House 7x07 A Pox On Our House (& 7x06 Office Politics)
I've been MIA for weeks and I have SO MANY things to flail about - like Castle paying GLORIOUS tribute to the X-Files this week, or part one of Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows being unexpectedly AWESOME, or Raising Hope being the best, funniest thing in my life right now - but really I need to buckle down and write out some thoughts on the last two episodes of House. Specifically in terms of the House/Cuddy relationship.
Just some quick thoughts on the episodes:
- I quite like Martha Masters. Not the name, so much (who needs that much cutesy alliteration!? also, Martha is such an OLD name!), but I think she's cute. A fun counterpoint to House - someone as smart as him and as interested in the puzzle but with morals. Why this didn't work for me with Cameron, I have no idea. I LOVED it in Pox when she solved the case and went back to him and yelled at him to take off the gloves - because "YOU believe YOU". A+++, she knew just what to say to get House to peel those gloves off and go for the diagnosis.
- Chase turning up "late" for work in Pox was hilarious to me. I love how House turned up and everyone was surprised he was early, and then had the same blase explanation about why Chase wasn't in yet. HE'S SO LIKE HOUSE IN THAT REGARD. LOVE IT.
- The POTWs - the not-quite-smallpox one for Pox was pretty cool. ALBEIT PRETTY DAMN FAR-FETCHED. I don't remember the one from Office Politics, so that can't be great. Oh wait, IT WAS HORN-RIMMED GLASSES GUY i.e., Noah Bennett from Heroes. I had such high hopes for his guest-starring spot. Instead he just sat there turning yellow and gazing longingly at his politician (and I swear, secret gay lover - that's what the episode was hinting at, right?!).
I wish I could recall more details, but let's be honest here, I have to sleep REALLY SOON - right now would be good, actually :P - so I'd better just get to the House/Cuddy stuff. Now I have to admit I was a bit flummoxed by the end of Office Politics. Of course, Lisa Edelstein's fabulous acting distracted me from my disquiet at first. Just look at her emote, omigod:
Like a LOT of people, my very first thought was that Cuddy was being kind of overly melodramatic over something House has done ALL ALONG i.e., lie through his teeth and in her face to get the results he wants - usually involving saving a patient's life. Shouldn't she EXPECT this by now? It comes with the territory, surely. And we all know that, when it REALLY comes down to it, Cuddy is a lovely humanitarian who would prefer her hospital's patients to be saved, rather than not. Plus, she said all that stuff in Now What? about not wanting House to change. So... why the big fuss, Cuddy? Especially since it carries over into this week and we have moments like this, in which she is SUPER PISSY and being all passive-aggressive with House:
Cuddy: You lied to my face.
House: To do my job. To save a patient’s life. I don’t want to go all Godfather on you, but this is business. I wouldn’t lie to you about something personal.
Cuddy: You don’t get to lie to me about anything. I can’t compartmentalise my life like that.
House: Well, maybe you should practise. It comes in handy.
Cuddy: I think you should go.
---
Wilson: Are you saying you see House’s side? It’s not even a side. it’s a fictional construction!
Sam: She’s expecting House not to lie? If she’s using the relationship as a rationale to try to change things -
Wilson: Wait, wait. Are you saying it’s okay for us to lie to each other?
Sam: No, we have a different relationship - I think a better one. Lying was never part of it. Theirs was built on it.
And then you add on the fact that Cuddy seemed willing to forgive the lie when she (and House) thought that House was possibly fatally exposed to smallpox... but then turned around and was kind of hateful to him about it the moment it was clear he was fine.
House: Buy you breakfast?
Cuddy: No thanks.
House: You can pay if it’s starting to feel like I’m carrying you.
Cuddy: House. Stop.
House: When I was dying, you realised that a little white lie between co-workers wasn’t such a big deal.
Cuddy: Yeah. That’s true. When you were dying.
[She gets her coat and walks out of the room. He watches her leave.]
WHAT IS GOING ON HERE, CUDDY?!!? <-- I think that was the initial reaction of a LOT of people, including me. I was, like, yo, Cuddy, he almost DIED. Also, he LIES. He's almost pathological about it. You've forgiven so much worse. How is this any different?!
The thing is - now that I've had time to chew it over and think it through - it IS different. It's different because they're together now, and in my opinion, a lot - a LOT - is going unsaid about Cuddy's motivations and insecurities.
For one thing, I don't think the way the episodes have been written is helping the audience be sympathetic to Cuddy's predicament. I wouldn't call the writing bad, per se - not yet, anyway. But there's a way to argue and present Cuddy's insecurities and concerns in a way that makes them understandable - without a lot of over-analysis and fanwankery thrown in, and there's the way the writers have cast it thus far. One of my biggest problems was with the scene I picspammed right up top - when Cuddy smiles at House all aglow and thanks him for doing what she asked him to (get proof of Hep C so they can treat with Hep A or something like that) and saying something approximating- "there was a time you wouldn't have respected me enough to do this". Okay, I have huge problems with that moment because Cuddy should know full well that House lying to her and going behind her back in the workplace has never equated to a lack of respect for her as a boss. Their work relationship, like their personal one, has always been uncommon. He lies to save his patients. Not to disrespect her. And sometimes, as she also well knows, he lies because she can't. So to have Cuddy say that? Did not sit well with me.
That being said, I do think even her pissiness with him (pre-smallpox) is justifiable. Cuddy is, after all, human. Of course, she claimed in Now What? that she doesn't want House to change, and in Unwritten that she thinks 'common' is boring. But that doesn't mean that she's perfect, and that she can't be passive-aggressive or unreasonable or that she might have trouble compartmentalising. To be fair to Cuddy, she thought she'd laid down that ground rule for their office relationship after their lies and bickering in Selfish - painful, brutal honesty. To have House revert to his old ways and then not come clean afterwards of his own accord? I think she has the right to be a little pissy with him, and to ask him to at least apologise for letting her believe he hadn't lied. His way of approaching her to find out the truth - about whether she'd uncovered his lie - wasn't really the way to go about mending fences, really. She would have wanted him to come to her to tell her what he'd did, and take the consequences be they forgiveness or anger. Instead, he came to her, insouciant as ever, saying OH WHEW, YOU KNEW, HA HA OMG I THOUGHT I WAS ALL PARANOID YO. When she asked point-blank for an apology - and House maintained his old position that there was no point in apologising since he was doing right (by the patient) - of course she'd get even pisser. Especially in the face of his almost flippant advice that she should suck it up and "practise" compartmentalising - OMG, in Cuddy's position, I would whack him with A Very Big Stick.
I mean, look at how he tries to win her back, to smooth over the argument:
Cuddy: This is what happens when you have no respect for authority. No respect for anything.
House: You don’t think it’s a little much to use the threat of death to win a totally separate argument with your boyfriend?
Cuddy: You think this is about the other thing?
House: Does seem to track suspiciously closely.
Cuddy: I don’t care right now that you lied to me. I want you to stay alive.
House: And if I do, does that mean I win both arguments?
Cuddy: Put the suit on.
House: It’s unnecessary, Mom! This is why I didn’t want them telling you. This is why I’m glad they didn’t tell Wilson.
He's not taking it seriously at all - he's playing the "I could be dying" card, when all she wants is for him to stay alive. Also, he didn't want to tell her that he'd risked his life again, and that he might be dying? HE DIDN'T THINK SHE'D WANT TO KNOW? Oh, come on, House. As anyone would, I think Cuddy forgave him, and forgave a lot, in this moment because the spectre of death kind of makes everything look less dire, less problematic. But when it turns out he's dying from a whole lot of NOTHING? The insecurities rush back, and hey, what I've always liked about the House/Cuddy relationship is that it's as real, fucked-up and complex as a fictional relationship can be. So no, she's not going to magically forgive him because he's fine. They're not going to live happily ever after just because he's not dying of smallpox.
Quite the contrary. In fact, I think Cuddy blowing House off in the final scene of Pox wasn't even really just about that one stupid lie anymore. I think it has more to do with the way House has handled the relationship so far - not to change him, per se, but that he's not willing to shift the boundaries of his life to take into account the fact that they're together now, that this means SOMETHING has changed BETWEEN them, even if neither of them has. He's taking her for granted, I think, and still acting the way he always has. The lightness of the first five episodes has been delightful but also deceptive. Think about it: he has lied to Cuddy in pretty much every single episode. He practically destroys her hospital, for one, in 7x01. She MUST have found this out when she finally got back to work. And then he potentially endangers Rachel's life in Unplanned Parenthood and lied to Cuddy about it and almost stuck a scope up her kid's rectum. What was that about not lying to Cuddy about something personal, House? Hmmm. Oh, and in Uncommon, he went to Wilson, instead of Cuddy, when he was worried that they didn't have anything in common. At every turn, she SEEMED okay with it - and even pro-actively tried to reassure House about being happier with him than she's ever been. And maybe SHE thought she was fine too. Doesn't mean it doesn't all add up though.
And now, with his reckless belief in his intellect and diagnosis in Pox? It must have hit home for Cuddy - after it became clear that House was okay - that he had risked his life walking into the dad's room without once thinking of her. Without once considering the fact that they're together now, that he's part of her life in a way he wasn't before. This brings me back to 97 Seconds in Season 3 - back then, they weren't even together and she was already so invested in him. Now he's in her bed, her house, her heart - her FAMILY. I can't imagine how she must feel when she realises - oh, he's safe. he's not dying - and then immediately thinking that he didn't care enough about her or their relationship to... be more careful. To stop being rash and endangering his life. So he was lucky - but he could have died, and he never even thought about her. That has got to HURT.
Of course, the flip side to this is that, just as much as Cuddy gets lied to, she hasn't had the opportunity to see what the audience - and Wilson - sees: that even when he's not with her, House CARES about her and their relationship and he IS changing at the edges for her. That he DID experience guilt in Office Politics (angsting about it while lying on the floor, yo) and he talked it over with Wilson and KNEW she would react badly. He never did that before. And the lengths he went to to make sure Rachel was okay (although, yes, his fault in the first place) - WE saw that. She didn't, even if House told her about what he did afterwards. So, at least to Cuddy, he's acting the way he always has - lying, and then explaining when he gets caught out.
Basically - urgh, I love how messy and ridiculously complex this ship is. I like that it's not easy, I like that they're not perfect, I like that she can get petty and that he's still flippant and taking her for granted even though he clearly cherishes the relationship. It's REAL. It's fucked-up. And for the moment, I'm still going to trust the writers. I mean, they can and have fucked up along the way, but I do think that they generally have the entire season, as a whole, plotted out in a way that always gets me back eventually. So I'm going to hope that this isn't just a load of fanwank and that the writers are just trying to be subtle and these issues/concerns will be addressed eventually.
If they do keep going down this route without giving us a little more from Cuddy's angle though - I must say I'm fearful of potential character assassination. Personally I do think the writers might have written themselves into a bit of a corner here, because Cuddy has honestly seen House at his very lowest, and loved him through it anyway. Addicted to drugs? Check. Compelled her to perjure herself on the stand? Double check. Mental patient? Triple check! Made her cry? Quadruple check! etc etc They're going to have to pull out something really special if they want to break these two up in a credible way. And one that doesn't involve a load of fanwankery to make up for what isn't RIGHT THERE in the episodes.
That was... a bit of a weird way to review the last two episodes, huh?
Did any of that make sense? Urgh. I feel I should be more coherent and go through that and add more and THINK on it a bit more, but I honestly need to go to bed NOW. Work is too frightfully near for my liking. Yuck. Maybe I'll think this over and come back to this. In the meantime - I'm going to bed.
Just some quick thoughts on the episodes:
- I quite like Martha Masters. Not the name, so much (who needs that much cutesy alliteration!? also, Martha is such an OLD name!), but I think she's cute. A fun counterpoint to House - someone as smart as him and as interested in the puzzle but with morals. Why this didn't work for me with Cameron, I have no idea. I LOVED it in Pox when she solved the case and went back to him and yelled at him to take off the gloves - because "YOU believe YOU". A+++, she knew just what to say to get House to peel those gloves off and go for the diagnosis.
- Chase turning up "late" for work in Pox was hilarious to me. I love how House turned up and everyone was surprised he was early, and then had the same blase explanation about why Chase wasn't in yet. HE'S SO LIKE HOUSE IN THAT REGARD. LOVE IT.
- The POTWs - the not-quite-smallpox one for Pox was pretty cool. ALBEIT PRETTY DAMN FAR-FETCHED. I don't remember the one from Office Politics, so that can't be great. Oh wait, IT WAS HORN-RIMMED GLASSES GUY i.e., Noah Bennett from Heroes. I had such high hopes for his guest-starring spot. Instead he just sat there turning yellow and gazing longingly at his politician (and I swear, secret gay lover - that's what the episode was hinting at, right?!).
I wish I could recall more details, but let's be honest here, I have to sleep REALLY SOON - right now would be good, actually :P - so I'd better just get to the House/Cuddy stuff. Now I have to admit I was a bit flummoxed by the end of Office Politics. Of course, Lisa Edelstein's fabulous acting distracted me from my disquiet at first. Just look at her emote, omigod:
Like a LOT of people, my very first thought was that Cuddy was being kind of overly melodramatic over something House has done ALL ALONG i.e., lie through his teeth and in her face to get the results he wants - usually involving saving a patient's life. Shouldn't she EXPECT this by now? It comes with the territory, surely. And we all know that, when it REALLY comes down to it, Cuddy is a lovely humanitarian who would prefer her hospital's patients to be saved, rather than not. Plus, she said all that stuff in Now What? about not wanting House to change. So... why the big fuss, Cuddy? Especially since it carries over into this week and we have moments like this, in which she is SUPER PISSY and being all passive-aggressive with House:
Cuddy: You lied to my face.
House: To do my job. To save a patient’s life. I don’t want to go all Godfather on you, but this is business. I wouldn’t lie to you about something personal.
Cuddy: You don’t get to lie to me about anything. I can’t compartmentalise my life like that.
House: Well, maybe you should practise. It comes in handy.
Cuddy: I think you should go.
---
Wilson: Are you saying you see House’s side? It’s not even a side. it’s a fictional construction!
Sam: She’s expecting House not to lie? If she’s using the relationship as a rationale to try to change things -
Wilson: Wait, wait. Are you saying it’s okay for us to lie to each other?
Sam: No, we have a different relationship - I think a better one. Lying was never part of it. Theirs was built on it.
And then you add on the fact that Cuddy seemed willing to forgive the lie when she (and House) thought that House was possibly fatally exposed to smallpox... but then turned around and was kind of hateful to him about it the moment it was clear he was fine.
House: Buy you breakfast?
Cuddy: No thanks.
House: You can pay if it’s starting to feel like I’m carrying you.
Cuddy: House. Stop.
House: When I was dying, you realised that a little white lie between co-workers wasn’t such a big deal.
Cuddy: Yeah. That’s true. When you were dying.
[She gets her coat and walks out of the room. He watches her leave.]
WHAT IS GOING ON HERE, CUDDY?!!? <-- I think that was the initial reaction of a LOT of people, including me. I was, like, yo, Cuddy, he almost DIED. Also, he LIES. He's almost pathological about it. You've forgiven so much worse. How is this any different?!
The thing is - now that I've had time to chew it over and think it through - it IS different. It's different because they're together now, and in my opinion, a lot - a LOT - is going unsaid about Cuddy's motivations and insecurities.
For one thing, I don't think the way the episodes have been written is helping the audience be sympathetic to Cuddy's predicament. I wouldn't call the writing bad, per se - not yet, anyway. But there's a way to argue and present Cuddy's insecurities and concerns in a way that makes them understandable - without a lot of over-analysis and fanwankery thrown in, and there's the way the writers have cast it thus far. One of my biggest problems was with the scene I picspammed right up top - when Cuddy smiles at House all aglow and thanks him for doing what she asked him to (get proof of Hep C so they can treat with Hep A or something like that) and saying something approximating- "there was a time you wouldn't have respected me enough to do this". Okay, I have huge problems with that moment because Cuddy should know full well that House lying to her and going behind her back in the workplace has never equated to a lack of respect for her as a boss. Their work relationship, like their personal one, has always been uncommon. He lies to save his patients. Not to disrespect her. And sometimes, as she also well knows, he lies because she can't. So to have Cuddy say that? Did not sit well with me.
That being said, I do think even her pissiness with him (pre-smallpox) is justifiable. Cuddy is, after all, human. Of course, she claimed in Now What? that she doesn't want House to change, and in Unwritten that she thinks 'common' is boring. But that doesn't mean that she's perfect, and that she can't be passive-aggressive or unreasonable or that she might have trouble compartmentalising. To be fair to Cuddy, she thought she'd laid down that ground rule for their office relationship after their lies and bickering in Selfish - painful, brutal honesty. To have House revert to his old ways and then not come clean afterwards of his own accord? I think she has the right to be a little pissy with him, and to ask him to at least apologise for letting her believe he hadn't lied. His way of approaching her to find out the truth - about whether she'd uncovered his lie - wasn't really the way to go about mending fences, really. She would have wanted him to come to her to tell her what he'd did, and take the consequences be they forgiveness or anger. Instead, he came to her, insouciant as ever, saying OH WHEW, YOU KNEW, HA HA OMG I THOUGHT I WAS ALL PARANOID YO. When she asked point-blank for an apology - and House maintained his old position that there was no point in apologising since he was doing right (by the patient) - of course she'd get even pisser. Especially in the face of his almost flippant advice that she should suck it up and "practise" compartmentalising - OMG, in Cuddy's position, I would whack him with A Very Big Stick.
I mean, look at how he tries to win her back, to smooth over the argument:
Cuddy: This is what happens when you have no respect for authority. No respect for anything.
House: You don’t think it’s a little much to use the threat of death to win a totally separate argument with your boyfriend?
Cuddy: You think this is about the other thing?
House: Does seem to track suspiciously closely.
Cuddy: I don’t care right now that you lied to me. I want you to stay alive.
House: And if I do, does that mean I win both arguments?
Cuddy: Put the suit on.
House: It’s unnecessary, Mom! This is why I didn’t want them telling you. This is why I’m glad they didn’t tell Wilson.
He's not taking it seriously at all - he's playing the "I could be dying" card, when all she wants is for him to stay alive. Also, he didn't want to tell her that he'd risked his life again, and that he might be dying? HE DIDN'T THINK SHE'D WANT TO KNOW? Oh, come on, House. As anyone would, I think Cuddy forgave him, and forgave a lot, in this moment because the spectre of death kind of makes everything look less dire, less problematic. But when it turns out he's dying from a whole lot of NOTHING? The insecurities rush back, and hey, what I've always liked about the House/Cuddy relationship is that it's as real, fucked-up and complex as a fictional relationship can be. So no, she's not going to magically forgive him because he's fine. They're not going to live happily ever after just because he's not dying of smallpox.
Quite the contrary. In fact, I think Cuddy blowing House off in the final scene of Pox wasn't even really just about that one stupid lie anymore. I think it has more to do with the way House has handled the relationship so far - not to change him, per se, but that he's not willing to shift the boundaries of his life to take into account the fact that they're together now, that this means SOMETHING has changed BETWEEN them, even if neither of them has. He's taking her for granted, I think, and still acting the way he always has. The lightness of the first five episodes has been delightful but also deceptive. Think about it: he has lied to Cuddy in pretty much every single episode. He practically destroys her hospital, for one, in 7x01. She MUST have found this out when she finally got back to work. And then he potentially endangers Rachel's life in Unplanned Parenthood and lied to Cuddy about it and almost stuck a scope up her kid's rectum. What was that about not lying to Cuddy about something personal, House? Hmmm. Oh, and in Uncommon, he went to Wilson, instead of Cuddy, when he was worried that they didn't have anything in common. At every turn, she SEEMED okay with it - and even pro-actively tried to reassure House about being happier with him than she's ever been. And maybe SHE thought she was fine too. Doesn't mean it doesn't all add up though.
And now, with his reckless belief in his intellect and diagnosis in Pox? It must have hit home for Cuddy - after it became clear that House was okay - that he had risked his life walking into the dad's room without once thinking of her. Without once considering the fact that they're together now, that he's part of her life in a way he wasn't before. This brings me back to 97 Seconds in Season 3 - back then, they weren't even together and she was already so invested in him. Now he's in her bed, her house, her heart - her FAMILY. I can't imagine how she must feel when she realises - oh, he's safe. he's not dying - and then immediately thinking that he didn't care enough about her or their relationship to... be more careful. To stop being rash and endangering his life. So he was lucky - but he could have died, and he never even thought about her. That has got to HURT.
Of course, the flip side to this is that, just as much as Cuddy gets lied to, she hasn't had the opportunity to see what the audience - and Wilson - sees: that even when he's not with her, House CARES about her and their relationship and he IS changing at the edges for her. That he DID experience guilt in Office Politics (angsting about it while lying on the floor, yo) and he talked it over with Wilson and KNEW she would react badly. He never did that before. And the lengths he went to to make sure Rachel was okay (although, yes, his fault in the first place) - WE saw that. She didn't, even if House told her about what he did afterwards. So, at least to Cuddy, he's acting the way he always has - lying, and then explaining when he gets caught out.
Basically - urgh, I love how messy and ridiculously complex this ship is. I like that it's not easy, I like that they're not perfect, I like that she can get petty and that he's still flippant and taking her for granted even though he clearly cherishes the relationship. It's REAL. It's fucked-up. And for the moment, I'm still going to trust the writers. I mean, they can and have fucked up along the way, but I do think that they generally have the entire season, as a whole, plotted out in a way that always gets me back eventually. So I'm going to hope that this isn't just a load of fanwank and that the writers are just trying to be subtle and these issues/concerns will be addressed eventually.
If they do keep going down this route without giving us a little more from Cuddy's angle though - I must say I'm fearful of potential character assassination. Personally I do think the writers might have written themselves into a bit of a corner here, because Cuddy has honestly seen House at his very lowest, and loved him through it anyway. Addicted to drugs? Check. Compelled her to perjure herself on the stand? Double check. Mental patient? Triple check! Made her cry? Quadruple check! etc etc They're going to have to pull out something really special if they want to break these two up in a credible way. And one that doesn't involve a load of fanwankery to make up for what isn't RIGHT THERE in the episodes.
That was... a bit of a weird way to review the last two episodes, huh?
Did any of that make sense? Urgh. I feel I should be more coherent and go through that and add more and THINK on it a bit more, but I honestly need to go to bed NOW. Work is too frightfully near for my liking. Yuck. Maybe I'll think this over and come back to this. In the meantime - I'm going to bed.