Wilfred: Saying Furwell

FX's Wilfred has finally come to a close.

 "These are big existential questions, best left for boring Russian novelists and teenagers on acid." - Wilfred, Wilfred S01E13



Although I recently blogged about Wilfred and whether or not is was worth watching, I think it deserves another post to sum up the ending. Hell, in two weeks, even True Blood is getting another post.

So, that being said, let's get right into it. Spoilers ahead!

Let me start out by saying that Wilfred delivered in almost every facet. It answered the questions we've been wondering about for so long and managed to do so without being completely ridiculous. We started out the finale by learning the mystery of Ryan's family. It turned out that the leader of the cult, The Flock of the Grey Shepherd, was actually Ryan's father. Not Henry, his supposed "Dad". Instead, Charles, his real father, played by Saw's Tobin Bell is introduced.
A quick word on who plays fathers in this show. It cracked me up when Henry was played by James Remar, previously playing Dexter's father on Dexter. Apparently James Remar is just a professional father figure. Then, when Ryan's real father is introduced, Tobin Bell, the horrific Jigsaw is playing him. What a turn! Much as I would've loved seeing Ryan's new father going on a serial killing spree like Jigsaw, the fact that he didn't was probably for the best. It would be like if Peter Capaldi started playing "The Doctor" like Malcolm Tucker of The Thick of It. It would be amazing and hilarious but just not fit.
"Doctor, who are they? What's a Cyberman?"
"Go fuck yourself with a lubricated horse-cock."
Okay, sorry, we're getting off topic here. Back to Wilfred.

When Ryan meets his new father it is a bittersweet moment. On the one hand, the mystery of the Flock of the Grey shepherd is finally solved, but on the other it proves the fact that Ryan is crazy. Charles explains to Ryan that he was the cult's "chosen one" but that in the end, Charles had made all of that up. The dog Gods Mataman and Krungel were merely a cult leaders crazy ramblings. Ryan is no chosen one, just the son of two mentally insane people who talks to a dog. Then, we see a Fight Club esq montage of Ryan doing everything he did with Wilfred by himself while a forlorn looking shaggy gray dog just watched. It was shocking but satisfying. What did we expect? Was it at all realistic that Wilfred was a God? One of the brilliant things about this show is that it convinced us that perhaps Ryan wasn't crazy and that Wilfred really was something bigger than Ryan could have imagined.
After learning this, Ryan is suddenly haunted by Wilfred following him everywhere. Much as Ryan tries to ignore him, he ends up breaking down and talking to him. Ryan, just off from breaking off everything with Jenna is in the weakest state he's ever been and just could not keep ignoring his insanity... AKA Wilfred the dog. Then, Ryan is talking to his sister. As usual, she is being selfish and talking about her happiness, when suddenly, she asks Ryan, "What would make you happy?" After contemplating this for a second, Ryan suddenly comes to a realization. What makes him happy is not the love of his pretty neighbor Jenna, not the love of his father, not even self respect. What makes Ryan happy is Wilfred. What makes Ryan happy is his own insanity.
Running, Ryan bounds toward where he knows Wilfred will be and rejoins him. We end on a scene of Ryan and Wilfred sitting on a couch on the beach making jokes and being the best friends that they are. Even with the ending music being so joyful and the ending imagery being rather uplifting, I couldn't help but be a bit depressed by this ending.
Wilfred has always been about an insane man, Ryan, trying to cope with the work, love, and other regular facets of the world. To cope with this, he conjured up Wilfred, the stoner dog who became his best friend almost immediately. Wilfred helped him through his darkest of times, being the person Ryan had to fall back on all the time. The truth was however, Wilfred was the visual representation of Ryan's insanity. As much as Ryan wanted Wilfred to be the thing that brought him back into regular life, the fact that Wilfred was a figment of his imagination only proved that Ryan couldn't cope with regular life. In the end though, as a viewer, I was hoping that perhaps with the death of Wilfred in episode nine would shock Ryan back into reality. Perhaps Wilfred had finally served his purpose and led Ryan back into the real world. But no, Wilfred's passing merely inspired Ryan to conjure up a new Wilfred, one that didn't even have the excuse of being a dog. The new Wilfred was nothing but a figment, without a physical body to use as a disguise. In the end, Ryan chose insanity over life. In the end, insanity is what truly brought Ryan happiness.
At the same time, who's to say that insanity is even bad for Ryan? The first and last episodes were both titled, "Happiness." In the beginning, Wilfred was conjured up by Ryan to save him from committing suicide, therefor bringing him Happiness. In the end, Wilfred continued to be that which brought Happiness. If insanity is what Ryan needs to be happy than that is what he needs. Perhaps the ending was uplifting, telling us that everyone is different and needs different things to achieve happiness, even if for some that thing is insanity.
Looking back on Wilfred, it really was an impressive show. Not only did a show as strange as Wilfred survive four entire seasons, it also remained true to itself the entire time. Wilfred stayed consistently funny, weird, and most of all: dark. From the dreamlike way that the show was shot, the eerie theme music, and the constant mysteries being put into play, Wilfred really was one of a kind. Though it may have struggled in viewership and only really kept a cult audience, I for one am very sad to see it go. Although it was never the most dramatic drama or the most comedic comedy, it was the most unique, almost creating a new sub-category of dramedy that it fit into.

Goodbye Wilfred. I'll miss ya.

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