Episode 39, "Daydream"
*****SPOILERS*****
Synopsis: Edward prevents Kimbley from going at Scar, who has Winry captive. In a flashback, Winry confronts Scar about his killing her parents and he tells her he has the right to kill her. Instead, she bandages a bleeding wound of his, and while she says she won't forgive him, she does it because it's a life her parents saved. Scar asks Miles why he works for a country that hates him, and he says it's to change their attitude towards Ishbalans from within. After much discussion, the group come up with a plan to get Winry out of the clutches of the homunculi and Central by faking a kidnapping by Scar, who agrees to cooperate. Winry, Yoki, the chimera (who desire to get their original bodies back), Marcoh, Mei, and Scar seperate from the Elrics and Miles. In the present, Miles discovers that the Briggs base has been taken over by Central soldiers. Alphonse goes out to inform them, but in the snow storm, sees a vision of his body and is concerned about his future.
Comments:
If you've followed my reviews, you know that I'm not a Winry fan. Is she cute? Sure. Is she strong willed? Yes. Does she do something interesting? Yeah, automail building and repair looks cool. They could do an entire other TV series on that. But something just rubs me the wrong way about her. Maybe I'm tired of the girl next door love interest character. I don't know. Sometimes it just seems like Ed and Al think too highly of her opinion. She's their childhood friend, yes, but fuck, it's not like she's the one out there looking for the Philosopher's Stone, fighting homunculi, and the like. Shut up, let them do what they need to.
Somehow, though, in this episode, much like in her last confrontation with Scar, I did feel for the poor girl. She's been through a lot. Even knowing how the situation would end up didn't stop me from smiling broadly when she instead helped Scar and volunteered to be held as a fake captive by him, the man who killed her parents. You can't deny the strength of the character, even if she is a bit annoying.
I have to be honest, though. I don't think two confrontations with Scar were absolutely necessary. They could have resolved it with that one previous time. I understand Arakawa felt giving Winry time to think about things so it didn't feel like the situation was resolved so quickly, but knowing now what comes later in the manga, I don't feel like it would have been that big a deal. In fact, in this arc, it almost feels like they just brought Winry in just to resolve this story thread.
Still, I can't complain too loudly about it. It did work out better than I remembered from the manga. Maybe the voices helped. It's a mystery to me.
The chimera characters are another thing we have to deal with, since they'll be around for quite a while now that they're part of Ed and Al's team. Like I said in the previous review, I don't like having extraneous characters around that are there just to point out other character's issues. I mean, if they're just around now and then, that's fine, but it's enough with the chimeras, already. There are too many characters around as it is. Don't expect them to even be of much relevance.
Alphonse sees his body for the first time since it was taken by the Truth, and it's not doing well at all. I do like the angle the manga goes for that the first series didn't, that Alphonse's soul could be rejected by the armor. It makes Alphonse's need for his original body more pressing. In the first show, it seemed like a great desire of his, but it didn't seem like he need to worry that much.
Next week we get a little look at Hohenheim and Father's past, and some of the opening credits sequences will make more sense, especially the beginning of the first one. 
Overall Score: 3.5 out of 5
