What I’m Watching: Wilfred

Wilfred: Season 3, Episode 10 “Distance” (B)

I’m never really sure how I feel about episodes involving Dwight Yoakam’s Bruce since he epitomizes the lack of clarity of who Wilfred is and how he truly exists in Ryan’s life. What was fun about this episode, however, was the way in which Ryan attempted to play his own prank on Wilfred, and, to a degree, succeeded. Seeing him slap that patch on Wilfred’s testicular area to make him think that he had been neutered indicated such an unusual excited vindictive streak in Ryan that we so rarely see. Actually getting Wilfred and Bruce to eat dog testicles instead of the meatballs they were so desperately craving was a huge victory, especially because it shows that Ryan is finally learning to catch on to the fact that he’s being constantly manipulated by Wilfred and to foresee how to try to beat him at his own game. Asking Kristen about the drawing was predictably unproductive, but, alienating as it can sometimes be, this show is much more about the solitary relationship between Ryan and Wilfred than about his connections to any other people. Bruce is an exception to the rule, and a bizarre one at that, who makes it possible for Ryan to externalize Wilfred’s ridiculous sentiments. Faking feminine inclinations following his perceived neutering surgery was an expected move on Wilfred’s part, and it mirrors the maturity that he expressed when he was scratching at Ryan’s door and ultimately forcing him to pay to get the message removed. Wilfred is nothing if not abusive to his potentially delusional owner’s neighbor.