Season 12 Episode 9 spoilers: this season is picking up!!

Is season 12 actually getting back on track? After a couple of really good Search & Rescue episodes, okay, episode 8 was a bit crappy - but I LOVE episode 9! Both segments are SO good!! No Humdinger, no Digi & Tal, just one segment that really felt like an early season episode, and one segment with GLORIOUS ARRBY

Both segments are Halloween-themed, which already predisposes me to like them. I love pups dressing up and I love how cute they are when they get spooked, so it's easy to get a win from me. But you can still mess that up by writing, say, episodes about Humdinger in a giant spider robot stealing candy.

The first one is super cute and old-skool. Farmers Yumi and Al are setting up a Halloween event at the farm and get in trouble so the pups have to go rescue them. Simple but with plenty of opportunities for cuteness. The writer has clearly bothered to do their homework and Rubble's fear of spiders returns, along with the adorable dynamic of Rubble and Marshall freaking each other out and getting scared together from Friendship Day.

Then in the second one Mayor Goodway puts Chickaletta in a pumpkin disco ball, but Sid and Arrby spot it and swipe it for their ship. Zuma actually gets to deploy to pursue them, and there are some nice visuals as the lighthouse is used to find the ship. Arrby honestly doesn't get to do anything SUPER cute this time but him being scared of the "ghost chicken" and then actually fearing for his life as the sharks come for him and Sid is totally adorable.

This is the first time in a long, long time that both segments have been really good and I was honestly starting to doubt we'd get episodes this good again. But they can do it when they try, it turns out! Or maybe every week needs to be Halloween~