Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal Season 3 Episode 2 Review: Kingdom of Sorrow
Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal Season 3 Episode 2, “Kingdom of Sorrow,” exemplifies the show’s haunting beauty with Spear’s agonizingly slow journey forward.
Primal Season 3 so far is less about survival and more about loss. Spear “lives” on as a zombie with nothing but his fragmented memories of Fang keeping him going.
“Kingdom of Sorrow” is a slower, less eventful episode in comparison to the previous one, instead opting to show us more of the new, almost alien world Spear has found himself in.
The art direction is on point. The antelope-looking creatures, as well as the massive sand worm, feel so foreign to the dinosaurs of the previous seasons.
It creates this excellent sense of unfamiliarity while still feeling distinctly Primal.
We also get a significantly clearer picture of how Spear changed when he became a zombie. It’s devastating to see him function almost like a robot.
He’s still incredibly strong, but now unthinking. It’s almost disturbing to see just how apathetic he is to his surroundings.
It makes the moments of clarity, when we get glimpses of his past, feel like such a relief. We even get a moment in a dream sequence where zombie Spear comes face-to-face with his living self.
The dream also reminds Spear of his fiery death at the hands of the Viking Chieftain. It seems like he doesn’t remember how he died, but given the allusion to it as well as the way the Viking Chieftain died himself, there’s a solid chance we may see him again.
The cruelest part of this episode is its fake-out. The roar he followed is from a Lion, not Fang.
But it’s not just one lion, it’s a whole pride, and Spear has to fight them off in a tension-filled action sequence.
Spear’s lack of visible emotion is interesting. It’s hard to tell whether he’s being brutal because he’s frustrated or just an unthinking zombie.
What is clear, however, is the clear glimpse of Spear’s living self we get when he finds his old weapon of choice. However, it’s just a glimpse; the moment he’s no longer in danger, he leaves the spear behind and keeps following Fang’s roar.
The closest we get to seeing Spear’s humanity is when he’s fighting for his survival or when he sees something that reminds him of who he used to be. In the case of “Kingdom of Sorrow,” it’s when he finds a literal spear.
It’s hard to tell whether Spear will get better or worse. He sustained a lot of damage so far, and he may reach a point where he can’t continue.
Hopefully, we at least get answers to what happened to Fang before then.
What did you think of this episode of Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal? Share your thoughts in the comments below, and don’t forget to leave your own rating!
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Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal airs Sundays at 11:30 P.M. ET on Adult Swim.
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Olivia Thomas
Olivia Thomas is a passionate creative writer with a love of TV and movies, spanning from animation, comedy, and even horror. She is a graduate of Sacramento State University with a degree in English and a certificate in screenwriting. She has a year of prior experience writing for CBR.