House episode outline
Something I've been working on (for like, eternity) for TV writing. It's just an outline, but I intend to make this one into a full script, so any feedback at all will be very much appreciated. It's help to have seen the show before because I don't really introduce the characters, but just let me know what you think. The episode title is "inner demons"
1) Teaser
In the dining room of a small but well-kept middle-class house, 42-year-old DEAN EDSEL argues with his elderly mother-in-law, CATHERINE about his own son, DORIAN.
Their conversation is interrupted by blaring "death metal" music from an adjacent room. Catherine demands that the music be stopped.
Dean, more annoyed by her complaining than the music, goes to Dorian's room and shuts off the music. Dorian, a 17-year-old guy with long hair and dark clothes, argues that he listens to the music to drown out the voices in his head, but it is unclear whether or not he is serious.
Catherine, still in the dining room, calls the music "satanic." Dorian enters the dining room and begins arguing with her.
Dean hits Catherine, and then stares at his own hand in shock. His arm jerks again, clearly involuntary.
The arm spasms rapidly get more severe, Catherine is screaming bloody murder. Dorian accidentally slams his arm through the glass door of a china cabinet, shattering the glass and cutting his arm and hand.
Act One)
In Cuddy's office, DR. CUDDY talks HOUSE into taking the case. She mentions that the kid's grandmother insists that the kid has been possessed. House argues that he's not an exorcist (nor a psychotherapist) but he's always up for a challenge.
Dorian is seen in a hospital bed, with a NURSE strapping his heavily bandaged and bloodied arm down to prevent him from further injury.
In House's office, House, DR. CAMERON, DR. FOREMAN, and DR. CHASE begin the first round of "differential diagnosis" for what might be the cause of Dorian's arm tremors. Cameron mentions that Dorian's medical history revealed no prior medical condition, but that his now-deceased mother was schizophrenic. Foreman says that schizophrenia doesn't match the symptoms, but Chase suggests mental illness shouldn't be ruled out. Foreman thinks drug use is a more likely cause. Cameron wonders if it might be an early onset of a degenerative nerve disease like Parkinson's. House compares each of these theories unfavorably to the "demon hypothesis," but he suspects some sort of external toxin. He orders a barrage of tests on the patient, and in the meantime prescribes medication to temporarily stop the spasms.
While waiting for test results, House is on clinic duty. A ONE-ARMED MAN is experiencing phantom limb syndrome, and feeling immense pain in his missing hand. House helps him by using a mirror to give the brain visual feedback so the man is able to convince his brain that he has unclenched the nonexistent fist. Cameron enters the room and says that the tests were negative, but there’s something House should see.
Dorian is having a heated argument with someone in his hospital room. We pull back to see that no one else is in the room with him. We pull back again to see House and Cameron watching him through the hospital’s glass walls. Cameron wonders out loud if the boy is actually schizophrenic, and House similarly wonders if the demon may be real.
Act Two
Dr. Cameron adds “Hallucinations” alongside “Muscle spasms” on the white board in House’s office. Chase now argues that it’s clear that the kid is schizophrenic, and the muscle “spasms” may well be intentional. Foreman argues that hallucinations like that are uncommon this early in schizophrenia, but make perfect sense if it’s a drug-related problem. Cameron points out that the drug tests were all negative, but Foreman says they may not be conclusive. House thinks there must be something the kid hasn’t told them, so he sends Cameron to talk more with the father, and tells Chase and Foreman to search the kid’s house.
Dorian is apparently asleep in his hospital bed, with Dean and Catherine sitting nearby. Cameron enters the room and asks about Dorian. Dean and Catherine agree that Dorian, while eccentric in their view, is a good kid who wouldn’t touch drugs, but Catherine feels that he has been influenced lately by evil forces, through his “devil-music” and video games and whatnot, leading to his current possession. Dean is frustrated by that statement.
Meanwhile, Chase and Foreman explore the Edsels’ home, discussing the case, and pondering House’s preoccupation with the “demon hypothesis.” Neither thinks House actually believes it, but they wonder what point he might be trying to make.
Back in the hospital, Dean begins to argue with Catherine that Dean’s problem is clearly unrelated to demons. Dorian, now awake, interrupts them and says that Catherine is right, and that he has spoken with the devil. Catherine is shocked but Dean shakes his head and leaves the room. Cameron follows, and Dean explains to her that his wife, Catherine’s daughter, committed suicide, and that blaming supernatural forces was Catherine’s way of dealing with that grief.
Chase and Foreman, still in the Edsel home, enter Dorian’s bedroom. They notice that the gothic décor and punk posters clash with the rest of the home. Searching the room uncovers nothing suspicious, but there is a safe in his closet.
House and DR. WILSON walk down a hallway in the hospital. Wilson is teasing House and trying to understand why House seems so attached to the idea of this demon, when House is the last person he’d expect to be superstitious. House jokes that everyone has demons. They walk into Chase and Foreman, who explain what they’d found in the Edsels’ home. House is not content with leaving the safe alone, so he decides to get the combination.
Dorian, still in his hospital bed, is again having a conversation with his demon, which appears as an indistinct dark cloud, which suddenly dissipates as House and his team enter the room. House introduces himself to Dorian, sits on the side of the bed, and begins what sounds like a genuine conversation about his mother. Cameron is surprised by House’s apparent interest in the patient’s emotions, but Chase and Foreman see what he’s up to. Through carefully manipulated dialogue, House gets Dorian to reveal that he uses his mother’s birthday as a combination, after which point House drops all pretensions of tact. Dorian’s arm, still strapped to the bed, catches House’s eye. He peels away at the edges of the bandage, and notices that there is what seems to be a growing rash that doesn’t quite seem to match the lacerations caused by the glass. Foreman says that it could easily be an infection, but House thinks it might be something else. While they argue, Dorian attempts to get House’s attention. Dorian is becoming noticeably pale. When House finally turns to acknowledge him, Dorian throws up right onto House.
Act Three
Back in House’s office, House (now in a different shirt) adds “vomiting” to the list of symptoms. House sends Chase and Foreman back to not only find what’s in the safe, but also to comb the Edsels’ house for anything which could have caused a toxic or allergic reaction. He’s fairly certain that Dorian’s condition isn’t schizophrenia, but he’s concerned that if they don’t treat him soon, the stress of the condition may well trigger schizophrenia.
Wilson finds House staring through the glass walls into Dorian’s hospital room, thinking. Wilson admits that at this point the scene does resemble The Exorcist. House agrees. Wilson tries to get a sense of why House is so intrigued by the demon idea, attempting to pry into House’s past, but House shoots down that line of conversation again.
Chase and Foreman are again in Dorian’s house, this time collecting samples of various items and placing them in bags for testing. They open the safe with the combination House gave them, and are disappointed to find little more than Dorian’s collection of CD’s and DVD’s, some of which are in Japanese and other languages.
House’s conversation with Wilson leads to things starting to click properly in House’s mind, so he walks away from Wilson in mid-sentence and barges into the hospital room, where Dean and Catherine are sitting by the side of Dorian’s bed. House pages the nurse into the room and tells her that Dorian will need her in a minute. He announces to the family that Dorian must have been bitten by a spider. He asks them where Dorian has traveled recently, as there are no spiders this poisonous in the area, and he repeatedly accuses them of lying when they insist that Dorian hasn’t left town in months. To prove his point, he tears all of the bandages off of Dorian’s arm. While the rash has gotten worse, and the arm is still covered in cuts from the broken glass, there is no telltale mark that would point to a spider bite. Dorian’s arm is bleeding badly, so House tells the nurse to redress the wounds. House, tells the family that the cuts must have prevented a normal bite mark from forming, but they are angry and no longer trust him.
Shortly afterward, House is in Cuddy’s office and she yells at him for being so reckless. House isn’t participating in the argument because he’s lost in thought. Foreman enters the office and reports that there was nothing relevant in the safe. House glares grumpily at him as Cuddy asks “what safe?” After Foreman responds, Cuddy points out that while she’s used to House’s questionable methods, he’d better straighten up and find some real answers or she’ll have to take him off the case.
Meanwhile, Dorian is again hallucinating and talking to himself, as Dean and Catherine look on in shock through the glass wall. Dean has a deeply concerned look, and Catherine is crying.
Act Four
Back in House’s office, House has explained his spider theory, but Cameron points out that while the symptoms match, there should have been a bite mark, and if House was right that Dorian cutting his arm prevented the typical mark from forming, the bite must have occurred shortly before that incident, which means whatever bit him must have been in or around his house. Both Chase and Foreman think that House is way off with this, and Chase points out that even if he’s right, a spider bite of this severity is nearly impossible to treat without identifying the spider specifically, which is particularly difficult when the spider doesn’t exist. House argues that if it’s not a spider bite, they have nothing, so they may as well work with this theory, unless anyone else has any ideas. He tells the team to use the symptoms and chemical tests to narrow down the spider’s species as much as possible.
House approaches Cuddy in her office and asks that the hospital put in an order for as many types of spider antivenin as soon as possible, because if they wait until they figure out which spider it was, it may be too late. Cuddy hesitantly agrees. House leaves the hospital on his motorcycle.
House’s team is in the lab, going through a list of spiders native to the area, and ruling each of them out one by one based on the symptoms.
Dean and Catherine sit by Dorian’s hospital bed. Dorian’s condition is clearly gradually worsening. Catherine holds Dorian’s hand.
House is searching the Edsels’ home as frantically as he can (his limp makes it somewhat difficult) searching for evidence of a spider. He’s having no luck, but when he finds Dorian’s safe and looks through its contents, he has an epiphany.
The telephone rings in the lab. Foreman picks up. House, on his cell phone, asks what they’ve learned. Foreman says that they’ve ruled out nearly every local spider. House asks why are they focusing on local spiders, Foreman replies that they’d established that Dorian hadn’t been traveling. House counters that Dorian may not travel, but he does import. House tells the team to focus on East Asian spiders, one of which must have been imported accidentally.
Working from a new list, the team identifies a type of Asian widow spider that accounts for nearly all of the symptoms. Cameron notes that this spider wouldn’t cause hallucinations, though. Foreman morosely points out that it wouldn’t have to. Chase immediately sees what Foreman is suggesting, but Cameron is, for a moment, confused.
In the lobby of the hospital, a DELIVERY MAN meets Dr. Cuddy, and he tells her that he has a variety of antivenin in a truck, and asks if they’ve identified the spider yet. Dr. Foreman enters and says that they’re fairly certain it was a Latrodectus elegans, but the man says that using the wrong antivenin can be extremely dangerous, so “fairly certain” may not be good enough. House approaches out of nowhere and asks if Latrodectus elegans “look like this,” and hands the man a plastic bag containing a dead spider.
Dorian wakes up in his hospital bed, looking and feeling much better. Catherine and Dean are overjoyed to see him back to normal. Dr. Foreman explains to them that while that type of spider bite wouldn’t normally cause hallucinations, it did trigger his genetic predisposition to schizophrenia, so from now on he should be very careful and report any recurrences of that symptom, but the antivenin should have cleared up everything else.
In House’s office, Chase accuses House of trying to use the case to indirectly disprove all supernatural occurrences by disproving one “demon.” House points out that if it weren’t for his sort of cynicism, people would still blame evil spirits every time someone gets sick.
1) Teaser
In the dining room of a small but well-kept middle-class house, 42-year-old DEAN EDSEL argues with his elderly mother-in-law, CATHERINE about his own son, DORIAN.
Their conversation is interrupted by blaring "death metal" music from an adjacent room. Catherine demands that the music be stopped.
Dean, more annoyed by her complaining than the music, goes to Dorian's room and shuts off the music. Dorian, a 17-year-old guy with long hair and dark clothes, argues that he listens to the music to drown out the voices in his head, but it is unclear whether or not he is serious.
Catherine, still in the dining room, calls the music "satanic." Dorian enters the dining room and begins arguing with her.
Dean hits Catherine, and then stares at his own hand in shock. His arm jerks again, clearly involuntary.
The arm spasms rapidly get more severe, Catherine is screaming bloody murder. Dorian accidentally slams his arm through the glass door of a china cabinet, shattering the glass and cutting his arm and hand.
Act One)
In Cuddy's office, DR. CUDDY talks HOUSE into taking the case. She mentions that the kid's grandmother insists that the kid has been possessed. House argues that he's not an exorcist (nor a psychotherapist) but he's always up for a challenge.
Dorian is seen in a hospital bed, with a NURSE strapping his heavily bandaged and bloodied arm down to prevent him from further injury.
In House's office, House, DR. CAMERON, DR. FOREMAN, and DR. CHASE begin the first round of "differential diagnosis" for what might be the cause of Dorian's arm tremors. Cameron mentions that Dorian's medical history revealed no prior medical condition, but that his now-deceased mother was schizophrenic. Foreman says that schizophrenia doesn't match the symptoms, but Chase suggests mental illness shouldn't be ruled out. Foreman thinks drug use is a more likely cause. Cameron wonders if it might be an early onset of a degenerative nerve disease like Parkinson's. House compares each of these theories unfavorably to the "demon hypothesis," but he suspects some sort of external toxin. He orders a barrage of tests on the patient, and in the meantime prescribes medication to temporarily stop the spasms.
While waiting for test results, House is on clinic duty. A ONE-ARMED MAN is experiencing phantom limb syndrome, and feeling immense pain in his missing hand. House helps him by using a mirror to give the brain visual feedback so the man is able to convince his brain that he has unclenched the nonexistent fist. Cameron enters the room and says that the tests were negative, but there’s something House should see.
Dorian is having a heated argument with someone in his hospital room. We pull back to see that no one else is in the room with him. We pull back again to see House and Cameron watching him through the hospital’s glass walls. Cameron wonders out loud if the boy is actually schizophrenic, and House similarly wonders if the demon may be real.
Act Two
Dr. Cameron adds “Hallucinations” alongside “Muscle spasms” on the white board in House’s office. Chase now argues that it’s clear that the kid is schizophrenic, and the muscle “spasms” may well be intentional. Foreman argues that hallucinations like that are uncommon this early in schizophrenia, but make perfect sense if it’s a drug-related problem. Cameron points out that the drug tests were all negative, but Foreman says they may not be conclusive. House thinks there must be something the kid hasn’t told them, so he sends Cameron to talk more with the father, and tells Chase and Foreman to search the kid’s house.
Dorian is apparently asleep in his hospital bed, with Dean and Catherine sitting nearby. Cameron enters the room and asks about Dorian. Dean and Catherine agree that Dorian, while eccentric in their view, is a good kid who wouldn’t touch drugs, but Catherine feels that he has been influenced lately by evil forces, through his “devil-music” and video games and whatnot, leading to his current possession. Dean is frustrated by that statement.
Meanwhile, Chase and Foreman explore the Edsels’ home, discussing the case, and pondering House’s preoccupation with the “demon hypothesis.” Neither thinks House actually believes it, but they wonder what point he might be trying to make.
Back in the hospital, Dean begins to argue with Catherine that Dean’s problem is clearly unrelated to demons. Dorian, now awake, interrupts them and says that Catherine is right, and that he has spoken with the devil. Catherine is shocked but Dean shakes his head and leaves the room. Cameron follows, and Dean explains to her that his wife, Catherine’s daughter, committed suicide, and that blaming supernatural forces was Catherine’s way of dealing with that grief.
Chase and Foreman, still in the Edsel home, enter Dorian’s bedroom. They notice that the gothic décor and punk posters clash with the rest of the home. Searching the room uncovers nothing suspicious, but there is a safe in his closet.
House and DR. WILSON walk down a hallway in the hospital. Wilson is teasing House and trying to understand why House seems so attached to the idea of this demon, when House is the last person he’d expect to be superstitious. House jokes that everyone has demons. They walk into Chase and Foreman, who explain what they’d found in the Edsels’ home. House is not content with leaving the safe alone, so he decides to get the combination.
Dorian, still in his hospital bed, is again having a conversation with his demon, which appears as an indistinct dark cloud, which suddenly dissipates as House and his team enter the room. House introduces himself to Dorian, sits on the side of the bed, and begins what sounds like a genuine conversation about his mother. Cameron is surprised by House’s apparent interest in the patient’s emotions, but Chase and Foreman see what he’s up to. Through carefully manipulated dialogue, House gets Dorian to reveal that he uses his mother’s birthday as a combination, after which point House drops all pretensions of tact. Dorian’s arm, still strapped to the bed, catches House’s eye. He peels away at the edges of the bandage, and notices that there is what seems to be a growing rash that doesn’t quite seem to match the lacerations caused by the glass. Foreman says that it could easily be an infection, but House thinks it might be something else. While they argue, Dorian attempts to get House’s attention. Dorian is becoming noticeably pale. When House finally turns to acknowledge him, Dorian throws up right onto House.
Act Three
Back in House’s office, House (now in a different shirt) adds “vomiting” to the list of symptoms. House sends Chase and Foreman back to not only find what’s in the safe, but also to comb the Edsels’ house for anything which could have caused a toxic or allergic reaction. He’s fairly certain that Dorian’s condition isn’t schizophrenia, but he’s concerned that if they don’t treat him soon, the stress of the condition may well trigger schizophrenia.
Wilson finds House staring through the glass walls into Dorian’s hospital room, thinking. Wilson admits that at this point the scene does resemble The Exorcist. House agrees. Wilson tries to get a sense of why House is so intrigued by the demon idea, attempting to pry into House’s past, but House shoots down that line of conversation again.
Chase and Foreman are again in Dorian’s house, this time collecting samples of various items and placing them in bags for testing. They open the safe with the combination House gave them, and are disappointed to find little more than Dorian’s collection of CD’s and DVD’s, some of which are in Japanese and other languages.
House’s conversation with Wilson leads to things starting to click properly in House’s mind, so he walks away from Wilson in mid-sentence and barges into the hospital room, where Dean and Catherine are sitting by the side of Dorian’s bed. House pages the nurse into the room and tells her that Dorian will need her in a minute. He announces to the family that Dorian must have been bitten by a spider. He asks them where Dorian has traveled recently, as there are no spiders this poisonous in the area, and he repeatedly accuses them of lying when they insist that Dorian hasn’t left town in months. To prove his point, he tears all of the bandages off of Dorian’s arm. While the rash has gotten worse, and the arm is still covered in cuts from the broken glass, there is no telltale mark that would point to a spider bite. Dorian’s arm is bleeding badly, so House tells the nurse to redress the wounds. House, tells the family that the cuts must have prevented a normal bite mark from forming, but they are angry and no longer trust him.
Shortly afterward, House is in Cuddy’s office and she yells at him for being so reckless. House isn’t participating in the argument because he’s lost in thought. Foreman enters the office and reports that there was nothing relevant in the safe. House glares grumpily at him as Cuddy asks “what safe?” After Foreman responds, Cuddy points out that while she’s used to House’s questionable methods, he’d better straighten up and find some real answers or she’ll have to take him off the case.
Meanwhile, Dorian is again hallucinating and talking to himself, as Dean and Catherine look on in shock through the glass wall. Dean has a deeply concerned look, and Catherine is crying.
Act Four
Back in House’s office, House has explained his spider theory, but Cameron points out that while the symptoms match, there should have been a bite mark, and if House was right that Dorian cutting his arm prevented the typical mark from forming, the bite must have occurred shortly before that incident, which means whatever bit him must have been in or around his house. Both Chase and Foreman think that House is way off with this, and Chase points out that even if he’s right, a spider bite of this severity is nearly impossible to treat without identifying the spider specifically, which is particularly difficult when the spider doesn’t exist. House argues that if it’s not a spider bite, they have nothing, so they may as well work with this theory, unless anyone else has any ideas. He tells the team to use the symptoms and chemical tests to narrow down the spider’s species as much as possible.
House approaches Cuddy in her office and asks that the hospital put in an order for as many types of spider antivenin as soon as possible, because if they wait until they figure out which spider it was, it may be too late. Cuddy hesitantly agrees. House leaves the hospital on his motorcycle.
House’s team is in the lab, going through a list of spiders native to the area, and ruling each of them out one by one based on the symptoms.
Dean and Catherine sit by Dorian’s hospital bed. Dorian’s condition is clearly gradually worsening. Catherine holds Dorian’s hand.
House is searching the Edsels’ home as frantically as he can (his limp makes it somewhat difficult) searching for evidence of a spider. He’s having no luck, but when he finds Dorian’s safe and looks through its contents, he has an epiphany.
The telephone rings in the lab. Foreman picks up. House, on his cell phone, asks what they’ve learned. Foreman says that they’ve ruled out nearly every local spider. House asks why are they focusing on local spiders, Foreman replies that they’d established that Dorian hadn’t been traveling. House counters that Dorian may not travel, but he does import. House tells the team to focus on East Asian spiders, one of which must have been imported accidentally.
Working from a new list, the team identifies a type of Asian widow spider that accounts for nearly all of the symptoms. Cameron notes that this spider wouldn’t cause hallucinations, though. Foreman morosely points out that it wouldn’t have to. Chase immediately sees what Foreman is suggesting, but Cameron is, for a moment, confused.
In the lobby of the hospital, a DELIVERY MAN meets Dr. Cuddy, and he tells her that he has a variety of antivenin in a truck, and asks if they’ve identified the spider yet. Dr. Foreman enters and says that they’re fairly certain it was a Latrodectus elegans, but the man says that using the wrong antivenin can be extremely dangerous, so “fairly certain” may not be good enough. House approaches out of nowhere and asks if Latrodectus elegans “look like this,” and hands the man a plastic bag containing a dead spider.
Dorian wakes up in his hospital bed, looking and feeling much better. Catherine and Dean are overjoyed to see him back to normal. Dr. Foreman explains to them that while that type of spider bite wouldn’t normally cause hallucinations, it did trigger his genetic predisposition to schizophrenia, so from now on he should be very careful and report any recurrences of that symptom, but the antivenin should have cleared up everything else.
In House’s office, Chase accuses House of trying to use the case to indirectly disprove all supernatural occurrences by disproving one “demon.” House points out that if it weren’t for his sort of cynicism, people would still blame evil spirits every time someone gets sick.