‘Wilfred’ Recap: Episode 2.02 – “Dignity”

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Last week’s episode “Letting Go” focused more on Ryan’s personal life at home while this week’s episode focused more on him working his new job, attempting to wrangle Wilfred and, hopefully, start a relationship with Amanda, his hot co-worker (played by Allison Mack). Almost the entire episode was at his place of work and I didn’t mind it. It was nice to see him “letting go” and hopefully “moving on.” I was interested in seeing what lesson he would learn this week. The title of the episode was titled “Dignity” so I figured it had to do with him standing up for himself in some way.

The episode begins with Ryan sitting at his desk at working going through some papers when he finds a wedding invitation with a post-it note from his dad telling him he has to go. He sits there and hovers over the “Yes” RSVP option when in walks Amanda. I absolutely love Allison Mack as Amanda (maybe I just love Allison Mack in general) but she is just so inviting and spunky. They begin talking about their date for that evening and they both seem pretty excited about it when their boss, Jeremy (Steven Weber) walks in and announces he has some big legal brief he needs Ryan to finish ASAP causing him to have to work over night and reschedule their date. I love what Amanda says in response to their reschedule, “All this changing of schedule better be an elaborate foreplay.”Ha. I just love how forward she can be. Can’t wait to see how it affects Ryan’s relationship with Jenna.

Wilfred calls Ryan up from Ryan’s apartment (Ryan is watching Wilfred while Drew and Jenna are away for awhile. Maybe getting married?!) and we see him completely trashing his apartment from tearing up pillows to knocking plants over .. typical dog stuff. Ryan doesn’t really want to talk to him much considering all Wilfred wants is to talk about his day from what he ate to the smell of his farts. We see Ryan the next morning trying to crate Wilfred, obviously since he destroyed his apartment the night before, and Wilfred refuses. He says he is a social butterfly and cannot be contained. He begs to be taken to Ryan’s work and Ryan finally caves. Wilfred grabs his tail, shakes it very fast while he screams, “YEAH!” which to me is exactly what a dog would do/think during the situation. Jason Gann does a wonderful job this episode of portraying Wilfred. Probably my favorite thing about this show is seeing how he makes a guy in a dog suit appear more and more like a regular dog. He makes it look so easy.

Well, we see Ryan and Wilfred at work and he is going to try and sneak Wilfred into his office when Wilfred busts out and starts sniffing everyone and screaming, “There are people everywhere! Over here, over there!” The office staff absolutely love him to death and everyone is happy to see him, until Jeremy walks in upset about his morning commute. Everyone in the office freezes as Jeremy sees Wilfred. We expect him to be upset and possibly fire Ryan (considering we all get the view that he doesn’t like him that much). Instead, Jeremy gets on the ground, grabs Wilfred, holds him down and tickles/rubs his “belly” while Wilfred just lays there awkwardly saying, “This is happening, this is actually happening.” Jeremy loves Wilfred and even gives Ryan an extension on the legal brief. Ryan is super happy about the news.

Scene cuts to Wilfred sitting outside talking to some pigeons about how everyone loves the “office dog.” We see Ryan as well sitting at a table with Amanda and they are talking about rescheduling the date to that weekend which ends up being Amanda’s birthday, “We can huff keyboard cleaner together.” They hold hands at the table and it’s just adorable. I love love love them together.

It’s the next day at work and Ryan is trying to decide on the wedding invitation again when he is interrupted again (seems like this wedding invitation is going to be the center of his struggle for this episode). Wilfred is annoying everyone in the office and he forces Wilfred back to his office. Wilfred is upset and doesn’t understand what’s happening. He’s not getting a single laugh,“If I can’t do it, they’ll get a fooseball table that can.” So dramatic, such a dog. He comes up with the perfect bit that will get everyone laughing. He decides to slip and slide on the concrete floor like a clumsy dog, but when he does he knocks over the water cooler which makes everyone even more upset. Jeremy walks back in and really upset by a competitor of theirs catching up to them and working on the same stuff. I absolutely love his boss and how abrasive and blunt he can be. My favorite line by him so far is “If those clowns come up with a cure for lung cancer, it’s going to be a sad, sad day!”So wrong, yet so right. However, this incident with the water cooler reminds him about that deadline and he makes Ryan get it done the next day AND gives him more work. Uh-oh. That date might actually not happen after all.

Ryan is in the basement going to pull an all-nighter to get the work done when Wilfred comes in and hands him an “office dog” resignation. Wilfred gets really uptight about Ryan’s wedding invitation and tells him that he needs to stand up to his dad and tell him he doesn’t want to go to that “Black tie circle jerk.” Wilfred adds that Jeremy is a lot like his strict dad and that Ryan needs to stand up to him as well. Ryan completely disregards his accusations and says that Wilfred has to come to work, be cute and get him an extension. Wilfred agrees, but only if Ryan will help him write his routine. They stay up all night working. Wilfred hasn’t come up with anything and Ryan’s suggestions aren’t helping him, “Honestly, the fact that you think it’s great makes me think that it’s not great.” He turns to Bear (his stuffed teddy bear) and asked him to read back the notes of the night and it turns out that Bear hasn’t been taking any notes. He gets really mad and covers his head with a bag, saying he doesn’t want to look at him. Ryan looks at Bear and they realize that they are going to do for his routine, “The bag is on my head and I can’t get it off” routine. Classic.

The next day, Wilfred is about to do his routine. He is announcing it for the whole room to see and just when he is about to do it .. Ricky, the mentally-handicapped janitor, grabs the bag and says it’s not safe for the dog to play with it. He then puts the bag on his own head and pretends to be a dog with a bag stuck on his head. The whole office laughs and Wilfred is royally pissed. The scene cuts to them in the bathroom where Wilfred is complaining to Ryan about what just happened. Ricky comes in and interrupts them and Wilfred attacks him and bites him on the face. Ricky threatens to blackmail Ryan and tell the boss, Jeremy, if Ryan doesn’t do his job of cleaning the bathrooms. Ryan obviously agrees and we see him cleaning the bathroom with Wilfred telling him to stand up to his boss and Ricky. He brings up Ryan’s relationship with his dad and Ryan gets really upset saying, “I was a great lawyer and I was a great son!” but then breaks down and realizes that it was never good enough for him and that he needs to stand up for himself and not take it anymore. Overall, pretty dramatic scene. We, the audience, realize that this is what the title is about, Ryan overcoming his father and his boss and standing up for himself as a person. He says, “I’m done!” to his reflection in the mirror and Wilfred punches the mirror as well, scared of his own reflection (loved that part).

Ryan storms into his boss’ office and demands that he have an extension and, surprisingly, Jeremy gives it to him immediately before he even can plead his case. Ryan is pretty proud of himself and goes back to his office. He grabs the wedding invitation and marks “No” for the RSVP and feels very pleased about it. Wilfred isn’t too pleased and wants to go tell off Jeremy. He runs out of the office and Ryan chases after him. They open up the door to Jeremy’s office (and I cannot believe this actually happened) and we see Ricky, the mentally-handicapped janitor, underneath Jeremy’s desk … you know. Yeah. It’s messed up. But that’s what this show is all about – stretching the limits and crossing some lines. Ryan looks at his boss and says, “Actually, I’m going to need the next week off” and his boss agrees. Ryan and Wilfred leave and the episode is over. Wow. Not how I pictured that to end at all.

Overall, the episode was pretty good. It was funny, kind of dramatic and really gave us a bunch of new characters to enjoy. Amanda is very forward, which obviously differs from Ryan, but they doesn’t mean they clash. Not at all. They have this odd chemistry that I really do like and I’m looking forward to seeing where it is headed. Jeremy is obviously WAY creepier and weird than I thought and I’m unsure where exactly they are going to go with that plot. But then again – they own everything else they attempt, so why should I question this?

Tune in for Episode 3, “Guilt,”this Thursday at 10/9 p.m. on FX.