idea and launches an attack personally. Father lets him through to absorb him, but Greed’s actions allow the attacks of others to get through.

The nonstop attacks force Father to burn through enough souls that his defensive shield drops and he’s no longer able to contain “God.” He does manage to counterattack, causing Ed to be pinned to some ruins by a screw in the hand. Since Ed has lost his Automail arm, Al decides to sacrifice his body and soul to return Ed’s arm to him and save Ed from Father’s advance. Ed doesn’t want this but Al does it just the same with Mei Chan’s help. Ed’s arm is restored and Al is reunited with his body at the Door of Truth. An angry Ed free’s himself with his restored arm and attacks Father, punching him in the face to the approval of all who observe this.

Thoughts/Review:

Some interesting things here. First, I liked how the fighter Olivier is forced to accept the situation that she’s too injured to fight and that she’s of more value to her troops alive and out of the “stuff.” Further, I liked how she acknowledged Alex, whom I suspect she always respected despite her gruff treatment of him. As such, it was a nice character moment to have this tough as nails soldier acknowledge there were things she could not do but Alex could. It is weird, but now that Roy is blind, I can see Olivier becoming the new ruler of the country. We’ll see though.

Al’s sacrifice didn’t surprise me since that seemed to be the only way for Al and his body to be reunited. I’ve no idea if this means that Al is dead for good or not. He had a body so in theory, it should be possible to return somehow. That said, another sacrifice would seemingly need to be made to make this happen since Al sacrificed his metal form in order to return Ed’s arm. That must be what Truth remarked on during his conversation with Al at the door.

Greed is being worked on by Ling. Once Father is gone, Greed will be the only major homunculus remaining and he’ll still need to be dealt with. I’m guessing that Greed is being convinced to make a sacrifice because Greed will never truly get what he wants. The thing is, can Greed be removed without killing Ling? In theory, since Greed was added to Ling and Ling has retained his personality, it might be possible. Then again, we have the situation with Bradley and Wrath and that didn’t end well (though there was only one personality there). We’ll see what happens.

I’m still not sure if Father still holds “God” or not. Was that what happened during that massive release of energy that left Father desperate for souls and going after Ed? It wasn’t clear to me.

As I expected, Riza became Roy’s eyes and spotter. I laugh because it works out so perfectly. Since Riza had been an expert sniper (and still retains those skills), it seemed only logical that she’d fill this role. Add Roy and Riza’s history and well they may as well get married as soon as Father is dealt with. ^_~

Finally, I notice that Hohenheim has the look of the homunculus who are down to their last life. I wonder if he’s going to kick it before this is all over.

Only two more episodes to go. Hard to believe.