The 8 Craziest Theories About ‘Wilfred’

The final season of ‘Wilfred’ is soon approaching, and to get ready for it, we’ve been doing some research on the most popular theories about the show. Because, after 3 seasons, we sill don’t really know what the deal is with the man in the dog suit. And while it may be a comedy, it always leaves you feeling like a sort of dark genius lies within those crass jokes and absurd schemes. Below, read the 8 craziest theories about what’s actually going on with ‘Wilfred,’ then watch the Final Season, June 25 at 10PM on FXX.

All theories are from /r/FanTheories on Reddit.

1. Ryan Is In A Coma

After the suicide attempt, Ryan fell into a coma and Wilfred is just his imagination trying to get him to realize something isn’t right. When his sister and dad appear in the story, they’re just attempting talk to him while he’s under. This could also provide explanation for why it seems like he doesn’t need to work to keep his fancy house. Wilfred has been in his head the whole time, and is his own subconscious giving him a reason to go on.

2.Wilfred Is Ryan’s Dark Side

Remember in Fight Club how Edward Norton’s character created Tyler Durden to unleash his side of anarchy and chaos? That’s what Ryan has done with Wilfred. He knew that he could never break out of his corporate, mundane lifestyle, so Wilfred manifested. There is no Wilfred and there is no basement either. It’s another manifestation that’s actually just Ryan sitting in his closet doing drugs. Even the time Ryan stole all the neighborhood cats was just him sitting in the closet with a box of kittens.

3.Ryan Is Insane

It seems as though the show is giving us evidence that Ryan is simply insane. If you watch back through the series there is never a moment where Wilfred knows something that Ryan doesn’t already know or could have pieced together on his own. Plus, with the clear evidence that his mother is insane it could be something that has happened several times in his family’s history.

4. Ryan Is In Wilfred’s Head

A Reddit user had one theory that was so bizarre and brilliant that we had to share it:

Wilfred is a super-intelligent dog that cannot communicate with humans but has a deep yearning to do so since his intellect far surpasses that of the other member of his species. He also has an incredibly wild imagination and he has no way to share his thoughts with the outside world (i.e. humans). One day, the neighbor of his owner commits suicide. After a while a faint decaying smell draws the dog to the house. He somehow finds a way to get in and finds Ryan’s body in the basement, dead. The wildly imaginative super-intelligent dog then starts imagining himself having adventures with the dead human and befriends him in a morbid version of the volleyball Wilson in Cast Away. So the twist is that, all the while, we’re thinking Wilfred is in Ryan’s head, it’s actually Ryan that’s in Wilfred’s head. All the convoluted turns in the mystery are just Wilfred’s mind’s way of postponing the realization that he’s just in a basement with a corpse imagining stuff while he’s really still a lonely dog with human-like intellect and no one to share it with.

5. Ryan’s Father Is Behind It All

Ryan’s father is worse than we’ve ever imagined. He’s actually a sinister genius that’s convinced everyone in Ryan’s life to pretend Wilfred is a dog just in an elaborate hoax to drive Ryan insane. Wilfred really is just a guy in a suit, but everyone else has been paid off of blackmailed into going along with it.

6.Ryan Overdosed

During the opening of the very first episode we see Ryan take an entire bottle of pills. He actually overdosed at that moment and everything since then has been in his mind since he’s been placed into a chemically induced coma to try and save his life. The reason Jenna is such an important part of his “life” is because she was the last person he saw before his overdose.

7.Wilfred Is Actually Just A Guy In A Dog Suit

It’s not that Ryan sees Wilfred as a man and everyone else sees him as a dog, but rather everyone sees a man in a dog suit, but they don’t want to seem crazy so they pretend he’s just a regular dog. Sort of a non-naked version of the Emperor’s New Clothes.

8. Wilfred Is The Devil

What Ryan sees as Wilfred is actually the devil. He’s pushing Ryan to do terrible things and goes out of his way to try and get him in more and more trouble. As soon as the two met, Ryan got deeper into drugs and, instead of simply standing up for himself, he became a manipulative bully. Plus, every time Ryan tries to be rational or compassionate, Wilfred encourages him even harder to take the low road.

This post brought to you by Wilfred.