Wilfred's episode, "Progress," carried that "SPE" label "Special Preview Episode". It also addressed the question of Ryan's sanity that was raised many times throughout Season 1 and punctuated with a big fat question mark in the Season 1 finale, "Identity," when Ryan opened the door to his basement and saw nothing but closet. And in the end, the bulk of "Progress" was just a dream. But it was a dream with purpose.
We tend to frown upon dream episodes as a waste of time, and even though "Progress" ironically didn't live up to its title, it showed off why Wilfred has formed its own circle in the Venn Diagram of television genres. "Progress" was an exploration of the series' main theme of sanity rather than just plot. The episode lives tangentially to the rest of the series, yet accentuates everything the series is about. Hmmm. So that's what a "Special Preview Episode".
I doubt we'll carry very much of anything that happened in "Progress" along with us during Season 2, aside from the time advance of a handful of months into the future and Ryan's new job as in-house counsel for what looks to be an oncological pharmaceutical company. Jenna is still engaged to bromantic Drew, Wilfred has been away healing from his run-in with a fender, and Ryan is still having crazy town banana pants episodes.
Instead, we should look at "Progress" as a brilliant standalone episode that speaks to the series as a whole but doesn't quite count as an ongoing chapter. Even though everything that happened in the mental institution was a figment of Ryan's imagination and everything that happened in the gloomy conference room was real, the two might not be unrelated. Ryan's penchant for imagining situations is the big question here, and in many ways his creation of the mental hospital, one he could not escape from, was a way for his mind to cope with his new job that he could not escape from. He hates being a lawyer. But once again, he's a lawyer. And the way the conference-room reality started blurry and nightmarish and trippy but ended up crystal clear and the looney bin went from clarity to washed-out to strobed was brilliant in its muddling of the truth.
A popular theory behind Ryan's conception of Wilfred as a talking dog is Ryan's way of making himself a man of the alpha variety. He can't do it on his own, so he's created a furry, pot-smoking id to help him solve his own issues of worthlessness and cowardice. It stands to reason that it would be Wilfred who would manifest in his dreams and rescue him from his dream prison, which in turn would push Ryan to man up in his real life and bounce from his job mid-meeting to dig up some truth. At this point, all signs are pointing to Wilfred as chatty pooch being a figment of Ryan's subconscious. Well, that and the fact that talking dogs don't exist.
A new season means an explosion of star power. It's like a supernova did its thing all over the show. Steven Weber as Ryan's new boss, Rob Riggle as the token office throat-clearer, and an all-grown-up Allison Mack looking fine as a brunette. The Office's Brian Baumgartner made a cameo as Wilfred in disguise, and Robin Williams revisited his role as Patch Adams. To my knowledge, Baumgartner and Williams are one-off guest-stars, indicating we won't be paying anymore visits to Ryan's dream land, but Mack, Weber, and Riggle are all on board for recurring roles as Ryan's new co-workers. They're all welcome additions and perfect additions to the cast. Also, I believe that was Abby Miller, last seen as Ellen May in Justified, waving at Ryan in the office.
On top of all that, the episode was typically hilarious. I'm never going to get sick of Jason Gann's performance as Wilfred; I think he's one of the funniest people on television today. And his doggy traits in this case, his inability to resist chasing a Frisbee and his recognition of his weakness and subsequent struggle to keep his cool never get old. I lost it at the Good Will Hunting gag, and the reveal of Bear as the driver of the getaway van was pure insanity. Even with all the jokes and gags and laughs, the comedy played second fiddle to the mystery, but the two coexisted without a hitch, a remarkable feat. On the surface, Wilfred is just a comedy, but it's really so much more.
At the end of the episode, in what we assume is reality, Ryan broke through the wall of the closet and got back down to the basement.
In the next episode of Wilfred(US) season 2 episode 2 entitled "Letting Go", When Wilfred comes to the conclusion Ryan is the only beneficiary of their friendship, he denies Ryan any further help.
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