Primal Season 3, Episode 9 Review – Can Spear Get a Happy Ending This Time?

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Full spoilers follow for Primal Season 3, Episode 9, “The Hollow Crown,” which is available on Adult Swim and HBO Max now.

As we enter the final stretch of Primal Season 3, the one thing that many fans have been hoping and praying for ever since the end of Season 2 seems to be maybe, just maybe, finally happening: Zombie Spear is now more or less resurrected as good old living Spear. When we got an episode literally called “The River of Life” last week, I guess I should’ve realized that Spear would in fact return to his human form. But of course, this being the world of Primal, the question still remains: Will Spear be allowed to have the happy ending that he so dearly deserves?

This week’s episode, “The Hollow Crown,” continues to show what has become the almost mechanical combat that Spear has mastered in the volcanic pit. With each victory over some hulking, bizarre combatant, our hero is crowned once again by the increasingly disapproving elder who oversees the matches, and allowed to slurp down another cup of the mysterious fluid from the previously mentioned life-giving river. The thing is, zombie Spear was endowed with an immortality – or whatever you call a zombie that can’t be hurt – that living Spear does not have (as made clear when he was injured during one of this episode’s fights). If Spear is fully returned to life, can he really continue to keep defeating foe after foe if he is no longer just a hunk of dead flesh?

As for that disapproving elder (or priest or whatever he is), he doesn’t like that Spear has become more and more fixated on his former life and family. The elder tries to introduce a volcanic woman to Spear as a way to satiate some base need, but that’s not what it’s about for Spear at all and he makes his displeasure at the mere suggestion of this known, roaring in the elder’s face and then hopping on his pterosaur to fly off and surreptitiously visit those who he misses.

But Mira, Fang, Fang’s pups, and Spear’s child with Mira are nowhere to be found when he gets to Mira’s village. That’s because they’ve gone looking for him, with Mira having realized at the end of last week’s episode that Spear wasn’t as lost as she thought he had been. This leads to some minor adventures for the group, including a rough bout against a black panther type creature, as they follow Mira’s map in search of Spear.

Mira and Spear’s baby is already a character unto herself, and she brings a lot of levity to the episode, just as Fang’s offspring have been doing all season. We also see here the natural bond that’s forming among the three young ones, even if Blue and Red Jr. are jealous amongst themselves for the affections of the child. But clearly, this group makes for a great traveling party – a fierce warrior, an equally fierce T. rex, and their hilarious, but not to be trifled with babies. Sure, we haven’t seen Spear and Mira’s daughter actually fight yet, and she is still in diapers after all, but I’m sure that she’s going to be as prodigious with a blade as dear old dad ever was.

This is Primal and if nothing else, Genndy Tartakovsky has shown us time and again how harsh this world can be.

I’ve said it before, but we have to wonder if we’re headed for a happy ending or not this season. One can’t help but look back at that final shot from Season 2, when we thought Spear was dead and gone for good. There was Mira, Fang, Mira and Spear’s daughter, and Fang’s two pups (all grown up)… and not a sign of Spear anywhere.

Of course, that was happening at least a few years in the future from this episode, since Spear’s daughter and the two dinosaur pups are older in that scene. So perhaps we will get a happy ending next week, and Spear will stick with the family for more adventures for the time being… but I don’t know. This is Primal and if nothing else, Genndy Tartakovsky has shown us time and again how harsh this world can be.

Questions and Notes From Anachronistic History

• Let’s not forget, Fang and Spear still need to reconcile too. Perhaps now that Spear has returned to his human form, Fang will finally recognize her old friend for who he is, but it’s kind of surprising that we never did get that big face-off between the two that the trailers seemed to be teasing this season.
• Spear just really getting down and dirty to work on his art is something to behold. Gotta love it.
• How great is it that Spear now has a second dinosaur companion in the pterosaur? I wonder if they’ll become friends the way he did with Fang?
• Spear’s arm’s growing back too, right? That’s the final piece of the “he’s human again” puzzle?
• How badass is Spear that he can be daydreaming about his daughter during gladiatorial combat and still win?