Animal Control Season 5 Episode 2 Review: Crows and Lizard Legs

Animal Control Season 5 Episode 2, “Crows and Lizard Legs,” flips a well-loved dynamic on its head and continues one of the show’s best yet strangest bits.

The latter manifests in this episode, written by David Feeney and directed by Jay Chandrasekhar, when Dayah Brar returns as Patel’s daughter Addy. 

It’s no secret that this workplace comedy isn’t always the best at showing Patel and his family. He complains about them more than they’re ever seen, which makes it no wonder why Victoria is looking forward to their being away.

On the one hand, it is exciting to wonder what Animal Control Season 5 will do with Patel now — beyond drumming, of course.

However, for a show that struggles to consistently represent this family, it is refreshing that “Crows and Lizard Legs” temporarily walks back Addy’s involvement in the trip. 

It’s a break in Animal Control‘s pattern that this season is showcasing Patel and his daughter’s dynamic on-screen this early. It took until the excellent Animal Control Season 4 Episode 8, “Squirrels and Fat Cats,” to see Addy last season. 

That episode put a fresh spin on Victoria’s weirdly persistent and pretty much one-sided dislike of Addy. “Crows and Lizard Legs” takes that baton and runs with it when Patel, Victoria, and Emily meet Addy’s boyfriend, Walt.

Victoria’s excitement to tell Walt all the things she strangely dislikes about Addy is palpable. It almost gives Victoria a hilarious, golden sense of purpose.

Even so, the best thing Animal Control does is involve Emily in this shenanigan.It feels reminiscent of when Cece and Winston started their mess arounds on New Girl — it opened up new sides of their characters and relationship. 

“Crows and Lizard Legs” does that for Emily when Patel and Victoria make her a part of the chaos. Does it get more chaotic than Patel accidentally shooting his daughter’s new boyfriend with a tranq gun?  

Either way, Emily is so used to being the boss and keeping the order that it’s exciting to see her enjoy being a part of the antics that she usually stops. 

Also, her position as “citizen czar” is such a clever way to keep Templeton at the forefront of her mind even when he’s not on-screen. The caution tape on his door was a particularly Templeton touch.

It’s also a great way to casually progress Roman Park’s threat with Pax Romana. 

Roman’s purple water bottles are an annoying and seemingly harmless and annoying method to present his growing influence on the public. 

The customer service scores are relevant to the Roman plot, but it’s also a perfect set-up to flip the script with Frank and Shred. Frank is the obvious person to blame, which makes it a present surprise that Shred is the real reason.

Animal Control doesn’t really lean into Shred being a former snowboarder much at all anymore. So it’s always nice when it pulls back on that part of history.

Its particularly compelling this far into the show’s run because Shred has come so far. It’s also incredibly endearing that the worst thing Shred does to get a low score is booger-related. Somehow, that feels Jake Peralta-coded. 

Patel’s “You what in her what?” when Shred takes accountability is an example of this ensemble’s excellent comedic timing. Really, that entire sequence showcases as much. Animal Control is always better with group scenes!

All that said, it is incredibly weird that all of this leads to Frank sleeping with Julie because he likes her — and to get a higher customer service score. 

The silver lining is that everyone knows that its weird and names it as such. Also, it is good to see Victoria (and the other characters, but, come on) get in Frank’s head so much that he gets performance anxiety during sex.

There isn’t much of Frank and Victoria on Animal Control Season 5 Episode 1, “Seahawks and Piglets.” So, there is definitely something in Victoria’s persistent needling of Frank at the end of “Crows and Lizard Legs.”

She has always been able to get to him differently than everyone else.

Ultimately, “Crows and Lizard Legs” serves as a reminder that the pack has to fortify their relationship with the public and each other to keep the upper hand against Roman (and Templeton). If not, they’re going to be surrounded by those purple water bottles.  

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Animal Control airs Sundays at 8:30/7:30c on FOX.

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