Full spoilers follow for Primal Season 3, Episode 4, “Prey for the Wicked,” which is available on Adult Swim and HBO Max now.
Wow, I didn’t see this coming so soon. Fang is back! And so are her babies and Mira, all of whom we last saw in the Primal Season 2 finale back in 2022. Not only has our favorite T. rex returned, but by the end of this episode she’s been reunited with Spear… or what’s left of him, anyway.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. The first three episodes of this season have taken their time just getting us acquainted with the zombie version of Spear, and while it was clear that our undead hero was looking for his lost family – and specifically for Fang – even if he wasn’t entirely conscious of it, it didn’t seem like series creator Genndy Tartakovsky was in any rush to reunite them. Yes, Tartakovsky hinted that the beautiful girl would return eventually, and a trailer gave us a glimpse of her too, but so far Primal Season 3 has very much been centered on zombie Spear, so much so that it wasn’t even clear how much time had passed since his death – er, “death” – in the Season 2 finale.
So I was a bit surprised to find that this episode opens with a flashback, and not just any flashback, but one to Spear’s funeral. How heartbreaking is it when, among the array of villagers mourning Spear, we see Mira intensely dancing in her grief? And even more touching, there’s Fang off in the distance, watching the ceremony with her babes. She might not fully understand the nature of the funeral, but she knows well enough what it means.
Months later, Fang and her (growing) offspring are living harmoniously with Mira’s people, though when a child playfully winds up straddling one of the little dinos and raises a spear a la Spear, Fang reacts badly to the sight. But it’s in this moment that she realizes that Mira is pregnant with Spear’s child, and damn if we don’t have our second tears-worthy moment in the episode as Fang starts digging a nest for Mira.
Of course, Mira and Fang are both heartbroken over the loss of Spear, and they’ve formed a close bond in the months since his death. As usual, Tartakovsky and his team of artists convey these emotions wordlessly, if not silently – never underestimate how many different meanings a growl from Fang can carry. The scenes between the two also raise the question of how exactly Mira and Fang will react when they meet the zombie version of Spear.
But first, there’s this week’s action, which involves a swarm of hateful hog-like creatures that invade Mira’s village. That they don’t straight-up kill their prey, but instead take them back to their even more horrible queen hog-like creature so that she can feast on the villagers while she nurses her giant baby-hog things… well, it’s all just a reminder of the bloody cycle of life that permeates the world of Primal.
But one of the themes of Primal has always been that friendship and love are stronger than any, well, primal instincts to survive. What purpose was left in Spear’s life, or Fang’s, after they lost their original families if they hadn’t found each other? So when Fang’s offspring make it clear that they want to be part of the search party that will attempt to rescue the missing villagers because they want to save their little human friend, you can basically see that very notion written on Mira’s face. This is what it’s all about.
So while it seemed at the start of this season as if Spear’s revival as a zombie could’ve taken place years – or many years – after his death, possibly even after the epilogue of Season 2’s finale when we met Mira and Spear’s young daughter, we now know that it’s only been a matter of months. And beyond the question of what will happen next, now that this unlikely family is finally reunited, there’s also the matter of where – and what condition – Spear will be in by the time that Season 2 epilogue comes to pass years from now. The way the scene played, Spear was gone from their lives. So now we must ask ourselves: Will Fang and Mira lose him again?
Questions and Notes From Anachronistic History
- Man, I missed Fang. Even just the way she sleeps is so cool.
- Primal’s third season has been pretty heavy so far, and while this episode is full of emotion, action, and gore, it’s also got several welcome lightweight moments, mostly courtesy of Fang’s li’l ones and the kid from Mira’s tribe who’s always getting into trouble.
- It’s great seeing the dino pups get some chomping action themselves against the pig creatures.
- And speaking of those two, they really need names at this point…
- I confess to being a little bit confused about how the old shaman from the season opener who revived Spear could’ve seen his people slaughtered prior to that episode without Mira and her crew knowing about it. No cell phones, I guess.
- Cool effect when Mira’s fellow warrior snuffs out the campfire so that they can see better in the dark, with the scene then changing from mostly blacks to shades of blue.
- What was that ritual those two village people performed on the old shaman’s staff? Hmmm…
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