Wilfred is depressed and Ryan has his mind on money.
Wilfred’s lost his sense of smell and his sense of joy while Ryan prepares for his financial future.
Thankfully this episode was a little more of a return to type for the plotting pooch as the guys resumed their bromance. The episodes where Ryan and Wilfred are tightly bound together in their struggle for normality and control are generally the best. Elijah Wood is just a joy to watch in this show and the antics of Jason Gann’s Wilfred are often naughty in nature but this series he seems to be more subdued than normal. I can’t help but think that something is missing since the last series, the first episode of series two was intriguing but now Ryan is living in what appears to be the real world, suddenly it is not so funny. I suppose two guys sitting in a basement chatting, getting stoned and Wilfred raising hell every so often would get old eventually but I sort of miss it. Previously Wilfred was destructive, even wicked at times but always with a distinct purpose, but despite his emo disguise this week he seems to have lost the real darkness that existed within him. Also, there has been a definite lack of mystery in the past few episodes, Ryan has ceased wondering who or what Wilfred is and whether what he is experiencing is real, meaning that he has accepted the world that he is living in at the moment, even planning for his financial future and I think I preferred it more when there was a question mark over everything.
This week Wilfred was attempting to get Ryan to live in the present rather than planning for the future, claiming that dogs live in the present and everything that Wilfred is comes from whatever he currently can smell. Wilfred’s life lesson culminated in him pointing a gun at Ryan, terrifying him and causing further confusion as he was robbed at gunpoint moments later. As Ryan recovered from the shock of the robbery Wilfred found that he had lost his sense of smell due to the stress of the incident. His anger at Ryan’s initial insensitivity to his plight was made humorous by Wilfred arguing that he had just had a gun pointed in his face when he had done the same to Ryan seconds before the robbery. Despite a full check up with the vet it appeared that there was nothing physically wrong with Wilfred’s nose so it was stress-induced anosmia.
While Ryan was trying to secure his future by investing cash with a workmate’s advisor, Wilfred was ruminating on the loss of his favourite sense and this sent him spiralling into depression, he even began reading and not ‘books with Matt Damon in’ as he said he preferred! There was a surprisingly funny but puerile moment over the pronunciation of a philosopher but Wilfred himself started to lose faith in himself and his usual unshakable confidence was…well…shaken. This was actually quite a nice change as it is often Ryan’s struggle that is focussed upon whereas in this episode Wilfred didn’t seem quite as assured, Wilfred was the one with little control at first but by the end of the episode he had regained his footing (and smelling) and it appeared that he was once again in charge of Ryan’s life.
Wilfred’s emo getup actually quite suited him and highlighted Jason Gann’s chocolate brown eyes making him seem even more soulful. Even though it was Ryan’s turn to be strong this time, Wilfred still ended up back in control and that is usually where a huge amount of the comedy lies. This perhaps wasn’t the best episode but it was definitely heading in the right direction in terms of laughs. Will we ever find out the secret behind Wilfred?
