Animal Control Season 3 Episode 9 Review: Retrievers and Fruit Bats

The pack goes the extra mile to secure financial reassurances on Animal Control Season 3 Episode 9, “Retrievers and Fruit Bats.”

Written by Brad Stevens & Boyd Vico and directed by Natalia Anderson, this episode revisits characters from the show’s past to further one of the season’s serialized arcs. Meanwhile, “Retrievers and Fruit Bats” finally addresses the elephant in the room on Animal Control — the cursed house. 

This penultimate episode is efficient, fun, and foreshadows what’s to come in the season finale and — hopefully — Animal Control Season 4.

Putting Frank and Victoria on a road trip to find funding for the kennel after the romantically-coded ending on Animal Control Season 3 Episode 8, “Party Animals,” is great. So, it is unfortunate that “Retrievers and Fruit Bats” doesn’t lean into that flirty banter all that much. 

Joel McHale and Grace Palmer could play off an accidental hand graze so well.

Animal Control often leaves the romantic tension to Shred and Emily (This episode excels there!). However, that seems far rarer with Frank and Victoria. 

As their feelings for each other become less avoidable, it would be exciting for the show to find a balance between that sharp banter and a bit of tension.

Animal Control does seem to be playing the long game with both couples, as well as the development of Frank’s emotional intelligence. 

After all, “Retrievers and Fruit Bats” reiterates Frank’s inability to look inward with the return of Kevin Bigley as Rick Doyle. While the jokes about Rick’s “cult leader chic” attire are very silly, seeing how deep the Devin lore goes is extra fun.

It’s easy to become jealous that everyone on Animal Control but the viewers knows what happened with Devin. The episode throws out the most random bits of information that the imagination runs away with a million possibilities.

Needless to say, “Retrievers and Fruit Bats” sticks the landing in the episode’s tag.

Just when it seems the inside joke will remain with the characters, Animal Control shows its hand — Devin made the Pacific Northwest Fruit Bats go extinct. It’s absolutely wild and wonderful.

The same is true of Roman Park. He remains an entirely elusive character since his debut on Animal Control Season 2 Episode 5, “Dogs and Chickens.” Some time since the last episode, Roman has become so rich that he has moved out of his mother’s house and has an orchid on his property. 

It’s enjoyable that the show doesn’t entirely reveal how Roman came into money, but it stays consistent with Roman’s outrageous obsession with Victoria’s feet.

Everything about this character could fall apart if it weren’t for the skilled Animal Control writers and the comedic expertise of Ken Jeong. 

Jeong chews up every ounce of screen time on “Retrievers and Fruit Bats.”

It never gets old watching Jeong and McHale go toe-to-toe, particularly when swapping lines like “Feels like a water balloon” and “I’m missing bones.”

Animal Control almost encourages the viewer to lean forward in anticipation when this episode insinuates there is much more Roman Park around the corner. It’s extra fantastic on McHale’s part that future flashes in Frank’s eyes.

It’s one of a few great examples of “Retrievers and Fruit Bats” wrapping up the show’s outstanding serialized arcs ahead of the season finale so that the show can go somewhere new in its next season — if FOX renews it, of course. It works so well after Animal Control‘s most expansive and successful season yet.

For instance, “Retrievers and Fruit Bats” addresses two long-running storylines on the show — the flipped-house project and Shred & Isabelle’s communication issues. The former opens Animal Control up to utilizing Bettany beyond her loyalty to Emily, which is always a treat.

The latter is a long time coming; the only time Shred and Isabelle entertain a more serious conversation is on Animal Control Season 3 Episode 5, “Hot Dogs and Lobsters.” It’s creative and productive for the episode to breach the topic of their future through the couple pretending to be married to sell the house. 

Interestingly, “Retrievers and Fruit Bats” leaves them in a place where Isabelle — or, Julie — is opening up to Shred and the possibility of a future with him. At the same time, Shred appears to be realizing that Isabelle isn’t his person.

This episode strengthens character-driven conflicts ahead of Animal Control‘s season finale that will — thanks to Roman — likely have the backdrop of a ground-breaking ceremony. It sounds chaotic, but this show always thrives in chaos. 

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

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