Animal Control Season 3 Episode 10 Review: Strays and Lovebirds

From grand gestures to big breakthroughs, Animal Control Season 3 Episode 10, “Strays and Lovebirds,” is a howling good time from start to finish.

This episode, written by Tad Quill and directed by Natalia Anderson, never misses.

“Strays and Lovebirds” is an exceptional season finale that earns every resolution. The writing is whip-smart — the jokes land every time. The performances are dialed all the way in — no one is phoning it in for the season finale.

This episode encourages an immediate rewatch of not just Season 3 but Animal Control‘s entire run so far. “Strays and Lovebirds” pays off so many storylines — and stirs up others — that a rewatch is as fun as it is rewarding. 

Animal Control starts strong with Frank conquering his fear of heights and capturing his white whale — or black and white flightless bird, Oreo the Penguin. 

After a season of evading Frank (and Shred), this win is already fulfilling.

“Stays and Lovebirds” makes it all the more narratively satisfying with how it bookends the episode. While Oreo reunites with his person, Frank settles for someone who is not his person and gives up on trying to be with her.

Animal Control avoids Frank and Yasmin’s reunion playing out like a significant backslide for a character who has significantly grown this season.

Frank admits his feelings for Victoria to himself for the first time.

That alone reflects his development and sets Frank on a very different journey in the show’s (hopeful) fourth season. “Strays and Lovebirds” even gets to this point in a way that’s acutely realistic for Frank.

The panini press gesture, which Victoria has had in the works since Animal Control Season 2 Episode 6, “Bunnies and Veggies,” should but isn’t the wake-up call Frank needs. It’s perfectly in-character that Frank doesn’t reckon with his and Victoria’s mutual feelings until his dad and brother underscore Frank’s loneliness.

“Strays and Lovebirds” is a seamless, full-circle response to Animal Control Season 3 Episode 1, “Giraffes, Gorillas, and Penguins.” But it also does phenomenal work with Frank, Patrick, and Jimmy, and it should not go underrated.

Frank and Patrick’s back and forth about whether Jimmy is dead walking the line of sincerity and insensitivity is so good. The brothers racing up the stairs to discover their dad’s potentially dead body shouldn’t be as funny as it is, yet it works because Joel McHale and Thomas Lennon commit to the physical comedy. 

Regardless, Frank and Patrick’s banter gets sharper with every episode that McHale and Lennon can build their chemistry in their characters’ dynamic.

Likewise, McHale and Michael Rowland’s chemistry shines on “Strays and Lovebirds.” Appreciating every line on Animal Control becomes necessary so as not to miss a punchline or a personal detail, like Shred’s comment about his dad.

More insight into Shred’s personal life in Season 4, please! It’s easy to be hopeful that Animal Control will only continue to get bigger and better from here because of the strides that “Strays and Lovebirds” makes with Patel.

More often than not, his storylines feel much broader than the rest of the ensemble. The most focus he finds is behind the bar on Animal Control Season 3 Episode 5, “Hot Dogs and Lobsters.” This season finale changes that for the better.

Begrudgingly, on Patel’s part, aligning Templeton and Patel is incredible. “Strays and Lovebirds” is full of dynamic cliffhangers, but that one is perhaps the most alluring. It tees up so many possibilities for another Animal Control season.

Mostly, it seems to suggest that Gerry Dee will have an even more prominent role. This season finale suggests the same for Josh Segarra as Parker. 

It’s refreshing that Animal Control isn’t making Victoria sit around and wait for Frank. It’s great that she’s giving Parker a chance — and not only because it means more of Segarra, whose delivery of “Curse my ancestors” couldn’t be any better. 

“Stays and Lovebirds” clarifies that Victoria is ready for something serious, and the show hasn’t seen that side of her yet. It’s exciting to imagine what this new chapter has in store for her, regardless of how it builds on Frank and Victoria’s slow burn. 

This episode reminds everyone that this comedy knows how to do a slow burn. After three seasons, “Strays and Lovebirds” earns Emily and Shred’s first kiss.

Rowland and Vella Lovell bring such honesty and heart to that scene — Shred and Emily’s kiss evokes a giddy reaction. Animal Control has been building up to this for three seasons. It’s rewarding to see this milestone land so well. Their expressions afterward are fantastic because they ask — What happens next?

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Animal Control Season 3 is streaming on Hulu.

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