Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (Episode 27) - Interlude Party

Hohenheim struggles with his conscience as he thinks about all that’s happened and whether any of it was truly avoidable. How is he involved… and what is he?

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (Episode 27) – Interlude Party

What happened?

Hohenheim finds himself at a party around a fire. There are groups of people dancing and enjoying themselves, but he’s just sitting back watching. Then, a young Pinako Rockbell approaches him and offers him a drink. She takes one for herself and begins to question why he didn’t do anything to intervene when Edward and Alphonse tried to revive their mother.

He believed that any intervention would have been meaningless as they would have done it anyway. That’s how humans are. They don’t learn. He’s been watching humanity for a long time and concludes that they will continue to make the same mistakes over and over again.

Pinako goes off dancing with a group of girls and while she’s gone, another figure looking like Hohenheim appears and tells him that humanity is fragile. It’s weak and scared and has no purpose. So, it’s their job to give them one. Use them like cattle.

Pinako again defends humanity, but the other version of Hohenheim appears again and pulls off her mask to reveal Hohenheim. He can hide behind these ideals and humans all he wants, but he knows humanity’s purpose and that there’s no point fighting it.

That’s when a young Trisha Elric appears before him and points out that humanity is scared, but it’s that fear that drives them to get stronger, to achieve greater and greater feats. Hohenheim wakes up to discover it was all a dream. He gets up, brushes himself down, and continues on his journey.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood Episode 27 Hohenheim at the party

What did you think?

So, this was a recap episode. Hohenheim’s dream was interspersed with clips from the previous twenty-six episodes and it was very effective. It’s easily one of my favourite recap episodes and I’d even go so far as to say it should be watched. Yes, it does appear at an annoying time when things are getting quite serious in the actual story, but it raises a lot of questions about Hohenheim.

Don’t skip this episode. Even as a recap episode, it was incredibly powerful full of stunning images and meaningful moments. There’s definitely more to this than just recapping the series so far. This is going to be a shorter post as it was mainly stuff that I’ve already discussed.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood Episode 27 Hohenheim

What have you learnt?

I’ve been saying for a while now that Father seems to resemble Hohenheim which made me wonder if they are the same person. Now, I’m not so sure. He mentioned how he had been watching humanity for a long time which leads me to believe he is a homunculus. It makes sense considering he hasn’t aged a day since he walked out on Edward and Alphonse.

If that’s the case, is Father simply another homunculus made with the same design or is Hohenheim made in the image of Father who could be something else entirely? So, with the recap out of the way, hopefully, we’ll get back to the actual story and get some more answers.