2x02 Shadow of Fate

[9.0/10] The beauty of friendship, right? That’s what Primal is about at a certain level. Both Fang and Spear have been through horrid things, but they’ve found each other through it all, and that’s beautiful, right?

So what could be better than expanding the franchise. I love love love the scenes of Fang bonding with another T-Rex (who I’m going to call “Red” for the sake of convenience.) The relationship between Fang and Red is tentative, even a bit hostile at first, not unlike Fang’s connection to Spear when things got going. There’s a feeling out period, a sense that Red may have been alone for some time and is excited to find another dino to hang out with for the first time in a long time.

So they bond. They hunt a rhino together. And in a motif that repeats throughout the episode, what cements them as friends rather than foes is the sharing of sustenance. Fang gets the better of the rhino, but tosses a heap of the spoils to Red, and from there, they chow down together.

What follows after is delightful. The two of them eating some sort of fermented berries off a tree and seemingly getting drunk off of them is silly and adorable. That goes double for teh way Red licks a big heap of smushed berries off the top of Fang’s head in their shared stupor. The two of them biting after fireflies, or falling asleep together in one big dino heap is one of the sweetest things we’ve ever seen on Primal.

It parallels Spear’s separate but linked experience after washing up on a different part of the island. He’s taken in by a tribe of men, with a chief who’s adorned with one the symbols Mira drew in the prior episode. As with Fang in response to Red, Spear is resistant at first. He wakes up in a strange place, covered in a strange substance, with people who seem to be aggressors. He’s panicked and injured and without his friend, and it makes him defensive and scared.

Until another act of kindness breaks the ice. The chief halts his posse and offers Spear water and sustenance, much as Fang and Red shared. It’s enough to cool things down between Spear and these people he doesn’t know. But he comes to know them. He sits around the same campfire as their families. The local medicine woman helps to fix his injured arm, with a sedating powder that, given its color, may very well come from the same berries that Fang and Red chowed down on earlier. There’s a parallel of our two heroes forming bonds with others in ways that are distinct, but not dissimilar.

(As an aside, the human tribe Spear meets seem like U.K. ancestors given their red hair and blue paint. Given that Primal shares a creator with Samurai Jack, maybe Spear has found his equivalent to The Scotsman. It’s also intriguing that, while Spear is reasonably primitive, he’s found another group with language and a society and other signifiers of civilization that he lacks. The world of Primal keeps getting bigger and surprising us, and I appreciate that.)

But then, despite the separate new bonds they’ve formed, worlds collide. It turns out Fang’s new friend is at odds with Spear’s new friends. When Red goes to attack the Chief’s village, all hell breaks loose. It’s low-key terrifying to see the dinosaur chomping down humans and trampling families, that raises the specter of how Spear lost his family to a T-Rex.

And it’s harrowing when Fang has to hold off Red from chomping through Spear, and Spear has to hold off the villagers from trying to kill Fang. There’s nary a word spoken, but a palpable sense of “You don’t understand, this is my friend” comes through loud and clear. The way that Fang gets in front of Spear while Red charges, and blocks Spear when he tries to take out Spear, shows the impossible position the poor dino’s in when trying to make these two warring, wounded sides see eye to eye.

The ensuing battle is thrilling and terrible, in the way that so many on this show are. Spear and Red do great battle, charging through homes and conveying a bone-crunching brutality that induces winces even on this bloody show. It’s particularly brutal when Red gets the upper hand on a plateau, scratching and stomping Spear in what looks like the end. Until, finally, Fang must intervene, kicking Red away to make sure one of her friends doesn’t kill another.

Only then, sadly, it’s the end for Red. The shove sends Red onto a stalagmite that impales the fellow dinosaur, and that’s it. Fang goes down to see what can be done, but it’s too late. All she can do is absorb the subtle sense of “How could you” from this new but dear partner, whimper at what tragedy this all turned into, and walk away with her head hung low is sadness. It is heartbreaking, a quick but painful parable of how friendships form and are torn asunder in an instant. I remain awed by how well Genndy and company don’t just deliver these incredible, heart-stopping visuals, but bring things down to a level of profundity and pathos without having to say a thing.

As Spear and Fang leave together, consumed by grief and guilt, one bird brings sustenance to another, and they nuzzle. It’s a sign of the essential nature of these acts of kindness, that can bring disparate souls together, but also make it that much more harsh and painful when they’re ripped apart.