Somewhere in England sometime in 1890, a group of scientists fight for their lives against an escaped madman.
This episode features the following tropes:
- Ambiguously Human: The Madman is allegedly human, despite his Glowing Eyes of Doom and pointed teeth, not to mention how he keeps fighting despite injuries that ought to have killed him several times over.
- Ambiguous Situation: The episode raises a number of questions.
- Does it take place in the distant future of Spear's story, or is it a different continuity altogether, merely thematically linked?
- The taxidermied Smilodon at least fits thematically, considering the anachronstic nature of the animals and civilizations Spear encounters, though there's nothing to inform us either way whether in this universe saber-toothed cats lived into the modern era, or if it's merely a replica put together by the worldly Historical Society.
- Anachronistic Animal: Lord Darlington's study is full of animal trophies, clearly the prizes from safari hunting. In the middle of all of these is what appears to be a stuffed Smilodon.
- Artistic License – History: Adding to the anachronistic nature of the Primal universe as a whole, an Expy of a youthful Charles Darwin is our main viewpoint character here, despite the episode taking place in 1890, nearly a decade after the real Darwin died at the age of 73.
- Bathos: Most of the episode is played dead-serious, ending with Lord Darlington giving into savagery and killing the Madman, proving that even a "civilized" man like himself can devolve into a wild animal if his life is on the line as Charles claimed... and Charles points to him and shouts "there you have it" with a satisfied grin, Darlington giving a nonplussed expression. Cut to black. The End.
- Bittersweet Ending: The nightmare finally ends with the Madman dead and Charles finding some satisfaction in having his theory proven right. However, many innocents were killed in the process and the Historical Society is likely no more what with two (possibly three) members now dead.
- Brick Joke: After Darlington kills the Madman just like a caveman would, Charles proudly declares:Charles (points at Darlington): And there you have it!
Darlington: (Thousand-Yard Stare) - Bystander Syndrome: When Darlington has the Madman on the ropes with his boxing skills, Charles is so impressed he forgets to help out, even when the Madman recovers and starts strangling Darlington.
- Call-Back: Lord Darlington kills the Madman by jumping over and plunging a wooden spear into the Madman's brain is similar to how Spear killed the alpha Tyrannosaur in "Spear and Fang".
- Central Theme: Despite being "scholarly and civilized," when push comes to shove, modern man is hardly any different than his distant ancestors. It's the most upper crust and arrogant lord who uses his most hardwired savagery to overcome the Madman.
- Combat Breakdown: In keeping with the episode's theme, the weapons the group uses against the Madman gradually regress in time period, starting with firearms, progressing to modern boxing techniques, then to swords and arrows, and finally a bone used as a club and a sharp stick.
- Combat Pragmatist: The group engages the Madman with whatever weapons they can from firearms, swords and spears, Darlington with his flow of boxing jabs and ultimately a broken spear to finish him off.
- David Versus Goliath: Darlington is the David, and the Madman is the Goliath in their final confrontation. The Madman is bigger and stronger, on top of being ludicrously durable. Darlington is a boxing champion, and while his skills in a fistfight do allow him to weave around the Madman’s predictable attacks, he can't beat the larger enemy with his bare hands. When reduced to fighting with a broken spear, his fighting instinct still shows as he dodges most of the strikes by the Madman while mortally wounding him.
- Dramatic Thunder: The entire episode is set during a stormy night. The Madman makes his surprise attacks on the group whenever lightning strikes. Near the end of the episode, thunder strikes when Lord Darlington finally embraces his primal instincts in order to slay the Madman.
- Feral Villain: The unnamed escaped lunatic, who generally acts more like a rabid beast than a human being, ripping out peoples' flesh with his teeth and leaping about on all fours. However, he's still intelligent enough to block the entrance of the mansion to prevent his prey from escaping, avoid gunfire and disarm his opponents (including using one of his targets as a Human Shield), and toy with his opponents before attacking.
- Formula-Breaking Episode: A break from the saga of Spear and Fang for a completely unrelated story about some scholarly men in 1890s England dealing with an escaped asylum inmate.
- French Jerk: Very much averted for Giroud, a Frenchman who's the only non-British member of the Historical Society. Compared to Lord Darlington, Blakely and Bertie, Giroud appears to be a lot more open-minded and is comparably friendlier—for example, while the others basically laugh Charles off when he initially presents his "primal theory" to them, Giroud's the first to come to Charles's defense, arguing that they shouldn't dismiss his theories so quickly.
- Genius Bruiser: Lord Darlington's the leader of the Historical Society (a group of scientists) and is eventually revealed to have been a champion boxer when he was a student at Oxford University—he's also the only one to really land any kind of physical damage on the Madman.
- Human Shield: The Madman uses Blakely's unconscious body to stop the men from shooting him.
- I'm a Humanitarian: The Madman's a cannibal and either eats or tries to eat every one of the people he encounters.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Justified. The men of the Historical Society are scholars, not soldiers, and the firearms of the 1890s are not as accurate as those in the modern day even in expert hands, even when they are not display pieces that likely have never seen action and likely very little maintenance. Combine this with factors like fear making their hands shake, the lateness of the hour meaning fatigue would likewise reduce their accuracy, and that at least some of them have been drinking, and it readily explains why they can't land a single shot on the madman.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Darlington mocks Darwin for his theory, but he still tries to ensure that no historical society members die when the Madman breaks in.
- Low-Tech Spears: What ultimately kills the Madman. A stick that is sharpened to kill. It also symbolizes Lord Darlington's complete transformation from a civilized scientist to a primal caveman.
- Mirror Character: The savage, heavily-muscular and — save when he's violently screaming — silent Madman is a clear parallel to Spear in the civilized environment of Victorian London, but when he's pushed far enough, Darlington also becomes a screaming savage to kill his tormentor violently with a stick, aligning with Charles' Primal Theory, which greatly disturbs him when he regains his mind afterwards, sporting a Thousand-Yard Stare as he realizes he has more in common with the bestial man he just killed than he's comfortable with.
- Mugging the Monster: The Madman breaks into the historical society expecting to have fun killing a group of defenseless old men. Darlington proves far more formidable than the killer expects, fights back when pushed into a corner and slays the killer.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Most of the members of the Historical Society are based on famous naturalists of the 18th and 19th centuries.
- Charles, the outspoken evolutionist, is of course based on Charles Darwin.
- Darlington, gaunt and orating on the higher position humans occupy above nature, could easily be based on Richard Owen.
- Giroud, the French scientist (and the only non-British member of the group), is likely based on George Cuvier.
- Blakely bears a not passing resemblance to William Buckland, an eccentric British scientist.
- The elderly Bertie looks like William Thompson, more famously known as Lord Kelvin.
- No-Dialogue Episode: Inverted; this is the only episode with dialogue that the audience is supposed to understand.
- Offscreen Teleportation: The Madman goes from trying to beat down a barricaded door to looming just outside the room's exterior window in a matter of seconds. Unless he used an unseen passageway to get outside, covering that route in that time should have broken the sound barrier.
- Poorly Disguised Pilot: The episode essentially serves as proof of a concept for a desire that Genndy Tartokovsky has expressed in interviews
to turn Primal into an anthology series once the tale of Spear and Fang is concluded. - Rasputinian Death: The Madman gets shot, beaten absolutely senseless by a former boxing champ, pelted with multiple arrows, stabbed all over dozens of times, and disemboweled, before he's finally killed by being impaled through the skull.
- Rock Beats Laser: The performance of a weapon against the Madman seems to be inversely related to how technologically advanced it is. Guns aren't able to truly hurt him beyond the single rifle shot that hits his shoulder (though this can be attributed to the protagonists' terrible aim), swords and bows are mildly effective, spears and bareknuckle boxing throw him for a loop, and the thing that finally kills him is a sharp stick.
- Scary Teeth: For reasons unexplained, the Madman has razor-sharp teeth even though he should be human. It's entirely possible he filed his teeth into points, and the fact his teeth appear to be very uneven when the screen focuses on his evil grin supports this, this is something that even people in reality have done.
- Skewed Priorities: Played for Laughs in the closing moments of the episode. After a life-or-death fight for survival against the madman, Charles has a chunk of his shoulder bitten off and just watched Lord Darlington brutally murder the madman by stabbing him through the skull with a makeshift spear and seeing him covered in blood. After a moment of shocked silence passes, Charles points at Darlington (with his damaged shoulder) and gives an absolutely delighted "And there you have it!" since Darlington's actions are proof of the Primal Theory that Charles proposed at the beginning of the episode, which most of his colleagues dismissed.
- Strong, but Unskilled: The Madman is a super strong brute who can keep fighting through injuries that would kill an ordinary man. While he's not stupid, he's reliant on brute strength and clearly not used to his victims fighting back. Ultimately, his lack of tactics allows Darlington to beat him, as, during their final confrontation, the Madman struggles to land a single hit on him. At the same time, Darlington inflicts increasingly worse injuries before finally killing him.
- Title Drop: Each of the scientists say the show's title while discussing the instincts of birds.
- Trailers Always Spoil: Very much averted—Genndy Tartakovsky explicitly told Adult Swim to not show any previews for the episode, clearly to not give away how radically different it is from the rest of the series.
- Uncertain Doom: It's unknown how Blakely is—he received a nasty close-range headbutt from the escaped madman and he doesn't respond to the others' attempts to rouse him, but it's never revealed if he actually is dead or if he was merely knocked unconcious.
- Wham Shot: The opening scene. A dark, rainy night. In the year 1890.
- What You Are in the Dark: Charles' "Primal Theory" revolves around this, noting that despite how civilized and educated man has become by their time, in the right set of circumstances, it is man's basic instinct to throw that all away and resort to brutal savagery on par with Spear's acts of extreme violence needed to survive in his harsh land. Though the others are skeptical of the validity of this, when Darlington is pushed far enough and in imminent mortal danger from the Madman, he becomes a mirror image of Spear as he violently kills him with a stick, which understandably shocks him once he regains his senses.
"And there you have it!"
