Animal Control Season 2 Episode 3 Review: Tortoises and Labradors

Animal Control Season 2 Episode 3, “Tortoises and Labradors,” gets to the hearts of Frank, Victoria, and Templeton through special, character-building partnerships.

This episode introduces multiple (potentially) season-long arcs (The illegal animal smuggling ring, for one) that promise true breakthroughs and genuine laugh-out-loud moments. Hilarity and sincerity don’t always find a balance in workplace comedies, but they do on Animal Control. 

For instance, only “Tortoises and Labradors” can begin with crashing a Furry party and end with an earnest attempt to set up a birthday party.

While both the teaser and tag relate to Frank and Shred’s partnership, Emily and Victoria’s investigation into Victoria’s secret admirer is the glue — or get-well card ruse — that binds the episode together.

It threads through Frank’s attempt to uncover the animal smuggling ring and Patel & Templeton’s forced partnership. The story then pulls everyone back to the precinct, even through more unexpected reasonings in the final minutes.

All in all, Victoria’s secret admirer has to be Templeton, right?

Even a casual Animal Control viewer could anticipate that Frank would know to disguise his handwriting if it were him. And why else would the episode create a reason for Patel and Templeton to sign a note that Victoria — and the viewers — won’t see to compare and contrast the flourish with which they write “t?”

It’s easy to discount Patel because not only is his relationship with Victoria strictly platonic, but he loves and respects his wife (and his family) too much to cheat on her. That twist would be all too pessimistic and out of character.

Animal Control Season 2 is specifically focused on embracing the highs and lows of taking romantic chances — or not. Templetonleton sending Victoria three thoughtful gift baskets in a month would align with that intention. 

That storyline is also a great way to crack open an antagonistic character that this show doesn’t reveal much about until “Tortoises and Labradors.”

Refreshingly, the episode answers the questions that Animal Control Season 2 Episode 2, “Cats and Monkeys,” raises about Templeton and his fascination with the core pack by directly asking some of its own. Leave it to Joel McHale to perfectly deliver the line: “Do you even know where your precinct is?”

It’s a tongue-in-cheek jab at a person Frank isn’t fond of, but it’s also a very valid question for Animal Control to address — and it does, partly. Patel’s reluctant partnership with Templeton illuminates just enough about the latter to anticipate the answer to why Templeton is always there.

Before their scenes get to that point, it’s nice that Animal Control shares where (at least) Patel and Templeton’s animosity originates — the spring picnic.

Slowly but surely, the workplace comedy reveals the characters’ shared history.

Not only does that create a richer world for the show, but it also makes motivations deeper than surface-level competition. With a third season already confirmed, that level of development is beneficial to the show’s longevity.

Similarly, as exciting as it is to see Patel and Templeton find some unexpected common ground, it is far more fun to see Emily and Victoria conspire to uncover Victoria’s secret admirer’s identity. That quest provides some quirky insight into Emily’s life — her interest in gruesome true-crime podcasts is a surprise.

It also serves as reinvestment in Emily and Victoria’s friendship.

It’s a treat after Emily tries her best to get Victoria a Green Card as an essential worker on Animal Control Season 2 Episode 1, “Raccoons and Mutts.”

The intention “Tortoises and Labradors” puts into Emily and Victoria’s scenes is also noteworthy. It speaks volumes about Emily’s character that she wants to spend time with Victoria because she knows she’s been neglecting their friend because of the newness of her (mostly unseen, so far) relationship with Rick. 

However, the most revealing result of their team-up is Victoria opening up about how she may want romance or something special. It’s either great foreshadowing or a fantastic misdirect that Animal Control then follows Victoria to Frank.

It’s impossible not to smile with them when their faces light up about Frank knowing what Victoria was doing with the get-well card bit. Grace Palmer and McHale are so good in that scene; their chemistry keeps getting better. 

Frank telling Victoria, “I think I know you a little better than that,” is almost too romantic of a line for the overly cynical Frank Shaw to say. Still, it underscores how Animal Control has consistently shown that Frank and Victoria have a soft spot for each other. Why else would they put so much effort into their prank war?

Regardless, thi season’s choice to check in with Frank and Victoria’s dynamic every episode has proven more than effective. Similarly, the dedication “Tortoises and Labradors” shows to Frank’s family after introducing his complicated relationship with his father during Season 1 is rewarding tenfold. 

McHale and Thomas Lennon have such excellent tension from their first scene.

It’s easy to believe Frank and Patrick’s sibling dynamic. In the scenes with McHale, Lennon, and John Procaccino, it becomes clearer where Frank fits in the family and how that status propels his character. Animal Control boils all that animosity down to two lines: “You’re not a cop anymore. Stop acting like it.”

There’s a beat where the recognition of what that sentiment means to Frank flashes across McHale and Michael Rowland’s faces. It’s almost a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, for which “Tortoises and Labradors” is smart to have Shred present. It’s the most insight Shred has received about Frank in the series.

After all, Shred’s efforts to know Frank’s family are a thinly veiled disguise for getting to know Frank. The best part of that progress is that Animal Control presents Shred as the caring figure Frank doesn’t have in Patrick, emphasizing how this pack (albeit reluctantly) continues to grow closer this season.

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Animal Control airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on FOX.

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