Episode 60 (2009 Anime)

Hoping to talk rather than fight, Central sends the unarmed Denny Brosh into Radio Capital, where a beaming Maria Ross reduces him to tears. Deep below, Ed insists the homunculi cannot simply spend the assembled sacrifices as they wish, but Father reveals the captives are already sealed inside his own body. Above them, Darius, Jerso, Zampano and the wounded Hawkeye find their path blocked by a strange black membrane walling off the lowest levels. May steps forward to challenge Father directly, leaving Pride to the Elrics.

Noticing Pride's body already flaking, Ed wonders why the homunculi bothered coercing alchemists if they could force a person through the Gate, and Mustang tells him it was a desperate measure carrying real risk. When May pins Father's arms for a strike, Hohenheim tears his face free of Father's form to warn her that this enemy needs no movement to circulate his power, but the warning lands too late and a transmutation wounds her the instant she makes contact.

As the eclipse deepens, Scar's Ishvalan companions spread tarps bearing the reverse circle across Central while Scar duels the wounded Wrath. Bradley presses the advantage until his own injuries make him hesitate, letting Scar snap a sword and, pressing his left hand to the floor, raise spikes that deflect a killing stroke. Scar reveals a fresh tattoo, the reconstructive half of his brother's array, and Wrath admires the man's tenacity. Meanwhile Ed shrugs off Pride's shadows and cracks a piece from his deteriorating face with a headbutt.

Judging the moment right, Father snares all four loose sacrifices and pins them in a circle around his throne. Greed bursts from the shadows to claim the center, but Father says he expected this and drags the five into position around himself, thrusting his hand onto the mock five-point array. The Gate's eye opens on each sacrifice, the black film swells to engulf Central Command, and the tragedy of Xerxes plays out nationwide as every soul in Amestris is torn from its body. Colossal Gate doors open in the sky, an enlarged Father rises to hail the ring of the sun's corona as "god," and he takes hold of the descending tendrils, vowing to drag God down and absorb it as light floods the world.

The episode draws on the manga chapters "Greed Without Limits," "For Whom?" and "The Center of the World," and its title card carries the Reverse Nationwide Transmutation Circle designed by Scar's brother. The FUNimation dub, which had swapped "the Gate" for "the Portal" roughly fifteen episodes earlier, abruptly reverts to "Gateway" here. The tearful reunion of Denny Brosh and Maria Ross also occurs later than in the manga, which placed it around the time Fu joined Greed against Wrath.