WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the Primal episode "Plague of Madness."
For April Fools' Day, Adult Swim basically held a mini-upfront presentation hosted by Post Malone, during which new episodes and pilots were shown early, and premiere dates were announced for new seasons. The first show to get a surprise airing, and the most exciting of the bunch, is Primal, the second season of which was announced to air this fall. The new episode screened, "Plague of Madness," is the scariest and saddest Genndy Tartakovsky's series has been to date -- and it's scarier today than anyone could have imagined when making it.
The frightening, unexpectedly topical, nature of the episode is right there in the title. It's about a prehistoric pandemic, a zombie-like infectious disease that melts both the flesh and the mind. Obviously this is not the same as the coronavirus (COVID-19), but Primal's main theme of the brutality of nature has never before been so widely relatable to our own society.
The opening focuses on a group of Brachiosauruses, one of whom is attacked by an infected Parasaurolophus. The Brachiosaurus can fight it off easily with its immense size advantage, but a single bite is enough to infect it. Once infected, its skin begins to melt, and green pus pours from its orifices. Once it's become entirely zombified, its eyes transform and it projectile-vomits a stream of blood.
Spear and Fang, Primal's protagonists, don't show up until about a third of the way through the episode. Given no time is spent showing how Fang recovered from seeming death at the end of Season 1, we can assume this is not the Season 2 premiere but instead a midseason adventure. The resourceful caveman and his trusty T. rex companion are outmatched by the infected Brachiosaurus, bigger and more vicious than either of them. They can't fight it, so they hide from it.
In hiding, Spear has nightmares about him and Fang becoming infected by the plague of madness. When the pair awakens, they once again have to escape from the terrifying dino-zombie. Because they can't destroy the creature, they lead it to something that can: a field of lava pits. Spear and Fang surf on rocks over the lava while the dino-zombie chases them. Even with its skin burned off, the monster shows frightening Terminator-like resistance, but eventually it burns up entirely, disintegrating into ashes.
What makes this simple story meaningful is its sense of empathy to all its characters. Following the Brachiosaurus gradually lose itself so graphically to the plague makes it a deeply tragic figure rather than just a monster to defeat. Spear and Fang have to protect themselves and can't let the infected creature live, but they take no pleasure in watching it die in such a horrible way. If a herbivore can turn so monstrous, what hope do two intelligent predators have for their souls in the face of such an unforgiving universe?
Created by Genndy Tartakovsky, Primal returns for a five-episode second season this fall on Adult Swim.