Ryan is battling some pride issues in this week’s episode of Wilfred. With major money troubles, Ryan may have to swallow his pride and ask for help. Meanwhile, Wilfred finds love with a new stuffed animal, and has to make a decision between the new toy and Bear.
Ryan is out of money. He has burned through his savings, and he’s cutting corners left and right. When his sister notices he’s not running his air conditioning, she realizes he’s having money issues and says she can help. The catch is, she wants him to ask for it. Ryan’s pride isn’t ready to face asking his sister for money, so he decides to go to the mall for some free air conditioning, taking man-dog Wilfred along for the ride.
Wilfred has a brilliant idea while they’re driving, and he jerks the wheel of Ryan’s car causing a small collision. The owner of the SUV they hit is a high-tension, high-powered single mom named Beth, who doesn’t take crap from anyone. After berating Ryan, she tells him to come to her office and she’ll give him a total for the damages.
More than a little intimidated by Beth, Ryan goes to her office and faces more abuse, and a bill for more money than he can possibly afford. Once again, Wilfred comes to the rescue with a great idea, telling Ryan she’s just lonely and that Ryan should flirt with her.
It doesn’t take much, and Beth is giving him looks and inviting him to her house for dinner, making it more than clear that his “performance” will make all the money issues go away. Ryan doesn’t feel right about it, but he doesn’t see anyway out of the situation.
Meanwhile, Wilfred spied a cute stuffed giraffe through the window of Beth’s car and was immediately smitten. When Ryan takes him on his date to Beth’s house, he puts the moves on “Raffie” but is cock blocked by Beth’s little boy, who the toy belongs to.
As Ryan finds himself in bed with Beth against his will, and trying to figure out how to get out of the situation, Wilfred finally gets some alone time with Raffie and has the best dog-sex of his life. Ryan manages to get out of having to do anything he doesn’t want to with Beth when she falls asleep unexpectedly.
The next morning, Beth mentions the great oral sex Ryan performed on her in the middle of the night. Naturally Ryan doesn’t know what she’s talking about, until he realizes Wilfred had done the honors so Ryan would keep seeing Beth (and thus Wilfred could keep humping Raffie).
When Ryan figures out what happened, he decides to confront Beth and end everything. She is angry, but agrees that there was no contract. She asks simply for a “signing bonus” before they part ways. But when Ryan can’t perform to her satisfaction, she tells him to get his checkbook after all and pay up.
Ryan scrambles for an idea, and then remembers who really performed oral sex on Beth. Ryan tells her it was so great because he woke her up out of sleep. As she goes back to sleep, Ryan slips away to find Wilfred.
Ryan discovers Wilfred in S&M gear and tied up next to Raffie. When he asks for Wilfred’s help, Wilfred says first Ryan has to help him out with something. Apparently, Raffie wants to cuckold Wilfred, which means Ryan is going to have to pretend to hump the stuffed animal.
At first Ryan refuses, but when Wilfred reminds him that his only other option is to ask his sister for help, he quickly mounts the stuffed giraffe. A moment later, Beth’s young son walks into the room and after a long awkward pause starts screaming for his mother. Ryan and Wilfred bolt, and Ryan discovers there are worse things than asking his sister for money.
This episode was pretty funny, not as great as last week’s but decent enough. There are some great laughs, though the humor is definitely crude in this episode, with lot of sexual situational comedy. So not exactly a family episode. Ryan does find out how to “swallow” his pride, but the main theme feel likes an excuse for the funny plot instead of an issue Ryan really deals with.
Guest starring as Beth was the wonderfully funny Jane Kaczmarek. She’s known most for her harried mom in the TV show Malcolm in the Middle, and it’s probably no coincidence that she nails another mom role here.
We didn’t see Fiona Gubelmann at all as cute next door neighbor Jenna in this episode but Jason Gann was his usual brilliant self, with plenty of physical comedy and cheek to keep him engaged and at his best. Elijah Wood seems made for the role of Ryan, and his charming penniless everyman was inherently likable here.
This was a solid episode, despite some cruder-than-normal sexual humor. Check back next week to see what disastrous situation the pot-smoking Wilfred will drag Ryan into.
