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Warning: Fullfrom the episode to follow.Coming full circle, Wilfred's series finale amusingly opened as the show once began, with Ryan nonchalantly planning his suicide. In a way, maybe Wilfred was just prolonging the inevitable, but this time Ryan's decision was much more bitter than before, as he looked out the window to see Jenna packing her bags and playing it safe. ("So long, girl next door," indeed.) But instead of Jenna interrupting Ryan's untimely demise, it was Catherine who came knocking on Ryan's door -- and she had quite the info dump prepared on The Flock of the Grey Shepherd.In terms of answers, "Happiness" was packed with them -- some misdirects, others nestled in a very bizarre truth. The fact that Catherine took Kristen with her to the cult -- where she also gave birth to Ryan -- certainly explained a lot about Ryan's investigation, including Henry's vehement interest in The Flock of the Grey Shepherd. But, like I said, there were a few red herrings in Catherine's story, like Charles' death in prison, for example.Honestly, one thing that kind of irked me about this episode was the ghostly return of Wilfred. Not only was his emotional departure in the previous episode undercut by his reappearance in the finale, but I was kind of looking forward to Ryan finally taking initiative and answering his own questions, without the help of his imaginary friend. Still, the way in which it was initially set up at least made sense, with Wilfred explaining to Ryan that he was "in between bodies." (Later, we would learn that this was actually false.)Of course, it only took a little nudge from Ryan's canine companion to get him to where he needed to be. At the sight of the big blue barn, another subtle revelation occurred: this was the same blue barn from Kristen's drawing, which would also explain her Wilfred-like depiction of "Mr. Floppy Ears." As later explained by the semi-lucid Charles, a guy named Richard (who looked exactly like Wilfred) used to dress up as the god of happiness, Mattdamon, and Shane (aka, "Bruce") would play the trickster god, Krungel. Moreover, Charles confessed that his cult was all a complete sham.

From this we can gather that Wilfred and Bruce were actually just projections from Ryan's formative years at The Flock of the Grey Shepherd. Not only that, but we also saw, through Ryan, the truth behind Ryan's memories of Wilfred; in essence, Ryan was pulling a Fight Club and inflicting all his past misdoings on himself, using Wilfred (the real Wilfred) as a scapegoat. In turn, what many fans had predicted -- that "Wilfred" was all in Ryan's head -- was absolutely right.Personally, I was satisfied with this explanation and was glad to learn that no supernatural elements were at play. I also thought the basement/closet mystery was handled quite well, with Ryan opening the door and (unseen by us) muttering, "Huh." (Given the circumstances -- in addition to evidence in previous episodes -- my guess is that it was a closet all along and that the basement was just a cognitive oasis for Ryan.)Having said that -- and as gratifying as those answers were -- there were a couple of things in the finale that felt a bit hollow and/or contrived. The first was, again, Wilfred's "ghost" incessantly badgering Ryan the entire time, even after Ryan discovered Wilfred wasn't real. I actually really liked the idea that Wilfred's persona had died with the dog, because it forced Ryan to let Wilfred go at a time when he needed him most and come to terms with that on his own. In my opinion, that was cheapened somewhat by Wilfred's "resurrection." I mean, the real fun of Wilfred has always been, where people see a dog, Ryan sees a man in a dog suit.Now, rather than accepting facts and moving on, Ryan was simply content with having an imaginary friend -- all in his head -- to answer any trivial questions he might have... presumably for all time. Like Jenna's situation with Drew, it seems Ryan had consciously rejected happiness and decided to continue leading a life of delusion. But considering the surprising amount of closure with nearly every other character -- including Kristen, who went back into medicine -- I would have sworn they were going to go for the Hail Mary pass with Amanda, who of all the characters on this show really understood Ryan. In my mind, true happiness for Ryan meant being with someone he could honestly connect with, not the idealistic fantasy girl (Jenna) he'd always pined for (but that's just my opinion).On the other hand, maybe Ryan could only find true happiness in his own psychosis, which I suppose in and of itself is its own contentment. As the great Mark Twain once wrote, "Sanity and happiness are an impossible combination," and perhaps, in this case, he's right.