Sigh, OMG. The House love continues - so far, the weakest episode of the season, but considering how awesome the first two were? Doesn't mean much, at all.
- Definitely one of the episodes I'll need to rewatch to decide how much I like it. In contrast to my unabashed adoration of 4x02, this episode - well, it was good, but it didn't blow me away. There were parts of it I ADORED, of course - but some of it just didn't sit quite right. I think it was the 'let's stick a knife in an electrical socket' B-plot that struck me as a bit off.
- Otherwise: hmmm. I still love House picking his way through the ducklets. I'm surprised that none of them was fired this episode: he was probably too busy having fun playing them off each other and electrocuting the hell out of himself! But, much as I hate Miss Cutthroat Bitch (MCB), I must say she rather enlivens proceedings. None of the other ducklets, other than the mysteriously angsty 13, got much of a look-in this episode. What a BUMMER, because I was hoping that my favourites would get a look-in, somehow, somewhere. But MCB was fascinating if so annoying I wanted to throttle her - loved her playing everyone off each other, joining the Danglers, and facing off against Chase.
- CHASE! I love Chase! He's so cute, and so blonde, and now he has a backbone, which somehow makes him cuter and blonder!! Hee - I loved how he totally figured out MCB from a mile away, and admired her spunk - "I can't believe House fired you!". And totally did the tests for her, then ticked House off. I agree with Cameron (urgh, words I never thought I'd say): I do like him better this way.
- BTW? GET OFF THE SCREEN, CAMERON. OMG. In the three seconds she took to cross her arms and smirk at House about liking Chase better now? I wanted to smack her upside the head with a brick. So SMUG, GAH.
- And since I'm on the Ducklings: my distaste for Foreman remains. I appreciate what the writers were trying to do here: giving Foreman his own diagnostic team and showing how he tries to handle it to prove that he isn't like House (as he thanks everyone in a facetiously annoying way - I love how House makes me think that normal office interactions should involve bucketloads of snark and sexist, racist comments, LOL!). And then, in the end, he's learnt more from House about doing what's right after all: it IS about saving the patient, whatever Andi from West Wing (that would be Kathleen York, as Foreman's Cuddy) might say.
- What I DID like about the Foreman arc, though, was the parallel it drew with Cuddy. For all that she's been criticised like crazy for being weak and a lousy administrator who won't stand her ground over "what's right", Andi (for that is what I shall call her) is proof that "right" is as "right" does. By which I mean, Cuddy is pretty damn unusual as a Dean of Medicine: for her, the patient comes first, not the hospital's bottom line. (Except when the plot requires it, like in Euphoria.) That's why she lets House get away with the wacky shit he does (though he oversteps quite a few boundaries, obviously), and why, in the end, he respects her more than he would anyone else in the job. He knows that she thinks the same way, and that when it comes down to it, she'd put her job on the line to save someone's life if it could be done. Clearly, Andi wouldn't. And because Foreman tried to, he got fired. Cuddy? You pwn my soul.
- Moving off the Ducklings for now, and onto one of my favourite moments: House Survivor, LITERALLY, and how he said goodbye (though not quite) to #26 a.k.a. Ridiculously Old Fraud:
"I think I will miss you most, ridiculously old fraud."
And to have #26 acknowledge that it's been the best two weeks of his life? Sweet.
- Thanks to
jukebox_grad, I realised my error in confusing #26/Henry with checked-shirt Brennan, who is totally meh for me and literally made no impression in 4x02. Bah humbug. I'd have liked it if #26's diagnosis during the extremely convoluted DDX for miserably sad POTW panned out, though I thought one of the suggestions he dropped actually DID get picked up by House at some point - did I totally imagine that? Ah well.
- I really would love it if #26 stayed, though I can bet now it's probably going to be #13, #6/9 and either Mormon guy (#18) or MCB. It's just how the cookie crumbles, big sigh.
- Obviously, even if the rest don't make it and House suddenly brings in wild cards (which has sort of happened on Survivor, no?), #13 is not going anywhere. She will be the newest Duckling, v2.0, and soon there will be House/13 threads everywhere (although she looks even younger than Cameron, bigger sigh). We're clearly supposed to buy into her mystery here, and how smart she is. She's impressed House consistently, and this episode they were both right. She hit right away upon the diagnosis he himself had made, and which was completely right. Except, of course, that she missed actually watching the POTW take the pills and therefore allowed him to die/commit suicide/murder his dog. So far she doesn't remind me of any previous Duckling in particular, though a lot of people are picking up Cam vibes. I'll reserve judgement for now - I think she's okay, but am not wildly loving her the way I am #26. (Which is probably only because Brennan is such a GREAT, interesting character to have in the mix. Okay, will stop being fandorky now.)
- I did like House being mentor-y at the end though. He does do that, a lot of the time - his personal belief apparently being that you'll never let yourself make the same mistake once you've screwed up spectacularly once. Which is, actually, very true.
- Now, B-plot. Hrrrm. I don't think it was very well set-up: sort of jumbled into the POTW's story, which was devastating enough as is. (The debilitating disease thing ALWAYS gets me, and I swear the dog is a better actor than some humans I've seen: it actually looked heartbroken when POTW died.) House's apparent desire to find out if there was a afterlife was a bit poorly-scripted, since we already know from Three Stories that he had visions during his near-death experience and dismissed those as chemical visions rather than signs of an afterlife. I'd probably subscribe more to the theory that he did it to get that incredible high Electro-Kid described. Except he delivered that last cutting line to POTW's corpse, which suggests he wanted to prove POTW wrong and not just get high. Um, what?! I dunno. A bit of a mess there.
- Though, I guess, H/W shippers must be dancing with the "I love you" - due entirely to the meds, IMHO, but I must admit it was damn cute nevertheless.
- Interesting also that House paged MCB to come get him. Clearly he didn't have a death wish and wanted to short-circuit himself in as controlled a setting as possible. Should have paged Cuddy. She'd have moved heaven and earth to save him, then kicked his ass to hell and back. ;) Okay, I'm kidding. She would just frown at him at the end and lay all the responsibility on him. As she did.
- That final scene was oddly strained - she doesn't have anything else to say to him, I think, when he does nonsensical crack things like this, so she just does what's responsible, scolds him, guilts him as much as House can be guilted, then leaves. She knows her limits, with House, and yes, that might make her weak in some ways - but I'd still take her over Andi. Because in Houseverse, saving lives is what's right. Playing safe? Not so much. I think Cuddy knew this when she took House on - she has funds set aside to mop up his messes, for crying out loud - but sometimes even she must wonder how the hell much further he can go. I think this is one of those times. (Ooh, I sense an angsty fic calling... hee.)
I think I'm going to make a tradition out of photo-essays for my favourite House/Cuddy scenes in all the episodes. It makes me happy to cap all the pretty. We had a couple of great scenes this episode!
Scene the first: House decides to pre-empt a Cuddy scolding.
[He barges into her room unannounced.]
[She is surprised...]
[...especially when he says nothing at first.]
[House broods manfully.] <-- When oh when can we have teh hot table sex?
Cuddy: Why are you here? <-- Other than for teh hot table sex, duh. And leave us not forget burying yourself alive in my cleavage... XD
House: My offices are being used by my teams. [He reaches over and fiddles with her paperclips - it's fair game. She messes with his rubber bands, after all.]
Cuddy: Teams...?
House: Which means this is the only place where you can yell at me.
Cuddy: You have teams?
House: Two of them. I wanted to deal with the yelling today, because I noticed what you were wearing and then I wouldn't have to listen all that closely. <-- See where his eyes are going... oh, House.
[She slaps his hand away from her paperclips.] <-- OMG. OMG. OTP love - he fusses with her paperclips and she
fiddles with his rubberbands! These two can't keep their hands off each other's things. Imagine when they start having teh hot table sex?!?
Cuddy: You can't make a competition out of patient care. <-- Oops. He already did, Cuddy! Punish him with teh hot table sex!
House: Without competition, we'd still be single-celled organisms.
Can I go now?
Cuddy: Not until after the yelling! <-- and teh hot table sex!
Scene the Second: It's always a dance, after all
[Cuddy accosts House as he gets off the lift.] <-- How is it that these two get so close to each other and don't freak out? Personal space, hello?
Cuddy: You want to remove his eye?
House: Who told you?
Cuddy: You booked the OR.
House: Good. [He pushes past her.]
[She runs around him.] <-- OMG so cute. Run, Cuddy, run!!
Cuddy: Can't beat me in a foot race!
House: I thought we were dancing. [He tries to move past her again.]
[Triumph! She refuses to budge.]
Heh. SO CUTE. And just a few more caps of cuteness, just because:
Look at how intensely he's LOOKING AT HER!
Wa-hey, OT3!! XD
LOL, love the both of them checking her ass out at the same time. Nice job being professional, boys. ;)
Can't believe there's two weeks before the next new episode. Bummer. =(