House – Episode 12 (Season Three): “One Day, One Room”
A change of pace in tonight’s episode. There was no grand medical mystery to solve. Instead it was a character show. I’ll admit it was a well done character show, but personally, my favorite parts have always been the medical aspects of the show.
The episode begins with House in the clinic as part of his payback to Dr. Cuddy. His first three patients are all concerned about sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). House tries to bribe patients to leave, but Cuddy isn’t very pleased with that plan. In the middle of their discussion, one of the patients in the waiting room stands up, grabs his head and starts screaming. He runs around the room screaming about how much his head hurts. House trips him and then injects him with medicine to calm him down — of course it turns out he didn’t inject him with a sedative, but instead a paralytic. This paralyzes his muscles, so he can’t run or scream. Unfortunately, as Cuddy points out, it does nothing to stop the pain, and it also paralyzes his respiratory muscles so he’ll need to be intubated. House convinces Cuddy to let him admit the patient so he can work him up. Foreman suspects the patient may have an acoustic neuroma, Chase thinks the patient may be psychotic, and Cameron mentions that the patient may have a severe ear infection and mastoiditis. House tells them all to run the appropriate (and expensive) tests, then he admits that he already knows the problem: the patient has a cockroach in his ear. He just admitted the patient to the hospital so that he could get out of working in the clinic.
When Cuddy finds out, she drags House back to clinic. Eventually, she offers him $10 for each patient he can diagnose without touching, but he will have to pay her $10 for each patient he has to touch to diagnose. This leads to several amusing scenes where House has patients use tongue depressors on themselves, check their own pulse, and diagnose their own rash.
The STD test results are back and House has to deliver the news to the patients. The first two tested negative. But the third patient, a young woman named Eve, has tested positive for chlamydia. Based on her reaction to the news, House realizes that she is a victim of rape. He goes to Cuddy and requests that a different doctor be assigned to the patient because — let’s be honest — being supportive isn’t one of House’s best skills. However, Eve feels differently and states that she only wants to talk to House. The two of them talk some more, but don’t come to much of an understanding, so House sends a psychiatrist in to talk to Eve. After talking to the patient for about an hour, the psychiatrist screams for a crash cart. It seems that when she was giving Eve a benzodiazepine sedative (the same family of drugs as Valium), Eve grabbed the whole bottle and took them all.
Eve is resuscitated and admitted to the hospital. After she wakes up, Eve tells House that she won’t try to kill herself again. She tells him that she just wants to talk. She asks if anything bad has ever happened to him. He tells her a story that when he was a child, his grandmother used to be an extremely strict — if not downright abusive — disciplinarian. Eve asks him if the story is true. He avoids the question, but finally admits that it isn’t necessarily completely true.
Cuddy pulls House out of the room and informs him that not only does Eve have chlamydia, but she is also pregnant. House tells Eve the news and recommends an abortion given the circumstances of conception. She tells him that she believes abortion is murder and that she could never go through with it. What follows is a long discussion, both within the hospital and in a nearby park, concerning God, suffering, life, and death. House confesses to Eve that his story about his childhood was true, only it was his father who was the disciplinarian, not his grandmother. At this point, Eve lets down her guard enough to finally talk about what happened to her.
There was also a side plot about Cameron admitting a homeless man terminally ill with lung cancer. He feels that he has wasted his life and he wants somebody to remember him so he decides to die without pain medication (and lung cancer is a very painful way to die) so that Cameron will remember him.
I have nothing bad to say about the medicine in tonight’s show, basically because there wasn’t much of it. The opening clinic scene was accurate: patients who are embarrassed about coming to the doctor for an STD frequently lie to the nurse about why they’re at the clinic. I also see this in patients with hemorrhoids and other problems “down there” — it’s usually a guy thing though. I’ve never had a female patient who wasn’t upfront about it.
I did have a couple of small nit-picks. First, why was House carrying around a syringe of a paralytic? If I were Cuddy that would worry me quite a bit. Second, why did Cuddy get mad at the pharmacist for not giving her a sedative quick enough? He can’t dispense it without an order and she never told him what she wanted. Third, those sedatives Eve took kicked in extremely quickly, unless the psychiatrist lied about when she took them. Finally, it didn’t look like Eve was under any sort of suicide precautions once she was admitted to the hospital.
The interactions between the main characters were clever. Each character gave different advice to House about how he should talk with Eve, and the advice differed wildly depending on who he talked to. The best was Chase’s “Keep her sedated.”
If I have one main complaint about the story, it was the use of the clichéd “traumatized person’s magic lie detecting skill.” Eve could magically tell when House wasn’t telling the truth, and then could miraculously tell when he finally told her the truth — and this is what allowed her to trust him enough to share everything with her. Please. This cliché is bad on any show, and House is a much better liar than that.
No grade for the medical mystery tonight since there wasn’t one. The medicine wasn’t bad, though there wasn’t much of it, and earns a B. The character interaction/soap opera was the highlight of the episode and deserves a solid A.
The previous House review
A list of all prior House reviews
Please remember that the name of this blog is “Polite Dissent” — emphasis on polite — so let’s try to keep all discussions cordial this week, particularly those concerning abortion and religion.
January 30th, 2007 at 11:18 pm
I thought this episode was interesting in that the writers (whether intentionally or unintentially) contrasted existentialism and transcendentalism by the contrast between House and Eve. House was extremely existential (he believed that the fact there is no afterlife makes our life on Earth extremely valuable), while Eve was extremely transcendental (she believed that logic does not have the answers for everything, in other words, her intuition in House transcended her reason). Just a thought.
January 30th, 2007 at 11:21 pm
“If I were Cuddy that would worry me quite a bit.”
Of all of House’s… quirks, that’s the one that is going to worry Cuddy? Hell, she probably gave him the syringe, just so he wouldn’t load his own, with who knows what.
January 30th, 2007 at 11:38 pm
I am displeased with the “House is the way he is because of his Deep Dark Secret Past”. I suspect, though, that whatever House told Eve at first, she would have accused him of lying about it. That she believed him later is less realistic, though she might just have decided to believe him so that she’d feel able to talk about what happened. Also, House was unusually poor at these lies — he was obviously lying when he told the grandmother story, and nearly as clearly not lying when he said it was his father. (Part of this is knowing how television works, but part was the way he did or didn’t look at her when he talked, etc. Normally House can fake this, and it was annoying that he didn’t. I am hoping that the next few episodes do not show him telling Wilson or Cameron about this.)
I thought House grabbed the paralytic from the pharmacy counter, though I cannot imagine why it was there.
January 30th, 2007 at 11:44 pm
First lesson of the day: Be nice to your pharmacist. Why? Because we have your address on file. *wink*
Anyway, it’s about time they deviate from the usual formula of the show and focus more on the characters. Eve turning into a human lie detector didn’t really bother me. I was just waiting for House to admit something. I found the philosophies to be very interesting. I won’t discuss my beliefs on here but I always like to hear 2 sides to every argument and this episode has provided some new perspectives on the good/evil, abortion and religion issues.
January 30th, 2007 at 11:52 pm
He opened up to her . . . something he does for almost no one. She just “felt right” around him. Anyone think this could be the start of another romance?
My main peeve with tonight’s episode was that I did not like the Cameran/Homeless Man side story. I said last review that they need to focus on the supporting cast, but . . . we already knew that Cameran was a compassionate woman and her actions were very predictable. I didn’t see the point in it and I think they could have used the time a little more wisely.
January 31st, 2007 at 12:04 am
I give the episode credit for trying to be different, instead of being yet another Mystery Disease of the Week show. But I’m not convinced they pulled it off.
The young woman’s denunciation of abortion as murder was a bit startling, especially in light of her suicide attempt (is she a right-to-lifer or isn’t she?). And then, by episode’s end, we’re told she’s agreed to terminate her pregnancy. Huh?
And the whole Dr. Cameron side plot with the dying old man seemed too half-baked to be satisfying. And unless I missed something, I was utterly stunned that a nurse would divulge to the patient the fact that Cameron was married to a man who was already dying of cancer.
January 31st, 2007 at 12:21 am
I liked the episode, but was extremely offput by Foreman’s sweater. Super awful.
January 31st, 2007 at 12:30 am
I thought the episode was quite good and am glad David Shore wrote another episode. That will stop coplaints about the writing this year (of course it won’t, but it should).
I was also waiting for House to go a bit further with his existential views. As “far” as he went, he still seemed to be holding back a lot. One of the strengths of the show is that they don’t give direct answers so much, but c’mon: this is an area House always goes on about, and has been touched on several times in the series already. Not having House go toe-to-toe with what was being presented seemed out of character. But maybe it will just have to rest under “she’s a rape victim” cloud.
January 31st, 2007 at 12:31 am
House grabs the paralytic from behind the pharmacist counter, he is not carrying it around.
January 31st, 2007 at 1:02 am
I dislike the show’s current direction, because I think it’s a mistake to treat House as a dramatic character instead of an iconic character. That is, by running him through these supposedly life-changing or relationship-changing arcs (the arrest, the rehab, child abuse, etc.), the writers are obliging themselves to make House grow and change realistically. I think House works better as an icon, like Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot: He’s just who he is all the time, doing his mystery-solving schtick consistently because we love to watch him do it.
I have a general question about the depiction of House and the Young Guns. House rattles off a list of symptoms, and then everyone instantly names ten different conditions that could explain it, and just as quickly shoots down nine of the ten suggestions. Nobody ever has to check a book or remind himself of anything. Is this true of real-world doctors? Do you just keep this entire database of medical conditions in your head at all times, without need for reference?
January 31st, 2007 at 2:10 am
This episode could have been a nightmare. But, they actually pulled it off quite ok.
For some reason I got paranoid and considered the possibility that the rape victim was an actor hired by Cuddy.
January 31st, 2007 at 2:35 am
Your reviews and the speed with which you get them up are both amazing. I’ve been obsessively checking back to see if you’d updated yet. I look forward to your opinions almost as much as the show.
I had a quick question though; I kind of loved the quick magnet moment with the little boy. Would that actually have worked though? Just like that?
Otherwise, I have to say, I had my nitpicks with the ep, but when all’s said and done I think it was a great one. I wouldn’t want them to keep doing ones without the medicine, but for one episode I think it worked really well.
Thanks!
January 31st, 2007 at 3:31 am
I daresay this episode darn near made up for the last one, if not the entire Tritter arc.
January 31st, 2007 at 3:36 am
as Black pointed out before, House grabs the paralytic from the counter. he does not have it on him.
@Allen, each of the doctors are specialists in their field, so it might be reasonable to expect them to know some of the various illnesses in their particular field. If we can sit down and calculate, 3 seasons x 24 episodes x 4 disease choices per episode we get 288 diseases. Each doctor need remember only 72 diseases and their symptoms :p ( so far )
Surely that is not that hard.
I also liked how tonights episode showed how a cockroach in the ear can be diagnosed in 3 different ways, depending on the doctors specialty :p
personally, i liked the episode as it was a very nice change with no actual medical drama. (some might argue that counseling is medical stuff, but still)
January 31st, 2007 at 4:55 am
Can you really get athlete’s foot in your nose?
January 31st, 2007 at 6:08 am
I liked everything in this episode except the A and B plots. The victim’s inexplicable attachment to House, stereotypical religious vs. atheist abortion discussion, House’s laziness about clinic work exaggerated to a ridiculous degree, Cameron’s dying patient who wants to be remembered…it just seemed like a bunch of cliched TV drama. (My roommate laughed at how bad some of the dialog was, and this is a guy who owns several seasons of Charmed on DVD.)
The clinic moments were very amusing, and everyone’s suggestions on “what to tell her” were true to form.
January 31st, 2007 at 6:49 am
A fairly good episode, could have been better IMO but still enjoyable.
January 31st, 2007 at 7:52 am
A nice change of pace episode, getting away from the formula.
I’m a little surprised that House didn’t bring up the fact that he owns Cuddy as much as she owns him. I’m not sure how much the AMA and Hospital Board would react to perjury.
January 31st, 2007 at 8:24 am
@Allen: Right on — I liked House as an icon better, but I think the writers are trying to add depth to his character to keep thing interesting. Still doesn’t mean I agree.
@Jakanapes: It’s mutually assured destruction; House mentioned it briefly to Cuddy. Cuddy is saying House owes her, and she knows House is a decent enough guy to recognize that.
I noticed House invalidated his own argument — he claims if there is eternal life then transient life is insignificant, but his “argument from pain” against the existence of God relies on events in this life having genuine weight, and therefore amounting to cruelty. Perhaps he is considering God and eternal life as conceptually separate, but that still doesn’t totally save his reasoning.
Meh, whatever. I got bored during the episode; I wasn’t thrilled by philosophical roundtable with House and friends.
January 31st, 2007 at 8:45 am
I don’t believe House when he bears his soul the second time any more than the first time. The woman does, but why should we? Look how he tricked Cuddy, with all the rehab sincerity.
I liked the fact that the writers had the woman had the abortion at the end, because that is what often happens in the real world, and so many TV shows end up with the woman miscarrying or saving the pregnancy, so they don’t have to deal with it. It did suprise me, though.
The clinic scenes are always fun. We didn’t get enough of them last year.
I was wondering how realistic it was to have a top doctor spending so much time with one patient, who was not ill, and even with having Cameron spending so much time with a patient who was dying. My sister was very ill and even she only saw her doctor a few minutes in the morning and in the evening.
Do they digitally enhance Hugh Laurie’s baby blue eyes? They are practically hypnotic. Or maybe I am just soft.
January 31st, 2007 at 9:12 am
I really liked this episode. Although the medical mystery episodes are always interesting, you begin to wonder how so many people with mysterious ailments wander into their hospital. It was refreshing to witness a day without a major case. After the Tritter arc and all the drama associated with it, this was a good respite/transition. I understand how the previous poster feels about making House too human, but I think I have to disagree. If he doesn’t develop and become more human, he will get annoying. Let’s face it, for all his brilliance and as much as we love his snarky manner, after a while, he could get on your nerves. Why would you want to watch a character who is that mean to people? You would grow to hate him. But when we once in a while get to see the human side of him and begin to understand what makes him tick, we don’t dislike him. They can’t do this too much or in every episode. But these brief moments or an episode like this, are good for the series, IMO.
My complaints about the episode echo those of others. The Cameron/homeless man story line was weak. I didn’t mind it, but it really didn’t serve much purpose. My other complaint is that Eve decided to have the abortion after her confession to House. Why? What about all the reasons she stated earlier not to have it? I would have bought it more if we had witnessed House convincing her in some way. While I believe that a woman who was raped would prefer to have an abortion, I think I would have bought it the other way around. That she wanted to abort it as soon as she found out, then later changed her mind and realized it was a human life. Maybe not, but I was a little perplexed when House said that at the end.
Still, overall, I thought it was a very good episode.
January 31st, 2007 at 9:30 am
Waiting for the next House ep reminds me of waiting for xmas as a kid…rarely disappointing when it finally arrives.
My good gorilla suit is in the cleaners, but I was able to find an old one for today.
January 31st, 2007 at 11:09 am
I just discovered this site and really enjoy the “House” medical reviews. It’s nice to see that other people like to contrast the drama with real life. I’ll never forget the first ER trauma I witnessed, when instead of paramedics bursting in, sprinting down the hall with a bunch of doctors hanging over the patient, they casually strolled into the ER trauma room and kindly asked if they were in the right place.
The drama in this episode did seem out of place, and I did not like the juxtaposition of Cameron’s subplot to the main “rape” plot. As for the medicine, I think the opening with House paralyzing that patient was another excuse for House to wield a needle, dramatically de-capping it with his teeth. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I can’t remember the last, or first, time I ever stuck that side of a syringe in my mouth regardless of cap. The magnet bit seemed kind of unlikely as well, perhaps the boy swallowed one of those super neodmium magnets, I imagine it might be possible.
The episode was, as always, quite entertaining regardless of any shortcomings.
January 31st, 2007 at 11:21 am
When Homeless Guy said he wanted to suffer so that somebody would remember him and that he wished he had done something worthwhile to be remembered for, Cameron missed the perfect opportunity to suggest organ donation. Surely even a dying homeless guy has some usable body parts? And he could always be a teaching cadaver afterwards.
January 31st, 2007 at 12:11 pm
I was disappointed at the lack of more medicine in the episode. I loves the athletes foot nose piece.
I was a bit surprised with the abortion thing. Would all doctors just assume the woman wants one?
As for the Cameron/Homeless guy (what was his name again ? :) ) It was interesting how Cuddy referred to that as her punishment. The purpose of including it in this episode is that it a learning experience for her in the same way that the rape victim was for House. But it was her learning to be more detached. A sort of conservation of a misery thing.
January 31st, 2007 at 12:12 pm
I think that the episode last night was slow and drawn out. I think was probably the worst episode to date, IMO. I almost turned it off half way through. I don’t think House would have wasted his time going back and forth with this patient. He would have pushed her off to another doctor and moved on to another case. He is not the “I’ll follow up later” type of doctor.
Lastly, does anyone else have a hard time with the fact that 4 doctors have all of the time in the world to hang out with patients? I know when I am sick or in the hospital (I had a run-in with a chain saw blade recently, 7 stitches). I have a hard time getting someone (especially a Doctor) to answer my questions let alone, sit and have a friendly chat about nothing. I think this really draws on the realism of the show.
Sorry, I’m off my soapbox now.
January 31st, 2007 at 1:17 pm
Official Comment
I’m somewhat relieved by the fact that House wasn’t carrying the paralytic around with him, but I’m still puzzled why an outpatient pharmacy would carry it at all, let alone leave it sitting out.
A fungal infection of the nose can happen, though it’s not common. Fungi like warm, moist, and dark environments — just like the nose. The nose has effective defenses, but once you start messing with them like that guy was, infections can happen.
Allen,
The show is pretty accurate in it’s portrayal of the doctor’s brainstorming sessions. We used a similar whiteboard approach in medical school and residency: listing all the symptoms and circling those that seem to correspond. As a primary care doctor, I can spout out quite a few diagnoses. If I were a specialist like House and the Young Guns, I could remember even more in my area of expertise, so it’s not unrealistic that they seem to know so many diseases and conditions off hand.
The magnet is possible but unlikely. It would have to be a strong magnet (neodynium or some such); a regular refrigerator magnet wouldn’t be strong enough to reach through at least two layers (skin and intestine). THe real danger comes when two or more of the powerful magnets are swallowed. They can thin stick together through different parts of the intestine causing a real mess and a surgical emergency. How sure are you that the kid only swallowed one magnet? Remember “people lie”. I’d still get the x-ray.
January 31st, 2007 at 1:59 pm
It is not irrational for some people to believe suicide is ok but abortion isn’t. If you think all life is sacred then you would be against both but if you believe in the principle that each of us owns ourselves then we have a right to do whatever we want with our property but not somebody else’s.
January 31st, 2007 at 2:16 pm
The episode was decent. I really like that it was a departure from the traditional House formula. They should do more of that.
And god damn, Wilson had his greatest line ever in this episode: “Are we role-playing? Am I you? I don’t want to be you.” I can’t really replicate Leonard’s perfect delivery here. I had to pause my TiVo and laugh for about a minute straight, then run it back to laugh at it a second time.
January 31st, 2007 at 3:42 pm
I don’t get why some people liked the House plot, but not the Cameron plot. They go hand in hand.
House gets a patient that’s just like Cameron. She’s a damaged but idealistic young woman who forges an immediate but initially incomprehensible attachment to House. House lets his guard down for once and discovers that their shared pain connects them.
Cameron gets a patient who’s just like House. He’s an older man with a scruffy chin who clings to his pain as part of his self-criticism. Cameron for once has to stop trying to fix everything and just deal with the presence of pain.
Between the almost surreal (to me) parallelism and the fact that House and his patient went for a walk away from the building, I half expected that the whole episode would be a dream.
January 31st, 2007 at 4:27 pm
I did like that she got an abortion. This is the only show on television where there are unexpected (and unwanted) pregnancies by young women where they have abortions (there was also one in the first season) instead of either miraculously changing their minds or having a miscarriage. (See, for example, Gilmore Girls — as far as I know, the actor isn’t herself pregnant.) Whether it’s realistic or not (I think it is, actually), it doesn’t hide abortion away as a reality of life.
January 31st, 2007 at 5:07 pm
To people complaining about House’s character becoming more developed and human and stuff, rather than iconic – it’s been that way since the very beginning. The pilot had House having a heart to heart with a young woman who wanted to just die, and had him confess that he hoped he was dying when he had the infarction. The first season ended showing that experience. The second season opened with “Autopsy” in its second episode, which had House looking deeply effected by the 9-year-old cancer patient’s optimistic and selfless attitude, and ended with House saying, “I want meaning!” This episode is nothing new – it’s just further exploration of themes that have been there from the beginning.
X, you said, “I noticed House invalidated his own argument — he claims if there is eternal life then transient life is insignificant, but his “argument from pain” against the existence of God relies on events in this life having genuine weight, and therefore amounting to cruelty. Perhaps he is considering God and eternal life as conceptually separate, but that still doesn’t totally save his reasoning.”
I see your point, but I still think House’s view makes sense. He says that if there is eternity, than human life is insignificant the way that bugs are insiginificant to the rest of the universe. God causing or allowing human suffering becomes like a kid burning ants under a magnifying glass. There is suffering, and on top of that, the suffering is insignificant and needless. Insult to injury. There are flaws in the argument, but there are flaws in teh arguments against it too… Obviously it’s something there are no answers to, which is why people have been arguing the same points for thousands of years…
January 31st, 2007 at 6:14 pm
“House gets a patient that’s just like Cameron. She’s a damaged but idealistic young woman who forges an immediate but initially incomprehensible attachment to House. House lets his guard down for once and discovers that their shared pain connects them.
Cameron gets a patient who’s just like House. He’s an older man with a scruffy chin who clings to his pain as part of his self-criticism. Cameron for once has to stop trying to fix everything and just deal with the presence of pain.”
John, I think you hit the nail on the head. I couldn’t figure out the Cameron sub-plot (probably too caught up in the rape thing) but your explanation makes perfect sense. I did notice that the relationship between House and the rape victim was similar to his interaction with Cameron, but I missed the other half of the equation. The cranky, unshaven old man definitely showed some House-like characteristics.
Concerning House’s patient, I was almost afraid to watch this episode. I am a Certified Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Professional, which means I work with rape victims for a living. To me, rape on TV is often unrealistacally portrayed. As it turned out, I was impressed. The young woman behaved in many ways like other victims I have worked with, and House behaved like, well, House. It was sad at times to watch but I thought it was quite well done.
January 31st, 2007 at 6:21 pm
“Anyone think this could be the start of another romance?”
Yeah… if Eve wants to have sex with House, it’ll be for REAL healthy reasons. I suppose it’s possible (maybe even likely statistically, don’t know, not a rape counselor), but that would be extremely creepy. I’m talking man lifting weights with scrotum creepy. Centimeter deep corneal scratch creepy. The Dentist 2 creepy.
January 31st, 2007 at 6:57 pm
House’s statement regarding magnets was wrong and potentially dangerous.
As the MMWR recently published, http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5548a3.htm
January 31st, 2007 at 8:07 pm
Great episode. I thought House met his intellectual equal, who was able generally to see through him in a way most aren’t (Cuddy and Wilson often think they do, but are often wrong). I have no idea if a relationship is going to develop between the two (it’s fine with me either way), but I think it’s a neat dynamic anyway. Indeed, I assume that’s why the writers had her repeatedly insist on having House treat her: she respected his candor and honesty, and knew she could *trust* him (even when he was lying to her, if that makes any sense). She had no interest in being molly-coddled or patronized, as the others kept advising him to do.
One more positive: I liked the abortion debate, and House’s insistence that she terminate. Rare on an American TV show trying to maintain commercial sponsors to have the “hero” recommend abortion, and make a cogent argument in favor of it, in this charged and increasingly conservative country. Regardless of where the viewer stands (and both sides of the debate were explained, albeit briefly), I respected them having the moral courage to actually confront the issue on prime time TV.
One negative. House is usually shocking and unorthodox, but rarely does he act in profoundly unethical ways that put patients in danger. He did here. I thought his offer of $50 for any patients willing to leave was irresponsible, outrageous, and profoundly out of character. Asking patients to make sensitive cost-benefit decisions in that context, when they don’t know what, if anything, is actually wrong with them, would get him in hot hot water (with real consequences), it seems to me.
January 31st, 2007 at 10:41 pm
I disagree (politely) with the other posters here who said that the Cameron subplot had no meaning. It had plenty of meaning, especially in light of the main plot, which discusses the purpose and meaning of life. While House and his patient argue over meaning when bad things happen to good people, Cameron’s patient also struggles for meaning. He wants to be remembered after a life of loneliness. He wants his life to mean something to someone, and he is doing it in the only way he thinks he could.
February 1st, 2007 at 12:48 am
To put it as succintly as possible, as an atheist who strongly opposes abortion and was looking forward to the medical mystery, I hated the episode.
February 1st, 2007 at 9:28 am
In looking at both of the plots (Cameron and House), there is indeed an excellent philosophical debate in this episode. For those interested in this thread, I would recommend reading the work of Emmanuel Levinas and the ethical works of Jacques Derrida.
Both work under the model of an ethics that is not based on a set of moral precepts (a la Kant) or on the fulfillment of a progressive “self” (like Heidegger, Hegel, or most of the existentialists. Levinas theorized that these sorts of approaches towards behaving ethically ignore the innate relationality of humanity and posit death as an absolute totality, despite the fact that, at least in the minds of those left behind, that “life” continues in a phenomenological way.
Levinas argues that the movement of a “self’s” life towards death DOES create anxiety (similar to Heidegger), but rather than heading towards a synthesis, there is a continual approach of the self by “Others”. When confronted by others in need, their need forces a “moment of astonishment” where the self must recognize or deny the mortality and need of the other. Recognition of the other’s mortality calls on the self to memory and action of the other without just making it part of the self’s story (what Levinas calls “saying”).
In House’s narrative, we see how House is confronted with someone who is wholly different than he is (female, religious, raped), but her need also makes him aware of how he also contains a like hurt and need. This is why House feels inextricably pulled back. He has recognized the other in him and feels the pull of responsibility, making the interchange between Cuddy and House most telling when he asks if we should help everyone who suffers and Cuddy replies that we might start with those near us. In order to fulfill this responsibility, House must “open himself” (Levinas’ words) to the other without subsuming the other, something he struggles to do throughout the episode.
In Cameron’s narrative, we get the other side of Levinas’ ethical mode, the responsibility in the face of the dying other. Notice all of the shots of the homeless man’s face as he suffers and dies. Cameron wants to do the normal ethical acts in response. She was to eliminate/quiet his expression and feeling of his suffering, but the man does not want this. She wants to give him exterior things. He wants her to recognize and remember his as an expressive, and dying, individual. This focus on remembrance lies at the heart of Levinas’ ethics. We must look at the “face of the other”, recognize it as another, like us but not us, and acknowledge our responsibility.
Of course, I could just be projecting my dissertation onto everything around me, but it seems like writers might be familiar with Levinas’ “God, Death, and Time” and Derrida’s “Of Hospitality” and “The Gift of Death”.
February 1st, 2007 at 9:39 am
@Scott
LoL. Guess this episode substracted a bit of your value. I always drop by to get your opinion on the plausibility of the medicine. This episode had hardly any to speak of :)
Don’t worry though. You’re still tops.
Frankly, I’m disappointed. Can’t they push the house-rape victim story into a side-plot through two regular episodes (like they did with the house-crazy chick)?
I agree with Amber about the Cameron subplot (I nearly posted the same thing). But after all’s said and done… I still think it was a waste of time. Gimme a good med mystery any day.
February 1st, 2007 at 9:48 am
Official Comment
Benmast,
It did make for a much quicker post to compose and reference than usual. I’m not sure that’s necessarily a bad thing…
February 1st, 2007 at 1:04 pm
I’m more of a reader than a commentator. I just got to jain’s comment and i must admit that was the hillarious thing ever. Surely, there is not enough cadaver around especially for us in the UK. We struggle to fighd a decent cadaver to be used for anatomy session. If only Cameron offered this option to the homeless guy.. (I like the ethics issue as well, it can well be used as an argument for my next ethics classes.
February 1st, 2007 at 1:07 pm
The main thing I noticed was when Foreman says it took 5 ccs of Haloperidol to sedate tha guy after the paralytic wore off. In most meds you have different amounts of milligrams per cc, so the proper thing would have been to say how many milligrams, not ccs.
Also someone stated that they couldn’t remember the last time they used their teeth to uncap a syringe. When your hands are busy trying to hold down a patient and give an injection then the teeth work very well to get the cap off. By the way, lorazepam tastes really nasty if you get it on your lips.
February 1st, 2007 at 1:30 pm
I thought this episode of House was a little boring (though I missed the first 10 minutes, admittedly), definitely more of a character study than the show’s usual fare. I do, admittedly, rather like the instances where we see that House is human (”I need someone to cover a patient”, etc), but focusing most of the episode on Eve and making House talk was…odd.
With regards to the needle and teeth thing- my doctor actually does that, which I found rather odd. I had to get vaccinated and since I’m old enough to know better, I didn’t need to be restrained in any way. He’s also one of the best doctors in the county, however (he reminds me a little bit of House, actually), so I guess good doctors do that sort of thing in reality?
February 1st, 2007 at 2:39 pm
I started watching “House” after the World Series, got obsessed, bought Seasons 1 and 2, have now watched every episode (except for the first four from this season that I’ve missed), and have become a regular reader of this blog. It’s become my favorite show, and I got my wife (who was hesitant to watch another TV show) to watch, and she’s now convinced it’s a great show.
This, to me, was one of the best television shows I’ve ever seen, and I watched it twice. Maybe I’m an easy mark for a good drama, and I’m not a doctor, but there are two things I’ve not seen in any of the previous posts.
The first is the chemistry between House and the girl. Extraordinary. Hugh Laurie is obviously a terrific actor, and I thought she matched his ability in every scene. She was passionate and believable throughout, as he always is, and if you aren’t incredulous about the melodrama (which I tend to usually not be), both stories (hers and the cancer patient) were emotional and thought provoking.
Secondly, the title of the episode, “One Day, One Room,” which was House’s closing line in the show, explains the entire premise of both stories, doesn’t it? She said (paraphrasing) we’re all products of who we come in contact with and we’re sort of locked in a room with that person for a certain part of our lives, whether it be an hour, day, week, years, etc. Those people effect our lives for certain, and sometimes we know it, sometimes we don’t. That day, or however long the duration was supposed to be, with House changed her life forever. That journey of conversation they had, changed both of their lives. House spoke about the parental abuse to her, something he obviously had not divulged to us, and I suspect is something the character has never divulged to anyone. She got to him, as Cuddy said, she wanted him to find some humanity. He did, in a big way, and learned something about himself, just as we, the viewers did. The same for Cameron, she WILL remember the man, and in his dying hours, she effected his life as well, “One Day, One Room”
This show was remarkable. You have to be looking for much more in a drama, have unrealistic expectations, or be trying to connect to something that isn’t there, not to appreciate this particular episode. If they submit programs for Emmy consideration, my guess is the producers will submit this one, and if they do, it will win. In my humble opinion.
February 1st, 2007 at 6:09 pm
Ron, I’m not sure it’s exactly right to say that their “journey of conversation” *changed* their lives, except to the extent that every “room” one is stuck in with another person could be said to “change” one’s life. I think the point is just that, for at least this brief period, they were stuck with another person of like intelligence, wit, and perception, and it *contributed* to their lives. She sensed that House was trying to avoid sharing the “room” with her, and refused to allow it. Like you, I thought it was a brilliant episode, and while I don’t know if it was one of my favorites, it was *way* better than the recent Tritter episodes. To this viewer, at least.
Also, regarding the possibility of organ donation (or cadaver donation, I guess) as satisfying the patient’s search for significance, come on. We may, as a society, think that organ donation is noble and significant. We may even think that as individuals. But wanting to me remembered as the original host of a kidney now beating in someone else is worlds away from wanting to be remembered as a *person*. As it happens, due to the nature of an hour-long show, I do think they shied away from the real significance of his choice, which would have resulted in far more that twenty seconds of less-than-debilitating pain. But the story-line still raised interesting subjects — namely, how DO we make an effect on a world beyond our connections with others, and why do we want to?
February 1st, 2007 at 7:38 pm
Heh, here I thought that only vets and horse people put needle caps in their mouths. I haven’t tasted any drugs yet, but a friend once won herself an express ticket to the ER by getting a little xylazine in her mouth (syncope due to heart block).
I liked the episode, but I don’t have anything to add to the thoughtful posts above.
February 2nd, 2007 at 3:01 am
@John the Shipper, thank you for that comment :D i just missed that comparison :)
February 2nd, 2007 at 10:10 am
This episode was an interesting change of pace. If any university-level drama students saw it I think the House/Eve scenes would make an interesting one act play. Great character work, great dialog.
February 3rd, 2007 at 10:01 am
I have really enjoyed reading these posts — as much as watching the show “House” itself. I’m not sure I can add anything more to what has already been said here, but I simply add my own affirmation of this episode. I thought it was different than the usual format, showed some depth in House’s character, and created some interesting dialogue not just between House and Eve, but even here in these posts. I found it a very moving and heart-felt episode. Worth seeing again. It also, I think, helps the viewers themselves hear the moral, philosophical issues from both sides in a non-threatening environment and helps them (hopefully) to search inside for a defining of their own beliefs. Great job by all!
February 3rd, 2007 at 11:36 am
small niggle…. she was raped less than a week and she is pregnant? is that possible?
February 3rd, 2007 at 12:49 pm
The Cameron/Homeless guy thing has more to it than people seem to be noticing. One way this could lead is
to Cameron’s exit from the show or to some sidestory where she realises she’s not strong enough to be a doctor.
It may even simply be the end of “bitchy Cameron”. They seemed to be trying to contrast her interaction with this
patient to her interaction with the dying woman she made friends with in season 2. Showing the metamorphosis she
has went through.
Great episode.
February 3rd, 2007 at 3:30 pm
Allen Varney raised the point, way up-thread, that House & the cottages have perfect recall of an awful lot of material. Even for the most obscure cases, once the rare cause is worked out, one or two of them are ready to step in with the minutiae of the condition, it’s history, prognosis, treatment, and the birthday of the first physician to describe the condition.
I do accept that these are hot-shot specialists, and of course that seeing someone say “umm, I’ll look that up” doesn’t make for well-paced TV. However, I loved the first season (perhaps even the first episode) when we saw House poring through stacks of books late at night, trying to diagnose a tricky patient. All I ask is that once in a while someone is caught in the middle of heavy reading, not just filling out paperwork or playing on their handheld.
February 3rd, 2007 at 6:32 pm
HouseFan, of course it’s possible to be pregnant a week after being raped! 3 to 5 days after fecundation (2 days, max, after sexual contact). It may be hard to “diagnose” it though, since HCG hasn’t been produce in enough quantity I think – Scott?
February 3rd, 2007 at 8:23 pm
Gary: When there is no case pending, Cameron is usually to be seen with her laptop, presumably either writing up cases for publication or reading journals. When we saw her at her apartment in season 1, she was reading a journal. I can recall a couple of scenes when they needed to look up a particulary hard case and all three of them had the books out.
This episode was definitely more philosophy ebate than medicine. I too thought that Cameron should have offered the Homeless Guy the option of being an organ donor. He would not only be remembered by the recipients and their families, he would have proved to his father that he is indeed worth something by helping others.
The rape victim taking the whole bottle of pills just because she wanted to talk to one doctor and got another struck me as an indication of a possible personality disorder although she settled down later.
How could she have gone home after her abortion? Wouldn’t she be on a psych hold after taking the pills?
February 3rd, 2007 at 8:26 pm
Scott: I see by your bio that you served as a physician in the Air Force. How realistic was House’s depiction of the abuse from his father, a Marine pilot? Would it have been excused by “stern military discipline” in the 60s and 70s, or is it genuinely abusive?
February 3rd, 2007 at 10:29 pm
I have do admit, I agree with Allan about the issue of dramatic vs. iconic characters, but honestly, I’m less annoyed with that (iconic characters can have *some* dramatic plots without wrecking them) than with the particular, clichéd, hackneyed choice that they took with it. I was really hoping that they’d pull what they pulled with the rehab thing and just gone, “Psych!” Sometimes, personalities are just the way they are.
February 4th, 2007 at 7:24 pm
Ugh. May I express my severe disappointment at the abuse revelation? It’s just so over-done, and I frankly like House being House because he’s House, the summation of all the little things that have happened in his life, rather than it all coming down to one big Secret Tragic Past. It leaves too much room for House to be “fixed”, also, and while I like that House has some humanity and depth, at least 50% of why I watch the show is to watch Hugh Laurie be a snarky, inconsiderate, whip-smart jerk. He says things to people I sometimes wish I could say, because I really, really want to call them on being utter morons, but can’t. (Plus things seem to be leading towards some sort of real House/Cameron romance, and even though she annoys me a lot less now, the concept turns my stomach.)
I was also thrown a little by Eve’s “all life is sacred” speil upon finding out that she was pregnant, given her very recent suicide attempt. (Although, correct me if I’m wrong, but I take benzodiazapines on a regular basis (clonazepam, for anxiety, along with methylphenidate for ADD and (off-label) for depression (yeah, it’s a weird combination, I know)), and so far as I know benzo overdoses on their own are unlikely to be fatal (though they’ll put you in a coma), and only become fatal when combined with another CNS depressant, such as alcohol. But then, maybe she knew this and just thought it would get House’s attention? Or didn’t know what she was being given?) However, the episode was extremely well acted, and at least there was very little room to screw up the medical information (like they did previously with the ECT, something else I’m pretty familiar with. WTF).
February 5th, 2007 at 3:16 pm
This is one of those episodes that gets better with subsequent viewings. I especially appreciate the willingness; courage even, of the writers to tackle such politically charged subjects with so much rationality. All too often such subjects as rape, abortion and suffering are barely broached before being immediately wrapped in purile, swooning political correctness.
The parallels between the dying patient and House get more interesting the second time through, also.
Hey, Scott: Regarding the ‘athelete’s foot of the nose’ patient; Can any contact with nice, moist mucous tissues or squamous cells cause the fungus to spread? How about to the eyes? Could it explain some cases of dandruff, even?
February 6th, 2007 at 1:23 am
I was very impressed at the realization of some of the posters that the Old Man Who Has No Family Or Friends And Has Never Had A Real Job is Gregory House, the same character in both analyses. I wasn’t able to get that immediately. The difference is that the Old Man is embracing his pain, while House is still on Vicodin. So this is House Of The Future, if he never changes.
They both avoid “real life”.
In Pain.
The writers of the show probably thought of the Organ-Donor idea, but that would have subtracted from the power of his death. It’s so scary. A total waste of life, desparately clinging on to meaning. Nothing redeeming about that part of this show. Whoa.
February 6th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
Scott, I was really glad you added the comment about the magnets in your subsequent comments. I was shocked that the writers treated so blithely the case in this episode where the kid had swallowed a magnet, since numerous kids have been injured, and even three died as a result of magnets perforating their bowels, twisting their intestines and causing necritis, and more (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12085898/). In most cases the magnets had passed into the intestines by the time the kids showed any signs of trouble. House conjectures that since the magnets have traveled out of the kid’s stomache and into the intestines, there is no cause to worry. Not true-to-life at all (but funny in the episode!).
I’m not usually a viewer to rip on the medicine in the episodes–I suspend my disbelief pretty liberally when it comes to that aspect of House–but for some reason the magnet stuff bothered me. Maybe ’cause my nephew swallowed a magnet last year and it caused us a tremendous scare!
February 6th, 2007 at 5:33 pm
Lots of interesting comments here and one I’d like to touch on:
‘While I believe that a woman who was raped would prefer to have an abortion, I think I would have bought it the other way around. That she wanted to abort it as soon as she found out, then later changed her mind and realized it was a human life.’
I disagree. I was raped, at the time I was just coming off Depo-Provera and my period hadn’t returned so I assumed that I wasn’t ovulating. I found out I was pregnant two months later and didn’t know if it was the rapist’s or my boyfriend’s. I wanted to keep it in case it was my boyfriend’s but at the same time I also knew I wouldn’t want it if it turned out to be the rapist’s because it would be an everlasting reminder of what had happened. I ended up miscarrying and was glad because it took my choice/responsibility away. I’m pro-abortion but it’s not something I would personally do under normal circumstances, but I would have in that case.
February 8th, 2007 at 10:26 am
Readzalot: I can’t find it at the moment, but I once saw a Hugh Laurie site
where one of the first entries on the FAQ was “Yes, his eyes really are that blue.”
February 25th, 2007 at 3:16 am
I saw a parralel between House and the dying man. Both had fathers that told them they would never amount to anything. The dying man believed his father, and he bacame nothing. House defied what his father said, and he became something great. When his father visited, he treated House like he was nothing. Both had horrible fathers. Each man went a different direction, but both sons were still treated the same at the end.
March 13th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
Was anyone else annoyed at House’s argument for abortion? If there’s one thing I’ve noticed about House’s character, it’s that despite what he may say he truly cares about human life. I could understand him being pro-choice, but I’ve never heard a pro-choice person refer to abortion as “killing”. That seems like something he’d be against. I just thought they should’ve explored the other options, like adoption. If that happened and THEN they settled on abortion, I would’ve been more pleased. I thought the writing for this episode was absolutely horrible and anti-character.
March 15th, 2007 at 9:19 am
Shortly before this episode aired,there was an incident in Canada of an overworked ER doctor who offered to pay the patients to leave.
The story made the media, and the doctor explained that he was “only joking”.
June 1st, 2007 at 6:01 pm
I think the writer(s) made a big mess with the Eve character.
First she tries to commit suicide but when she finds out she’s pregnant and House suggests she should get an abortion she says she won’t because every life is precious and that God is testing her.
If she had that view point why did she try to kill herself? Makes no sense, except, of course, that a rape victim is not in her right mind for a while but that’s a weak argument since she seems to feel very strong about her religious beliefs.
June 9th, 2007 at 4:10 am
[...] Season 3 : One Day, One Room [...]
August 1st, 2007 at 9:16 am
I was extremely disappointed by this episode. The writing was terrible. The “character portrait” of House was cliched, bland, and completely contradictory to the (very rich) character he actually is.
For a rape victim with a steadfast belief in God, she was unrealistically lucid about her faith, explaining it to House, and her sense of the world (and, as has been pointed out, impossibly perceptive and rational about understanding human behavior – House’s, no less).
The idea that House would talk about his past with any kind of hurt or shame boggles me. He deals with death on a daily basis, and dishes the worst news in unglier-than-necessary packages to suffering people constantly. And we’re supposed to believe that a person who is just another patient would reach him in a point that he would reveal his hurt to her…hurt from a mean dad?
Nevermind that House let himself be cornered into logic traps that his character is far, far, far too smart to fall victim to; Eve’s (overacted) interrogatives and assertions that humans are irrational* were all, each and every one of them, basic fallacies and non-sequiturs that a person with the logical and ethical reasoning prowess of House should be able to pierce in an instant – regardless of my personal philosophies.
House has seen people suffering much, much more than one pretty little rape victim. Why the hell should she “reach” him, with nothing more than bogus theology, a pretty face and a strained voice on her side?
Please.
*What she meant was the humans act irrationally – if humans were irrational, then they couldn’t be understood. The existence of House’s profession and his experience alone disprove that ridiculous assertion. Few things will piss your audience off more than making your smart characters dumb for them.
August 1st, 2007 at 10:28 am
Hate to rant*, but I should probably elaborate on the above -
First off, Cuddy’s “punishment” for Cameron (forcing an emotionally vulnerable doctor to spend time with a terminal patient who is inches from death) is an astonishing display of emotional manipulation and cruelty that utterly betrays Cuddy’s character.
Similarly, House’s “pay-you-to-go-away” schtick was way too over-the-top, even for House.
The whole time that Eve tries to show how House doesn’t want to open up seems to gently ignore the fact that the reason why she’s even talking to him is because she herself refuses to open up to ANYONE.
House’s argument for abortion was decent but paltry. A man as concerned with saving lives as he is would most certainly have pointed out that the other factor that separates abortion from outright murder is the fact that while the humanity of the fetus is arguable at best, the humanity of the mother is unquestionably not. In fact, he’s used that exact line of reasoning to convince a woman to abort a fetus that was killing her in another episode.
House didn’t nail Eve on her “all life is sacred” hypocrisy. She clearly wanted there to be retribution for her attacker.
Also, she openly admitted that she clings to her belief in God because she can’t accept that things in life have no ultimate value. First off, House has shouted “Coward” at people for less, nevermind that admitting you cling to faith like a teddy bear because you’re scared is pretty much the apex of intellectual-emotional cowardice.
Secondly, the fact that things in the universe have no INNATE value (House’s assertion) does not mean they have no ultimate value, since we humans ascribe value to all things (it is literally how our brains function on a physical, molecular level). That House didn’t immediately point out that strawman and subsequent non-sequitur is hugely disappointing and a major contradiction of his character.
The only accurate part of House’s character sketch this episode was when she got him talking on the ethics of science – something that clearly got him talkative and excited. That’s House’s character.
Are we supposed to suspend all our expectations of his actions because this girl “reached” him somehow? Why? How? What made her special over all the other suffering patients (many of whom suffered much, much worse)? What made him even agree to keep talking to her?
At the very least, that last part merits EXPLORATION if not an answer – but it got neither. I refuse to believe that in all his years of dealing with the most dire of medical cases (his best friend is an oncologist, for chrissake), this one pretty face touched him where all the others didn’t.
And she is not his intellectual equal, not by a longshot.
August 1st, 2007 at 10:29 am
*That was a total lie.
August 17th, 2007 at 8:58 pm
“I think the writer(s) made a big mess with the Eve character.
First she tries to commit suicide but when she finds out she’s pregnant and House suggests she should get an abortion she says she won’t because every life is precious and that God is testing her.
If she had that view point why did she try to kill herself? Makes no sense, except, of course, that a rape victim is not in her right mind for a while but that’s a weak argument since she seems to feel very strong about her religious beliefs. ”
Commit suicide with pills in a hospital…
cry for attention I hear the crowd say
September 5th, 2007 at 5:03 am
Eve was admitted to the hospital and her arms were bound to the hospital bed…. that is until House undid them to chat with her. She had at least that as a suicide precaution.
September 14th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
I admit, that I don’t like seeing this aspect of House either. However, I must point out to all the commenters above who’ve said “Why does one pretty-faced patient get to him when plenty of other suffering patients did not?” Knowing House’s character, it seems obvious that he would just ignore her, because nothing is forcing him to be there. House did that originally. But after she took the pills, and seized, that’s what brought House to her, to stay there. He never wanted to be there, and he didn’t want to leave, because she might try to kill herself again…and succeed. (Another possible reason why he didn’t shoot down her illogical statements)
House is still human in those regards.
It was never really his intention to open up to her. He disguised the abuse with his grandmother, then even after she “saw through it” he made it seem that it never happened to him “it’s true for somebody”. And up until the end he was thinking what to tell her, not because it was emotionally hurtful for him, but because she was “looking to extrapolate something”. He didn’t want to tell her anything without considering what she was looking for.
In conclusion, I think this episode just sort of disguised House’s true character, and that he is a static character in the series.
This of course is just my opinion. Feel free to destroy or praise it as you please.
September 26th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
Thank you for this terrific site!! My thoughts on iconic/static vs. character arc: the problem is that House is not only the protagonist, but to some extent the POV character, the hub of the whole wheel and, as a dynamic protagonist (one we see react to personal events, not only in the context of the central mystery of each episode) he’s got to get the plot under his skin now and then.
This doesn’t necessitate his going through a soap-operatic character reversal, though -it would be smart to lift the veil, peel a layer here and there, but leave it all ambiguous, enigmatic, so that House, the character, IS the mystery. We, like Tritter, are supposed to be kept guessing. Is he lying now or telling the truth? Will he be saved or forever manipulative? Will he, like real people in real life, be “made of motley” ( to quote Somerset Maughm) and thus never be fully resolved?
Much as I enjoy the Holmes argument, a ceaselessly sarcastic and supercillious House does irritate and relegates the actor to delivering one-liners. Obviously, Laurie wants to do more; we expect more; even the writers need to have more character latitude. He’s got to get his comeuppance sometimes, or appear to, and he’s got to get down and human sometimes, or appear to, yet we need to be kept guessing. Let’s hope the arc isn’t a straight trajectory to mental health.
I love it that for once we see an unrepentant addict on tv–one who is not easily won by platitudes, one who is not saved at the end by standing up and saying “Hi, I’m House and I’m a…” And I mean this in a more global way too–let’s hope his whole complex personality gestalt doesn’t get reduced to the “finally, he learns to care…” formula.
Again, thanks for this super site. Late in life, I am studying for the EMT certificate. It’s too late for me to be let loose in the field, but I am so excited to dabble, even in very limited kind of “medical” knowledge, and your site is making it all the more fun and meaningful. When I don’t understand my book or it bores me too much, I’ll come here. VE
October 19th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
I don’t htink she was trying to kill herself. I mean, it’s pretty stupid to attempt it in a hospital. I think she just wanted House’s attention.
December 13th, 2007 at 1:49 am
“Please remember that the name of this blog is “Polite Dissent” — emphasis on polite — so let’s try to keep all discussions cordial this week, particularly those concerning abortion and religion. On a lighter note, don’t forget that tomorrow is National Gorilla Suit Day. Please dress accordingly.”
Scott, for this third-season episode of the atheist ‘House’, do you really think any religious extremist will angrily post a comment in a blog dedicated to the show? I think everyone knows the convictions of the cranky doctor by now, and seeing him scorn religion and suggest an abortion shouldn’t shock anyone.
December 16th, 2007 at 1:08 am
People, please read!
The show was obviously centered around Nietszche. There have been so many people saying Cameron’s side plot was so unnecessary but it added to Nietszche’s argument. It’s not just existentialist and those who know anything about it would know that. House IS Nietszche in this episode and he met someone who tests his philosophies. From a philosophical point of view, it’s absolutely genius – all of it.
December 28th, 2007 at 10:37 am
Well, this is coming in late (we only watch the DVDs) but I want to respond to the only *one* commenter above that questioned the pregnancy.
**Yes** it is impossible for her to have a positive pg test from the recent rape. That was a *major* hole in the medicine/plot that I was amazed no one plugged.
Even if the girl was ovulating at the time of the rape and she conceived, she’s going to have a (nearly) 2-week wait like any other mortal for a reliable test result.
With less-than a week from the attack I was convinced it was going to be this way-complicated story b/c she was already pregnant (with another man’s child?) when she was raped.
But I guess this isn’t the only show to ignore math to tighten the drama of a situation…
January 15th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
OOC- Check fanfiction.net. It hacks me off when I see it. Out Of Character!!! That annoys me.
January 30th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
I’m watching this on DVDs so I missed the immediate debate. But I’ll chime in anyway…
I hated this episode. One of the worst I have seen. Mostly it was boring, and where it wasn’t, it was insulting. In the previous moments where the show tackled ethics and religion, at least they made SOME attempt at providing both sides of the debate. This time, they pitted House and his Athiest Fatalism against a tramatized rape victim who didn’t make sense even to herself. What was the point?
Cameron’s sub-plot seemed to be an after-thought that was pretty useless (I agree with 90% of the other posts on that.) But House vs. Rape Victim? Come on… we expect better than that.
It would have been more interesting to watch House debate himself… like for instance when he tells her on one hand “The problem with drawing lines is where do you stop? That guy who raped you, sure we kill him. But who else? Where do you draw the line?” And then ten seonds later he happily tells her that the line is drawn at birth. And of course, he assisted a suicide in a previous episode so he could get a heart for a patient. So, apparently he DOES draw lines. All the time. His “ethics” are almost always situationally based.
I thought on a whole this episode was intellectually lazy — and I expected more considering who wrote it.
Thank God I have the DVDs and I know the show will get better. This one was so vapid I might have wondered if it was worth watching if I had seen it “live.”
July 15th, 2008 at 9:04 am
Obviously I’m strolling into this very late, but I felt that I had to comment on a few things.
Ron – I know your comment was a LOOOOONG way back up the page, but I agreed with everything you said.
I found this episode fascinating, and I can’t believe that other people hated it. I really enjoyed seeing House and the rape victim interact, and I don’t find it at all unbelievable. He kept talking to her because she intrigued and also irritated him – she was a mystery, because he couldn’t work out why she needed him. Finding that out was important to him.
I found it quite moving to see the way that he finally realised the right thing to do would be to open up and share his past with her. People would have to be pretty cold hearted not to find this interesting and emotional!
I seriously loved this episode, and I really didn’t want it to end! House is an ass normally, but it was nice to see that occasionally, he manages to connect with people.
Oh, and about the suicide but anti-abortion thing: she wasn’t trying to commit suicide, she was just using it as a ploy to show House the lengths she was willing to go to if he wouldn’t talk to her. I’m not saying it’s a sane way of dealing with things, but it wasn’t a suicide attempt!
In some ways, the link between House and the girl felt like a father-daughter thing at the end. It was like she felt safe and comforted by him, and he was willing to drag up past hurt to help her. I liked that.
July 22nd, 2008 at 12:48 pm
“In some ways, the link between House and the girl felt like a father-daughter thing at the end. It was like she felt safe and comforted by him, and he was willing to drag up past hurt to help her. I liked that.”
I agree with that. Just watched the episode and I really felt a bond between those two, plus they look great as a little familly. Eve seemed to see House as a normal person, someone you can reason with, unlike many others. My fav. episode so far.
August 8th, 2008 at 10:34 am
I think the reason Eve attempted suicide was because she needed t ocontrol the situation. Rapist committ their crime because the need to have control over the victim. After the rape, the victims often feel like they can’t control their lives, so they take control of what they can (eating, speaking, etc). Eve was just taking control of her medical situation. I don’t think that she really wanted to kill herself (otherwise she wouldn’t have attempted suicide in a hospital), she just wanted to control who she spoke to. Same with why she’s so adament about not having an abortion and then later relents. She disagrees with House so that she can control the conversation, but later does what she really wants to have another layer of control. More than the episode called Control, I think that that was the main theme of this episode.
August 17th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
For the “First, why was House carrying around a syringe of a paralytic?” He actually grabbed the syringe from behind the pharmacists desk. Not really helpful to this site, but a little quick fact.
August 29th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Okay I will start off with that I could be completely wrong, but on the show they stated that Eve had been raped a week ago, so how could they have discovered that she was pregnant that quickly? I’ve always heard it takes about 4-6 weeks to be able to test for pregnancy. Just seems too soon to be able to get a definitive test for that.
September 7th, 2008 at 7:29 am
what about terminating less-than-a-week’s pregnancy? is it even doable? would the surgeon be able to see the fetus? I honestly don’t think so,
but apart from the messed up timing, I really enjoyed the episode,
I don’t agree that Cameron/homeless man subplot was unnecessary, it commented well on actual House’s worldview – if there is no god, the only afterlife you can count on is in the memory of the people you leave behind; the man just wanted to ensure himself against being completely forgotten, therefore never-existent
October 4th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Re. Cameron and terminal cancer guy… in season 1 or 2, we get the impression that Cameron helped the evil genius researcher guy die. So she’s being very strong here, just watching this guy die. Since the characters generally don’t have amnesia from one episode to the next (unlike some shows), I think she may be hurting from this is the next show. Re. House’s abuse story… I didn’t really doubt his story, but wondered whether his dad had contributed more to his personality genetically or culturally (it sounds like his dad was/is kind of messed up too, and how do you sort out genetic vs. environmental when the parent is crazy?)
October 21st, 2008 at 5:44 pm
Granted, House spends most of the episode regarding Eve solely as a rape victim rather than as a human being, but I’m annoyed to see people make the same mistake here. Where Scott sees the “traumatized person’s magic lie detecting skill” cliché, I see a very intelligent and perceptive young woman who calls bullshit on House’s somewhat obvious lie. As for Mani Cavalieri: why shouldn’t she be lucid and objective about her faith? Does religion and / or rape automatically deprive someone of their intellectual faculties? It is perfectly possible to think rationally while behaving irrationally, and even to contemplate one’s own irrational behavior in a rational and objective manner (to the extent that anyone can be objective about themselves).
Regarding philosophy: the themes I picked up were Socratic virtue (conversation as an end in itself) and Kant’s categorical imperative (Eve initially rejects the idea that taking a life may be immoral in some circumstances but not in others).
MongoTheGeek – Cuddy says Cameron has “already been punished” (I think those were her exact words), but does not say how. Considering Cameron’s history of “picking up strays”, I wouldn’t be surprised if she stayed with the old man simply because she cared. I wouldn’t be surprised either if her punishment turned out to be clinic duty…
Katie – a blood test can reveal pregnancy as shortly as two days after conception.
October 26th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
Don’t know if you still read this, but I just saw the episode again tonight. The Paralytic was behind the counter in the pharmacists station, House just grabbed it when he went back to get the sedative.
November 2nd, 2008 at 4:17 am
didn’t house grab the paralytic from the pharmacy?
November 3rd, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Hi, new poster here, but I figured I’d throw in my 2 cents.
I think that the reason House seemed, in this episode, able to open up to Eve so forwardly is because of the way his character is. He’s to ‘proud’ if you will, to admit fault or weakness to someone like Cuddy or Wilson (someone he sees every day/interacts with on a regular basis), whereas it’s much easier for him to convey emotions to someone who is a complete stranger.
It’s just a thought.
November 14th, 2008 at 10:26 am
I think this is an absolute breakthrough episode for House in terms of showing authentic, genuine feelings and emotion. This is the second time he’s done so and the second time the writers ruined it with some sort of scandal. In Informed Consent we see him squeeze Cameron’s shoulder and say “I’m proud of you”… for euthanizing a patient it turns out. And in this one he is compassionate like never before with Eve… against the backdrop of… another patient Cameron has euthanized, this time so he’ll be “important”. And what magnificent insight did Eve come to after this valuable conversation with House?… the decision to have the abortion. “Yeah, it’s a life,” House says, “and you should take it.”
So… in our running tally, this makes House, the show, 2 for 3 in terms of being pro-life vis-a-vis abortion and euthanasia. 2 pro life episodes: Sports Medicine and Babies & Bathwater. 2 “not pro-life” episodes: Kids, Informed Consent, and One Day, One Room
Am I missing any episodes so far where a patient wanted to be euthanized but wasn’t? I seem to remember an episode from Season 1 where House said to a lady “You don’t die with dignity, you live with dignity” or something like that.
I’m waiting for the writers to work in Embryonic Stem Cell Research and/or Human Cloning…
November 20th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
@Jain: Good point!!~
@matt1618: that was the pilot episode and you quoted House to the letter. The patient wanted to go home to die and not have any more tests done on her. ~
@Helena: I think you’re right about the control issue with Eve and the pills. I also think House knew she wasn’t going to try it again.~
Re: Eve’s final decision: I also wondered about that – does it mean she came over to House’s way of thinking? She seemed too strong-minded for that.~
No corrections/insertions in the review? Several people have mentioned House was not carrying around the paralytic but grabbed it from the pharmacy. The question is what was a loaded syringe doing on the pharmacy counter, although there are possible semi-plausible scenarios…they probably all too fantastical to be realistic, especially with a dose that high/strong-however, it was still very cool the way he did silenced the patient so instantly.
Also, I thought Eve being bound to the bed was the precaution for her apparent suicide attempt. Was it not enough?
November 20th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Ok, the quote from the pilot by matt1618 was not quite as accurate as I thought: “You can only live with dignity.” is the last part of the quote.
November 27th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
@Zitrone: He was talking to everyone, what makes you so sure the person not being cordial would necessarily be a religious person on the anti-abortion side?
December 3rd, 2008 at 9:27 pm
Also, I think Eve was talking about something more meaningful than the value ascribed by humans. Going by her statements and the fact that her major was comparative religion I think she’s someone who’s been looking for answers, not completely satisfied by any particular religious group but still with a need to believe in something greater.
February 10th, 2009 at 8:28 am
Re: DES, wrote on October 21st, 2008 at 5:44 pm:
“As for Mani Cavalieri: why shouldn’t she be lucid and objective about her faith? Does religion and / or rape automatically deprive someone of their intellectual faculties?”
No; however, people very, very rarely are so self-aware, honest, and concise with their beliefs. Very, very, very, very rarely. (House is an example of the kind of person that is – and how people look at him is an example of how rare it is.)
The dialogue fits for House, but not for her – it was too crunchy and to-the-point, and not believable nor human; the writers apparently wanted to simply showcase a cliche discussion and didn’t bother doing it any other way than “House isn’t prepared for someone to return the favor!” without stopping to think about what makes the personalities like House’s and Wilson’s in the first place, and without stopping to think that some characters can startle House (he is human, after all) without having to play Nietzschean Devil’s Advocate at him like a bad play you read in an undergrad philosophy course.
April 13th, 2009 at 5:08 am
I know I’m waaay late to the party, but…
@Katie- 4-6 weeks? You can test well before that.
Due to their cycles, some women might not think to test before then.
Also, I think the 2 weeks only applies to the at home tests, and I think I’ve seen ads that claim some work earlier than that. I believe a doctor can get blood test results after a week.
April 24th, 2009 at 7:55 pm
This is personally my all time favorite episode. You see a side of House that is vulnerable and unsure as to how to proceed. You see he genuinely cares about people even though he cannot express it properly. I think it was one of the most powerfully acted tv episodes in history. I’ve seen a lot of movies that don’t even come close.
June 2nd, 2009 at 3:19 pm
She is beautiful. I thought that the first moment I saw her. Nice Character. Like the episode.
December 28th, 2009 at 2:13 am
It’s good to deviate from formula and give House a chance to develop, but this episode was slow and didn’t grab me. The rape victims insistence on having House seemed unrealistic as did the homeless guy being admitted so easily. Do they have lots of empty beds in this hospital? Add House’s trying to far-fetched weaseling out of clinic duty. So the episode was slow *and* failed the suspension of disbelief test.
A theory: The homeless guy is the one who raped her.
February 9th, 2010 at 7:26 pm
Hated this episode! The House part AND the Cameron part!
February 12th, 2010 at 2:11 am
Just an interesting point: from a psychologist’s point of view, people who are traumatized do tend to show a greatly enhanced ability to detect falsehoods. That being said, it was overdone, HOWEVER, I don’t think House WAS telling the truth, at all. I don’t think it was a real story, and there are several tells to indicate that, whether intended or not. House refuses to make eye contact with her when he is telling the “real” story, and shifts and fidgets considerably. This would be consistent with embarrassment, if I didn’t feel that House had some psychopathology preventing him from feeling any degree of empathy.
May 17th, 2010 at 1:13 pm
I know this is late to add to the debate (I’m just watching House now), but I agree with those who think House was lying the second time. His being an ass isn’t from being abused as a child, it’s from being in constant pain! There was an episode in the first season where Cameron was trying to figure out why House didn’t want to see his parents… and the answer? Because his parents try and make him happy! Remember, ‘no one wants to see their child grow up to be miserable.’ It had nothing to do with abuse. I’m pretty sure House lied the second time around too because he can’t/won’t talk about himself, and he didn’t think it would matter ultimately if he lied. House has shown us over and over that he finds nothing wrong with lying, if it serves a purpose.
August 12th, 2010 at 11:30 am
Well house was not just carrying it around, he reached over the desk of the pharmacy for the paralytic.
September 20th, 2010 at 4:30 pm
I always flinch when I see House inject the paralytic – we were taught never to inject anything into that precise spot because the sciatic nerve’s there, and it would pretty much ruin the guy’s leg if we damaged it. Correct me if I made that up…
April 25th, 2011 at 7:35 pm
Worst.House.ever
The dialogs were crap. This is just television and House and its writers taking themselves too seriously. And people who might “learn something” from an episode like this, with its sappy and shallow philosophical pontifications are to be pitied just as much as any person who allegedly might be said to have their view of fill-in-the-blank disease informed. It’s TV. Give us a break. Now it’s time to watch two hours of Seinfeld (no learning, no hugging) as an antidote to this pathetic episode.
October 16th, 2011 at 7:40 pm
TERRIBLE! -like a bunch of doctors are going to stand around worrying about a rape victim’s emotional state and debating on the best method of helping her overcome the trauma! Ridiculous! And aside from that, the dialogue was embarrassing! -just so bad!!
January 15th, 2012 at 8:21 pm
I just thought it was a bit of a letdown. There wasn’t much action in the episode and then, at the end, I was tempted to think House was lying about his situation to make Eve trust him, that’s what he does, isn’t it? Good thing was that it was directed by Argentinian director Juan Jose Campanella, though.
January 15th, 2012 at 8:32 pm
Contradiction: if Eve is so pro-life she won’t even consider getting rid of the rapist’s baby, if she has a major in Comparative Religion and all that then why did she try to kill herself? Isn’t that against God wishes?
January 19th, 2012 at 6:24 pm
Well, her major doesn’t indicate her religious beliefs. My minor is religion and I’m a dedicated atheist with a major in, essentially, human evolution.
As for the pro-lifer/suicide is okay stance, I thought it might be the House writers referencing a common issue with real life pro-lifers, who claim to be pro-life but are more accurately pro-unborn life because they don’t care what happens to the mother and baby after the birth. They want the fetus to be a person, but they don’t want welfare to pay for the fetus when it’s out of the womb.
If she is one of the ‘culture of life/culture of death’ crowd, then you could argue she overdosed right in front of a doctor, in the middle of a hospital; her chances of dying were extremely minimal, especially considering the sedatives she overdosed with. It’s possible she knew this and wanted to be ‘physically’ sick, thinking House would take interest then.
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