TV Recap: House

He’s about to have surgery, to remove said grapefruit, to be performed by one scruffy yummy, Dr. Chase, when something goes wrong and he becomes the patient of another scruffy yummy M.D., Dr. Greg House.
Throughout the entire episode, a documentary crew is filming Kenny’s entire experience. This is not my favorite story telling device. When they did it on ER, I wanted to take a gun and shoot my TV which would’ve been inappropriate given that I was living in a college dorm and the TV was in a lounge and not mine to shoot.
But House decided to go forth and try and pull of the documentary style shooting and truth be told it wasn’t the annoying mess I thought it was going to be.
It did actually help you learn a little more about the falseness of the newbies and Cameron, Chase and Cuddy. Wilson was the only other staff member besides House the cameras didn’t bother. In fact he took some time to delight them with made-up stories about House and his participation in his Pagan religion.
Dr. Terzi, the CIA sexy, sassy doc from last week sits in the lecture hall with the newbies. They want to know what her deal is. Is she part of the game or has she been given a guaranteed spot on House’s team. When House shows up Amber asks Greggy flat out why he hired her. House tries to ignore Amber, but she just won’t quit. After the DDX, the newbies go to run tests; Terzi wants to know what she got herself into because she gave up a career to work with him. House reassures her that she’s not in the game; her job offer was for reals.

House goes to see Wilson. What a treat, we never usually get to see him this early in an episode. He tells Wilson he fears Terzi is a dummy because she said something stupid during the DDX. He then talks himself out of it saying everyone says stupid stuff during DDXs, including himself. Wilson tells House to just fire her if she’s a moron. House says he can’t, she left a career to come work with him. Wilson, knowing House, knows that this guilt can only mean one thing: CIA doc is a total babe. Perhaps even a D cup!
After running House's tests, Taub and Kutner tell House Kenny isn’t doing drugs. Taub has another theory, which House won’t really agree to. Again. He shot down his idea earlier in the other DDX. Taub disagrees with House's new idea, he doesn’t want to stop this kids heart, but he has no choice. So this triggers courage in Taub unlike anything we’ve seen so far with this character. Taub doesn’t have time to do the procedure as Kenny starts vomiting blood which is bad as it's not the body’s way of saying, “yippee, I’m all better.”
Cuddy locks House, his team and the cameras in her office and plants herself outside so House can’t hide from the cameras in the OR or MRI room anymore. They run through another DDX and Terzi once again offers a stupid suggestion. House tells her that it was a great suggestion until Foreman is like “um, that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”
During the DDX, House notices that Kutner is wearing a tie and Amber has put on lipstick. No one is comfortable around the cameras. Once again House undercuts and humiliates Taub in front of the cameras and Taub doesn’t stick up for himself. I see rage coming to a boil and I like it. I like Taub too, he just seems like a doctor in real life, not as pretty as 13 or House, but sexy nevertheless.
Taub reassures Kenny’s father that even though Kenny just vomited blood, he’ll be fine when they stick a camera down his throat, even though Taub totally disagrees with it.
House returns to Dr. Wilson, AKA Lucy from the Peanuts cartoon who hangs the psychiatry 5 cents sign outside his door. House is worried about this new situation with Terzi. Wilson tells House to ask her out because he obviously has a crush on her. House starts to doubt his ability to tell if any good-looking woman’s ideas are good.
Back in the lecture hall House needs new ideas about why Kenny keeps vomiting blood. Terzi offers her idea, and House checks with Foreman who tells him it’s not a good one. 13 then offers an idea, but House gets Kutner to repeat her suggestion before he can judge if it’s legit or not.
The camera crew is trying to get dirt on House. They head to the ER where Cameron admits to loving House but then immediately tries to cover up what she said and re-word it to get a different meaning: me thinks Cameron doth protest too much!
Taub runs House’s test and finds House is wrong. He tells him and says that since he’s wrong Kenny can now have the noggin furniture removed, but House won’t allow the surgery to happen. House offers his new suggestion, JRA. Taub tells House if he’s wrong again and they give Kenny steroids, then Kenny won’t be able to get the surgery for months. House doesn’t really care. In fact it seems like he’s doing everything he can to not allow Kenny to get that behemoth removed from his face so he can lead a normal life. I wonder why.
Taub goes and tells the father about Kenny having JRA, then rethinks it and says he doesn’t agree with House’s diagnosis and he thinks he can get House thrown off the case. House and Taub end up in Cuddy’s office. House realizes what Taub has done and pretty much decides to exact revenge. House fires Taub, but Cuddy un-fires him, but does tell him what he did was over the line. Cuddy tells House to get a CT scan, which he makes Taub do.
In the CT room, Foreman tells Taub he’s impressed by his new set of balls. Taub says he’s getting fired so it didn’t work. Foreman says House doesn’t care he went behind his back just as long as Taub produces results, that’s what House cares about.
House heads to the plastic surgery office where Taub last worked to grill his former partner about why he left. He finds out that Taub is a wife cheater particularly with nurses and so he left his plastic surgery practice and cut a deal with his former partners.
House confronts Taub with this information, which rattles him, but he remains strong. He says yes, he’s a cheater. Some people cheat on their wives, some people pop pills. We all have our vices. Burn! When did Taub grow a pair? For someone who has no back-up job, he’s really risking everything for this Kenny kid. I guess he really wants to help this kid.
House goes to give Kenny steroids, but Kenny’s father says he doesn’t trust him. House tells the dad that he’s risking his son’s life for a surgery (the plastic surgery) he doesn’t need. Kenny says he does need it. He says House has no idea what he’s treated like. House tells Kenny, the surgery will only change his face, not who his face made him.

Wilson and House go on an expedition and break into the video room and watch footage of the documentary. House wants confirmation that he’s losing his mind about Dr. Terzi. After watching the footage, Wilson can’t believe that House thought Terzi’s ideas were good. House can’t believe that he’s “that guy.” House says that Cameron was good looking and smart. Wilson says he’s beginning to doubt that.
In a last ditch attempt to get House to allow Kenny’s surgery, Taub shows him the CT scan with the inflammation. House humiliates him again in front of the patient. But House sees his little finger twitch and realizes he was wrong about the JRA diagnosis.
They do another DDX. Once again Terzi says something stupid.
Terzi: A twitching finger is a symptom?
House: The body doing something it’s not supposed to be doing is the very definition of a symptom.
13 suggests Lyme disease, but House debunks that theory seeing as he doesn’t have a target rash.
Taub thinks House is wrong and thinks Kenny is fine. In front of everyone he calls him out saying that he doesn’t want Kenny to have the surgery because House isn’t normal so he doesn’t want anyone else to be normal. Wow, this is goooood. Taub is so getting fired? Am I right?
Taub says that if House is right with his diagnosis, when they remove his heart wire, his heart will stop. If not, he’s wrong and Kenny can get his surgery. Taub removes the wire and proves him wrong. Kenny gets his surgery and we see Chase again.
13 is in the OR because she doesn’t think the kid is well. In fact she finds the target rash, which indicates Lyme.
Wilson visits House. He tells House that he hires hot girls, enslaves them and forces them to be around him because he can’t have a normal relationship, if they’re qualified he should keep them, if they suck (like Dr. Terzi) fire them and ask them out.
13 tells House about the lyme diagnosis and Kenny’s surgery goes on as planned.
In the lecture hall, it’s firing time! House tells Taub to stand and grills him on giving up his chosen career in plastics just so his partners will keep quiet about his affair. It looks like he’s about to get fired when… he gets a reprieve. House finds him interesting.
House tells Terzi to stand up and he fires her… and then asks her out. This guy literally does everything Wilson tells him.
What did you think about the camera crew? Or Cameron’s revelation about loving House (I guess she’s not over him) or the fact that Foreman had one line in the entire episode but had to give a whole bunch of disapproving looks?
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The highlight of the episode was the final scene with Cuddy (luscious and in charge) and House watching the finished film. The warmth, fun, intelligence, sexiness, and comfort of that scene was in stark contrast to House's fumbling with the Barbie-like Dr. Terzi. This was a splendid episode, rich in humor, character insights, and great acting by Hugh Laurie, Lisa Edelstein, and Robert Sean Leonard. The creepy embarassing Cameron-in-the-mirror scene was the stake in the heart of that fizzled "relationship," I hope, and Foreman's facial expressions were pricelessly funny as he kept the gob-smacked House in line.
The last scene in Cuddy's office was the best part of the episode. I am surprised it wasn't in the review. The part that was written for Cameron made her look like an idiot.
Wonderful ep with its exploration of appearance and the power of perception. The new kids are really finding their stride and I adore Taub. The actor has the chops to make him a compelling grown up House will have to treat like a grown up. Cuddy was red hot and a wonderful mixture of administrator and sass. More please. But please writers, find something to do with Chase. Wonderful character, wonderful actor, woeful storylines so far. I miss him. I have not missed Cameron's crush at all. That storyline is one of the reasons the show benefitted from revitalising. If the writers can't move her on, please write her out. We don't need more crushsmitten Cameron.
Robert Sean Leonard and Hugh Laurie are MAGIC together. The humor they shared in this episode ("Blew the janitor", the Sen. Larry Craig reference, House a practicing Wiccan...) was so welcome after the angst of season 3. The fact that Wilson had more than just a few short moments on screen was an absolute delight. House definitely does whatever Wilson tells him, but those two just sparkle together. It's a match made in heaven.
I agree with the previous Robert Sean Leonard and Hugh Laurie are just amazing together!! Really, it's the main reasons I tune in every week. I'm liking Taub and 13. Not interested in House 2.0 though.
As for Cameron, a true narcissist, the mirror scene was a perfect metaphor for her self-absorption. And the less Foreman and Cameron in any episode always emhances my enjoyment.