Fullmetal Alchemist - Episode 18

As expected, Maria Ross is alive and well..all thanks to Roy Mustang :)

"I'm good at transmuting burnt corpses"
~Roy Mustang

I admire Roy's wit and intelligence in this episode. He was able to pull off his things that are well thought of. He needs to be really careful in his actions because one small mistake could put all of them in big trouble.

With Barry the Chopper's testimony, Roy was able to confirm that Maria Ross fired her bullet at him and not at Hughes so that makes Maria Ross innocent of murder. So in order to save Maria Ross, he plans on helping her escape.

Since he is the flame alchemist, he is going to use his expertise in making it look like Maria Ross died in her hands. With the use of a dummy that he burnt, he made it look like she toasted Maria Ross that even autopsy would be difficult to perform.

So Maria Ross will now flee to the country of Xing, thanks to Ling who made a deal with Barry the Chopper, in exchange of telling him the secret of attaching a soul to the armor. Before Maria Ross go, Ed, Armstrong, Breda rendezvous with her and Fu in the Xerxes ruins where they explained the whole situation.

Before Ed finally went home, he met a group of Ishvalan living in the ruins. A small world as it is, he met the people that Winry's parent's treated during the war. It is also through them that he learned that it was Scar who killed Winry's parents.

The thing that I amused me with Roy so much was because he thought of a way to communicate with his men in a form of coded message.

The reason why Riza filed a leave was because she is to give assitance to Havoc who is battling the chimera-ed body of Barry the Chopper who attacked them under Lust's orders. So the Elizabeth he is talking to at the phone was actually Riza and they are talking like Roy is asking for a service from "Elizabeth". Customers is the code for their targets and Riza has the task of reporting to Roy what is happening, of course in coded message.

The episode also ended on a nice cliffhanger with the appearance of Gluttony attacking Riza.