Episode 40, "Homunculus"
*****SPOILERS*****
Synopsis: Olivier Armstrong arrives at Central, where she is questioned by Fuhrer King Bradley about General Raven. She requests Raven’s position, and it amuses Bradley, who agrees to give it to her. Riza passes along information to Roy about Selim being a homunculus. Meanwhile, Father sleeps below Central and a flashback begins to the days of Xerxes. Hohenheim was once a slave who became an alchemy apprentice thanks to the help of a homunculus living in a flask in his master’s posession. The king of Xerxes requests from the homunculus the secret to immortality, which comes at the price of many lives. An alchemy array is constructed around the country so that the king can obtain immortality, but the homunculus has tricked him and it is Hohenheim and himself that end up at the center of the circle when it activates. The result is the death of all of Xerxes’ citizens, save for Hohenheim, and the transfer of those lives into the homunculi and Hohenheim. The homunculus decided to take the same form as Hohenheim, thus their similar appearance. In the present, Hohenheim meets with Izumi and Sig, and rearranges her internal organs to help her health, admitting to them that he is a Philosopher’s Stone in human form.
