Episode 62 (2009 Anime)

As Father drains more Briggs soldiers toward a fresh Philosopher's Stone, Hohenheim, Al, Izumi and May reach the surface to stop him. Van argues that humans create where homunculi only destroy, and that even as a god Father can do nothing but tear down. Stung, Father sprouts living people from his body, the lost souls of Xerxes made flesh, only to obliterate them moments later with a blast of god-energy that also lights up a wide stretch of the compound as Ed climbs into view.

Below, Alex has transmuted a lift bearing the wounded and the fighters upward, halting at Greed's landing. A radio report from Karley confirms Father has leveled half of Central Command, so Olivier hands command to Alex and stays behind while Mustang, needing Hawkeye's eyes, rides on to keep striking the stone within Father. Lan Fan joins them to stand with Ling. Passing Bradley's corpse, Olivier kneels and asks the dead Führer whether he witnessed how strong her soldiers proved to be.

On the surface, May finds Al's body torn apart from shielding her, and Ed learns Izumi survived only because Hohenheim covered her with his own body. Father bats the scorched old man aside and moves to draw out Ed and Izumi, but Briggs troops flood out firing rifles, rockets and machine guns, buying time before Mustang, Alex, Hawkeye, Lan Fan, Zampano and Darius join a relentless barrage meant to bleed Father's energy dry. Mustang, clapping to make up for his ruined gloves, finds new value in circle-free transmutation as he raises defensive walls.

Greed charges in, punches Father, and secretly tries to siphon god-energy, but Father reverses the pull. Ed, Alex and Izumi pile on with physical blows until Father shatters Ed's automail arm and topples, barely holding God inside as its eye rises toward his mouth. Searching for a soul, Father closes on Ed, whose left arm is pinned to rebar. Unable to reach him and with cracks creeping toward his Blood Rune, Al makes his choice: he has May scribe a circle around Ed's empty right shoulder and, at the Gate, trades his armored soul to reclaim his own body so that Edward's flesh right arm returns. Furious at the sacrifice yet armed again, Ed claps his two human hands for the first time in five years, tears free, and drives earthen rams into Father. As everyone cheers, Greed admits to Ling that what he always truly craved was friends who cared for him, and Ed warns the reeling homunculus he is far out of his league.

The episode adapts the manga chapters "The Abyss of Pride" and "The Final Battle," and its title card bears Alphonse's Blood Rune. Scar's last appearance before the finale is handled with less dread than the manga, which leaves his fate ambiguous as he topples over, while the anime simply shows him clutching his wounds with the camera on Olivier. Several beats are reworked: Father is knocked down by a bullet rather than blocking the volley, the reborn Xerxesians show no sign of the rapid decay the manga gives them, Greed's rush becomes a direct grab at god-energy, and Ed's close-range assault is blocked by a transmuted wall and joined by Izumi and Armstrong. His closing threat deliberately echoes the one he made against Cornello at the series' start.