Overall Rating: 9.6
Hey, here's something new and interesting...a House episode entirely focused on (wait for this flash of inspiration)...HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The show's only interesting character gets the full 45 minutes of screen time and the show's magic instantly returns with a vengeance, redeeming seemingly smaller moments peppered throughout a whole string of mediocre to downright lousy episodes this season and giving new and disturbing direction to House's path away from Vicodin addiction.
Plot Synopsis:
The rain pours down on Dr. Nolan's office window as he sits staring out - concerned that his most troublesome case is late. House stumbles in looking miserable and rather hopelessly invites Dr. Nolan to "therafy" him. This is the first we've glimpsed House's therapy since "Epic Fail" - which, BTW, I find a gigantic error on the part of the writers, but whatever - and the exchange of powerful minds we saw in "Broken" is back with gusto. House spends most of the episode deflecting as Nolan digs at every detail of the story he tells of his strange week. Interwoven in his story are three important threads.
PotW: A woman who turns out to be a career "barracuda attorney" arrives at PPTH with no memory of who she is. She was found in the street suffering from disorientation, amnesia and balance problems and House takes the case to avoid dealing with Wildon (more on this later), but quickly finds the patient's symptoms satisfactorily mysterious to interest him. At first, they suspect toxins and track down her real identity so they can search her home and place of business for the source. At her home, they find her husband, but the two of them don't get along very well - she doesn't remember him and most of her adult memories are gone, meaning she's not the mature career woman she once was. House will eventually observe the dysfunction in the husband's approach and make a suggestion to him (specifically, that he should court her all over again, at least until she remembers more about him, rather than expecting her to accept his intimate advances with no memory of how she got to this point) that will quite possibly save their marriage, but not before he takes his own anger out on both of them during a dispute that arises over consent to do a surgery that becomes medically necessary when toxins are ruled out in lieu of a diagnosis of Spongiform Encephilitis.
That procedure becomes unnecessary when her heartbeat becomes irregular and the doctors think the damage from SE has spread too far to handle surgically. Later, the SE diagnosis is rejected altogether when other organ systems begin failing in ways that cannot be explained neurologically - whatever it is, it's systemic. House has the patient moved to a clean room for fear of more virulent pathogens, but a final exam under infrared light reveals the markings of an erased tattoo. The ink from the tat was cleared form the surface, but still remained in the deeper layers of skin and when the patient began a regiment of distance running, it set off an allergic reaction that explained all of her symptoms.
Wilson and Alvie: Sam is moving into Wilson's apartment - this relationship is moving SPECTACULARLY rapidly. But the awkward dynamic between the couple and House cannot continue if they're to be happy. Wilson kicks House out of the Apartment and he returns to the scene of his previous darkest moments. There, he finds Juan Alvarez (his roommate at the psych ward) inexplicably tearing up his apartment and painting the walls a HIDEOUS color. After recovering from the violation of having his inner sanctum torn up and parts of it sold for paint money (LOL), House recollects his possessions (with some of Alvie's help) and takes Alvie along with him as he drags the PotW around town to track down her identity (ostensibly to protect his apartment from the crazy bi-polar dude...but we know better). Though it's awkward at first, House takes to Alvie all over again - he's a great distraction from the pain of seeing his other friends move on with their lives and leave him behind.
Wilson is worried...he comes to check on House and later offers to let him stay in their condo for a while until he can get comfortable and settled. House reacts to this offer with utter contempt because he knows it's not genuine - Wilson and Cuddy powwowed and decided that House couldn't handle living alone and couldn't be trusted to stay away from drugs without constant supervision. For all the good they've tried to do, his friends have not only moved away from him spiritually, but they've made him feel helpless too. Things only get worse when, after House does yet another good deed and lies to the INS and a judge to convince them that Alvie is indeed Puerto Rican and therefore a legal U.S. citizen, Alvie moves back to Phoenix to be with family and abandons House to his growing isolation and despair.
Alcoholism: During the session, Dr. Nolan observes that House has a large bruise on the back of his arm shaped like the steel tip of someone's boot. House admits that he got so drunk that he doesn't remember the incident, but assumes that he incited the attack at a bar somewhere. His self-destructive behavior has escalated...it seems he's no longer satisfied getting so hammered (alone) that he winds up in the bed of a neighbor's child - he now needs to incite bar fights to hurt himself further. Dr. Nolan poses the question: "What do you think you screwed up, House?" Wisely, he recognizes that when people self-destruct, there's always a reason they're angry with themselves. House admits, breathlessly, that he doesn't know why he's doing all of this. Unfortunately, after walking through this whole story and trying one last time to see some positive benefit from all of this therapy, House concludes that, the more he sees the things that are wrong with him, the more miserable he gets. He's tired of watching his friends and loved ones find happiness while he gets more depressed and he shows himself the door, ruefully saying, "Whatever the answer is, you don't have it."
SABR Matt's Ratings:
Writing: 10.0
Where the *hell* has this been all year?? Why haven't we gotten to see more of House and Nolan before now? Why didn't the show focus on the therapeutic process more often so that we could see how their doctor/patient relationship evolved? I know the show has to service the other characters too, but this is just further clarification for me that the other characters all pretty much blow compared to House (with the possible exception of Cuddy, but I think a lot of her appeal relates to House). House can carry a show all by his lonesome for many...many years. You know what else I notice? When House is the center of attention, the language gets higher (as in...becomes more literary and hefty), the dialogue crackles with resonance it lacks at all other times, the psychology gets significantly more realistic and accurate (watching the way the other characters evolve makes me ill on many occasions because it doesn't feel very believable, whereas House's mental status is absolutely brilliantly conceived and executed on a weekly basis)...everything just means more to me.
Acting: 9.5
I could bask in the greatness of Hugh Laurie all day. Specifically, in this episode, Laurie's heartrending despair at seeing himself ever more isolated from the people he loves becomes visually manifest on several occasions - first when he admits that he doesn't know why he needs to get drunk and pick fights, later when he reads Alvie's farewell note, and finally when he says (with grim cruelty) "to hell with this..." and walks out of Nolan's office, possibly for good. He and Lin-Manuel Miranda (Alvie) actually made quite an enchanting "couple" from a professional perspective...I could see them turning into great friends "odd couple" style and the acting would be fun to watch from both of them. Andre Braugher has also been very impressive in his actions and reactions as Dr. Nolan - it's a shame he hasn't had more screen time. The dead link in this episode was Robert Sean Leonard (he was doing a rather heartless Wilson impersonation this week, which was a bit disappointing and killed my perfect score hopes).
Message: 9.0
In this episode, we see the tremendous potential in House to do good for the people in his life - all coming from a romantic moralism that is often masked by self-destructive behavior and bitterness. He forces Alvie to face the INS and frees him of his fears of deportation with a little well-meaning trickery. He wants to be happy for Wilson and Sam - he even ANGRILY defends Wilson when Nolan tries to insist that Wilson's being a prick and wonders out loud why the two of them are even friends, saying "Wilson is NOT a consolation prize!" He helps save a marriage by pointing out the problem with the husband's demonstrative and clingy approach to re-inserting himself in his wife's shattered life. It is very refreshing to see House's better side forcing its way to the surface again after a year (5th season) spent in the darkness of creeping insanity. Unfortunately, his self-destruction is now free to resume at full speed, and I fear we will see House fall hard at least one more time before he can truly begin to heal, but episodes like these where House's unambiguous morality is on the display (rather than the highly dubious morality of his ducklings) are absolutely critical - we need to keep rooting for House as we watch him struggle with a major relapse in his depression.
Stephanie S's Ratings:
Writing: 10.0
Allow me to echo my brother's sentiment: where the heck has this quality of writing been all year? For whatever reason, the show runners have minimized House's centrality this season, and I think that has worked to the series' detriment. As I've observed in the past, it is in the characterization of House - and House alone - that the writers have approached true genius. They should have cleaved to their strength.
Ah, well. Now that I've got that reprimand out of the way, I can talk about what I love about this House-centric script. And I think I'm going to train my focus on the scene (highlighted below) featuring the competing visions of the off-screen conversation between Wilson and Cuddy because that scene represents, in miniature, the brilliance of the episode as a whole:
First of all, this scene has continuity. What's terribly sad about House's version of events is that it's not as far off the mark as Nolan believes it to be. Back in the early third season, Wilson and Cuddy did behave in precisely that way; they talked about House behind his back and tried to manipulate him into right behavior instead of treating him like an adult -- all from the best of motives, of course, but there's no question that House received the message that he was a "problem" that needed to be solved. I can't help but remember, for example, something House said while he was in rehab trying to escape Tritter: "People in my life have no expectations of me." Ouch. What a demoralizing thing to internalize. Of course House would assume that Wilson and Cuddy consider him in need of coddling.
Secondly, this scene - like the movie which kicked off this season - demonstrates the writers' magnificent grasp of real-life psychotherapy; at the very least, they seem to understand that modern psychologists have moved beyond Freud. Nolan here behaves like a supremely competent cognitive therapist. Recognizing that House's feelings are coming from his thought patterns, he attempts to change the thoughts - to challenge House's assumptions - to "turn on the lights" in House's mind.
Thirdly, this scene reminds us yet again how deeply House values his friendship with Wilson. I'll repeat: continuity! House's roar of protectiveness on behalf of his friend calls back House's selfless attempts to save Amber at the end of the fourth season - and that moment when he admitted in his own mind that he doesn't want Wilson to hate him.
Lastly, the entire scene is very cleverly presented. The style reminds one of Three Stories, actually -- and that's a good thing, as Three Stories is an absolute classic. Especially funny in this scene is House's insertion of Taub once he gets tired of Nolan's version of events.
An expert handling of House's history, a relatively realistic portrayal of modern psychotherapy, and a perfect balance between humor and serious character exploration - these are the three features that push this script to a perfect ten.
Acting: 10.0
I'm not going to hold back from giving this episode a perfect ten for the performances because it is really about the interaction between Hugh Laurie and Andre Braugher -- and, as my German friend remarked on my Live Journal, wonderful things happen when Laurie and Braugher are locked in a room together. The side players may or may not be quite up to par here; suffice it to say that I don't care either way. The two leads completely bowl me over -- particularly Laurie, who manages to break my heart in half on several occasions.
Message: 9.0
I agree with my brother here: it is definitely nice to see House's positive qualities come to the fore. I would add, though, that this episode may also be showing us the absolute limits of psychotherapy, and I think that too is a good thing. Psychotherapy certainly has its place, but I think, in the end, House's problems stem from a philosophical as well as a psychological dysfunction. Bottom line, I think House needs more than medication and talk therapy; he needs a full-on conversion. I doubt that these writers will take us all the way there, but it's nice to see them admit that the therapist's couch may not hold all the answers.
Highlights:
HOUSE: OK - therafy me.
NOLAN: (beat) You're late.
HOUSE: (quickly) You're fat. (LOL)
NOLAN: (interrupting House's irrelevant discussion about the patient) Why were you in the ER?
HOUSE: That's your question? I'm talking about a great amnesia case - one with many possible psychological causes, and you're asking about geography?
NOLAN: (doing a fabulous job looking bored) I am, yes.
HOUSE: I was avoiding Wilson. (beat) Don't look at me like that. He's a processor - there are certain things going on that I knew he'd want to analyze to death. (he leads with the irrelevant medical case to deflect from the major event, which comes out as an afterthought...Nolan immediately recognizes that the patient is meaningless except as she applies to House's thought process, but the personal stuff is where the pay dirt lies)
WILSON: I want you to move out. (stunned pause) I didn't realize things with Sam would move so quickly. I don't want to make a mistake here. I've made a lot of mistakes.
HOUSE: By moving too quickly. Given your usual rate of courtship, I'm surprised you're not re-divorced by now.
WILSON: I could help you find a place...
HOUSE: What's wrong with my old place?
WILSON: Nothing...just...I thought you might want to find somewhere...new. Somewhere you...
HOUSE: Somewhere I didn't abuse drugs and hallucinate?
WILSON: (long guilty looking pause) Yes. I'm just worried about you.
HOUSE: I'm fine. (break to Nolan's office)
NOLAN: You're fine? Your best friend kicks you out of your condo suddenly and you're fine?
HOUSE: Why wouldn't I be?
(credits roll)
NOLAN: You're not...a little angry? You don't feel a little betrayed here? Wilson bought a two-bedroom condo specifically so that you could move in with him. It wasn't that long ago.
HOUSE: He couldn't foresee Sam coming back into his life like that.
NOLAN: That's a very rational defense of your friend...and uh...I'm not buying it.
HOUSE: Based on what?
NOLAN: Based on the fact that you were late - because you didn't notice the artwork in the lobby.
HOUSE: Those aren't symptoms!
NOLAN: They are to me. And here's another one. You took the case.
ALVIE: I was beginning to wonder if you were ever coming back! You had me worried...su casa...mi casa...casa!
HOUSE: Why are you here??
ALVIE: When I left Mayfield, I went back to the old neighborhood. You know, you oughta lock your bathroom window.
HOUSE: Yeah, thanks for the safety tip. Why are you here??
ALVIE: Like I said - when I went back to the old neighborhood, I found out immigration was looking for me. So I decided to pay a visit to my old buddy House.
HOUSE: And turn his apartment into a giant prison jumpsuit.
ALVIE: Juan Alvarez is no freeloader. He pulls his weight when he moves in. The first week, I made you dinner, but you never showed. The next week, I organized your stuff.
HOUSE: My stuff?
ALVIE: But you still didn't show. I noticed the paint job you started - so I decided to pick up where you left off.
HOUSE: Where's my coffee table? The bedroom?
ALVIE: The paint is not cheap, House. It's a custom color - a mix between yellow and okra...okra...it's a fruit that I don't even like! I mean it's a fruit...with hair...
HOUSE: So you sold my coffee table without asking me for paint I didn't want?
ALVIE: I had to sell some other things too...(LOL! Poor House...)
HOUSE: Get out.
ALVIE: House...
HOUSE: I'm going to work now. When I get back, the walls will be a less exciting color and you'll be gone.
(cut to Nolan's office)
NOLAN: So, Wilson threw you out...and you threw Alvie out. Just a normal week?
HOUSE: But unlike me, Alvie didn't leave. I took my motorcycle to work that day, had to come back to get my car. When I got home, he was painting the ceiling magenta. Took him with me to protect the apartment.
NOLAN: Why?
HOUSE: To protect the apartment! Whoa...deja vu. (*snicker*)
NOLAN: Calling the police on him or locking him in the bathroom also minimizes Alvie's destructive force. But you chose his company...deliberately. Why?
HOUSE: Obviously because he's a Wilson substitute. You can hardly tell the difference. Especially when Wilson starts rapping about the hood. (BWAHAHAHA!)
NOLAN: Seizures?? This is the second diagnosis you've come up with that has a personal context for you.
HOUSE: I'm choosing my diagnoses bases on personal issues? Do you think she fell down the stairs and peed her pants because Wilson kicked her out too? (ROTFL! I love House's smart assery... :) )
NOLAN: Why is it so important that you get your stuff back?
HOUSE: Unlike the rest of humanity - who's OK when their belongings get taken. (heh) I like my stuff. Everyone likes their stuff, that's why it's their stuff.
NOLAN: Not everyone pays five times what it's worth.
HOUSE: So I wanted my stuff back!
NOLAN: Maybe when you lived with Wilson...
HOUSE: This is not about Wilson! (slams fist on the desk - there's a long pause) Say it.
NOLAN: (laughs) I wasn't going to say anything.
HOUSE: Listen, I set up an immigration hearing for you.
ALVIE: No! I'll end up in prison...or worse...the Dominican or Caracas or God knows where!
NOLAN: This is interesting...you present yourself as not caring about other peoples' emotions, and yet your actions tell a different story. (beat) You dismiss Alvie's story about his mother, but you go out of your way to schedule a hearing.
HOUSE: I cared for eight seconds. Then I got distracted. (right House...not buying it)
NOLAN: The thing that caused the change is gone...and now...the change itself is gone.
HOUSE: Yeah, I knew the psychological aspects of this case would interest you. I bet you've already got a theory right now. What is it?
NOLAN: It's not relevant.
HOUSE: What is it??
NOLAN: Why do you care about my theory?
HOUSE: I think he just bores her. She's in a less mature states - she's looking at her grown up life and it puts her to sleep.
NOLAN: If he just bored her, she'd hide it, pretend it wasn't true. Their problem is synchronicity, House, just like you and I. They're not on the same page. He deals with her from the perspective of someone who's been in a relationship with her for four years. But to her, he's just a stranger forcing intimacy on her without history. He can feel it too - he responds to the distance by pushing harder. Of course she doesn't like it - it's not helping. And he can feel she's slipping away - he may even lose her. (yes...Dr. Nolan is good at his job...nice to get that confirmed again)
HOUSE: Aren't you therapists supposed to be nurturing?
NOLAN: (coolly) Nowhere...is that in the manual. (HA!)
NOLAN: What's that?
HOUSE: (looks at his arm) It's just a bruise. I fell.
NOLAN: Do you remember falling?
HOUSE: No. I was drunk. Hence the balance issues.
NOLAN: But it looks like you fell...on the tip of someone's boot.
HOUSE: I said something that someone objected to.
NOLAN: Well if you don't remember, then how can you...
HOUSE: That's usually the way it is when someone hits me. People who kick when someone's down are jerks, but they're generally not irrational jerks.
NOLAN: You got drunk enough to get into a bar fight and not remember it...and you've been insisting that everything's fine? Why go out and get blind drunk? Were you looking for a fight?
HOUSE: (almost silently) I don't know.
NOLAN: What have you screwed up?
HOUSE: What?
NOLAN: You said when you've been hit in the past it was because you provoked someone. So you knew the risks. That means that on some level, you were in that bar looking for someone to hurt you. Logically people punish themselves for something they did, or something they didn't do. So what did you screw up?
HOUSE: (long...long pause) I don't know. (another very long pause) OK...there might be a problem here.
NOLAN: OK, so you think they talked. How do you think that conversation went?
(the scene unfolds as House imagines)
CUDDY: I'm worried about House.
WILSON: So am I.
CUDDY: This is the first time he'll be alone since Mayfield. You've gotta let him move back into the condo for a while.
WILSON: Sam and I just got him out of the condo.
CUDDY: You know House, Wilson - without constant supervision, he's going to slip back into drugs! If you're not watching him, then I've got to.
WILSON: Yeah...
(back to Nolan)
NOLAN: OK, so they don't trust you. That's what you believe. Are these their feelings or are they yours. (he gets up and starts turning on lights in his office) Let's...turn on the lights...in your brain. How do you know this conversation didn't play out like this?
(the scene plays out as Nolan imagines)
WILSON: I'm worried about House.
CUDDY: Why?
WILSON: It's the first time he's going to be alone since Mayfield - what if he gets himself in trouble again?
CUDDY: Oh, come on, you're being overprotective. He doesn't need to be swaddled in cotton cloth, he can take care of himself.
WILSON: I guess this isn't about him. It's just...I feel like a jerk!
CUDDY: Any particular reason?
WILSON: Yes, Sam and I will eventually want to be on our own, but I kind of sprang this on him. I didn't give him time to adjust. The proper way would have been to tell him to take all the time he needed to move out...that there was no rush. I need to fix this.
CUDDY: Well why don't you talk to him about moving back in for a while. Touch base.
TAUB: We have a consent issue.
NOLAN: Wait a minute...Taub's not here.
HOUSE: Yes he is.
TAUB: We have a consent issue with the patient.
NOLAN: What is Taub doing in my version of a conversation between Wilson and Cuddy?
HOUSE: Your version needed to be ended - because it's crap. A choice between darkness and light and you want me to choose light. (sarcasm) Yeah that sounds like Wilson.
NOLAN: I have as much evidence for my version as you do for yours. I know Wilson's your friend. So there's every reason to think he'd want to do right by you.
HOUSE: And I know Cuddy and Wilson have gone behind my back before to strategize about the 'House problem.' Colluding about me is their favorite pastime.
NOLAN: So there's truth in both versions...yet you choose to focus on the parts that make you uncomfortable. So - why are you and Wilson...friends? Do you think Wilson's the best you can do?
HOUSE: Wilson is not a consolation prize. (very heartfelt emotion here)
NOLAN: There...you're defending him. And a minute ago, he was skulking around in the background like some sort of manipulative Iago.
HOUSE: He's my friend.
NOLAN: So what do you value in him?
HOUSE: I can say whatever I want to him...and he'll never leave.
NOLAN: He's sort of leaving. At least, he won't be around as much. Because...he's putting Sam first.
HOUSE: For now. After the divorce, he'll probably ask me to move back in with him. I take the long view.
NOLAN: Did you say that to Wilson?
HOUSE: You kidding? That's the kind of remark that leads people to hit you. (LOL)
NOLAN: What happened next?
HOUSE: Nothing happened next. That's all I've got.
NOLAN: Relationships...
HOUSE: Bergman! What do you want me to say?
NOLAN: I don't know. You're the one who's got the thing. Something about relationships made you go out and provoke a fight. So what is it? Wilson and Sam have a relationship...you're not happy about it...
HOUSE: They're happy. Why should I screw that up? Everyone's happy. Everyone's moving in together. Wilson and Sam - Cuddy and Lucas - even Alvie is going home...
NOLAN: Wait a minute...Cuddy and Lucas are moving in together? You didn't mention that.
HOUSE: They've talked about moving in together before. It's not big news.
NOLAN: Cuddy...Cuddy...Approach to the Acute Abdomen...(types the book into a search engine)...written by Earnest D. Cuddy - any relation to your Cuddy?
HOUSE: Her great grandfather. I've had it for years - always meant to give it to her for a special occasion.
NOLAN: Like her housewarming?
HOUSE: It's just a gift! You want me to believe that's significant?
NOLAN: A gift for a woman you love who's taking one step further from you to be with someone else? Yeah...I think it's significant that you didn't mention this.
HOUSE: I'm not gonna go out and get hammered because of some woman I've never even been with. That'd be pathetic! (his face suddenly changes as he paces toward the door) To hell with this. When I first came to you, I told you that I wanted to be happy. I followed your advice...and instead I'm just miserable. How's this working for me?
NOLAN: It...takes time...
HOUSE: For a year I've done everything you asked, everything you told me I needed. You're a faith healer. You take advantage of people who want to believe. There's nothing in your bag of tricks. (he starts to leave - angrily)
NOLAN: House...
HOUSE: Whatever the answer is...you don't have it. (he slams the door behind him as he chillingly exits)
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