House — Episode 6 (Season 6): “Known Unknowns”
This episode of House started well but collapsed under the weight of its ridiculous medicine in a surprisingly short period of time. The soap opera was well done and enjoyable, though
Jordan, a sixteen year-old girl, and her best friend bluff their way into a band’s post-concert party. The next morning when they are regaling their other friends with the details of the night (including alcohol, marijuana, and skinny dipping), her friends notice that Jordan’s ankles are very swollen. Seconds later, her fingers become swollen too, and then she collapses on the floor.
Admitted to Princeton-Plainsboro, House is convinced that Jordan has rhabdomyolysis (muscle damage, often caused by a crush injury. He thinks she injured herself climbing the fence to the pool to go skinny dipping). The rest of the team suggests that she may have a deep vein thrombosis (a blood clot), anaphylaxis (a life-threatening allergic reaction), or even a heart condition, but House maintains that Jordan must have rhabdomyolysis. Tests reveal that Jordan’s muscle enzymes are elevated (a sign of rhabdomyolysis), but the scans show no sign of the muscle injury House was suspecting.
House now looks over the labs and notices that Jordan has a low potassium. He has her air drum (like air guitar, only drumming), but she can only drum for a minute or two before her arms are too tired to lift. House states that this muscle weakness is a sign of low potassium, and since she would have had a low potassium the previous night as well, there was no way she had the muscle strength to climb the pool fence. In other words, he accused her of lying about what happened. Later, Jordan and her friend admit to Cameron and Chase that in reality, they only wanted to go to the party because their favorite comic book/movie writer Jeffrey Keener would be there. They then proceeded to stalk him for the next few hours (going where he went, eating what he ate, etc), before finally going to bed.
The differential now consists of an unknown food allergy, plus Cameron thinks that Jordan may be bulimic. They run a scan to look for a Mallory-Weiss tear (a rip in the esophagus seen in people who vomit frequently, like bulimics), and when they don’t find one, decide that she isn’t bulimic. As they finish the test, Jordan’s blood pressure drops suddenly and then she flatlines. Foreman starts CPR (good for him). Chase announces that Jordan has cardiac tamponade (the pericardial sac — the membrane around the heart — has become filled with so much fluid the heart can no longer beat correctly) and he plunges a needle into her chest to draw off the blood around the heart and relieve the problem. Somehow, this brief moment of tamponade has severely damaged (“constricted”) her heart, necessitating use of antiarrhythmic medications (drugs to prevent abnormal heart rhythms). Since Jordan’s blood pressure drop was sudden, House decides that this means she has an acute problem, not a chronic one. Therefore, the most likely diagnoses are toxin exposure or infection, but the team still needs to figure out which toxin or which infection.
Things continue to worsen for Jordan. She tells the team about stopping by Bruce Springsteen’s house and playing guitar with him . She is lying and does not even realize that she is doing it. Additionally, Foreman notices blood dripping from her ear and announces to her friend that bleeding in her brain is affecting her thalamus and this is causing her to lie. (When did he get an MRI to determine this? And why would bleeding in the thalamus — in the center of the brain — leak out the ear? Did she somehow rupture her eardrum too?)
The team reviews the videotapes from the hotel that night and discover that Jordan sneaked out of her room briefly in the middle of the night. They see her a few minutes later carrying Keener’s journal. He apparently left it in the restaurant and she went back to get it. They figure that she must have stopped by his room to return the journal and maybe something happened to her there. Chase and Cameron confront Keener in his hotel room — he shuts the door in their face. Cameron now suspects that Jordan was slipped some roofies (a slang term for Rohypnol, an alleged common date rape drug) and wants to start her on Flumazenil (a medication which reverses the effects of Rohypnol and similar drugs). When they return to the hospital, they find Foreman frantically working on Jordan. He tells them that she has been bleeding behind her kidneys and has required multiple units of blood. Cameron thinks it looks like a “toxic reaction.”
Cameron realizes that they must figure out what really happened to Jordan that night. Her plan is to give Jordan Amobarbital — i.e.truth serum — so they can discover the truth. Jordan is given the drug, and under questioning, admits that she went to Keener’s room where he invited her in and gave her Ecstasy — only it didn’t have the same effect on her that Ecstasy usually does — this pill made her sleepy. She then begins telling the team how Keener started to touch her. As her father gets more and more upset, Foreman points out that the scans indicate “increased periorbital blood flow” meaning that everything she just said is a lie.
Most of the action now shifts upstate, where Cuddy, House, and Wilson are at a medical conference. At one point, the team talks to Wilson and tells him that since Keener travels with his dog, Jordan may have come down with Rickettsia (not the name of an infection per se, but a genus of tick-borne bacteria that cause such diseases as typhus and rocky mountain spotted fever). A short time later, in the middle of an argument with Wilson, House has his Eureka! moment and calls the team. He announces that Jordan has Vibrio vulnificus, a not uncommon bacterial contaminant of the raw oysters Jordan ate. For most people, the bacteria present no problem (or mild nausea and vomiting), but Jordan also has hemochromatosis. According to House, this made her more susceptible to the contaminated oysters. The Vibrio infection explains her initial symptoms. Then the team, thinking she had bulimia, started her on iron-containing vitamins, which worsened the symptoms of the hemochromatosis (by causing iron overload), resulting in liver damage and bleeding. They gave her transfusions, which again worsened her symptoms (more iron overload). However, with the right diagnosis and some Cetazidime (an antibiotic for the Vibrio) and chelation (for the excess iron), she should be as good as new.
Tonight’s episode was rife with errors, far worse than usual. I did my best, but I’m sure some obvious one slipped by. As usual, major complaints are in red, minor in blue, nit-picking in green:
The truth serum idea was simply ridiculous. Amobarbital does not work like Cameron explained, and it is far from foolproof — for example, it’s easy to create false memories (and the questioner Cameron clearly had a preconceived belief of what happened to Jordan).
Telling truth from lies is not nearly as black and white and Foreman makes it seem. You can’t look at an fMRI report and definitively state “she was lying the entire time” like he did. But it sure would make police interrogations and court a lot easier if it worked as easily as Foreman implies.
Anyway, where is the fMRI? Jordan was in a bed in the center of the room. There was no MRI equipment in sight. Nothing to read the “increased blood flow” he mentions.
Cardiac tamponade or not, you don’t just plunge a needle and syringe blindly into the chest — you’re likely to do more harm than good. Yes, you can perform a needle pericardiocentesis, but it’s more involved than “plunge and pray.”
Why would 20 seconds of tamponade cause a permanent conduction problem in the heart?
A day or two of iron supplementation is not enough to cause that severe liver damage in a patient with hemochromatosis. And apparently it kicked in really fast, because it bled into her pericardial sac mere minutes after suggesting the diagnosis of bulimia, let alone giving her vitamins with iron.
Jordan’s symptoms do not match Vibrio at all. For starters, she has no gastrointestinal symptoms from what is essentially food poisoning.
When did Foreman get an MRI to determine that Jordan had “bleeding into her thalamus?” And why would bleeding in the thalamus — in the center of the brain — leak out the ear? Did she suffer head trauma which disrupted her ear canal and also ruptured her eardrum?)
Rhabdomyolysis can have other causes other that a direct muscle injury, so not seeing a specific injury on the scan means little (for example, many marathon runners end up with some rhabdomyolysis by the end of their race, but it’s not a single muscle, but most of them, so a scan would show nothing)
Not everyone with bulimia develops Mallory-Weiss tears, in fact, most don’t. So not seeing a tear does not mean she is not bulimic.
Edema is swelling of soft tissue. Effusion is the swelling of a joint. They are not the same thing and the terms should not be used interchangeably. A halfway decent physical exam, especially on someone as skinny as Jordan, should easily tell them apart.
Assuming Jordan did receive Rohypnol, the flumazenil, a benzodiazepine antidote, is a reasonable choice. But by the time Cameron would have given the drug to her, the rohypnol would have been long gone from her system.
Rickettsia is a genus of bacteria, not a specific disease.
Rhabdomyolysis is very hard on the kidney. I would think twice, and then a third time, before giving such a person IV contrast (also very hard on the kidneys).
I thought the medical mystery itself, and the confusion of the always changing history, was intriguing this week and deserves a B+. It goes downhill from there. The final solution did not fit the mystery at all — either solution — and earns a D-. The medicine overall was a complete mess, with scattershot diagnoses, ideas abandoned for sloppy reasons, and missing equipment. It earns a solid dismal F. The soap opera was a bright spot — especially all the scenes at the conference — and earns an A.
Last week’s House review
A list of all prior House reviews
November 10th, 2009 at 1:08 am
I’m sorry, but the POTW & her BFF are both highly irritating…. ‘tweens will be ‘tweens I guess..
Quite the contrast this week to see the Chase/Dibala/Cameron drama come a rather distant 3rd to Huddy’s 80’s High School dance confessional & Wilson’s temporary insanity..Ironic choice of Cyndi Lauper’s “Time after Time” for the slow dance w/House.. Too bad House had a bad case of foot in mouth by telling Cuddy that he didn’t see any point in continuing to see her after he got expelled…
Now, over the last few episodes we seem to have seen the creation of the “guilt of the week club” and this weeks member is….Wilson.
Euthenasia as a topic to give at a medical conference as a way to allow him to cope with the fact that he cant save everyone…. as House said to Wilson: “Are you insane”?
I didn’t expect Cuddy to be the next “Cutthroat Bitch” by *spending time* with Lucas his PI on the sly when she knows House may be in love with her just like I didnt expect House to potentially sacrifice his career by reading Wilson’s speech for Wilson so he wouldn’t be branded as an ‘undesirable’ Doctor..but then again Dr. Perlmutter will be taking any heat for this wouldn’t he so that just makes House as Wilson said “a good friend”..
House took the news about Lucas remarkably well under the circumstances and he doesn’t seem to have a need or desire to use so it’s definitely progress. I truly think House is beginning to realize that you don’t know how good something is until you lose it.
Chase came clean at the end….Cameron doesnt know what to make of it so that sets the stage for her last few scenes before her big exit..
November 10th, 2009 at 1:08 am
I can’t speak to the medicine, but I thought the episode as a whole was pretty flat. The whole House-Cuddy-Lucas thing, House drugging Wilson to prevent him from committing career suicide, Chase finally ‘fessing up to Cameron, even the case at hand didn’t seem all that compelling. And whose bright idea was that 80’s costume party? Although Hugh Laurie’s outfit was, I take it, an allusion to “Blackadder,” which I really must get around to watching. And no, I didn’t think Cuddy was trying to look like Jane Fonda – I think she was emulating Jennifer Beals in “Flashdance.” Safety dance, anyone?
But at risk of being a majority of one, I’m looking forward to the return of Taub and Thirteen.
November 10th, 2009 at 1:10 am
Great soap opera tonight, the medicine seemed shotty, even from a non-medical POV. Good review though :)
November 10th, 2009 at 1:14 am
As soon as Chase pulled out the Box of Oysters I knew that the final solution would deal with them.
November 10th, 2009 at 1:32 am
Scott has a few medical mistakes of his own.
They were not using an fMRI to detect lying. It looks like they were using an infrared technique to judge blood flow to various parts of the face. I guess it’s a type of thermography.
V. vulnificus, although it may be acquired from food, is not a food poisoning syndrome, i.e. it does not typically present with gastrointestinal symptoms. This is unsurprising, because the infectious dose in iron-overloaded people is very small. (That’s why the other diners had no trouble.) The bacterium spreads systemically and so shock is an early symptom/sign. The syncopal episode could have been a manifestation of shock. I would have expected to see some of the classic V. vulnificus bullae, but nothing classic every happens on this show!
Edema and effusion in the foot may not be so easy to distinguish on physical examination. Ankle effusions are possible, and I would assume that metatarsal effusions are possible, too (have never seen one). With the latter, it would presumably be very hard to demonstrate ballotment, meaning it would be very hard to tell it’s an effusion.
We give IV contrast to people with very sick kidneys: fluid + lasix are the key to reducing ATN.
November 10th, 2009 at 1:49 am
@MrBuddwing: Wasn’t House’s costume an allusion to “Walking on broken glass” video (in which H. Laurie appeared alongside John Malkovich), rather?
November 10th, 2009 at 2:30 am
You probably only missed it because it was buried by so much fluff, but in the scene where Foreman concludes she is lying from “increased periorbital blood flow” he is staring at the video feed from (I believe) an infrared camera pointed at the girl’s face. I guess he is using this to measure her blushing?
Perhaps a nod to the “Lie to Me” crowd that tuned in early…
November 10th, 2009 at 2:57 am
As always, love your reviews.
But I must point out that while flunitrazepam (Rohypnol™) is many things, “a common date rape drug” it is not. The evidence for its actual use in sexual assault is somewhere between minimal and zero. See http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18541699?itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum&ordinalpos=4 for a start.
November 10th, 2009 at 3:01 am
I was slightly offended by the previews stating that House “will try and get his old team back”
Um..he has his old team back, he’s currently trying to regain his second team (newer team).
I wasn’t impressed with this episode.
Thanks for the review!
November 10th, 2009 at 3:15 am
Pretty bad medicine, still not sure how they don’t run basic labs when she gets to the hospital. I’ve gotten over the time course issues (iron overload occurring in days, treatments work in hours etc). No idea how Foreman diagnosed “no tears” by starting at her vitals and a single static view of her head while the patient was lying alone in the fluoro suite. I think Foreman diagnosed the increased periorbital flow using that IR camera, not with fMRI. I suppose that’s possible with increased heat, I don’t know. And I can’t see why they wouldn’t correct her coagulopathy regardless of the cause, as she is bleeding into her brain and out her ears.
Rather than medicine most of this seemed more like Law & Order or CSI with the investigative stuff. The whole Wilson thing was meh, seemed to take a back seat. Some great dialogue between House and Cuddy though. I just wasn’t smart enough to catch everything the first time through…
November 10th, 2009 at 3:30 am
Lars Ulrich is the worst drummer ever.
November 10th, 2009 at 4:01 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHzH_Nw-ntY
LOL@Promce House!
November 10th, 2009 at 4:50 am
You should really seek out “Black Adder”. The series is brilliant, and Hugh Laurie is a hoot as the befuddled Prince Regent George IV (Series III)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHzH_Nw-ntY
And as a WWI soldier in “Blackadder Goes Forth”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBsmPCDaFP0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRx90mOXS7Q
November 10th, 2009 at 5:07 am
@Scott
no discussion of the euthanasia? To me that was the high point of the episode. A very intriguing and I think quite relevant topic to the public at large who might be voting on such a measure in their state in the coming years.
November 10th, 2009 at 5:36 am
Pfew.
Interesting to see this whole euthanasia thing, still such a big deal in the US? I’m originally from liberal hell-hole the Netherlands where euthanasia is legal since a few years. Seems to be working quite well there, including a legal framework, multiple doctors and a reporting plight.
You would really lose everything as a doctor if you aid a dying person dying a little quicker?
November 10th, 2009 at 5:46 am
As you well know, any excessive strain on the brain will result in bleeding from the ears. What’s really odd is that she didn’t get a nosebleed first. Clearly they don’t bother at all with their research.
November 10th, 2009 at 6:06 am
@Chinaman –I think the point was that doctors like Wilson may indeed help terminal patients to die a little quicker, and they don’t lose anything, because in such a case everyone is glad the pain is over, also the hospital bills.
However, if one doctor got up and explained this in public, and said there should be a professional-legal framework for these decisions, that doctor would be taking a personal risk. If his position and admissions became public, he might lose his medical license. The extreme case is Jack Kevorkian, who was convicted of murder because he euthanized a dying man–but he is a crusader in this cause.
Physician-assisted suicide (which is what Wilson described) is however legal in 3 Western states, so it is not such a hidden issue. House’s willingness to read the paper and the strong responses are, then, somewhat contrived. The obvious solution to Wilson’s pain would be to move to Oregon and practice there, where what he is doing is legal and he can discuss it publicly.
November 10th, 2009 at 6:19 am
I thought House was doing “Falco” in Rock Me Amadeus.
No? ;-)
November 10th, 2009 at 7:16 am
Third worst episode evah (One Day, One Room and Not Cancer), and this is coming from House’s biggest fanboy. This was a sausage episode; grist composed of themes from previous, better done episodes. Dr. Scott already destroyed the benefit of the doubt that the medicine was even passable. Added to that are the facts that Wilson cannot write (medical seminar or teen girl’s diary?), the House/Wilson ‘road trip’ has jumped the beaten horse, the House/Cuddy relationship is plowed under farmland, and I could not for the life of me follow the exploits or motivations of the patient. Moreover, as Cameron already murdered someone (Informed Consent), her domestic situation is a false tension.
The constants remain, however. Hugh Laurie is still the finest actor on television, Robert Leonard was very good, and Lisa Edelstein rocked my world.
November 10th, 2009 at 7:21 am
1) I agree with the Earbleed being a variant on the classic Psychic nose bleed.
2) I didn’t think it was an fMRI Forman was using as a lie detector but a thermal imagining camera picking up blood flow by skin temperature. A reasonable way to pick deception.
3) Though if she had a medical condition that was making her “lie” it was probably more likely a delusion.
November 10th, 2009 at 7:55 am
the medicine was indeed abysmal, but considering the boob and ass shots of Cuddy I think we can overlook it this time.
:)
November 10th, 2009 at 8:14 am
@Scott: “Nothing to read the “increased blood flow” he mentions.”
They had a IR camera.
November 10th, 2009 at 8:30 am
Official Comment
I saw the camera and considered that it might an IR camera, but that has its own set of problems:
1. The images were too specific and layered to be shot with a camera which would only give a flat 2-D representation.
2. Foreman specifically said “blood flow”. An IR device just measures heat, and heat and blood flow are not synonymous. Especially with her skin there reflecting all the bright light they’ve got on her (and also confounding is the cool oxygen fed to her nose).
3. That’s a pretty magic camera to be fixed to a tripod yet able to keep Jordan’s face perfectly in frame when she lying back talking to Cameron, or turned and leaning up excitedly facing her parent.
November 10th, 2009 at 8:39 am
I think it was a functional-IR cameras that let’s you see truth from lie, and Pepsi from Coke. :)
November 10th, 2009 at 8:41 am
Official Comment
Capo,
From everything I’ve read, gastrointestinal symptoms are the hallmark of ingested V. vulnificus – vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea. In immunocompromised individuals it then proceeds to worse symptoms. Wounds infected with V. vulnificus generally proceed straight to the more serious symptoms (and seemed to fit her symptoms better)
I didn’t say you couldn’t use contrast in patient with rhabdo — contrast is given to patients with compromised kidney function just like you described — just that I would think twice about it (and shouldn’t they have noticed the hypokalemia then?)
Ankles may be tricky, but the finger joints effusion vs finger edema difference should be straightforward in Jordan.
November 10th, 2009 at 9:20 am
I thought it was Falco and Rock Me Amadeus myself, since it was 80s themed. The Annie Lennox video is from ‘92.
November 10th, 2009 at 9:58 am
I was too distracted by the soap opera to follow the DDX so I really could not comment on the medicine (But I smirked sarcastically when Foreman took a single look at her and said “she is bleeding in her thalamus”. He’s got X-Ray vision now?) Cameron’s idea seemed pretty solid at first sight: she is lying so give her talking juice, however on second thought – she is not actually lying is she? She is delusional without even realizing it (well that kind of defines delusional but you get my point right guys?) She is convinced she is telling the truth – ergo talking juice will not magically change her prospective and she will not start to see things differently. Also since she is not lying per se the medical signs that she is lying should be missing right? (So the whole thermal camera fMRI or whatever the hell they used is practically useless – it should say that she is telling the truth…)
Loved the soap opera and felt cheated when Cuddy was revealed to have an affair already. She seemed less than involved with her guy though – he is more of a convenience than the love of her life – at least that’s how it looked at the restaurant scene. I think there is hope for Huddy yet. I am hanging my hat on that hope :)
November 10th, 2009 at 10:48 am
I was thinking Falco and Rock Me Amadeus as well, so put my vote there.
Wow, pretty blatant with the boob and butt shots on Cuddy. I don’t mind (smoking as they say), but it did give me pause to wonder if any of the female viewers have an issue with it?
Please writers, less teen stories. They tend to go from zero to off the chart annoying in under a minute after they start talking.
November 10th, 2009 at 11:24 am
The story was also a mess. Age of consent in New Jersey is 16 so there couldn’t be a statutory rape charges Cameron was talking about.
November 10th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Or…..it could have been House paying respects to one of his favorite 80’s movies, Dangerous Liaisons.
November 10th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
I want to point out that I believe the song House had the patient drum to was Metallica’s “Holier than Thou”. Fitting for the scene, since it contains the line:
“You lie so much you believe yourself”
November 10th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Never mind, I just looked it up, and other sites are saying that he played Fuel. Maybe I just thought that Holier than Thou would’ve been appropiate.
November 10th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
The Michael Weston detective role is one of the worst ancillary characters the show has featured. I’ll watch reruns with Tritter before I’ll watch season 5 episodes featuring the private eye. When he’s in a scene, it destroys the whole “House” chemistry. It wasn’t so bad in this episode as he wasn’t around the hospital crew but I imagine he’ll be back at Princeton Plainsboro in the weeks to come. Maybe Fox is trying to revive the idea of a House P.I. spin-off (barf) starring Weston.
As far as Huddy goes, if this episode kills that off, I’m glad. It was getting boring. If House is destined to go off the wagon, I would have a hard time believing it was because of his feelings for Cuddy. For him to fall, I hope it would be due to something rather epic in nature.
November 10th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Mark,
The NJ age of consent wouldn’t apply, as the conference was taking place in the Adirondacks….which is in NY.
No error here.
November 10th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
Joseph,
The alleged rape took place at a concert not the convention. Presumably the concert was in NJ.
November 10th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
Thanks, Scott, for medical explanations.
I loved the scenes at the convention and the scenery at the hotel. Where was it shot? I was surprised that House actually went, but I was really interested in the recovering House as he was shown at the convention. I thought that was an interesting portrayal. He wasn’t House light, but House through a slightly more normal prism. Not so normal that he wasn’t House, though.
Question: How did House know that Dr. Perlmutter (the guy whose badge he wore to the convention) was in Canada that weekend? Did he research Perlmutter’s whereabouts before he gave the euthanasia speech?
Somehow I really can’t see Cuddy hanging out with the PI for a long term relationship. If the idea is that she is looking for a 9 to 5 reliable kind of guy for a relationship, then my preconception of a PI’s work schedule doesn’t fit with that. Of course I base this on old black and white movies I watched after school as a child.
I watched this with a sense of dread. I don’t want Cameron to go. And I really don’t want the others back.
November 10th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
I want to second what neuro said: roofies are NOT commonly used to facilitate acquaintance rape.
The number one “date rape” drug is actually alcohol, and it’s closely followed by alcohol combined with other recreational drugs or prescription drugs.
I know this might seem nit-picky, but considering the extremely pervasive nature of myths about rape (i.e. that roofies are common or that victims lie all the time–a myth this episode reinforced), it needs to be said.
Additionally, if the patient had been telling the truth in that scene (that the author had drugged her before assaulting her), then it wouldn’t matter if she was of age to consent. You can’t consent if you’re incapacitated or unconscious either.
November 10th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
I thought perhaps House’s 1880s costume afforded him the chance to hide his cane in plain sight. And she wasn’t lying she was delirious and the blood flow/heat imaging would be useless.
November 10th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
@Indiana Dave: I don’t mind the sexual focus on Cuddy so much, but I really don’t see a professional woman needing to reveal so much cleavage all the time. I see women doctors, lawyers, accountants-none of them dress like that.
Has anyone else noticed that this is the THIRD TIME that House MD has used hemachromotosis as a diagnosis, and I have yet to hear anything about blood sugar, and only one mention of skin coloring. Also the POTW had joint pain, all of a sudden? Wouldn’t it be a chronic symptom? The medicine sucked.
I rather liked the PI’s chemistry with House during season 5. It’s time he got a new friend, although this was fairly awkward. Hopefully it will get better.
@Mr. Buddwing-I’m with you I can’t wait for Taub and Thirteen to come back!
November 10th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Well, I think that Dr G House was really doing Falco in “Rock Me Amadeus” (though I’m not sure if it was really that big in the States –was it?), but Mr H Laurie was referring to himself in Blackadder and then to himself in the Annie Lennox video where he was referring to himself in Blackadder once again… woof, twisted, innit?
BTW: Since when did House become a Simpsons fan?
November 10th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
@Hibbleton
But of course. Ooops.
November 10th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
The reason the PI character didn’t work for me was that the PI character is House as designed for another series. He has all of House’s brilliant insights into people and their actions. He is House without bitterness and with detective expertise substituted for medical expertise. Think of the CSI franchise. House PI, Miami.
Having two Houses in a scene ruins the scene for me. Think of the lines he had in his previous incarnation when interacting with the rest of the cast. They were basically House’s lines. Didn’t he in one scene prove them all idiots. Didn’t he out think whatever cast member he found himself in a scene with. Isn’t that what House does? Fox ruined the flow of the show to break out a character into another series. If they tone his House-like character down a bit so he doesn’t out-House House, his relationship with Cuddy would actually be interesting.
November 10th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
Don’t you mean ceftazidime? (sorry to be nitpicky)
November 10th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
A) I am glad that Lucas is back but we all know he won’t last. He’s just there to hammer that Cuddy Belongs With House. I really dislike the whole UST between Cuddy and House these days – they are doing excactly what Bones with Booth and Brennan – they have two characters who always had flirted with each other and showed sign of attraction but now they have that attraction in the open and have the characters dance around it, like 12 years olds. I was always a big fan of Cuddy/House but there is a point where the tension stops being tension and becomes annoying, for me, this was this episode.
B) Did the writers watch the previous episodes? Does anyone remeber that episode with the doctor that Cameron killed? The whole euthanasia thing had been covered there 5 times. And oh my, I’ve just realized, it was indeed Cameron who killed him (was very strongly implied she did), which makes the whole drama with Chase null and void.
November 10th, 2009 at 8:41 pm
What Wilson was describing was not actually euthanasia, since it was not his primary intent to kill the patient. What he was describing was terminal sedation, where the patient’s pian medication is titrated to a level sufficient to treat the pain and this dosage has the secondary effect of leading to death. In the US this is ethically justified under the principle of double effect.
As someone that must deal with this kind of situation all the time Wilson should know this.
November 10th, 2009 at 9:39 pm
@Kirke Cameron killed a person who was already terminal and in pain, out of mercy. Dibala was not terminal, and Chase’s motives are far more suspect.
November 10th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
You can’t consent if you’re incapacitated or unconscious either.
Phira, that’s true. But then it would only be a “regular” rape, not a statutory one.
November 10th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
@Vlad – I asked my husband the same thing, “Why are they all talking about the Simpsons?”, and he said that he believed there was some kind of contest? promotion? or something on Fox that night where you were meant to “spot the Simpsons references”.
I don’t watch Fox, ever, except for this show, and I don’t watch commercials, so I don’t know if it was just House, or if it was other shows all night, but I do know that it was stupid and annoying, and it really jumped out at me.
And probably the writers didn’t like it so much, either.
I think that Hugh Laurie’s incredible charisma has maybe carried this show as far as it can for me. I have always hated 13’s character, and although I LOVE Taub, I really love him as Dworkin on the L&O franchise.
Once the original team leaves and the crappy replacement team comes back, I think I will just stick to baseball and Flash Forward, and read the reviews here.
November 10th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
ceftazidime, not “Cetazidime”. And I’d put her on a tetracycline first. They are used more for “weird stuff” like rocky mountain spotted fever and VIbrio organisms.
November 10th, 2009 at 10:40 pm
I suppose we can’t fault the show for not giving patients with the classic signs of these diseases. Otherwise, they would never need to be referred to House in the first place. Any physician could tell you that a 16 year old white girl from New Jersey with out of whack blood sugars and an unusual tan should be tested for hemochromatosis. Their premise is that the hemochromatosis was mild before and got exacerbated by the transfusions. So even in the hyperaccelerated iron deposition in the pancreas, bad blood sugars could be explained by the acute stress response.
I assumed that Foreman figured out the bleed was in the thalamus based on symptoms, not implying that he could see where the bleed was. My neuroanatomy is not up to par but I’m assuming there are only a few places where a patient could be awake yet acutely start confabulating, and I think the thalamus would be one of them. It’s the same way that neurologists can take a patient’s symptoms and localize the location of a stroke or other injury.
November 10th, 2009 at 11:44 pm
Absolute trainwreck.
The lie detector was pure hand-waving magic (invisible MRI machine to boot). Why even do it? Do people honestly buy the idea, and figure we have a court system because lawyers and juries are cheaper than MRI techs? The only thing it seemed to do was drive a plot that made no sense anyways.
If you were a creepy author confronted by someone accusing you of sexual assault on someone who apparently came to your room to drop off a book, what would possess you to conceal the fact that the book was left at the door. Maybe he figured that acting creepy and hostile would reduce his chances of facing criminal charges?
If Cuddy was open to the idea of having an eccentric oddball who professionally deceives and investigates in her life, how could she resist Greg House? He’s superhuman in all of those areas.
November 11th, 2009 at 2:15 am
I’m still unconvinced about the cogency of Scott’s response to Capo. I will respond to them in number format just as he did.
1. In this paper: “Monitoring of periorbital blood flow rate through thermal image analysis and its application to polygraph testing” they discuss the accuracy and reliability of polygraph testing through the fusion of traditional invasive 1D physiological measurements with novel non-invasive 2D physiological measurements. You ought not to be critical of technology for which you are not familiar Scott…
2. Again, in the aforementioned article they discuss lie detection facial thermal imagery through the use of an accurate mid-infrared camera. First they transform the raw thermal data to blood flow rate data through thermodynamic modeling and then subsequently classify the subject as deceptive or non-deceptive based on the nearest-neighbor classification method. This is clearly what Foreman was doing in the scene. No fMRI necessary.
3. This critique seems like conjecture but is by far the most salient of the criticisms presented. I will concede that the tripod would be “magical” if it were to do what was presented in the scene, but some TV magic is obligatory in any show…
link to the article referenced; http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=1017374&tag=1
November 11th, 2009 at 6:00 am
“For most people, the bacteria present no problem”
But your link says, “Yet, in this country, the bacterium causes a disease with over a 50 percent mortality rate, and it causes 95 percent of all seafood-related deaths.”
November 11th, 2009 at 7:30 am
@Eugenie Rose: My thoughts exactly. There was a time (80s) when commercial breaks didn’t spoil the flow of the program. They were few, fun to watch and a nice tea break. Now I hate them with a passion as I do anything forced upon us. Tv networks have underestimated the power of the net and the programmable digital recording era. I either download House or record it so I don’t have to sit through multiple interruptions lasting 20 minutes/hour. It’s been literally years since I so a commercial for anything.
November 11th, 2009 at 8:06 am
another 5c worth.. I think the costume was indeed Falco/Amadeus, and this episode was a mess form all kinds of angles…
I’d also like to point out that rohypnol as a “date-rape drug” is a self-fulfilling prophecy: It has been made out to be such in sensational news media and TV/movie fiction, hence unscrupulous young men wishing to increase their chances of getting laid will immediately think of it. Readily available on the black market or from a relative’s medicine cabinet (often prescribed to elderly people with sleep problems) and with the nice (also media-invented) psudonym of “roofies”, it will hit the headlines every time such use is discovered, thus strengthening & perpetuating the cycle..
Although it was clumsily dealt with, the topic of Euthanasia was a good idea, particularly after the previous murder/mercy killing topics in the series.
November 11th, 2009 at 9:10 am
Official Comment
Austin:
It certainly sounds like the Pavlidis/Levine approach was what Foreman was attempting, but after reading the paper you mentioned as well as several others by the same group, I am unimpressed by the technique (it certainly is more portable than an fMRI, but less accurate, and the fMRI was never terribly accurate to begin with).
It’s an interesting concept, but the studies supporting it have all been fairly poor and low in numbers. Only one group is doing all the research, and most of the publications seem to be paper presentations at conferences rather than research published in peer-reviewed journals.
Basically, their technique looks for increased blood flow around the eyes using computer modeling of infrared camera data, which they believe correlates to higher anxiety levels. And they then correlate these higher anxiety levels with probable deception on the part of the subject. The researchers claim it is as accurate as a traditional polygraph, which is not something I’d be boasting of.
The National Research Council examined the data and concluded “it remains a flawed and incomplete evaluation based on a small sample, with no cross-validation of measurements and no blind evaluation. It does not provide acceptable scientific evidence to support the use of facial thermography in the detection of deception.”
The technique was never designed for, or tested under, hospital conditions (though admittedly there is not a big demand for testing when patients are lying) — let alone tested in a patient on Amobarbital. Jordan’s on drugs, thinks she’s dying, and is being subjected to the third degree, so of course you’d expect her to be anxious, whether she was lying or not. And as others have pointed out, Jordan believes what she is saying, so even if the test were 100% accurate, it wouldn’t show any deception on her part.
So I will certainly admit that it looks like Foreman was using the Pavlidis/Levine approch, rendering my fMRI complaint moot. But I remain unconvinced that the technique would work anything like what was shown, even ignoring the key fact that Jordan believes her own lies.
November 11th, 2009 at 11:35 am
@Austin and Scott: I fail to see the relevance of the argument as I believe the matter was put to rest by someone mentioning “confabulation”. Confabulation is *not* lying therefore lectures & publications on the accuracy /inaccuracy of the equipment are redundant. As for Vibrio vulnificus. Vibrio ridiculous fits better!
November 11th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
House’s 80s costume was an allusion to Hugh Laurie’s costume in the video of the 80s hit “Walking On Broken Glass” by Annie Lennox:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhHMah89PTo
So good!
November 11th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
Ah, it’s good to see no more Taub, and no more 13, either, except, maybe, as guest stars sometime in the 9th season. No more unnecessary characters. BTW, the soap in this episode was superb and made me forget about the annoying POTW and the not-so-good medicine. Also, the Lucas thing is not so surprising if we remember his flirting with Cuddy last season.
November 11th, 2009 at 11:17 pm
Pubmed abstract 3260760 refers to a paper in the Annals of Internal Medicine that describes three syndromes of V. vulnificus infection.
Only one of the three syndromes has gastrointestinal manifestations, and it is the least common of the three (about 15% of cases).
Given that her foot became swollen early, yes, maybe there was a wound infection at that site, but I don’t want to speculate how oyster and foot came in contact. :-)
November 11th, 2009 at 11:52 pm
Official Comment
But reading the Annals article, and other articles and books on Vibrio, show that even the septicemic group have gastrointestinal symptoms.
“Patients with primary septicemia caused by V. vulnificus infection require hospitalization. Characteristic symptoms include fever, diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting. One half of patients have changes in mental status, and almost one third are in septic shock at hospital admission.”
Vibrio vulnificus Infection: Diagnosis and Treatment.American Family Physician, Volume 76, Issue 4, August 2007. (Link to article)
(And though this is a different, more current article than the one you mention, the quote directly paraphrases and sources the Annals article.)
November 12th, 2009 at 12:37 am
House’s costume had nothing to do with anything in the 1980’s, based on his own comment: when asked whether he knew there was an 80s theme, he said, “They didn’t say which 80s.”
Cuddy’s costume was obviously from Flashdance, but I thought the guy’s remark referring to her as Jane Fonda was just to show what an idiot he was.
November 12th, 2009 at 4:22 am
About the lying thing, I don’t think it was in any way supposed to be the case that she believed what she was saying. I think it was supposed to be that she was compulsively lying, and couldn’t control it. As such, surely the signs of lying would be obvious, since its consious, and she wouldn’t really be trying to hide it. And the keyword there is -increased- bloodflow. Yes she would be anxious, but the concious, involuntary lying would surely cause a spike, and that difference would be what was shown?
November 12th, 2009 at 11:21 am
House’s party costume was SUPERB. I had to show my boyfriend the video; he totally didn’t get the reference!
November 12th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
low potassium and house still is saying its rabdho? shouldn’t it be hyperkaliemia in rabdho???
November 12th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
I enjoyed this episode a lot. It had some very interesting small world coincidences for me.
1. Lars Ulrich is a good friend of my sister and her husband. (both doctors)
2. The external shots looked like Lake Arrowhead, California, not far from LA. I think the Cuddy/Wilson/Cuddys baby scene was shot in the vary spot my brothers wedding pictures were taken. (That might answer your question Kate)
3. My brother in law (the friend of Lars mentioned above) and I had recently had a lengthy conversation about the topic of Wilson’s paper. He handled my grandmothers terminal illness until the end.
November 12th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
Just confirmed it was filmed at Lake Arrowhead. I found this pic of Lake Arrowhead resort:
http://i911.photobucket.com/albums/ac314/ScubaBuddha/274_resize.jpg
and noticed the distinctive railing and location of the trees matched perfectly to those in these shots of Lucas, Cuddy, and Cuddy’s baby from the show:
http://i911.photobucket.com/albums/ac314/ScubaBuddha/LakeArrowheadhouse.jpg
http://i911.photobucket.com/albums/ac314/ScubaBuddha/LA.jpg
Source(s):
http://lakearrowheadweddings.blogspot.com/2008/08/lake-arrowhead-wedding-association-at.html
November 12th, 2009 at 10:43 pm
“Moreover, as Cameron already murdered someone (Informed Consent), her domestic situation is a false tension.”
Are we really going to pretend there’s not a massive difference between those two situations? Helping someone who is in terminal pain and wishes to die, and deliberately murdering someone you could have helped return to a healthy state? Cameron isn’t a murderer; Chase is.
November 13th, 2009 at 12:20 am
for me, this was the episode where House jumped the shark. all season, the patients have been blah, and so has House. It’s like the writers backed themselves into a corner by sending him to an institution, and now what are they supposed to do with him? I don’t think they really figured that out and are grasping for a new direction. The even more sloppy medicine than in the past indicates that the energy invested into the show by everyone involved is just not there anymore. They probably thought they could portray a more nuanced version of house after he left the mental institution, but it just hasn’t worked – at least not yet.
If I’m Hugh Laurie, I do whatever it takes to make sure this is the final season. There just doesn’t seem to be a compelling direction they can take the show now.
November 13th, 2009 at 12:32 am
“About the lying thing, I don’t think it was in any way supposed to be the case that she believed what she was saying. I think it was supposed to be that she was compulsively lying, and couldn’t control it.”
I’ve never heard of a disease turning somebody into a compulsive liar, and in any case, I wouldn’t expect such an unusual thing to have the same physiological signs as bog-standard lying – i.e. increased anxiety levels. I would also think about the possibility that any teenage girl would be a little stressed or anxious when describing in front of her parents the way in which her hero drug-raped her, rendering the results of the thermal imaging thing a little bit unreliable.
It appears much more likely that Jordan is delusional and cannot distinguish the truth from her own fantasies.
November 13th, 2009 at 1:24 am
@James: There isn’t a conclusive thing to look at to determine lying. What the majority of lie catching techniques do is look for a mismatch between physical signs and what someone is saying, not look for a single thing like shifty eyes.
Foreman could reasonably say that a patient is neurologically in bad shape and everything they say should be taken with a grain of salt. What he cannot say is that everything they say is false. That would simply make the person an oracle, because the opposite of what they say would be true.
November 13th, 2009 at 6:50 am
Can I quietly point out that the discussion between Scott, Capo, and Austin in the comments was a very nice little present in today’s review?
(I really hope this isn’t taken sarcastically. It’s not. This shit is so cool.)
Small point: Doesn’t matter if House hasn’t been to conferences in nearly 2 decades – he’s a world-famous doctor who leaves a lasting impression on everyone he meets. I’d wager it’s a pretty lame conference if no-one there recognized him.
My reaction to the Lucas thing is the same now as it was when I first saw it:
“REALLY?”
Shouldn’t I at least believe that there’s some affection? Lucas is way too dumb for Cuddy, and I have yet to see her act affectionate toward him in the slightest.
The story of “the first time they met” was fun.
The tween patient & pals were aggravating – I liked it; they were the perfect tweens, right down to the prosti-tot make-up.
Is “Stiletto” a half-hearted parallel for “Firefly”? It’s a sci-fi series with a recent movie prequel (like “Serenity”).
I’m pretty sure Chase and Cameron know what Twitter is. Apparently, the writer didn’t! Or, he wanted to show just how hip he is.
I really hope they resolve this Dibala thing already. I was so happy towards the end of season 5 when they started giving Chase more recognition, more development beyond everyone’s perception that he’s just a tool, and all that fun stuff. (I think out of the original 3, he came second to House in getting the most diagnoses in the first 3 seasons.) The marriage was a nice cap to the Chase/Cameron romance.
And then, almost immediately – marriage/career/life-destroying decision! Goddamnit, couldn’t you at least give them half a season to be lovebirds and play up their marriage before shattering everything?
I could tell the medicine went to shit when Foreman announced that he knew she was lying because her “I’m Lying” switch in the brain was flipped on, as evidenced by the “I’m Lying” liquid dripping out her ear.
I’m not a doctor, but I’m pretty sure the brain is just a wee bit more complex than that. (And even I knew that a bleed in the amygdala doesn’t quietly leak out the ear.)
Also – wouldn’t a center-brain fucking bleed be a big deal? Isn’t that where she keeps all her neurological stuff? Inside her BRAIN?
November 13th, 2009 at 11:05 am
@Mani,
“Lucas is way too dumb for Cuddy”
I think that in his first incarnation Lucas showed that he was smarter than Cuddy and Taub and everyone else except House. That’s my problem with the character. House is supposed to be this once in a lifetime brilliant man smarter than the very smart doctors around him, so smart that his mind is teetering on the brink of insanity, held together by drugs and the belief in his own superior intellect, and, yet, here comes this goofy, PI who is as smart as House but with none of the ill effects of a House-ian sized intellect. His character makes no sense in this show (except as a pilot for another show). His existence undermines the whole basis for the House character.
He does act pretty dumb though. I think if he had gotten his own show Lucas would have hidden his smarts ala Columbia to let the crooks think they were outsmarting him. Hang themselves with their own rope, etc.
November 13th, 2009 at 11:06 am
Columbia = Columbo
November 13th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
1. I don´t think Jordan´s symptoms fit rhabdo. Swelling as the first symtom???
2. Too much sexual tension between House and Cuddy, I think.
3. Lucas back as Cuddy´s partner? Bet she hired him to screw House around:-)
4. Loved House reading Wilson´s paper! It was great fun.
5. Seems like the writers are out of possible conditions worth House. They should read our challenge lists!
6. This was the third case of hemochromatosis we saw on House. Btw. wouldn´t it show up on the basic blood pannel?
November 13th, 2009 at 8:49 pm
Too many people know about this site.
November 14th, 2009 at 6:29 am
@Mani and turning up the volume on your first paragraph: Indeed. Austin and Capo were never going to successfully tag team Scott on the back of “lie detection” equipment best reserved for Jerry Springer. “you ought not be critical of technology for which you are not familiar…” lol. I thought they might score a few points on the Vibrio but even those were wrestled away. Better luck next week. Almost forgot Aim: Has time allowed you to digest (excuse the pun) the problem with your post?
November 14th, 2009 at 8:08 am
I know next to nothing about medicine, but I know quite a bit about the law. While giving someone Rohypnol is one thing, in New Jersey (where the show takes place) the age of consent is 16, meaning that sex is entirely legal.
November 14th, 2009 at 8:23 am
@Hibbleton
I don’t think Lucas is as clever as House. He’s just a PS (as Cuddy put it – the only detective she knew). It’s already been established (over and over) that the intellectual and interpersonal contests between House and Cuddy get the two of them stirred up in a pretty unique way.
And social intelligence is still just as much intelligence. House is manipulative, callous, dismissive – but not clumsy. Lucas’ “goofiness” looks out-of-place (or more specifically “out-of-genre”) next to virtually every character on the show.
That, and he always looks like he’s wearing lipstick or gloss. Or is that just my TV?
November 14th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
Medicine part was not even worth watching. I mean, I dont want to watch another Grey’s Anatomy. I love House because they have both drama and MEDICINE in it, not just load of kissing people. I just hope that they get there act together. They SHOULD be thankful that Hugh Laurie is still on board. He is such a great actor and he doesnt deserve this kind of ugly writing. I’m starting to miss season one and two…
Yes, okay, I admit, there was some since that I like but all of then are drama, which is for me is not the definition of House. House is the a smart MEDICAL drama, unlike the other once. And now its just starting to be all drama.
I’m already have a gut feeling that House MD is need its end. I think all of us know that once House is finally “okay” its done (another EASY happy-ever-after)! But please, if the writers are reading this, at least make an ending thats House worthy.
To end this, just THANK GOD that Hugh Laurie is still there. That only reason I’m still watching House. Medicine part SUCKED and Drama just did okay. Hopefully things will get better.
November 14th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/62041/
Interesting article in NY Magazine about “13″ . She’s the child of interesting parents.
November 14th, 2009 at 7:00 pm
The previous post was from me…no longer anonymous. I enjoy this site quite a bit, especially all the arguing over ficticious characters!
November 14th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
Lucas was definitely a annoying character that shouldn’t have returned.
And, come on, doesn’t Cuddy know ANYBODY else other than the main characters and the sporadic temp character?
It would be a lot more interesting twist if her boyfriend was, say, Joe from accouting, played by a guest actor for a couple of episodes… Imagine somebody playing a grumpy elderly accountant (like Jack Nicholson’s Warren Schimdt), interacting with the always-have-a-witty-response House…
Talk about a missed opportunity…
November 14th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
@sabreo
It seemed to be more of a 1780s costume than an 1880s costume. Powdered wigs had long gone out of fashion in the 1880s except in the British legal system (Where they are still in use) IIRC.
Considering he played character near that time period (Blackadder III as Prince Regent George IV) I’d consider it in shoutout territory.
November 15th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
I really hope the Cuddy-Lucas thing is fake. There is no chemistry between them and pulling a story in like that is weak writing.
If on the other hand Cuddy paid Lucas to pretend to be her buyfriend, that would fit the acting, and the Cuddy/House personalities and banter.
November 15th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
About the Simpson reference, Fox is celebrating 20 years of SImpsons by doing a scavenger hunt of simpson references in other shows: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQgPAD-hdGU
Hence the “Patty and Selma” reference who are Bart’s twin aunts who smoke all the time.
House : (…) to check out Patty and Selma.
Cuddy: I don’t know why you chose to name them after somebody’s aunts.
House: It’s a compliment : they’re always smokin’!
November 15th, 2009 at 7:22 pm
Oh, and am I wrong, but in the “Three Stories” episode (first or second season, I guess), I think Cuddy took over House’s case saying something like “Dr. House, I’m Dr. Cuddy and I am taking over your case now, and I am sorry for the mess my team made).
I remember understanding that they meet at that occasion. Can anyone enlighten me on that point?
November 16th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
Hm, seems to me medicine is ok in this House episode. At least it’s not worse than in other episodes. Check PMID: 14982266 for various symptoms of v. vulnificus infection including arrhthymia btw. If it was common starter the girl would be admitted to this hospital.
The whole IR camera problem is not a problem at all. We are starting to blame House writers for using some of experimental approaches that exist, than what should we say about obvious and sometimes stupid mistakes they do.
It’s not a docudrama, it’s fiction and it’s not that bad….
“Cardiac tamponade or not, you don’t just plunge a needle and syringe blindly into the chest…” ha… you didn’t work at e.r. department in Russia…
November 16th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
@Alberto: If I remember correctly, at that particular moment, House was still being represented by his “late-30’s” cipher. In other words, he was still telling the story to the class as if it were an anonymous middle-aged guy. It was only after House wrapped up that particular scene by saying that the problem was an infarction that led to muscle death that the Foreman said (to Cameron), “You’re right, it’s House.” We return to the hospital bed and now it’s Hugh Laurie as House.
Also, I’m not sure she said “I’m Dr. Cuddy.” I think she might have simply said she was taking over his case. So at that point it’s still ambiguous as to whether they’d met before.
November 16th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
Yes. Why not. Although your quote sounds like Cuddy I don’t believe she introduces herself in this brilliant episode in that manner. *******SPOILER WARNING***** Please do not read on if you haven’t seen it. When it is revealed that the patient is House, Cameron, then Foreman then Cuddy discuss the next step. Cuddy’s line is as follows, “The MRI revealed a problem (House,”no kidding”). I’m sorry none of your doctors found it earlier. I am personally gonna over see your treatment from now on.”
November 16th, 2009 at 10:06 pm
@Dr Evil:
Yes, I remember now. But you gotta admit that’s quite too “non-personal” kind of speech considering they were former college mates.
I think that up to that point, the writer hadn’t thought about how House met Cuddy, and let it implicit that they met after that episode.
And considering that Three Stories (the best house episode, closely followed by the two Foreman is the patient and then by the one with Mira Sorvino) was written by David Shore (just saw that at tv.com) and this was written by Doris Egan and Matthew Lewis, five years latter, I think it is simply a matter of inconsistency for the lack of throughly knowledge of the background story.
But it is a very admissible error by the writers, this kind of subtlety introduced in between lines might be easily overlooked indeed.
November 17th, 2009 at 7:42 am
Personally, I loved the bringing up of euthanasia. It was about time they’d mentioned it in the House series. I don’t really believe that if a doctor presented such a case in a conference the audience would have reacted like this, but it was not that dramatic.
Good for Chase to tell Cameron the truth – at last. He was getting really tiring.
November 17th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
@Alberto: You make a good point. However, Cuddy’s concern for the patient when advising Stacey (From Harrison Ford’s 1993 classic “The Fugitive”) implies prior knowledge. She cares too much about House for him to be just another patient. House also orders her around no differently, “Go and schedule an OR!” to which she obliges. But the final nail on them knowing each other comes when Cuddy says to Stacey, “There’s a 3rd option. A middle ground” Stacey, “He’s not big on middle ground.” Cuddy agrees “yeah”.
November 17th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
Perhaps at the time, the gravity of the situation made her wear the metaphorical clinical cap when dealing with House to reassure him that she was doing her best as a doctor and not a friend. She knew Stacey was there to fulfil the other role. You may also recall that Cuddy adopted a similar professional approach with Wilson when Amber was dying.
November 17th, 2009 at 11:54 pm
“Capo di tutti capo” should be “Capo di tutti’ Capi” (Leader of all the Leaders). Last word is plural. Also note the apostrophe after “tutti” (”all the” is “tutti i”, but you can’t have two vowels together, hence the apostrophe).
Sorry!
November 18th, 2009 at 12:47 am
This episode just annoyed me a lot for some reason. Lucas and Cuddy- kinda out of the blue, but makes sense in a way.
House didn’t react as I expected him to (throw a fit, start planning a dastardly plot), but I guess that ties in with his new made-over, drug-free personality.
November 21st, 2009 at 1:46 pm
I liked the parallel drawn between Chases actions and Wilson’s proposed speech, espeacially at the end it tied up nicely. (Especially given Camerons dabble with euthanisia few series ago.) House moves towards supressings Wilsons mass confession whereas Cameron moves towards getting Chase to admit. Very interesting stuff.
November 23rd, 2009 at 3:24 pm
I’m also going to say that the first thing I thought when House showed up at the party was “Rock me, Amadeus!”
December 27th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/27/health/27sedation.html?pagewanted=1&em
January 21st, 2010 at 1:42 am
100th Post, Epic Win
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