Review: Primal “The Colossaeus, Part I”

Overview:

Spear, Fang, and Mira hit rocky waters when a threat of unprecedented proportions teases them with a fate worse than death. As these prehistoric pugilists determine whether they’ll sink or swim, Viking Eldar heads down a path of unexpected possibilities that may also threaten to take more than just his ethereal existence. 

Our Take:

A surprising amount of this season of Primal has been set at sea and “The Colossaeus, Part I” still finds fresh facets to this territory as it returns to a water-bound showdown. One of the perks from the earliest episodes of Primal is how the dinosaurs and creatures that Spear and Fang encountered were quite often spectacles in themselves. Primal’s second season effectively evolves that idea with a comparable sense of awe, yet one that’s applied towards man-made creations and accomplishments. Through these feats, the collective will of man demonstrates how it can overcome impossible obstacles. “The Colossaeus, Part I,” as its name implies, is a monumental episode that’s the peak of this premise, but it’s also the start of something much bigger for the ambitious series.

The sense of scope in this season of Primal continues to expand in impressive ways and there’s at least one huge sight in each episode that causes Spear to question his eyes because what’s in front of him is just too cataclysmic for his still-evolving brain to comprehend. Even the inclusion of “Part I” in the episode’s title is a dedicated effort to reflect an epic size. Primal is a deeply serialized show where every episode could function as the next “Part” of the story, but the choice to delineate this installment as the first-half of something bigger (that’s going to be at least a trilogy of episodes) sets the audience up for a grandiose experience that properly mirrors the jarring sights that are before Spear and company.

Building off of all of this is the menacing Queen of the Colossaeus warship who’s primed to become the central antagonist through these final episodes. There’s an eerie resemblance between this tyrant and one of the grown-up Daughters of Aku from the final season of Samurai Jack. There are a number of moments in “Colossaeus” that feel as if they’re meant to intentionally evoke not only Genndy Tartakovsky’s other ruthless warrior series, but all of the creator’s courageous action archetypes from across the years. 

Primal’s previous episodes pit the Vikings against Spear, Fang, and Mira to brutal effect, but it’s encouraging how the series continues to explore this new character through his own introspective storyline. It’d have been very easy to never see Eldar again after the tragic loss that he experienced back in “Vidarr,” but the Faustian journey he ends up on becomes a magnetic counterpoint to the series’ main journey. It’s appreciated that Primal attempts this layered depth and allows both of these tonal extremes to co-exist as opposed to forcing Eldar’s visions to be contained to their own episode. This experiment will only become more compelling as Vidar and Spear’s journeys continue to diverge and intersect. I don’t expect this iteration of Primal to ditch its main characters, but it’s admittedly become easier to picture a version of the series where Viking Eldar temporarily becomes the narrative’s priority. 

“The Colossaeus” is also an episode that amps up the magic and mysticism quotient. These elements have been few and far between in Primal, but they’ve always been electric whenever they emerge. Viking Eldar’s Norse vision quest is full of bewildering sights and it doesn’t feel that removed from some of the more stylistically ambitious episodes of Samurai Jack. This culminates in one of the intimidating and awe-inducing visuals from the entire series that feels like a deleted scene from out of Fantasia or Heavy Metal. It’s breathtaking, but also a testament to the level of nuance and duality that Primal carries and how an episode can be filled with bloody, visceral combat as well as these striking visions that are practically celestial in nature.

Primal only provides a brief taste of the indentured servitude angle that befalls its heroes. This storyline has only just begun, but it already reaches particularly disturbing places, especially in Mira’s case and what’s in store for her and her new roommates. It also seems like an alliance will be necessary between Fang, Spear, and their warrior cellmate who’s responsible for the premature death of the latter’s offspring. As impossible as this union currently seems, I wouldn’t be surprised if these three are kicking ass in lockstep by the conclusion of this “Colossaeus” adventure. Their current fate where they’re forced to conquer nations as the Queen’s weapons of destruction is heartbreaking in its own way, but at least they’ve got an outlet to work out their endless aggression. Vidarr, indeed.

“The Colossaeus” proves to be worthy of its “Part I” disclaimer and it goes out on an exceptional cliffhanger that makes it even more excruciating to wait a week to get the next chapter. Impressively, “The Colossaeus” reveals itself to just be the prelude to a much larger story, which means that the ensuing chapters of this chimera narrative are bound to be even bigger and more satisfying. The fact that “The Colossaeus” doesn’t “feel” like a Part I or that it’s merely set dressing for what’s to come further proves the level of confidence in Primal’s storytelling and how much every single episode has to offer. There’s a phenomenal end to the season afoot with this “Colossaeus” story functioning as its framework

Oh, and Spear disembowels an elephant.