Fullmetal Alchemist S1E24: “Inside the Belly”

Suggestive title, given the cliffhanger ending. has Gluttony sucked everyone into a pocket dimension hidden inside his stomach-mouth-eyeball? I had a friend back in high school who could do that. Let's see!

After the OP, Envy enters a claustrophobic room with a pair of slightly mutated looking guard dogs in it, carrying a tray of food. Human food I mean, not dog food. She tells the cell's other occupant to eat up; he needs to keep healthy to be a good sacrifice. That occupant turns out to be Dr. Marcoh.

If they're keeping Marcoh alive and imprisoned, then they've probably been doing the same with his former colleagues. Slicer was misinformed, probably deliberately by the haemonculi.

Marcoh asks Envy why they're doing all this. Are they trying to turn Amestris into a giant transmutation circle and sacrifice everyone in it to make a true philosopher's stone or something? Envy chuckles, and says that he's close, but not quite there. Okay then. That was my working theory as well. In this case, maybe there actually isn't a higher grade of philosopher's stone above the kind that the Sins (and possibly Father) are running on. Father either knows how to make more of it without having to sacrifice an entire country, or he just has enough of a supply left over from Xerxes or wherever to not need to. So, while his plan does seem to involve the use of protostone in significant quantities, the thing he's after is something other than a maximum grade stone.

Envy reminds Marcoh that they'll exterminate that village he adopted if he tries to escape or kill himself or anything. She also openly tells him that that village will most likely be wiped out along with the rest of Amestris when their plan comes to fruition, and that at the moment the success of that plan looks extremely likely. When he's unable to bring himself to do the obviously best choice for hurting their plan and kill himself, she just laughs about the ridiculousness of human hopefulness and scope-insensitivity. She triumphantly declares that this kind of fallacious human thinking is what's allowed them to hijack a country full of humans in the first place, and it's why their plan won't fail. And, Marcoh can't bring himself to prove her wrong, just as she said.

She also, pointedly, mentions having just gotten an update from Lust about the status of that village. Obviously they wouldn't be telling the prisoners that Lust had died, but the fact that Envy is both clearly thinking about her and leaning into the superiority complex and sadism makes me suspect that this is an outlet for her. We know she's frustrated with Wrath's refusal to avenge their sister, so taking it out on Marcoh and other captives makes sense.

...

You know, it seems like Marcoh could escape really easily if he actually wanted to. He might not be a combat alchemist, but he's still an alchemist of some stripe if he was able to use the protostone, and if they're planning to sacrifice him he's probably a potent one (so far, power/knowledge/skill at alchemy seems to be the deciding factor in who they choose for sacrifice. I had mused that "people who have seen/know about Wogdat" might be the actual qualifier, but since Mustang is on the list that can't be it). Cut/scratch himself, draw a transmutation circle with the blood (assuming the walls and floor are too hard to just scratch the glyph onto directly), create an exit. Given how common "reshaping solid masses" seems to be, I figure that just about any competent alchemist could probably do that if they had enough time to work. They really are just counting on his own timidity and fear of getting his friends and family killed to keep him in place.

Although...actually, maybe not. There's those chimera-dogs sitting near the doorway. If those things are able to recognize the practice of alchemy and are always watching, then that's much less of a possibility. And the fact that they are using chimaeras instead of just normal guard dogs suggests that there's something these beasts can do that a normal dog couldn't, so...yeah, it's probably that.

...

Cut to the capital building. Wrath is having an evening walk around the grounds, when a distorted female voice hails him, admonishing him for his recent failure. Is that Lust? It sounds kind of like a distorted version of Lust. Is he just hearing his internal self-recrimination in her voice? He stops, and addresses a moth beating itself against one of the lamps, telling it that he knows he's not been on top of the ball recently but that he's getting himself together. It's just that after growing up pretending to be human, and then attaining the greatest level of power and admiration that a human can possibly be afforded (mostly Father's doing, he admits, but still), he let himself get complacent, and these recent events have been a bitter reality check.

He humbly admits that it might be time for someone younger and fresher to step up to the plate, and addresses the moth (or...maybe the lamp it's beating itself against?) as Pride.

Father has some rather whimsical flights of fancy, it would appear.

Pride replies that Wrath is starting to think a little too much like a human, and that he needs to remind himself of what he actually is and what he actually cares about. Meanwhile, the moth gets tangled up in a nearby spiderweb, while Pride speaks uninterruptedly. I guess she's the lamp, then. Well, more likely she just has a telepresence ability that works through fire, but until we get confirmation on that I'm going to amuse myself with the idea that Father just lost his marbles in his old age and is going full Banjo Kazooie with his new haemonculus designs. As the spider comes out to claim its prey, Pride tells her older brother that she won't tell Father about his questionably pro-human musings, but that he needs to get his shit together, before changing the subject to retrieving Gluttony.

I was rooting for the spider this whole time. I used to feed them moths using a flashlight when I was a kid. :)

If I'm reading the visual metaphor right (and I have to work hard to overcome my pro-spider bias here, so please don't judge too harshly if I'm getting it wrong), Wrath is indeed looking for a way out, and was sort of trying to reach out to his little sister for understanding or encouragement, but doing so just put him in danger. Yeah, Wrath is DEFINITELY having second if not third thoughts about his place in life.

Anyway, Wrath assures her that his informants have determined Gluttony's probable location, and that he's just gearing himself up for the rescue mission now. Cut to the location in question, where Hawkeye is gasping in shock and horror at the giant trench that Gluttony's eye laser just blasted into the terrain. 

She advances toward the breach that's just been created in the wall, but she hears someone shouting for her to stop, and then a tongue of red philosopher's stone lightning shoots out and hits her rifle, causing the end of the barrel to vaporize. She draws her handguns just as Gluttony comes lumbering out through the opening, still in boss fight mode. Having his whole-body-mouth open doesn't seem to cost him much mobility, if any.

I can imagine why the others would usually order him not to use this though, given that they usually use Gluttony for covert hunting missions in inhabited areas. There's no avoiding collateral damage with that eye cannon.

Most of the others come tumbling out of some shattered timbers a little further down the building. He really missed them all? Really? I guess maybe the eyeblast takes a second or two to charge up, and restrained as he was Gluttony couldn't really adjust his aim when they fled. Mustang shouts again for her to not provoke Gluttony; he's only targeting Mustang at the moment, and they should keep it that way if possible.

He shoots a hydrogen flare at Gluttony, but he just opens his megamouth a little wider and creates some sort of vortex that sucks the flaming gas in and seemingly annihilates it. Then, he lashes out with a much longer, cylinder-shaped vortex from the central eye that pulls everything caught inside of it back into the mouth; Mustang just barely dodges it.

Okay, so it's not an energy weapon like it appeared. It's a thematically gluttonous assimilation gun. He didn't blast all that wood and soil away, he sucked it into his megamouth and consumed it. Gotcha.

This leads to a sort of unfittingly comedic chase into the nearby woods, with Gluttony ignoring Hawkeye's bullets and firing another consumption beam whenever it recharges. There's lots of screaming at each other, lots of ill-timed superdeformation, etc. Gluttony loses sight of Mustang, but that just makes it more dangerous for everyone else, since now he's just shooting at every sign of movement.

Also, it turns out that Mustang has some sort of condition. 

He just falls to his knees while running through the woods, clutching his chest in pain.

Hmm. Based on where his hand is positioned, this could just be his Lustpunctures and the burns he closed them with hurting him. It wasn't that long ago, and he left the hospital somewhat prematurely, so it likely hasn't completely healed. Although, the suddenness with which the pain comes on - and the lack of any signs of discomfort until now - seems off for a healing wound like that. It could be that, but Mustang could also have some sort of unrelated medical issue that we don't know about yet.

While Mustang tries to evade Gluttony in the woods despite his chest problem and the others try to run interference without getting assimilated themselves, Dr. Whatsisname gets into his car and has Yao help the drugged and one-armed Ninjette into it. The doctor says that he's just going to get himself and his patient the hell out of here, but then hesitates to actually do it. The vehicle waits by the edge of the woods, with the doctor's hands on the wheel and feet on the pedals.

Back in the forest, Gluttony finds Mustang kneeling and clutching his chest in a small clearing, and he has his back to him. Shit...I think Edward and/or Alphonse are going to have to put themselves in the line of fire here, unless he's got some-

HAH! 

It was a tree stump transmuted to look like him from the back.

The best part of this is that it had to have been Edward and Alphonse who made these decoys, since Mustang isn't a spontaneous caster and Edward in particular has a history of making this sort of cartoony sculpturwork with his alchemy. So, the derpy face on the front is them deliberately pissing Mustang off, even in this deadly situation. Beautiful.

The gang used this distraction to give Gluttony the slip and double back to the car. As they climb in, they hear Gluttony's screams of frustration, followed by the crash of falling trees as he starts indiscriminately laying waste to the forest. Mustang has to be basically thrown into the vehicle by Edward and Riza, who both tell him that he's too valuable to continue fighting in person here, especially in his current condition. He orders them to release him, and they refuse. What is he gonna do about it? Penalize them? Write them up for insubordination? When Edward, Alphonse, and Yao say they plan to stay behind and try to recapture or kill Gluttony while the wounded Ninjette, the valuable-and-also-not-in-peak-condition Mustang, and the not-useful-against-haemonculi Hawkeye evacuate, Mustang practically throws a fit. Leaving children behind while he flees is not something he's willing to do.

But it doesn't matter. Because he's not a colonel anymore, and they are no longer soldiers under his command. They'll defer to his tactical skill and experience where they deem it relevant, and him being a highly placed officer in the enemy command structure is valuable, but the system in which he had authority over them is no longer relevant.

As they leave, Hawkeye hands Edward one of her pistols and tells him that he may very well need it by the time they next meet. It's not going to be any help against Gluttony, so her meaning is very clear, and just brings the previous point home: Edward is going to be attacked by his own uniformed countrymen, and he may very well have to kill them. 

Edward is reluctant of course. He's never killed, and he never wants to kill for both moral and potentially metaphysical reasons. But he takes it, and they drive away. Mustang isn't the only one who has to adapt to the reality that they are now capable of perceiving.

Once the car is gone, Yao, Edward, Alphonse, and Alphonse's adopted pandarat who's sort of been climbing around his helmet this whole time go after the target. Their odds aren't terrible, I don't think. With Yao's speed and agility and the Elrics' powerful and versatile spontaneous casting, I could see them figuring out a way to capture or kill Gluttony that gets around his new consumption beam attack.

"Consumption beam" is kinda long and awkward. It's now the gluttonizer.

Gluttony isn't exactly hard to find, but even after they have him in sight they're not sure how to engage. He's cleared the forest immediately around himself, so they can't come any closer without being spotted themselves. 

Just then, they hear a voice calling to Gluttony from behind them, and see a big black dog with glowing red eyes and a very stiff and awkward looking posture. Holy...is this Pride again? Does she have a possession power along with the telepresence one?

Oh wait no nevermind. 

It's just Envy taking her shapeshifting a little further than usual. That explains why the dog was so off-looking. If she has to stay human shaped, then a proper dog skeleton might be just beyond her ability.

Man, it really shows how dire things have gotten for the cast when I can say "it's just Envy," doesn't it?

She also makes her reveal while calling Edward the "Fullmetal Pipsqueak," which of course means he charges immediately. She evades him, and with apparent earnestness tells him and the others to: 

Wow. There is a lot to unpack here.

...

Envy actually seems to think that telling them that will help her avoid combat. It's like she doesn't realize that they have longterm memories. Or just assumes that they'll somehow understand that Gluttony is important in a way that people like themselves are not, and that they should therefore allow her to recover him. All the previous times they've fought against her and her siblings don't matter. Them knowing that the haemonculi are valuable parts of an enemy conspiracy that they have every reason to want crippled doesn't matter. Envy herself expressed grief and anger at the death of a loved one, but she doesn't realize that other people might grieve loved ones that the Sins have killed and retain grudges against her and her siblings for it.

For all she goes on about how predictable and easy to manipulate humans are, she's...I don't even know what the right word would be. It's the kind of cognitive dissonance that goes far enough to become actual delusion.

Ironically, that might make Envy potentially more redeemable than she's come across so far. If you could get her to admit to herself that humans actually are people with subjective experiences and apply that understanding consistently, well. That superiority complex seems to be a big part of how she copes and remains satisfied with her servitude to Father, and without it she might not be.

...

Well, to the surprise of absolutely no intelligent being in existence besides Envy, Edward and the others aren't pacified by this. Also, she made fun of Edward's size a total of seven times now, over the course of the two meetings they've had, so that doesn't help either. Yao recognizes Envy's ki signature, and asks her the same question he asked Gluttony that morning; how many people does she have inside of her?

That kind of suggests that the haemonculi's anomalous ki-signature is from having so much human spirit energy concentrated in their cores. Which raises questions about what makes Wrath different, apart from just appearing to age.

Gluttony overhears the talking and comes over to frantically tell Envy that Mustang is around here and they need to get him for killing Lust. Envy might personally agree with him there, but she has no intent of defying Wrath's orders in this matter; she tells Gluttony that he is prohibited from eating Mustang, Edward, or Alphonse until further notice.

Yao is fine, though. 

The brothers decide to try and exploit this situation. If they're off limits for killing, but Yao isn't, then that's something they can use against the opposition.

They chase after them, and use a cleverly placed earthwall to put Envy and Yao on one side and themselves and Gluttony on the other. If Yao can keep Envy busy for a while, and Gluttony isn’t allowed to kill them, they might be able to take him down. Gluttony could probably break through that wall with a little effort, but they don't plan to give him a chance, and he can't gluttonize it without risking hitting Envy on the other side. So, good plan, aside from the whole "1v1 and 2v1 against haemonculi" part, but really their chances of success were kind of scuttled from the moment Envy showed up so...work with what you've got, I guess?

Cut to the Brobdignag family dinner table, where Queen Bradley is telling her husband about how well son Selim's essay was received at school. Selim asks if he can read it to them right there, and Wrath gives him the go ahead.

The essay is about Wrath, as it turns out. It's not stated whether the assignment was to write about your father, or to write about the Boss Dickbutt Prime Supreme, in an Amestrian school either one is plausible. Selim reads his fawning article about how his dad is always working very hard on so many important things to keep the people of Amestris safe and happy (intercut with the split battle of the Elrics vs. Gluttony and Yao vs. Envy), but how he always has time for his family, and for his son in particular. The best line in the essay has got to be "he has the people of Amestris in his heart." Yes, Selim, he does. He really, really does. Okay, they might actually be Xerxian, but close enough. The closing paragraph of the essay is about how no matter what's going on in the country, Wrath still makes sure to be there for Selim, and always listens to him and takes his feelings seriously.

This episode is doing a pretty good job of making me sympathize with Wrath. The part about loyalty to his family has got to be hitting him hard. Which family does he truly owe his loyalty to; the one he's created here, or the one he was born into? He may have done the former just as part of his disguise, originally, but I don't think they're just that anymore.

Meanwhile, Envy forces me to discard my earlier assumptions about her shapeshifting. It turns out to be a lot more versatile than I ever suspected. 

I guess she's just bad at dogs in particular, then.

She's really vulnerable to having dust kicked in her face, though. I'm not sure if I buy Yao's escape from this situation to be honest, lol.

Yao actually uses a break in the action after he's cut free of her grip to offer her a deal. If she's willing to teach him about the philosopher's stone and immortality, he'll go back to Xing and trouble Sin Inc no further. That's a pretty good deal, and if Father himself was here I suspect that he'd take it. But, Envy isn't him, and Yao pissed her off by acting like a mere human like himself can call the shots, so instead she's just insulted by the offer.

The fight goes on, and Yao is actually pretty handily winning, or at least he would be if it weren't for Envy's regeneration. Other than shapeshifting related surprises and slightly enhanced strength, Envy really isn't a combat build, and with his own (quite possibly enhanced!) speed and strength Yao is able to dismember her a couple of times. Just, it doesn't stick, and he'll get tired long before she does. Eventually, Gluttony throws Alphonse through the earthwall, creating a large enough breach for him to come through as well. Yao is standing over Envy, and has just cut one of her limbs off, but she uses that to her own advantage on turns herself into Ninjette, complete with the missing arm and bandages. Wait, how did she know Ninjette was still alive and bandaged up? 

Ohhhhh, hah!

...

So, when Dr. Whatsisname, Yao, and the half-conscious Ninjette were waiting in the car, there was a movement in the bushes that startled them and that they thought was Gluttony for a second before it disappeared. I actually forgot about it until now, but yeah, that had to have been Envy snooping around in her dog form. So, she would have seen Ninjette in the car and learned about her current state.

...

Envy uses her Ninjette form to throw Yao off balance long enough for Gluttony to charge up the gluttonizer and put Yao dead center. Edward throws himself at Yao to try and pull him out of the way. Alphonse and Envy both try to grab at Edward. They're all just a hair too slow, and Gluttony doesn't have time to abort. 

Edward, Yao, a mass of soil, parts of several trees, Alphonse's hand, and Envy's upper body are all sucked into Gluttony's eyemaw.

...

Oh, I think that's what happened to Hawkeye's rifle earlier, actually, when it looked like a bolt of red lightning was striking it. The barrel was caught in the periphery of a gluttonizer beam, and part of it got ripped off and eaten.

...

Envy's body disintegrates. If Gluttony's belly actually is some sort of pocket dimension that people can survive in like the episode title suggests, though, then she isn't any more dead than Yao and Edward are. Severed haemonculus body parts always disintegrate like that, and if she's built like Lust then her core would have been safely inside the part of her that got gluttonized. So, she'll regenerate, and Edward and Yao are going to have a very ornery cellmate.

Alphonse throws himself at Gluttony and demands that he spit Edward back out, but Gluttony simply shrugs and calmly says that he doesn't know how. His bloodlust seemingly sated, Gluttony stops fighting, closes up his eyemaw again, and becomes placid and unconcerned. He waddles away into the forest, heedless of Alphonse's anguished screams.

Gluttony notably doesn't seem any more put out at having eaten Envy. Obviously, he doesn't have the same bond with her that he did with Lust, but you'd still think that he'd show some sign of regret after accidentally-ing a sibling. This suggests to me that while he doesn't know how to remove people after he's swallowed them, Father does, and Gluttony knows that he just needs to get home again and Envy will be fine.

From there, we go to Dr. Whatsisname's depressing and unkempt house. He's letting Ninjette have his bed and taking the couch for himself. She's not happy to be away from Yao while he's fighting, but there's not much anyone can do about that. In another room, Mustang and Hawkeye receive an update from an unspecified informant saying that Yao and the Elrics haven't made it back yet. So, with nothing else to do at the moment, Mustang says that he should head to the command center and use "the occasion" to probe at the senior brass a bit and see if he can pick up any clues about Megatron being a haemonculus and who might be in league with him. "The occasion?" Is there some kind of social event or optional meeting for the officers happening? Unclear. He and Hawkeye put on their uniforms and, despite the doctor advising them to not go looking for trouble again so quickly, head out.

Mustang is still feeling insecure about having left the Elrics to fight such a dangerous opponent while he fled, and is compelled to make the absolute most of his time now. Well, at least he's channeling it in a productive way; that's certainly an improvement over some of his past coping attempts. He also, during the drive there, is recalling something Hughes told him back at the end of the Ishval campaign, when Mustang first had the idea of staging a coup. "Find as many people who understand and support you as you can." It's not clear if he considers the Elrics to be that type of person, but hopefully he can scout out some more of them now. 

Mustang orders her to stay here and make her escape if he doesn't come out in time, and she refuses. He looks really thinly stretched at this. Either wearing the uniform is making it hard for him to change his headspace, or he's just taking much longer than Hawkeye or the others to realize that the jig is up for the entire system he's been climbing. Probably a mix of both. Finally, he asks her to stay outside, and promises he'll be back, and she gives an overly formal "yessir" and salute.

Soon, Mustang is greeting the Central province's garrison commander, a Lieutenant General Raven. He apologizes for not getting a chance to pay his respects up until now; he's just been so busy since he's reassignment to Central and all this chaos dealing with Scar and the rash of lab facility break-ins and so forth. General Raven is understanding, and they trade some gossip about Mustang's previous commander back in East, that chess-playing guy who we only saw once. The two of them leave Raven's office and wander through the halls on their way to...they said something about tea, and about multiple others being present, so I guess this voluntary meeting is a tea and cake sort of affair. As they walk, Raven asks Mustang if he's gotten to know Central very well yet. Mustang says that he finds the residents a bit odd culturally; during his exploration of the local street, he keeps hearing these bizarre conspiracy theories about how Scar has been seen feeding cats all over the city, or secret societies of immortals, or the Prima Dona Donn Primo being a haemonculus.

Raven laughs heartily at that last one, and Mustang laughs with him, while carefully looking for any cracks in Raven's composure. Shaking his head, Raven tells him that he's taking this kind of low-key civil unrest and conspiracy theorizing way too seriously, and chides him for not having learned to just laugh off things like this under his previous commander, but they can discuss the topic more over tea; it'll be good for more laughs if nothing else. Mustang opens the door, and finds a room full of Amestris' leading generals waiting for him. They're drinking tea, but they're not laughing, and he has all of their full attention. 

Raven closes the door behind him, and - no longer smiling himself - asks Mustang to repeat that story about Captain Commander Sgt being an evil robot for the rest of the class.

There's another new music track here. A slow, sinking chorus. Almost funerary, but far more tense.

Before Mustang can answer, Wrath steps into the room as well. He, too, tells Mustang to repeat what he heard. Also, to please explain what he has against haemonculi, and what would be wrong with himself being one. The rest of the room continues glaring at Mustang; it's not clear if they're in the know about what Wrath is, or if they're just so personally loyal to him that they actually think that hypothetical question is a reasonable loyalty test.

Well, now Mustang really gets it. He understands what Hughes was starting to tell him, about the country being in big trouble. The threat wasn't an invader, or even an outside infiltrator. The threat was the regime itself, in its entirety. There are no good apples in a place like Amestris.

The episode ends with Edward in a dark, hellish dimension full of corpses in varying stages of decay, broken building and vehicle parts of varying technological levels, and ankle-deep blood.

He and Mustang are both in the belly. And they're both going to need outside rescue.

One of the best episodes of the show. There's no one amazing thing about it; it just does so many things right and balances them all very well (aside from the out-of-place comedy during the Gluttony chase. That was annoying). Edward and Alphonse are both fully realized protagonists now, with Mustang still holding his own as a strong deuteragonist.

The followup to the last couple episodes' theme of disillusionment and defiance was viscerally potent, with Mustang learning the same lesson as the Elrics just minutes too late. I'll admit, until the last few episodes I was sort of worried that the story would end with Mustang succeeding in his plan to make Amestris a less oppressive and warlike country by becoming its new military dictator. At this point, there's pretty much zero risk of that.