“Wilfred” – Secrets season finale review

At least someone is getting a happy ending…hopefully.

In the season two finale of Wilfred, Ryan confesses a major secret, but will it lead him to the happiness he’s searching for?

Ryan is speaking to Amanda over the phone while people prepare for Jenna’s and Drew’s wedding in the background. He assures her that Jenna is okay with Amanda being there. Amanda is pleased to hear that he’s telling people they’re back together. Ryan looks at Wilfred and tells her that people know. Except Wilfred, apparently.

Jenna is getting ready for the wedding. Wilfred is freaking out about the seating arrangements. He scratches Ryan when he shoves him away and Jenna asks Ryan to trim Wilfred’s nails. Down in the basement, Ryan is trying to get Wilfred to let him cut his nails, but Wilfred keeps saying ‘ow’ before Ryan can even touch him. They start talking about what’s bothering Wilfred and the dog calls Ryan out for keeping a secret. Ryan tells Wilfred that he was going to tell Wilfred that he and Amanda are back together. That wasn’t the secret that Wilfred had been referencing. Wilfred pulls out a drawing that Ryan supposedly drew when he was little. In the corner, behind a tree, is a drawing of Wilfred–at least a dog that looks like Wilfred.

Ryan tries to deflect the situation, but admits that he’s never seen the drawing, but knows about The Plan. He says it’s all happened before, that Wilfred isn’t the first Wilfred. Every time he dies, he gets resurrected. Ryan had Wilfred going with a plot line from Battlestar Galactica, which angers Wilfred. Ryan accuses him of drawing the picture. Wilfred stomps away, and Ryan reminds him about his nails. Wilfred bites them off and spits them at Ryan.

Amanda shows up and greets Ryan. She tries to say hi to Wilfred but he walks away. She apparently saw Wilfred a couple days before, even though Wilfred said he hadn’t seen her since they broke up. Wilfred is giving Ryan tips about walking down the aisle. Ryan calls him a liar. Wilfred insists that he didn’t draw that picture.

The ceremony is over and the guests are mingling. James shows up and tells Ryan that his ex co-worker was framed. James tells him that there was a wire transfer to an offshore account that was under Ryan’s name. Before the boys can get into it more, Kristen shows up and starts flirting. She hands James the baby and then walks away to get champagne. She doesn’t know when to quit, does she?

James tells Ryan that he (and his dad) know that he wouldn’t do something like this, but that his dad has to hand over all the information to the authorities. Ryan is going to need a damn good lawyer to get him out of this mess and his dad wants to help him out. Ryan is certain that someone is trying to ruin his life and glares at Wilfred. Would Wilfred really try to put Ryan in jail? Probably.

Ryan calls Wilfred out for framing him. The two start to bicker. The question of “who would frame Ryan” pops up. Wilfred points out that it’s convenient that his father discovered the information. Ryan refuses to believe it. Wilfred continues by saying that maybe he—Ryan—did it. Ryan says no way, he would remember doing something like that. Wilfred says that he doesn’t remember a lot. Ryan seems to believe that. The two sit on the couch, with Ryan clearly upset.

Back at the wedding, Ryan is going to tell Amanda. They go onto the dance floor and Ryan tells her about Wilfred and how they talk to one another. Amanda thinks it’s a joke. Ryan continues to explain and babble, but he’s interrupted by Amanda kissing him. She tells him that Wilfred talks to her too. Ryan doesn’t understand why Wilfred never said anything. Amanda thinks it was part of his plan. Turns out, Amanda sold the company secrets. She says she did it for them and that now they can be together, “just like Wilfred promised.” No lying or bullshitting, I did not see any of that coming. No idea that Amanda was some psycho. Awesome twist. Just when Ryan thinks that everything will be okay, he finds out that the woman he loves, the woman he probably belongs together with, sold company secrets for millions of dollars.

Ryan is confronting Wilfred, who claims that she can’t talk to Wilfred. Ryan takes him over to Amanda and tries to figure out who’s telling the truth. Amanda can’t really talk to Wilfred. She can’t understand him with the French accent. She will not turn herself in, so Ryan decides to go ahead with her crazy idea, sort of. He goes over to James, who is still holding Kristen’s baby. James is going to call the FBI, and Ryan warns him to call a psychiatrist as well.

Jenna and Drew are making a speech and thank Ryan for holding the wedding. It’s bouquet time! Amanda catches the bouquet, of course. She’s excited about their life together, but Ryan is clearly pained about what’s going to occur.

Later, Ryan shows up and tells Wilfred that Amanda is being held for a psychiatric evaluation. She fessed up to everything, so Ryan is now in the clear. Wilfred assures Ryan that he’s not crazy, but Ryan still seems doubtful. Ryan asks about the drawing, and tells Wilfred that he assumed Wilfred had all the answers. He’s scared of not knowing about the drawing, and that Wilfred knows nothing about it as well. Wilfred then confesses about being the artist behind the drawing.

Ryan goes to his fridge and takes a drink. He looks at the picture of his mother and him when he was younger, and notices something. He rips the picture down and gets a magnifying class, looking up close at a portion on the picture. There, he sees there’s the drawing of Wilfred behind the tree.

The writers of Wilfred really love their dark and twisty plots. This was definitely the best out of all of them. There are bound to be others who will disagree—who will say that the ending was too neat, or too predictable, or left us with no solid answers. Answers come into play when you least expect them to. I don’t think anybody foresaw Amanda turning into this crazy woman who needed a padded room and a straight jacket more than she needed $10 million dollars and a warm destination spot.

Watching Ryan’s face just fall when he realized that he wasn’t getting his happy ending was just plain heartbreaking. He almost had it. It was right within his grasp. Amanda wasn’t disgusted by his admission, she went through the same thing. It couldn’t have been more perfect. That’s why it couldn’t happen, and that’s why Amanda had to be the one who actually sold the formula. There was never any way around it. As much as we enjoyed watching Allison Mack and the cuteness between the two characters, Ryan could never been with Amanda. It all makes so much sense now.

Allison Mack did an incredible job playing Amanda. We didn’t get to see much of her, or get to know her as much, but she did an amazing job in closing her chapter with Ryan.

But now for the big part of this episode—the drawing. We find out that Ryan did indeed draw a Wilfred-like doggy hiding behind a tree. What could this new twist mean? I know nothing about psychology, but I’ll give it a whirl.

I think Ryan’s always known Wilfred, but for whatever reason he’s chosen to block it from his memory. We know that Ryan’s done that before—pushed things deep into his subconscious to the point that he needed a hallucinogenic to retrieve the information again. Something happened between Young-Ryan and Wilfred (Young-Wilfred?) that caused Wilfred to disappear from Ryan’s mind. Perhaps a younger Ryan made Wilfred up as a way to have some kind of parental figure in his life while he was growing up, but then grew out of Then-Wilfred. Or Then-Wilfred pulled a stunt much like Now-Wilfred does and Young-Ryan couldn’t handle it. Or perhaps Wilfred has always been in the background, hanging just outside the periphery of his consciousness, waiting for the perfect moment to make himself known.

A few questions to get you through the hiatus: What will season three hold for our favorite duo? Will we find out more about the drawing? Does this mean Mary Steenburgen will reprise her role as Ryan’s mother? Are we ever going to meet Ryan’s father? Now that Amanda is out of the picture, will Ryan start pining for Jenna again? Where the hell is Bear?!