Review: Wilfred ‘Delusion’ – It’s Story Time

Wilfred‘s third season’s been a bit of a disappointment so far, primarily because Wilfred’s antics were no longer contextualizing the larger issues Ryan was struggling with. It turned the episodes into a lot of Ryan confused face with Wilfred humping shit and saying random things in the background: and at first, ‘Delusion’ appears to be an episode in the same vein. But slowly, ‘Delusion’ brings Ryan and Wilfred’s different crises together in a poignant, touching conclusion that not only represents an important step of progress for Ryan, but drops a few important hints of things to follow.

Framed entirely around Jenna’s 30th birthday, ‘Delusion’ sees the three main characters dealing with their own mid-life crises: Wilfred realizes that he’s 63 in human years, Ryan realizes that he’s still avoiding his feelings for Jenna – and in the background, Jenna’s starting to notice how unhappy she is with her life. All three of these plots have their own jokes and nuances, but they are all components of the same basic existential search for inner peace.

At first, Wilfred trying to write his biography looked like an excuse for a lot of random Wilfred material, boosting his ego by making up a shitload of fake stories to dramatize his life. The jokes aren’t original – but slowly, it’s revealed that he’s dealing with someone every human eventually faces: what has he really brought to the world? He admits it himself: he’s not the fastest, smartest, best behaved, or best smelling (with or without dead possum death). How can he find peace with himself, without knowing (with conviction) that he lived a full life of purpose?

Smartly, the show doesn’t go the easiest route and say “He’s important because of Ryan!” In this case, his importance to Ryan is almost irrelevant: Wilfred’s plot is about Wilfred’s life, and he eventually realizes what his true purpose was in life. He loves Jenna – and even though it seems like he spends no time with her anymore, she remains his primary reason for living, the blonde-haired angel who saved him from a life on the streets and loved him without judgment.

All of this is tied directly into Ryan’s own struggle with his feelings for Jenna at the end – what comes before it is merely a distraction, both in the literal and metaphorical sense: Ryan being distracted from Wilfred’s project keeps him distracted until the climatic moment of the episode. As he reads Wilfred’s real story, he’s terrified – terrified of what he’s about to read, and also about coming to terms with his feelings for Jenna (something that always hangs around, even after the show presumably dismisses it multiple times). He reads Wilfred’s words – which speak for him as well: “she’s the one person who can turn clouds into blue skies” he reads, looking directly at her. The next shot is of Jenna standing and watching him read, smiling sheepishly as she stands there in bright blue dress (a nice wink to the audience).

Ultimately, ‘Delusion’ makes the point many other Wilfred episodes have made: that Ryan’s got to be honest with himself before he’ll find peace in his world. Realizing he’s still in love with Jenna may not be a step in the right direction long-term, but the simple fact of being able to understand his true feelings is a step in the right direction. Larger issues loom (both of his parents are mentioned in the episode), but the second half of ‘Delusion’ mark both a step forward for Ryan, and a return to form for Wilfred.

Grade: B+

Other thoughts/observations:

– If I could grade each half of the episode, the first 15 minutes would get a B- and the conclusion an A. The birthday party scene was far and away the best of the season.

– there is a brief appearance by Ryan’s nagging sister. Not much to see there.

– Wilfred: “She’ll thank him by doing it from the front – human-style.”

– I haven’t read later Curious George; I’ll have to concur with Wilfred’s opinion that it’s dense.

– Jenna’s smoking again…

– by the way, Drew is loving the T-neck.

– staying true to form, Wilfred draws a muscular Bear with a black bra and a banana hammock with a massive bulge.

– next week’s episode is the first of the season written by the man who developed Wilfred from it’s Australian version (and also one of the executive producers on the show). Last season, he wrote ‘Progress’, ‘Truth’, and the season finale, ‘Secrets’. I wouldn’t miss this one.