Few characters get much screentime, but even minor ones who don’t appear much elsewhere are well-drawn to the point where I almost feel someone completely unfamiliar with the series could watch this episode and piece together much of what is going on. The characterization is a big part of why this episode feels more cohesive than most. However, this episode avoids many of the common pitfalls earlier episodes in the series have stumbled into it is, in effect, a complete piece despite being composed of mostly unrelated clips of several characters’ arcs. The episode ends with the news reaching Mustang himself.Ī lot of things happen in this episode, only a few of them closely related. Other figures transmit information along this network, spreading the message of the Promised Day to coordinate some sort of counter strike against Father and the homunculi. She meets Miles and Buccaneer, relaying strategic information as part of an emerging communication network that seems to be Mustang’s doing. As he starts to set off on his own, though, Ed changes his offer and says that he and the chimeras will follow him instead, that way they all stay together either way.īriggs is attacked again, this time by Izumi Curtis. Greed confirms that he is no longer in league with the homunculi, but rejects Ed’s offer to let him and Ling travel with them. Greed resurfaces, cutting off Ling before he can explain what he means. He warns Ed that Father intends to open the doorway, presumably the Doorway of Truth, on the Promised Day, and that Ed and Al might find a way to get their bodies back then. Ling, it seems, has partially regained control of his own body after Greed’s existential breakdown. Al isn’t there, but as they’re getting ready to leave, Greed shows up and passes out in the doorway. She feels guilty about leaving them to potentially suffer the same fate as the people of Xerxes, and Envy taunts her.Įd sets out to find Alphonse, checking the safe house Mustang had set up outside of Central. When the townsfolk realize she’s planning to head out into the desert on her own with few provisions, they band together to give her a bed for the night and supplies for her trip. Meanwhile, May is in a shanty town on the outskirts of Amestris. This subplot is not really important and could easily but cut from the series, but I love it. Olivier then evicts her parents and younger sister from the house and suggests they go on a long vacation, the whole thing rather obviously a ploy to evacuate the family without raising suspicions (odd as this strategy may be for, you know, normal people). Their father demands a duel between her and her brother, which destroys most of the house. Greed loses the fight, but escapes with his life, running off into the night.Įlsewhere, Major General Armstrong (whom I’ll be referring to as Olivier in her family interactions) declares herself head of the Armstrong household, usurping her brother’s claim. The fight works best with the lead-in from the end-credits sequence of the last episode, where Greed shows up and knocks out Bradley’s guards in fury after his memories returned in the last episode. The episode opens with an utterly spectacular fight between Greed and Bradley that spans less than a full minute and is the single best minute of the entire series. Here, we see that, and in fact a lot of it, but the difference is that this episode doesn’t just further the plot by moving characters across a chessboard it takes them and throws them around and forces them to work for their screen time. But where we’ve seen a lot of setup up until this point, little of it has come to any breaking point. A lot of this episode is spent preparing for events to come, so in that regard, it isn’t technically all that different from the other recent episodes. The story flow from start to finish doesn’t seem disjointed or awkward, even though looking back I realize a lot of what has happened came out of nowhere. It’s not perfect by any means, and oh hey, the series still has not figured out womenfolk, but I’m more than willing to give it a pass for now, because good fucking god, that opening. Here we go, here’s the fun stuff! Episode 45: The Best Episode of the Whole Series. Part One: Safe Houses and Secret Networks Season Four Episode Seven: The Promised Day – *****
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