Review: Primal “Slave of the Scorpion”

 

 

Overview:

While fishing, Spear and Fang are surprisingly interrupted by a strange woman on the run. The boys manage to chase her down and show her that they mean no harm. Although they may think she is as weird as she does them, they still opt to stick together.

As they travel, Spear and Fang realize that the woman that they saved has plenty of tricks to teach them. Besides cooking and hunting techniques, she manages to communicate the backstory of her tribe being pillaged before she managed to escape.

However, whoever she is running from may stop at nothing when it comes to getting her back.

 

Our Take:

Thank goodness the second season of Primal is already in the works. This cliff-hanger season finale sets the stage for big things going forward.

The final moments of this episode indicate that Primal will look a little different in the upcoming season. 

Where this season featured story after story of Spear and Fang fighting for survival, it may be trivial compared to what comes next. Our heroes have been given a reason to fight, and we can be certain that is what they intend to do.

We knew we could expect something significant for the season one finale. The first five episodes that were released last year ended with a bang that showed off what the series is capable of. Additionally, Genndy Tartakovsky has promised in interviews and panels that major shifts are happening in the next season. Plus, when you consider the amount of storytelling that went into his last series, Samurai Jack, we should have seen this coming.

This season finale was a game-changer.

For one, it is revealed that there are much more sophisticated civilizations out in the world. 

Spear is a neanderthal, but that is because he has been isolated from something bigger. This new character comes from a culture that understands harvesting, religion, and language. While her captors have mastered oceanic travel.

The world of Primal is much more advanced than we ever realized. Even Spear’s intelligence may be more adaptable and farther along than we were led to believe. During the episode, he manages to express and understand his new friend through imagery. And the end caps off with the first dialogue we have heard out of the caveman in ten episodes.

Additionally, Spear and Fang’s bonding is as solidified as it can get now. Everything that the man and beast have been through this season has made them thick as thieves. This episode highlights that fact with a couple of humorous moments that see the two acting like argumentative siblings.

There was no lack of eye-catching imagery that defines this series in this finale. A delicious dinosaur battle at the intro and an underwater scene showcase the achievement of the artwork. Even more exciting is the fact that all of this artistic magic we have been fawning over was the trial run for the show to expand.

Season one was just the beginning of the story. The real story of Primal officially started right here with this episode. We can only anticipate what comes next. Though it is assured that there will be an ongoing plot, and we will see Spear and Fang outclassed and outgunned as we have never seen.

Leave it to Genndy Tartakovsky to deliver a spine-tingling cliff-hanger to cap things off. The season finale does not just set things up for the show to progress. It breaks the whole premise down and rebuilds it from the ground up.  

There is a lot to look forward to. But here comes the hard part… the waiting.