Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal Season 3 Episode 9 Review: The Hollow Crown

Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal Season 3 Episode 9, “The Hollow Crown,” does the impossible and brings Spear back to life. Sort of.

After the birth of his child, Spear finds himself distracted in his newfound life with the volcano tribe. He’s beginning to question it; something isn’t capable of being a zombie.

Spear’s healing is a massive development in an already very dense episode. This episode drops so much new information within it’s short runtime.

While Spear is healing, Mira and Fang are already deep into their search for Spear.

As it turns out, each time Spear drinks from the black river, he’s not just growing stronger, he’s becoming more human. His body is slowly mending; eagle-eyed viewers may have even noticed his eyes becoming less cloudy in the previous episode.

His determination to recover his memories and create a toy for his child is satisfying and heartwarming. However, his newfound humanity means he can feel pain again.

He can bleed now, he’s not invincible anymore, but he still approaches his fights like he is.

Fortunately, he’s still Spear and famously does not go down easily. The animation in these short sequences is stellar.

The bleak, desolate volcano is contrasted against Mira and Fang’s trek through a lush jungle. The environments are so gorgeous and colorful that it is almost jarring to go back to the volcano.

These sequences of Mira and Fang travelling with their children feature some of the cutest moments of the series thus far.

The dinosaur kids, looking after Mira’s baby and later fighting over who gets to hold her, is such an unexpected but endearing moment in the best possible way.

Their little family dynamic is so heartwarming and makes the attack on them all the more horrifying.

While Spear returns to the village bearing a gift, Mira and the dinosaurs are attacked by a bipedal panther-like creature.

It’s hard to watch Fang get so hurt, but once again, the animation this episode on point. The movement of panther-creature is so fluid but powerful. It felt like a true threat.

We know Mira and the baby live in the season 2 flash-forward and that unfortunately kills some of the tension. However, we don’t actually know if Fang survives.

Given the damage she sustained, Fang’s fate is looking incredibly grim. It would truly be such a shame to see her go down like this.

We end on another cliffhanger. This time, Spear is tracking them down.

The thought that Fang might die before she gets to see the humanity Spear regained an emotional gut punch.

Season 3 has tormented us with Fang’s understandable but heartbreaking distrust of zombie Spear. The idea that she might not be able to see her friend as she once knew him would be a devastating turn for the season.

Hopefully, he’s able to get there in time, but it’s already hard to tell whether or not he’s too late.

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Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal airs Sundays at 11:30 P.M. ET on Adult Swim.

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