Episode 8, "The Philosopher's Stone"
*****SPOILERS*****
Synopsis: Disraught over Nina's death, Edward turns in his pocket watch when Mustang refuses to let him track down the serial killer and decides to investigate himself. Inspired by notes in Tucker's house, Alphonse asks around about the Philosopher's Stone. Winry comes to Central to congratulate Edward, but is kidnapped by the serial killer named Barry, who is disguised as a woman. Edward realizes what has happened and finds his hideout, but is knocked out and tied up. Edward uses alchemy to escape, and barely manages to subdue Barry. When the military arrive, Edward breaks down over his powerlessness. Later, Roy gives Edward back his pocket watch and gives him the title the Fuhrer has passed down to him, the Fullmetal Alchemist.
Comments:
Bones doesn't let up very much with the emotional turmoil in this show. Though thi sepisode's drama lives in the shadow of the Tucker incident, there's plenty of new drama here, with Winry being kidnapped and Edward falling for Barry's deception, too, and nearly dying. The episode gets a little soggy with tears, but with what just happened, it's really hard to complain about that. The Edward here isn't quite the more cynical guy we see in the first episode yet, he's trying to be tough, but he's a fragile kid, probably more sensitive than his younger brother, even.
It's not quite clear exactly what kind of technology the world of FMA is working at. Winry comments that the van Barry has is a new refridgerated model. You see cars now and then, but not many, and there aren't any planes. There are plenty of phones and railroads, though. There are even elevators in that world. Anyway, it's Winry's fascination with the truck that gets her kidnapped. Never take a ride from a meat van, folks.
Barry is an extremely creepy guy and he immediately calls to mind Tucker, who also treated human life carelessly and talked about how doing terrible things is easy. Still freaked out by Nina's death, and tied up without his automail arm while his childhood friend is being threatened, Edward panicked, but he still managed to hold his own before the authorities arrived.
Some people see this episode as a waste of time, especially hot off the Tucker incident, because at this point the viewer is already inundated with drama, and this seems like an excuse to have a "prequel" to Barry's later circumstances. I can understand these opinions, however I sort of like this episode. I think Ed's feelings in this episode are palpable.
A lot of critics of the first series say that Edward cries too much. He cries in this episode during a period of extreme emotional turmoil, coming off the tragedy of Nina and nearly being killed. He's about twelve at this point. If you think he's being "emo", I have a hard time understanding your reasoning. He went through a lot of shit.
Hey, if you dislike the episode, you can reason that he's crying over how poor it was!
Overall Score:
3.5 out of 5
