House – Episode 5: “Damned If You Do”
I wasn’t as enthralled by this week’s House as I have been previous episodes. It was still an engrossing medical mystery; the character elements just seemed superficial this week. First, I was misled by the TV schedule which suggested that the mystery was going to involve stigmata. That sounded intriguing and I was looking forward to discovering what diagnosis Dr. House would pin on bleeding palms. Unfortunately, the episode did not deal with stigmata, although it did focus on a nun. This particular nun had a wide variety of puzzling symptoms which some of the other nuns at her monastery (and I always thought monks lived in monasteries while nuns lived in convents) thought she was simply a hypochondriac. For the second week in a row, lessons learned in previous episodes were forgotten as the solution to this week’s mystery involved two separate and unrelated diagnoses — which violates the principle of Occam’s Razor.
The main character moment involved Dr. Chase, who was revealed to have been studying for the priesthood at one time. Other than that, the character moments were few and far-between. Sure, there were nuns, but that was pretty much a shortcut the writers used to suggest a deeper meaning to the episode instead of actually writing a deeper meaning. On the plus side, there was at least one Sound of Music joke.
Don’t miss my re-review of this episode.
December 15th, 2004 at 1:11 am
What was the _Sound of Music_ joke? I think it flew right past me.
December 15th, 2004 at 9:30 am
In the beginnng, right after House examined Sister Augustine for the first time he came out of the exam room and said, “How do you solve a problem like Augustine?” — like the song “How do you solve a problem like Maria?”
December 15th, 2004 at 10:02 am
Did the nun in question suffer from a wound in the side, bloody forehead or lash marks on the back? All of these are also reported in Stigmata cases.
December 15th, 2004 at 10:20 am
Ah! Thanks for the response – I totally missed that reference.
December 15th, 2004 at 11:58 am
I thought it was an interesting episode, in that it showed some consequences to House’s tendency to start treatment without testing. As the coda at the end made clear, he was wrong, even if he was right and he could have killed the nun.
My own complaint was that the ‘tea’ red herring was telegraphed much to obiviously from the start … when she’s offered water and instead say’s she brought tea, it was like a red flag.
Lastly, I’d like to see one of these shows play a bit with the formula they’ve developed (HOUSE, CSI, NCSI, etc.) and not have the revelation occur at minute 48. Surprise us…
December 15th, 2004 at 12:52 pm
Matt,
None of those either. She had a rash on her wrists and a host of ill-defined and vague symptoms.
Jason,
That’s a very good point. There’s been times in other episodes where House makes what seems like a reasonable diagnosis, then I look at the clock and see it only half-past the hour, so I know he must be wrong. This is not good storytelling.
December 15th, 2004 at 4:17 pm
Maybe they could do an episode where he makes the right diagnosis up front and the rest of the episode is him being irritated at everyone questioning him over it.
November 30th, 2006 at 5:46 pm
Hi,
Going back to the “Sound of Music” joke, I am sure that Dr. House actually says “Ho do you solve a problem like dermatitis?” Is this a difference between US and british versions maybe?
March 11th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
I didn’t know there was a UK version. The actor who plays Chase played a very dramatic role as a Catholic seminary student (studying for the priesthood) in one of the Dalgleish mysteries.
May 4th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
My favourite moment in this episode was watching House prescribe cigarettes for inflammatory bowels. (Does that even work?)
“Pretty much all the drugs I prescribe are addictive and dangerous. The only difference with this one is it’s completely legal.”
July 29th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
Yes cigarette smoking does help with inflammatory bowel disease.
This usually presents as a dilemma for a smoker with inflammatory bowel disease who wants to give up smoking. when they do their bowel problem gets much worse.
It dramatically illustrates the point that all effective medicines are to be regarded as the lesser of two evils…
October 16th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
1) It it very rare to see nuns in habits theses days. But at least they didn’t dress them in the whole get up. They put them in drab granny clothes which is pretty accurate.
2) As a previous poster stated, the tea thing was obvious from the start. Furthermore, in the nun kitchen it was “Copperpalooza.” Also, wouldn’t the hopital control all foods and liquids and not allow her to keep drinking the tea? Especially if being treated for allergies.
3) I still don’t get the ending. She had a copper crucifix jammed in her as a result of a botched IUD? Or was that a result of her attempt to self terminate her teen pregnancy? The combination of figwort tea and copper causing allergic reaction is interesting, but they coud have come up with a more reasonable cause of interaction.
October 21st, 2007 at 4:16 am
Tami, it was just coincidence that the contraceptive device was shaped like a crucifix. You can probably get a full run down on old devices like this if you Google it.
November 18th, 2007 at 4:43 am
Sometimes marks on the wrist are accepted as stigmata, because Roman crucifixions involved nails driven between the radius and the ulna.
November 26th, 2007 at 9:57 pm
Tami, the copper crucifix _was_ the IUD.
November 30th, 2007 at 9:14 am
Anybody else wonder how the nun made it through the MRI machine with that big hunk of copper inside her? Tell me if I’m missing something here but I believed there to be a giant electromagnet inside that machine…
Isnt that the reason House requested the MRI for the homeless girl? To get the surgical pin removed?
Hmmm
December 9th, 2007 at 11:33 pm
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) creates images through a combination of magnetic fields and radio wave pulses. Only ferromagnetic or magnetisable material (pertaining to, or derived from, iron) should experience a static force within the MRI. Most intrauterine devices (IUDs) are composed of plastic with copper wire or copper bands, while some also have a central core of silver. None of this material should experience a magnetic force within the magnetic field.
In layman’s terms: Copper is not magnetic and cannot become magnetized.
December 13th, 2007 at 11:14 pm
Thanks 13 – I suspected such but would’ve felt very smug had I noticed a goof :-)
December 15th, 2007 at 8:52 pm
The medicine in this episode is based almost directly on a case described by Berton Roueche, first in ‘Annals of Medicine’ in the New Yorker in 1978, and more recently in the book ‘Medical Detectives’. Aside from making the patient a nun, the idea of an allergy to a copper IUD is a direct lift of a case treated by Dr. Vincent P. Barranco, of the Tulsa Dermatology Clinic in Oklahoma.
August 10th, 2008 at 4:13 am
[...] Polite Dissent’s review of House 105 (part 1 and part 2) [...]
October 18th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
Dr Cameron, wen intubating the nun in the “clean room” takes the laringoscope with the right hand at first. It was very funnt, but they change it in the next camera view.
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