Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood - Episode 25

Like some kind of twisted version of the song about the old woman who swallowed a fly, so the last episode of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood left us with the Homunculus who swallowed... Well, a pretty major portion of the show's cast really. Thus, this episode begins with both Edward Elric and Ling Yao trapped deep in the bowels (quite literally) of Gluttony.

Of course, strictly speaking it isn't exactly his stomach, and as the episode progresses Envy (who was also swallowed whole) appears to explain exactly where it is that they're trapped without hope of escape, while also admitting to playing a part in the incident which started the Ishbal war - Not the kind of thing you want to admit in front of Ed considering how it all ties in with Winry and the death of her parents. In the ensuing fight, Envy takes on her true form, and it ain't pleasant... Or easy to defeat, for that matter.


Outside of Gluttony's innards, Al is trying to figure out what to do himself, eventually deciding to persuade Gluttony to take him to his "father", which should be interesting... Then we have Roy Mustang, who having learned how deep the Homunculus' rabbit hole goes in terms of the military finds himself well and truly outmanoeuvred by Bradley. Finally, Scar offers his hand in helping May Chang find her missing petite panda pal Xiao-May, who is in fact hanging out with Alphonse at present.

Thus concludes another top-drawer episode of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, with this episode once again managing to perfectly balance plot progression, humour and the darker aspects which pervade this series quite expertly. Sure, this episode is pretty light on the action, but that doesn't make it dull - Far from it, there are enough revelations and items of interest here to well and truly keep my interest as this series continues to go from strength to strength.