The Northern Wall of Briggs

Piecing together local reports and traces of alchemy, Kimblee traces Scar's path into the northern mountains and pushes his men further up the line. Edward and Alphonse reach snowbound North City to await transport to Briggs, unaware their pursuer is close behind. Learning that Scar boarded a military train with a man thought to be Marcoh, Kimblee holds his troops back and goes after the Ishvalan alone.

Kimblee leaps between trains and finds the hooded traveler is actually Yoki, not Marcoh. Scar bursts in, and moonlight triggers both men's memory of their brief clash during the civil war. Enraged at his family's killer, Scar tears the car apart, but Kimblee, though nimble, realizes six years of imprisonment have left him weaker than his relentless foe. Scar impales Kimblee's side with a broken pipe, yet Kimblee uses his Philosopher's Stone to sever the coupling, dropping Scar and the rear cars away before ordering the crew onward, exhilarated by the danger.

Across the wilderness, May travels with the real Marcoh toward the Briggs range. In Rush Valley, Winry learns the boys have gone north and worries. Dropped at the mountain base, Ed and Al lose the road in a blizzard and are ambushed by a huge soldier with a chainsaw-armed automail, Captain Buccaneer, who accuses Ed of spying for Drachma. Edward's automail seizes in the cold and his destruction alchemy fails against the composite prosthesis, but the brothers are surrounded by the Briggs patrol at a colossal fortified wall. Major General Olivier Mira Armstrong tears up her brother's letter unread, judging people by her own eyes, and grants them entry with a warning that only the strong survive. At Scar's marked hut, Marcoh and May unearth the notes fusing alkahestry and Amestrian alchemy and begin decoding them.

Kimblee tracks Scar to the northern rail line and boards his train alone. The hooded companion is exposed as Yoki, and Scar and Kimblee recall their civil-war encounter. Scar wounds Kimblee, who detaches the rear cars with his stone and escapes north. The Elrics reach North City, then are attacked by Captain Buccaneer in a blizzard, revealing that Ed's automail and destruction alchemy fail in the extreme cold. Olivier Mira Armstrong admits the brothers to Fort Briggs. Marcoh and May recover and begin deciphering the research notes left by Scar's brother.

The episode draws on the manga chapters covering the northern wall and the ironclad rule. Its extended cat-and-mouse between Kimblee and Scar is anime-original, as the manga has him locate Scar far less thoroughly. After the coupling is blown apart, the rear cars mostly stay intact here, whereas the manga has them crash before Scar and Yoki climb from the wreckage. North City appears on screen for the first time in any adaptation. The dub drops both references to the wound on Scar's brother's side and Olivier's jab at Edward's forelock, and the Adult Swim broadcast cut the closing scene of Marcoh and May finding the notes.