New truths start to reveal themselves and the scope of Father’s work becomes all the more apparent.
What They Say:
Ed uncovers a conspiracy of staggering scope: a plot that has already claimed countless victims. Clues suggest that Fort Briggs will soon know bloodshed – and an entire nation will suffer.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)”
Like a lot of episodes in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, episode thirty-five provides an interesting if off-putting split when it comes to how it’s structured. There’s a lot going on here and they’re tying several things together while starting to integrate some of the larger plotlines in a way that you can see plainly how it may potentially turn out if they go for the obvious route. There’s also some intriguing background information that comes to light through which we see just how extensive the plans are with what Father is doing.
The initial fun does come in the form of finishing out the fight with Sloth who is only trying to do his single tasked mission of digging a tunnel. He’s still not really registering those around him other than as obstacles in the way, but his single-minded nature has him simply trying to carry on while largely ignoring their attacks because they’re so futile. When he does strike against them, it’s mostly that they’re nuisances that he’s trying to swat away with varying degrees of difficulty and success. When everyone actually starts working together, they figure out a way to at least slow him down for awhile so they can regroup and decide how best to proceed and what information really needs to be shared.
And that’s the difficult thing for Ed and Al as Olivier wants the complete truth from them. The brothers certainly have a massive secret in their back pocket when it comes to the homunculi, the Fuhrer and the nation as a whole, so it’s understandable that they’re very tight-lipped about it. And even worse is figuring out who in the military to trust considering all that has gone on before, up to and including the revelation about the Fuhrer and the way he’s manipulated so many people. So when Olivier forces him to reveal everything in a very private place, you can see the wheels turning within her as to how she can use this for herself and for her mission of protecting the country. As problematic of a personality as she has, her duties are what come first and she’s steadfast in them and it’s incredibly admirable to watch her work through it with that in mind. The setup is here for later events to be sure, provided Ed and Al can get on with their actual mission of finding the panda and girl.
In Summary:
There’s a whole lot to like here across the board, especially in the quieter moments. The pushback against Sloth is a lot of fun to watch, particularly with his outward personality, but there are other areas that felt far more threatening. The encounter between Major Miles and Kimblee was very chilling in a lot of ways and watching how Kimblee reacted after he left was a beautiful moment to behold. The pieces are continuing to be put together and the fairly obvious breakdown of events from the history of the country here serves to really reinforce the scope of everything. There are chilling moments to be had in this episode that are far more enjoyable than the action sequences, but the episode as a whole is again very solid as it moves the characters and the story forward, making this the best series I’ve seen this year.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
