House: "Who's Your Daddy?"
Yeah. So, uh... wow.
Not wow as in "House vs. God" wow or "All In" wow, but pretty impressive, especially considering how little I expected from this episode after last week's preview. There's too much to process from the meatier scenes, and a paper to finish, and a shower to be had. How about we do a three-things type post?
First, plot summary for the unfortunates:
Young African-American Katrina survivor shown on a plane with a white man who looks like Stephen Rea who's learned from her within the past day or few that he's her father. They're in the middle of bonding when she hallucinates that the plane is being flooded and has a heart attack.
Cut to House pacing in his apartment at night, in pain, trying to walk it off, Vicodin supplies running low. Transition to morning; still pacing; giving up, he grabs a syringe from a box at the top of a bookshelf-morphine, someone said on the house_md Whiteboards, and I like the sound of that, since people have been saying for a while that Vicodin isn't gonna cut it for long, shouldn't actually have cut it for this long-and is about to inject himself when Cuddy calls and leaves a message about the girl that intrigues him enough to put it down and go to work.
When he comes in, we find out that not-Stephen-Rea, whose actual name I've forgotten but started with "Cr" and should have been just "R" and so kept making me say "Craisin!", is an old friend of House's; he hilariously calls House "G-Man!" when he catches sight of him by Diagnostics, leading me to expect House to pull a Giles and retort, "Don't call me that." (He didn't.) We immediately learn that Craisin's Achilles heel is his gullibility, which House gleefully exploits to his face throughout the episode. Backstory: Craisin and House were friends when they were about 20, they both idolized a jazz pianist who was this girl's grandfather, Craisin wrote a biography about the grandfather and got intimate with the mother, the book got published and turned out to be an exposé and hence neither grandfather nor mother ever told him he had a child by her. House is convinced the girl is scamming Craisin and tries to coerce him into letting him run a paternity test, but maybe-daddy won't have it.
Meanwhile, the team tries to find out what's wrong with the girl, Cuddy asks House to give her her fertility injections (in her, um, posterior, which didn't play as you might expect, but did involve House rubbing disinfectant on a bit longer than necessary), and House goes through Cuddy's sperm donor paperwork (at her request) trying to find a worthy candidate, which leads to a personal interview that's way funnier than this week's clinic patient.
Whew. Okay. Three things:
- House scaring the bejeezus out of Katrina Girl by stabbing her twice with a needle and breaking her finger? Terrifying. Like, beyond sexy-scary and straight into nightmarish. Which I'm assuming was the point, but my God, his face when she was sobbing was (a) much more frightening than when the admittedly creepy flesh-dropping FX kicked in and (b) an excellent illustration of how House is becoming increasingly nasty beyond justification. Eh, elynross? There was no sign of discomfort in his expression at causing so much pain in a little girl; he even told her it wouldn't hurt. It was like the toe-cutting scene from "Paternity," only this wasn't a dream. His behavior can't be excused as a necessary evil to help in the diagnosis, nor as a way of siphoning off his own leg pain. He was downright cold. Why weren't the Fellows more disturbed? Why did anyone let House alone with her later in the episode? Why for that matter did no one speak of reprimands, or worse? Just because his strategy worked in inducing a hallucination? *shudder*
- O the Wilson love: taking over in the radiation lab (even if he proves incompetent once again by not noticing that something is going wrong with the girl being treated), taunting House about his lunch ("Twenty-one savory spices!") (House used the same fork!), bringing his lunch to House's office in the first place so he can ask how House knows Craisin, walking in on House and the massage therapist ("Oh, sorry-" "It's not what it looks like!" "Oh, Ingrid. Hi."), leaving a message on the answering machine and knowing House's greeting was different (well, gone, but still).
- It's too bad the "House is going to figure out part or all of the key to the case from listening to her grandfather play piano" was so predictable and wasn't covered earlier in the episode to get it out of the way, but it was still nice to have more logic in the diagnosis than the sheer coincidence-inspiration they've been going for lately.
Great lines: [Wilson's isn't quite right, but that's the gist of it]
Cuddy, upon hearing that the patient's father knows House: "I thought I've met all your friend."
Wilson, when House tells him at lunch that the girl is pooping out of her mouth: "You're trying to gross me out? I'm an oncologist, half my patients have skin that's sloughing off."
During a discussion about how House told Craisin back in the day that he would "talk" to Craisin's unstable girlfriend and try to convince her to stay with him:
Wilson: You blew it.
House: Actually... [reverse motions that had to suffice for a verbal "She blew me" because it's network TV.]
(Did/does anyone else think the girl in question was Stacy?)
And about that preview for next week's season finale...
The disgruntled former patient who SHOOTS HOUSE OMGhehaditcoming point-blank in the chest in his office is totally familiar-looking but I couldn't place him and need to watch it again, only I'm taping something else and can't check, and can't look him up for fear of spoilers, so if any of you watched and know the actor's name and/or where I might know him from, help a girl out?
ETA: Dude, I just realized after I turned out the light, it's Elias Koteas! From "Exotica" and "The Prophecy." All soft brown eyes and ambiguity. I'm psyched now.
I'm not sure whether I want Wilson to tackle the gunman or drop to the ground and see if House is okay.
And the clip that's on everybody's minds: House punches Wilson. Okay. There are two obvious explanations, neither of which I'm sure will be the case: House, having been shot, is not doing so well mentally, and hauls off and socks his friend in a moment of frustration; or Cuddy and/or Wilson tell him that Wilson didn't actually fail the paternity audition and has impregnated her, leading to anger and jealousy. I hope it's the former, combined with something episode-specific. Actually I kind of wish it hadn't been in the preview, because that would have been a real shocker, but I'm sure the context will compensate.
Discuss!
Not wow as in "House vs. God" wow or "All In" wow, but pretty impressive, especially considering how little I expected from this episode after last week's preview. There's too much to process from the meatier scenes, and a paper to finish, and a shower to be had. How about we do a three-things type post?
First, plot summary for the unfortunates:
Young African-American Katrina survivor shown on a plane with a white man who looks like Stephen Rea who's learned from her within the past day or few that he's her father. They're in the middle of bonding when she hallucinates that the plane is being flooded and has a heart attack.
Cut to House pacing in his apartment at night, in pain, trying to walk it off, Vicodin supplies running low. Transition to morning; still pacing; giving up, he grabs a syringe from a box at the top of a bookshelf-morphine, someone said on the house_md Whiteboards, and I like the sound of that, since people have been saying for a while that Vicodin isn't gonna cut it for long, shouldn't actually have cut it for this long-and is about to inject himself when Cuddy calls and leaves a message about the girl that intrigues him enough to put it down and go to work.
When he comes in, we find out that not-Stephen-Rea, whose actual name I've forgotten but started with "Cr" and should have been just "R" and so kept making me say "Craisin!", is an old friend of House's; he hilariously calls House "G-Man!" when he catches sight of him by Diagnostics, leading me to expect House to pull a Giles and retort, "Don't call me that." (He didn't.) We immediately learn that Craisin's Achilles heel is his gullibility, which House gleefully exploits to his face throughout the episode. Backstory: Craisin and House were friends when they were about 20, they both idolized a jazz pianist who was this girl's grandfather, Craisin wrote a biography about the grandfather and got intimate with the mother, the book got published and turned out to be an exposé and hence neither grandfather nor mother ever told him he had a child by her. House is convinced the girl is scamming Craisin and tries to coerce him into letting him run a paternity test, but maybe-daddy won't have it.
Meanwhile, the team tries to find out what's wrong with the girl, Cuddy asks House to give her her fertility injections (in her, um, posterior, which didn't play as you might expect, but did involve House rubbing disinfectant on a bit longer than necessary), and House goes through Cuddy's sperm donor paperwork (at her request) trying to find a worthy candidate, which leads to a personal interview that's way funnier than this week's clinic patient.
Whew. Okay. Three things:
- House scaring the bejeezus out of Katrina Girl by stabbing her twice with a needle and breaking her finger? Terrifying. Like, beyond sexy-scary and straight into nightmarish. Which I'm assuming was the point, but my God, his face when she was sobbing was (a) much more frightening than when the admittedly creepy flesh-dropping FX kicked in and (b) an excellent illustration of how House is becoming increasingly nasty beyond justification. Eh, elynross? There was no sign of discomfort in his expression at causing so much pain in a little girl; he even told her it wouldn't hurt. It was like the toe-cutting scene from "Paternity," only this wasn't a dream. His behavior can't be excused as a necessary evil to help in the diagnosis, nor as a way of siphoning off his own leg pain. He was downright cold. Why weren't the Fellows more disturbed? Why did anyone let House alone with her later in the episode? Why for that matter did no one speak of reprimands, or worse? Just because his strategy worked in inducing a hallucination? *shudder*
- O the Wilson love: taking over in the radiation lab (even if he proves incompetent once again by not noticing that something is going wrong with the girl being treated), taunting House about his lunch ("Twenty-one savory spices!") (House used the same fork!), bringing his lunch to House's office in the first place so he can ask how House knows Craisin, walking in on House and the massage therapist ("Oh, sorry-" "It's not what it looks like!" "Oh, Ingrid. Hi."), leaving a message on the answering machine and knowing House's greeting was different (well, gone, but still).
- It's too bad the "House is going to figure out part or all of the key to the case from listening to her grandfather play piano" was so predictable and wasn't covered earlier in the episode to get it out of the way, but it was still nice to have more logic in the diagnosis than the sheer coincidence-inspiration they've been going for lately.
Great lines: [Wilson's isn't quite right, but that's the gist of it]
Cuddy, upon hearing that the patient's father knows House: "I thought I've met all your friend."
Wilson, when House tells him at lunch that the girl is pooping out of her mouth: "You're trying to gross me out? I'm an oncologist, half my patients have skin that's sloughing off."
During a discussion about how House told Craisin back in the day that he would "talk" to Craisin's unstable girlfriend and try to convince her to stay with him:
Wilson: You blew it.
House: Actually... [reverse motions that had to suffice for a verbal "She blew me" because it's network TV.]
(Did/does anyone else think the girl in question was Stacy?)
And about that preview for next week's season finale...
The disgruntled former patient who SHOOTS HOUSE OMGhehaditcoming point-blank in the chest in his office is totally familiar-looking but I couldn't place him and need to watch it again, only I'm taping something else and can't check, and can't look him up for fear of spoilers, so if any of you watched and know the actor's name and/or where I might know him from, help a girl out?
ETA: Dude, I just realized after I turned out the light, it's Elias Koteas! From "Exotica" and "The Prophecy." All soft brown eyes and ambiguity. I'm psyched now.
I'm not sure whether I want Wilson to tackle the gunman or drop to the ground and see if House is okay.
And the clip that's on everybody's minds: House punches Wilson. Okay. There are two obvious explanations, neither of which I'm sure will be the case: House, having been shot, is not doing so well mentally, and hauls off and socks his friend in a moment of frustration; or Cuddy and/or Wilson tell him that Wilson didn't actually fail the paternity audition and has impregnated her, leading to anger and jealousy. I hope it's the former, combined with something episode-specific. Actually I kind of wish it hadn't been in the preview, because that would have been a real shocker, but I'm sure the context will compensate.
Discuss!