| Henry Newman | |
|---|---|
| |
| Character Information | |
| Gender | Male |
| Race | White |
| Marital Status | Separated (at time of death) |
| Occupation | Flora |
| Status | Deceased |
| First Appearance | Intuition |
| Last Appearance | Amends |
Henry Newman is a side character in the show Wilfred (US series). He is the father of the main character Ryan Newman and is portrayed by James Remar.
Description[]
Henry is the husband of Catherine Newman and the father of Ryan and Kristen Newman. When Ryan and Kristen were young, Henry sent their mother to a mental institution for her declining sanity. As a father, Henry is manipulative and intimidating, causing Kristen to constantly want to please him while Ryan has grown to despise him. Before the episode, Intuition, Henry had not seen Ryan in two years and before Suspicion had not talked to him for a year.
Henry's strained relationship with his son caused Ryan to consider committing suicide in the pilot episode, Happiness. Once Ryan quits his job, he cuts off all ties with his father but continues to suffer from nightmares of seeing him once again. These problems come to a climax when Ryan sees his father for the first time in two years in a grocery store (Intuition) and runs away in a panic screaming that the confrontation was not real. After this encounter, Ryan is forced into therapy (Perspective) where he recalls a memory of his father sending his mother away. It is revealed in this memory that although seeming to be uncaring about what he had just done to himself and to his children, he spent the day at his office crying over a picture of the family.
Finally in Confrontation, Ryan confronts his dad with his treatment of him, his sister, and his mother resulting in Henry's sincere apology and plea that his son not vanish from his life as he did before.