My Friend's Examination of H/W's first meeting from "Birthmarks"
In one of those great moments of good timing, I got the following email from my friend. It's the last part of three about the episode "Birthmarks", so there are going to be pieces you won't get. Anyone who wants me to post the first two, ask and I'll be happy to do so. He was knocked out by the episode (and I mean KNOCKED OUT). He decided to analyze the H/W dynamic. His style is professorial and word-associative. He often says "And why?" when he's making a point.
We couldn't do this without clinic_duty
**************
Costello: Stop acting like such an ingrate and go pay your respects to your father.
All House'd have to do is simple assault on the cop and-CLANG! CLANG! GO THE JAIL GUITAR DOORS! (Joe Strummer) and end-of-story. But he doesn't.
And why?
Because he’d rather be with Wilson!
Ok. Now to your favorite bits…and truth be told, some of mine too.
See, it is an old device, well-known and derided now within the fanboy community of comic book readers/collectors, that Marvel would, once every two or three years, come out with a title for the Avengers,
or the X-Men or over in DC, the Justice League, with a variation on: “The Old Order Changeth.”
The Pig Latin pseudo was there to make it sound more significant than just getting rid of some not-so-popular
characters OR giving REALLY popular characters their own books.
This was the way they entered the new season. Wilson departs and the new-buddy-to-be/analyst Lucas comes in for a tryout. (Think the Batman/Superman team-up, a/k/a “World’s Finest Comics” as opposed to Batman and Robin, under the general title of “World’s Greatest Detective”…as if somebody in a cape and cowl NEEDED that appellation?)
However, after a seasoned vet has shown stuff for a bit, and if it hasn’t happened in some key episode, they will do an “Origin Story” issue. You want to know just how Dick Grayson ended up as a ward of Bruce Wayne?
These are always highly anticipated because it shows them before the present “mask” fell into place. And it shows them establishing the parameters of what is to come. And, especially for the invulnerable-vulnerability. Key word here.
House: Cuddy drugged me. She… My mom didn't call Cuddy. She called you. I knew you couldn't stay away. I knew you loved me too much.
Wilson: I'm doing this for your mom.
House: I'm not doing this at all. If there were something to be done, I would have done it in the year he spent dying. … [Hanson’s Mmmbop is heard. House looks around.]
House: Where's my phone? [Wilson ignores him.] It's the team. It's their ring tone. [nothing] Forget it. The patient's blood is on your hands.
House: Thanks for calling. [He disconnects the phone.] My ring tone for you is "Dancing Queen," by Abba.
See? That “blood is on your hands” line-that’s just a line. He uses it to get what he wants. Same reason he didn’t press Cuddy to intervene nor pulled Life-Or-Death emergency on the cop.
The following is both the intervention scene/marriage counselor’s session; the last-ditch attempt to save the relationship by getting all the secrets out in the open, ANNND the origin story of the team-up; how Green Lantern found Green Arrow for more than the fact that they liked the same eco-friendly color scheme.
Wilson: I was at the hotel bar trying to unwind, have a drink. There was this guy who kept playing Billy Joel’s "Leave a Tender Moment Alone" on the jukebox.
…
House: And smashed a ten-foot antique mirror. And set an example to two other patrons who threw shot glasses.
Wilson: I had nothing to do with that fight. The assault charge was totally bogus. And I paid for the mirror.
Costello: I think I have the picture. I assume you're the guy who was playing the song.
House: No, I was the guy who bailed him out.
Wilson: That's how we met. I was in jail.
Costello: This guy was a total stranger to you, and you bailed him out?
House: It was a boring convention. Had to have somebody to drink with.
Wilson: And there's the foundation of our entire friendship. If you hadn't been bored one weekend, it wouldn't even exist.
AYE, AND THERE’S THE RUB!
Not really a rub, though. This is indicative of an entire side of House we KNEW, but may have never considered in the abstract until this season. Like his pursuit of Dr. O’Shea, House proves that he is not Bisexual as much as OMNIsexual. And that doesn’t mean he mates with chickens; it is more along the lines that, as an ultra-Darwinian, his most over-arching view of Life with a cap L is that all things good come to him who goes and
gets them. [i.e. Natural Selection] Life is too short and random to be left up to chance.
The worst part is when you ask: “Why me?” and the answer comes: “Because you were there.” Nothing special or significant about you as a person, just that you fit the profile and filled the bill. So, is this an insult to one’s ego? Absolutely. Does it MATTER? In a world wherein you get, maybe, tops, something like three to five people you can actually call friends? “Why should you care?” would be the ultimate response. YOU WERE ADEQUATE TO THE TASK is never going to be a resume-stuffer, yet there is nothing wrong with it. At all.
So, when J..W. confronts this, I think, perhaps for the first time, he has to ask himself if he really needs to feel that special, at all. And is there anything wrong with that? Is an arranged marriage inherently worse than one resulting from using the same umbrella in the rain [“Bus Stop”, The Hollies, 1966]? One is a contract; the other is a romance. So what? Because he was stalked and seduced by this strange person, it may have been
meaningless, but so is 90% of everything in our lives. Guys aren’t supposed to make friends that way, but who said so?
We don’t know exactly WHEN this occurred, but was sometime after 1984, it’s year of the song’s release. And during J..W.’s first divorce. So assume say, a few years out of med school for sure. House is a leading
controversial figure (having gotten thrown out of Johns Hopkins for falsifying records or cheating? Something like that) but also for his unorthodox approach to diags. So he would be KNOWN and J..W. equally UN. So he’s got 3 superior positions right there: he’s got a rep, he’s got cred, AND he’s also got the bail money. Among the Great Apes, he would be, perforce, given the Dominant Position. Also, one thing we (including J..W.) all know about recent divorcees: the Reno pool boys are as de riguer an action of man-umission as manual transmission. House picks up a wounded bird and has his way with it.
BUT HERE”S THE RUB! Sometimes, for no reason other than you aren’t expecting it, you get attached to something that you thought you had full control over, and then find that thing in and of itself has
become, perforce, stronger in the relationship than you! Call it “The Paradox of a Pair of Docs,” if you like. [Nope. Just do it.]
Blythe: You're talking. I don't care that you didn't like him. He was your father, and he loved you. The war is over, Greg. Please do this for me. [to Wilson] Stop looking so worried. I know he's gonna make me proud.
Wilson: I'm sure you know him better than I do.
[House glares at Wilson who walks off. House follows.]
BUT DOES NOT LEAVE! Again, when faced with the choice between abandoning this hated detail and showing the world his full contempt for Him, OR losing this Obscure Object of Desire (hah! Buenel!) House finds the better angels of his nature (Lincoln, Civil War ref.-egad, hitting on all cylinders here!) and…
House: Oh, cut the crap. You enjoy what I do. I never had to force you. You like coming along for the ride. …
House: And you weren't ready. That makes you angry. The world sucks, and you didn't have time to brace yourself. …
House: You're scared to death of losing anyone that matters. So you dump the person who matters the most to you! …
House: Because no one can take away from you what you no longer have.
Wilson: Oh, ho, ho, ho, ho. Your father's death is about you. Amber's death is about you. I can't imagine why someone wouldn't want to be your friend!
House: Admit it, you're angry and you're scared of losing me.
Edited for content, this is House’s most scathing indictment of his greatest contempt: Fear. It was in his bus-seat confession to Amber’s ghost, remember? 90% of this exchange is House on his own roof, staring down at himself, but-and here’s the kicker-his personal honesty EVEN IN DEFLECTING OFF HIMSELF is still irresistible. Why is it that when a politician, on the campaign trail, once or twice will actually say what he is thinking AND not just what he knows they want to hear, is it always the thing that defines him?
We are never going to know about the drive home but it is safe to say, a lot of R&B on the radio, stops for ribs and a few roadside attractions, and a conversation that studiously avoids pain and anguish. Call it the Re-Bonding Cement. One then may assume that the final bit is a day or two (at least, takes that long for most labs to
do tests on CSI) from their return, probably mid-day, Wilson stopping by Cuddy, and then-
House: I'm celebrating. [He hands Wilson a sheet of paper from his desk. Wilson looks at it, then back at House.] My mom hated him too.
Wilson: Your DNA test showed no match? That's incredible. At the age of 12, you actually figured out your father wasn't your birth father? That's what you wanted, wasn't it? Why should it depress you?
House: It doesn't depress me. Doesn't make any difference at all. That's what depresses me.
{And whyyyy? BECAUSE THE DNA ISN’T THE “TRUTH”! IT IS A “FACT”! THE “TRUTH” WAS IN THE EULOGY!)
Wilson: Well, I guess nobody gets to choose who their parents are. I'm not even sure anymore if we get to choose who our friends are. [pause] I spoke with Cuddy. She hasn't filled my position yet.
House: If you're coming back just because you're attracted to the shine of my neediness… [Wilson smiles slightly] I'd be okay with that.
Wilson: I'm coming back because you're right. That strange, annoying trip we just took was the most fun I've had since Amber died.
House: You hungry?
This is after they’ve burned off a layer of flesh, then had a superficial healing on the road: the tissue is still sensitive,, yes, but uncalloused; there are no “evasions”, no deflections-just blunt, declarative statements. It is saying, as well: ‘We can normalize after this, go back to the games, and the fun…’ And then comes the closer,
and the subtext is as clear as it gets. ‘…BUT, what I want from you, J..W., right now, is what I want from the illusion of being “an average joe”. I want to be able to pretend you don’t know all my dirty secrets and I want you to pretend we are just good old pals, even good ole boys, or whatever, but I want the common solace of the common man.’
[Wilson nods. House gets up and they head for the door. House stops.] Wilson.
Wilson: Yeah?
House: My dad's dead.
Wilson: Yeah. My sympathies.
Yeah. Now, the only unanswered part of this super-hero story is: how did they end up at the same hospital?
********************************************************
By the way, last night my husband said again, "I'm a Hilson. They should have kissed. " He was here when the ep aired. During House's first scene with Wilson, Jeff said, "I just can't imagine them together." This a joke we have about bad romantic comedies the leads first meet, and of course they're going to end up together.
We couldn't do this without clinic_duty
**************
Costello: Stop acting like such an ingrate and go pay your respects to your father.
All House'd have to do is simple assault on the cop and-CLANG! CLANG! GO THE JAIL GUITAR DOORS! (Joe Strummer) and end-of-story. But he doesn't.
And why?
Because he’d rather be with Wilson!
Ok. Now to your favorite bits…and truth be told, some of mine too.
See, it is an old device, well-known and derided now within the fanboy community of comic book readers/collectors, that Marvel would, once every two or three years, come out with a title for the Avengers,
or the X-Men or over in DC, the Justice League, with a variation on: “The Old Order Changeth.”
The Pig Latin pseudo was there to make it sound more significant than just getting rid of some not-so-popular
characters OR giving REALLY popular characters their own books.
This was the way they entered the new season. Wilson departs and the new-buddy-to-be/analyst Lucas comes in for a tryout. (Think the Batman/Superman team-up, a/k/a “World’s Finest Comics” as opposed to Batman and Robin, under the general title of “World’s Greatest Detective”…as if somebody in a cape and cowl NEEDED that appellation?)
However, after a seasoned vet has shown stuff for a bit, and if it hasn’t happened in some key episode, they will do an “Origin Story” issue. You want to know just how Dick Grayson ended up as a ward of Bruce Wayne?
These are always highly anticipated because it shows them before the present “mask” fell into place. And it shows them establishing the parameters of what is to come. And, especially for the invulnerable-vulnerability. Key word here.
House: Cuddy drugged me. She… My mom didn't call Cuddy. She called you. I knew you couldn't stay away. I knew you loved me too much.
Wilson: I'm doing this for your mom.
House: I'm not doing this at all. If there were something to be done, I would have done it in the year he spent dying. … [Hanson’s Mmmbop is heard. House looks around.]
House: Where's my phone? [Wilson ignores him.] It's the team. It's their ring tone. [nothing] Forget it. The patient's blood is on your hands.
House: Thanks for calling. [He disconnects the phone.] My ring tone for you is "Dancing Queen," by Abba.
See? That “blood is on your hands” line-that’s just a line. He uses it to get what he wants. Same reason he didn’t press Cuddy to intervene nor pulled Life-Or-Death emergency on the cop.
The following is both the intervention scene/marriage counselor’s session; the last-ditch attempt to save the relationship by getting all the secrets out in the open, ANNND the origin story of the team-up; how Green Lantern found Green Arrow for more than the fact that they liked the same eco-friendly color scheme.
Wilson: I was at the hotel bar trying to unwind, have a drink. There was this guy who kept playing Billy Joel’s "Leave a Tender Moment Alone" on the jukebox.
…
House: And smashed a ten-foot antique mirror. And set an example to two other patrons who threw shot glasses.
Wilson: I had nothing to do with that fight. The assault charge was totally bogus. And I paid for the mirror.
Costello: I think I have the picture. I assume you're the guy who was playing the song.
House: No, I was the guy who bailed him out.
Wilson: That's how we met. I was in jail.
Costello: This guy was a total stranger to you, and you bailed him out?
House: It was a boring convention. Had to have somebody to drink with.
Wilson: And there's the foundation of our entire friendship. If you hadn't been bored one weekend, it wouldn't even exist.
AYE, AND THERE’S THE RUB!
Not really a rub, though. This is indicative of an entire side of House we KNEW, but may have never considered in the abstract until this season. Like his pursuit of Dr. O’Shea, House proves that he is not Bisexual as much as OMNIsexual. And that doesn’t mean he mates with chickens; it is more along the lines that, as an ultra-Darwinian, his most over-arching view of Life with a cap L is that all things good come to him who goes and
gets them. [i.e. Natural Selection] Life is too short and random to be left up to chance.
The worst part is when you ask: “Why me?” and the answer comes: “Because you were there.” Nothing special or significant about you as a person, just that you fit the profile and filled the bill. So, is this an insult to one’s ego? Absolutely. Does it MATTER? In a world wherein you get, maybe, tops, something like three to five people you can actually call friends? “Why should you care?” would be the ultimate response. YOU WERE ADEQUATE TO THE TASK is never going to be a resume-stuffer, yet there is nothing wrong with it. At all.
So, when J..W. confronts this, I think, perhaps for the first time, he has to ask himself if he really needs to feel that special, at all. And is there anything wrong with that? Is an arranged marriage inherently worse than one resulting from using the same umbrella in the rain [“Bus Stop”, The Hollies, 1966]? One is a contract; the other is a romance. So what? Because he was stalked and seduced by this strange person, it may have been
meaningless, but so is 90% of everything in our lives. Guys aren’t supposed to make friends that way, but who said so?
We don’t know exactly WHEN this occurred, but was sometime after 1984, it’s year of the song’s release. And during J..W.’s first divorce. So assume say, a few years out of med school for sure. House is a leading
controversial figure (having gotten thrown out of Johns Hopkins for falsifying records or cheating? Something like that) but also for his unorthodox approach to diags. So he would be KNOWN and J..W. equally UN. So he’s got 3 superior positions right there: he’s got a rep, he’s got cred, AND he’s also got the bail money. Among the Great Apes, he would be, perforce, given the Dominant Position. Also, one thing we (including J..W.) all know about recent divorcees: the Reno pool boys are as de riguer an action of man-umission as manual transmission. House picks up a wounded bird and has his way with it.
BUT HERE”S THE RUB! Sometimes, for no reason other than you aren’t expecting it, you get attached to something that you thought you had full control over, and then find that thing in and of itself has
become, perforce, stronger in the relationship than you! Call it “The Paradox of a Pair of Docs,” if you like. [Nope. Just do it.]
Blythe: You're talking. I don't care that you didn't like him. He was your father, and he loved you. The war is over, Greg. Please do this for me. [to Wilson] Stop looking so worried. I know he's gonna make me proud.
Wilson: I'm sure you know him better than I do.
[House glares at Wilson who walks off. House follows.]
BUT DOES NOT LEAVE! Again, when faced with the choice between abandoning this hated detail and showing the world his full contempt for Him, OR losing this Obscure Object of Desire (hah! Buenel!) House finds the better angels of his nature (Lincoln, Civil War ref.-egad, hitting on all cylinders here!) and…
House: Oh, cut the crap. You enjoy what I do. I never had to force you. You like coming along for the ride. …
House: And you weren't ready. That makes you angry. The world sucks, and you didn't have time to brace yourself. …
House: You're scared to death of losing anyone that matters. So you dump the person who matters the most to you! …
House: Because no one can take away from you what you no longer have.
Wilson: Oh, ho, ho, ho, ho. Your father's death is about you. Amber's death is about you. I can't imagine why someone wouldn't want to be your friend!
House: Admit it, you're angry and you're scared of losing me.
Edited for content, this is House’s most scathing indictment of his greatest contempt: Fear. It was in his bus-seat confession to Amber’s ghost, remember? 90% of this exchange is House on his own roof, staring down at himself, but-and here’s the kicker-his personal honesty EVEN IN DEFLECTING OFF HIMSELF is still irresistible. Why is it that when a politician, on the campaign trail, once or twice will actually say what he is thinking AND not just what he knows they want to hear, is it always the thing that defines him?
We are never going to know about the drive home but it is safe to say, a lot of R&B on the radio, stops for ribs and a few roadside attractions, and a conversation that studiously avoids pain and anguish. Call it the Re-Bonding Cement. One then may assume that the final bit is a day or two (at least, takes that long for most labs to
do tests on CSI) from their return, probably mid-day, Wilson stopping by Cuddy, and then-
House: I'm celebrating. [He hands Wilson a sheet of paper from his desk. Wilson looks at it, then back at House.] My mom hated him too.
Wilson: Your DNA test showed no match? That's incredible. At the age of 12, you actually figured out your father wasn't your birth father? That's what you wanted, wasn't it? Why should it depress you?
House: It doesn't depress me. Doesn't make any difference at all. That's what depresses me.
{And whyyyy? BECAUSE THE DNA ISN’T THE “TRUTH”! IT IS A “FACT”! THE “TRUTH” WAS IN THE EULOGY!)
Wilson: Well, I guess nobody gets to choose who their parents are. I'm not even sure anymore if we get to choose who our friends are. [pause] I spoke with Cuddy. She hasn't filled my position yet.
House: If you're coming back just because you're attracted to the shine of my neediness… [Wilson smiles slightly] I'd be okay with that.
Wilson: I'm coming back because you're right. That strange, annoying trip we just took was the most fun I've had since Amber died.
House: You hungry?
This is after they’ve burned off a layer of flesh, then had a superficial healing on the road: the tissue is still sensitive,, yes, but uncalloused; there are no “evasions”, no deflections-just blunt, declarative statements. It is saying, as well: ‘We can normalize after this, go back to the games, and the fun…’ And then comes the closer,
and the subtext is as clear as it gets. ‘…BUT, what I want from you, J..W., right now, is what I want from the illusion of being “an average joe”. I want to be able to pretend you don’t know all my dirty secrets and I want you to pretend we are just good old pals, even good ole boys, or whatever, but I want the common solace of the common man.’
[Wilson nods. House gets up and they head for the door. House stops.] Wilson.
Wilson: Yeah?
House: My dad's dead.
Wilson: Yeah. My sympathies.
Yeah. Now, the only unanswered part of this super-hero story is: how did they end up at the same hospital?
********************************************************
By the way, last night my husband said again, "I'm a Hilson. They should have kissed. " He was here when the ep aired. During House's first scene with Wilson, Jeff said, "I just can't imagine them together." This a joke we have about bad romantic comedies the leads first meet, and of course they're going to end up together.