Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (Episode 26) - Reunion

Trapped in Gluttony’s belly, Edward and Ling find themselves in a fight to the death with Envy, that is until Edward comes up with a plan to escape. Meanwhile, Bradley tells Mustang about his past!

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (Episode 26) – Reunion

What happened?

Envy revealed his true form and it is grotesque – a monster with many faces. Each of those faces represents the souls of those who were sacrificed to make the philosopher’s stone that is Envy’s core. Edward realised that it was the people of Xerxes that had been sacrificed. That’s why an entire city vanished overnight and that’s what they’re planning to do with Central.

That’s when Edward comes up with a plan to escape from Gluttony’s belly. Human transmutation doesn’t work because you need a soul which is why bringing someone back from the dead is not possible. However, Edward plans on transmutating himself. It’s a risky move and there’s no guarantee that it’ll work, but his theory is that they will travel through the void and come out in the real world.

Meanwhile, King Bradley seems to have decided that he’s going to tell Mustang how he came to be. Once upon a time, he was an orphan. One of many in fact that had been acquired by the military. They were educated in politics and military affairs and trained in martial arts and swordsmanship. One of them would become the leader they so desperately needed.

At the end of their training, they were injected with a philosopher’s stone. It killed everyone in the group. Everyone but King Bradley would now become their ruler and lead them in their pursuit of true power. The power to create something from nothing that would come only from a true philosopher’s stone.

Edward completed the transmutation, sacrificing one of the souls from Envy’s philosopher’s stone. On his way through the void, Edward found Alphonse’s body, however, he couldn’t come with him. Alphonse’s mind would have to come to get his body. Edward swore that he would be back.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood Episode 26 Edward giving up

What did you think?

This was a great episode. I’m no alchemist so I can’t really comment, but I did think Edward was clutching at straws with his idea. I suppose the worst that could have happened was that he died and if they had to stay there that was inevitable. Would have sucked had Alphonse found a way to get them out, but it doesn’t appear that they have to worry about that. Of course, it would now appear that Edward has the way to get Alphonse his body back. They just need to sacrifice someone and enter the void again.

It was interesting seeing how Bradly came to be what he is, and I now wonder whether the other homunculi were created the same way. I also loved how Scar and Mei Chang were following Gluttony as he took Alphonse to see Father, especially how Mei Chang could clearly sense the evil presence below. I still think Father looks like Edward and Alphonse’s father. I feel like they may be different people or entities, but they do look alike.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood Episode 26 Alphonses body

What have you learnt?

One of my earliest theories was that they were planning a human sacrifice with a transmutation circle that covered the entire nation with central at its heart and I still believe that. If anything, the events of the last couple of epsidoes have made me more certain about that idea. The military is planning something huge and setting the people against one another makes that easier.

I feel like we’ve been handed a lot of answers of late and I’m curious how things are going to progress now. My gut feeling is that something fairly big is going to happen so we have a load more questions that need answering. Whatever it is, it’ll also need to give us a reason to not give Alphonse his body back, which should be fairly easy now that they know what to do.