In this week’s episode of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, it is Ed’s turn to have a heart-to-heart with his father; except, the scenario where they meet for the first time in quite a while does not exactly play out so sweetly. Ed’s first instinct is to punch his father in the face, but Hoenheim seems to understand and accept this. The reason why he had left them at such a young age is still a mystery to Ed. They get to talking about the fact that he is a Philosopher’s Stone and Hoenheim even offers himself in order to help the cause, but Ed refuses to use the souls of innocent people. When Ed begins to walk away, he pauses and, with his back turned, finally relays the message that his mother wanted Hoenheim to hear before she passed. Ed is surprised, however, when he sees his father expressing emotions of sadness for he has never seen the man do much of anything other than glower and hang his head. The Fullmetal Alchemist then takes his leave and prepares himself for the upcoming battle; eating a nice meal and buying a new red coat. On their way out of town into the woods, Ed wonders about the Chimera and asks if it is alright to stay with him. Donkey Kong speaks of his intuition, telling Ed that it is better if he they do; however, when asking the same as Greed, the Homunculus refuses to disclose his reason for not wanting to return to Central. During their conversation, the boys run into Al; or rather, Al’s armor. They learn quickly that it is most definitely not the young Alchemist and that Pride has taken control over his body.

Back in the East, Grumman and his men, along with Miles, are well into their search for any survivors. Grumman expresses that he cannot go back to Central for the sole purpose of needing to see Bradley’s corpse for himself to prove the Fuhrer truly did parish in the explosion; a short scene, and then back to the wilderness. Pride uses some rather dirty tactics to get what he wants: threatening to take the village, but Ed does not play into the Homunculus. He knows Pride’s weakness – an advantage that will buy them some time. Before Pride can do anything else, Ed quickly douses out the lights in the surrounding area; thereby dousing the woods in complete darkness. By doing this, there is no light for Pride to cast his shadow, but it makes it difficult for everyone else to see as well.

Greed explains that he knows Pride’s ‘shell’ is nearby as the Homunculus cannot survive on its own without some sort of body to contain it. He sends Heinkel after Selim and the Chimera gets in a few good swipes while Darius and Ed attempt to get away. They do not get very far, however, only to be attacked by none other than Gluttony who does not need anything more than his sense of smell to track down their targets. In an attempt to fight the Homunculus, Darius goes for a swift punch and mistakenly hits Ed on accident. Ling convinces Greed to take over for the moment as he is able to use his senses in able to fight the homunculus, but this merely angers Gluttony. Fortunately, before Greed’s fake gate can open and swallow them yet again, a mysterious figure emerges from the woods, rendering Gluttony immobile for the time being. Ling recognizes who it is without a doubt – Lan Fan has returned and with a new bladed automail in place of her arm.

No doubt a very exciting episode! Not only is the story progressing nicely, but from the scene in the East where General Grumman and his team as they search for Bradley and poor Al’s body having been taken over by pride, we get quite a bit of suspense. It is a relief to know that the Homunculus cannot take the lives of Ed or Al, but they will do just about anything – and I mean anything – in order to get the boys to comply. We will see this in the next few episodes. Plus, it was nice to finally see Lan Fan return and to have more Ling now that Greed is allowing him to come into the picture more often.

It sure is going to be one hell of a ride!

~Blogged By Dee