Analysis of "The Tyrant"
"The Tyrant" was a difficult episode if one let oneself become too distracted by the side plot of President Dibala and Chase's fateful decision.
This is not about that.
"The Tyrant"
or
House & Wilson vs. The Man From D.o.w.n.s.t.a.i.r.s.
An analysis by Micki E. Wilson & luridlurker
House returns to PPTH after Taub has quit and Foreman has fired Thirteen. So at least temporarily the old team is back, though under Foreman's supervision this time. “Oh my God, it’s three years ago! Does that mean I’m still crazy?” With those words House welcomes Foreman, Chase and Cameron who’re entering the diagnostics department, not knowing that he’d be there. And Foreman is so pissed to see him that he just demands to know, “Are you back?” When talking to Cuddy, he even claims to have only fired his girlfriend “because he said he was gone for good,” behaving as if House isn’t even in the room and clearly demonstrating that he’d be willing to do anything for his career. Ugly, ugly. This certainly doesn’t help to make Foreman more appealing.
Given the way Foreman behaves towards Thirteen it’s dubious whether he really wants to give their relationship a second chance. What is really interesting, though, is that they’re foreshadowing what is likely to happen if Cuddy and House ever became an item, something we will hopefully never have to suffer through. It wouldn’t work, as plain and simple as that.
House may be back, but until he has his doctor's license back, Foreman remains head of the department though he knows his days are numbered. All House is allowed to do is sitting in and offering his medical opinions in the differentials to a less than enthused Foreman who remains in a seriously bad mood throughout the whole episode due to realizing that there won’t be any career advancement for him as long as House stays.
In a different, more evil reality Foreman, who's becoming a little tyrant himself, might consider killing House off to get his job. He clearly would sell his own grandmother to have his way.
Once again we get a glimpse into House and Wilson’s private lives: When House returns home from work, Wilson asks him about his day, knowing only too well how hard it must have been for House to accept having no real influence on the decisions made, and about Cuddy’s reaction to his choice to continue heading the diagnostics department.
Whenever Wilson does something unusual, House notices it right away. Seeing what Wilson has cooked them for dinner, he immediately realizes garlic is missing, but that seems to be an essential ingredient, at least for them: “We always use garlic on Chicken Florentine.” So obviously even though House stopped cooking to relieve his pain, he continues cooking together with Wilson at home.
Anyway, it doesn’t escape House’s watchful eyes that Wilson isn’t wearing shoes and that the volume of the TV is set suspiciously low to be listened to comfortably either. The second day in a row. Enough clues for him to solve the little mystery. When he starts banging his cane loudly on the floor to test his theory, Wilson, who’s been trying to make him back off by distracting him with banter, can’t help smiling because he truly likes House’s ability to read him like a book, no matter how much he obfuscates. Realizing that there’s someone knowing you that well, is very comforting. Of course his banging gets a response immediately. “I told you to get that echo fixed!” This is just so typically House and Wilson has a hard time trying to hide his amusement behind his hand.
Reluctantly Wilson admits that there’s a problem with an unfriendly downstairs neighbour, a Vietnam veteran named Murphy, who is a total jerk. He feels annoyed by the smells resulting from House’s nightly cooking sessions and is also weary of the additional noise caused by House’s walking around the apartment using his cane (or other activities we haven’t been shown). It is not the first time the guy has complained about that, and since he is sitting on the condo board, he’s got influence on the decision whether the back garden gets renovated or not, and Wilson wants to have that done. He’s obviously had enough exhausting confrontations with their easily-aggravated neighbor off-screen to know “there’s no winning with this guy”.
On hearing this, House’s expression becomes dangerous: “What’s his name?” The message is clear: No one messes with or intimidates Wilson. Yet believing it’s a fight they cannot win anyway, Wilson doesn’t want House to confront him or try out the new “coping and relating skills” he’s been taught by “the whitecoats”.
House agrees, but he and Murphy run across each other at the mailboxes anyway. At first House tries to play nice by apologizing to him for the noise and promising: “We will try to figure out a way to be quieter.” By saying “we” again instead of “I,” he tactfully informs him that he and Wilson belong together and that they’re both responsible for the noise, suggesting it’s not just the cane that causes the additional noise at night... It’s not touched on openly but it’s well possible that their neighbor has noticed that the two roomies living above him are both male and that he feels disturbed by that and tries to find ways to make their lives as difficult as possible. After all, we’ve never had the pleasure of meeting him before when Amber was still alive, and it’s hard to imagine that they were quieter when they spend time together. Yet he hasn’t felt bothered by that. So there might be some hidden homophobia involved here as well.
It’s interesting to see that the “decorated war hero” is almost House’s look-alike with the beard, blue eyes and the rumpled clothes. The unpleasant, rude and openly aggressive way he behaves and talks probably mirror what people not knowing the real House and his complex personality saw when meeting him for the very first time before his stay at Mayfield.
House isn't intimidated by their neighbor's aggressive behavior, though after his attempts to communicate and apologize have backfired, he realizes why Wilson has described the guy as a jerk who's impossible to talk to. Instead of working it out with House, Murphy complains to Wilson about the whole situation and they obviously have another nasty encounter or phone call in which the neighbor tries to set Wilson against House:
Wilson: It’s just a wild coincidence that he thought you were a rude jerk.
House: Come on, give me the benefit of the doubt. You said he’s a jerk, I barely talked.
Wilson: You *talked*!
So it is going to take some more convincing until House has earned Wilson's trust and until Wilson is truly able to believe House has changed and is not trying to push Murphy's buttons intentionally. So far he thinks that opening his mouth to say something has already been a huge mistake. On the other hand, his reaction might merely indicate that he has had enough experience in dealing with his neighbor to know that Murphy will twist House's words anyway and that any further conversation will just complicate an already difficult situation.
House being House gets suspicious because something seems fishy about the Vietnam veteran, who’s got a letter from his private medical insurance and is just in the middle of his 50s, which is rather young for what he claims to be. Wilson is horrified at the thought that House might have broken into Murphy's apartment, but House calms him by explaining that so far he’s only investigated a little and checked their neigbor's records online.
Despite the evidence at hand Wilson doesn’t buy that Murphy is just faking to be a Vietnam hero to get attention and adulation and tells House to write the guy a letter of apology instead of spying on him to appease him. And surprisingly House does what he wants without arguing, just because Wilson tells him to do it. This is something truly altruistic since House doesn’t want things to get complicated for Wilson, even though personally he believes the guy is a liar.
Arriving in front of the jerk’s apartment, House notices that the cleaning lady has left the door open which leads to an internal struggle to resist the strong temptation to enter and take a look. But House doesn’t step inside. When he is trying to leave the letter on the doorstep, his cane slips on the wet ground, causing him to fall down and knock the over the bucket. Since putting the letter down would’ve made it unreadable now, he has no choice but to enter the room. At least that is probably how he justifies stepping inside to himself. Anyway, all he does is put the letter onto the table and quickly glance at the wall.
Seeing the Canadian flag, he jumps to the wrong conclusions, convinced that he’s able to finally nail the guy and seeks a new confrontation, already basking in his victory. But House quickly realizes that he’s made a huge mistake when their neighbor reveals that he was indeed in Vietnam, where he tried to rescue a kid from a land mine, which cost him his arm and that he’s been in constant pain for 36 years as a result. In retrospect House realizes that admitting to having been in his apartment, making all kinds of accusations and calling him an “idiot” wasn’t the best way to get along with him better.
When Murphy threatens to press charges, Wilson, who is clearly intimidated by him, sees no alternative but promising that House would move out to make him back off. Essentially, he tries to protect House from a lawsuit and probably from going to jail but he cannot look him in the eyes at first, as if he knows he’ll find disbelief and hurt there when telling House that he is supposed to leave his new home again: This is something Wilson is unable to stand.
“I truly believe you’ve changed enough to know this is the right thing,” he says while looking pleadingly into House’s eyes, begging him not to get more involved to avoid getting in serious trouble Wilson wouldn’t be able to save him from. He’s probably also remembering the Tritter fiasco here. House doesn't promise anything.
But where could he go? Back to his old, dark apartment full of daunting memories? That would have been a true setback. House clearly enjoys living with Wilson and doesn’t want to return to his former living condition that entailed sitting in an empty apartment miserable and all alone after work. He knows that his future is with Wilson, and it’s obvious that he does not want to lose the place (or person) he calls home now.
Surprisingly it doesn’t seem to disturb House that he and Wilson are living in Amber’s apartment despite the fact that Wilson hasn’t changed much in there to give it a more personal touch. Actually, there’s barely anything relating to him and his personality at all aside from clothes, books and food. Perhaps he’s just gotten used to keeping everything important to him at the hospital anyway after having lived with several wives, which always ended with her getting the house and him crashing on House’s couch or staying at hotels. Maybe he’s just given up on trying to make the place where he sleeps a real home.
Why is Wilson still staying in Amber's apartment? Out of convenience, just because it’s there and because moving would mean additional stress when all he wants is time and a place to relax? Wilson seems exhausted.
On the other hand, this would have been an opportunity for him and House to move to a new place together. But if they had done it merely to avoid further conflicts with their neighbor, it would’ve been a snap decision, nothing but a step out of necessity. I’d prefer seeing them talk about it and make it a conscious decision to stay together. Aside from that, it takes patience and lots of viewings to find a suitable home. So they couldn’t have moved out right away.
So what does House do in this situation he had manoeuvred himself into with their neighbor? Threatened to lose his new home again, he falls back into his old behaviour and tactics: Since it has turned out that talking absolutely doesn’t lead anywhere with this guy and that he’s much easier to be around when he’s unable to speak, he drugs and gags him without further ado and tapes him to his chair. It remains unclear where House got the stuff he uses to knock Murphy out but since he knows how many different kinds of painkillers the other man uses, he has obviously snooped around in his medicine cabinet and satisfied his curiosity.
The situation gets tense and scary when the other man regains consciousness, and for a moment one is temped to feel sympathy for the jerk, who is visibly scared to death and fights what House wants to do for him at first. It takes some time until he realizes that House is not going to hurt him. Of course he can relate to being in constant pain and he knows what that does to people.
Since vision often overpowers the other senses, he uses a mirror box to help alleviate the man’s phantom limb pain. When it is working, the neighbor is so grateful and relieved to finally be free of the torturous pain that has made him miserable for 36 years, he does not only allow House to stay without pressing any charges, but also agrees on the renovation of the garden. So even though House is the one who has helped him, he also shows his gratitude by doing something nice for Wilson, his partner, either because House asked him to do so or because he wanted to and came up with the idea himself. It doesn’t matter. Either one demonstrates that he perceives the two men as a couple and knows that fulfilling Wilson’s wish is all the thanks House needs and wants.
Freeing the man from his pain is as if House is curing himself. In a way Murphy is like an evil version of House, minus his diagnostic skills, talents and sense of humor. Maybe it’s also seeing and realizing what he himself was like due to his pain not so long ago that made House fight to keep what he’s already gained. The utter relief and joy of finally not feeling any more pain that is visible in Murphy's face, his weeping and his sincere gratitude as well as his different behavior and attitude mirror House’s own development during the last episodes.
Basically we relive House’s change again in “The Tyrant”, and we are also reminded that he has taken increasing amounts of Vicodin to stop being in intolerable pain nobody else could truly relate to. And that the only thing that has truly changed in House’s life is that now he’s moved in with his best friend.
Wilson is still struggling with certain trust issues, which becomes apparent when he’s unable to accept that House has really tried to be nice to the neighbor without purposefully insulting him as the old House would’ve done. At first he doesn’t believe House, then he says he wants to be believe him until finally he gives him the benefit of the doubt as House has asked him before. This shows how attentively they truly listen to each other even if they're having an argument. Of course, that’s not the same as having complete trust in House, but it’s supposed to be a process, and he’s getting there.
It is amusing, though, that at first when meeting Murphy at the mailboxes, House truly hasn’t done anything, yet Wilson is unable to give him said "benefit of the doubt". Later when he’s really done something, namely drugged, kidnapped and duct-taped their neighbor, Wilson is granting what House wished for, knowing only too well that House has done something probably not so nice that has just turned out well. Here it is hinted again that things like these are exactly what Wilson loves about House and his personality.
None of them are good at expressing their affection for each other openly, but what Wilson really means in that scene when he says: “I think I wanna give you the benefit of the doubt” is that House surprised the hell out of him and that he’s happy about the outcome and starts to trust in him a little more again.
The episode ends with the two of them sitting on the sofa, the same posture, the same body language, completely at ease, before watching some nature programme on TV, exclaiming gleefully exactly at the same time when seeing an alligator swallow a frog, which shows that at the end they’re as in tune with each other as ever. And they lived happily ever after. Hopefully soon in their own house with a beautiful garden.
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This is not about that.
"The Tyrant"
or
House & Wilson vs. The Man From D.o.w.n.s.t.a.i.r.s.
An analysis by Micki E. Wilson & luridlurker
House returns to PPTH after Taub has quit and Foreman has fired Thirteen. So at least temporarily the old team is back, though under Foreman's supervision this time. “Oh my God, it’s three years ago! Does that mean I’m still crazy?” With those words House welcomes Foreman, Chase and Cameron who’re entering the diagnostics department, not knowing that he’d be there. And Foreman is so pissed to see him that he just demands to know, “Are you back?” When talking to Cuddy, he even claims to have only fired his girlfriend “because he said he was gone for good,” behaving as if House isn’t even in the room and clearly demonstrating that he’d be willing to do anything for his career. Ugly, ugly. This certainly doesn’t help to make Foreman more appealing.
Given the way Foreman behaves towards Thirteen it’s dubious whether he really wants to give their relationship a second chance. What is really interesting, though, is that they’re foreshadowing what is likely to happen if Cuddy and House ever became an item, something we will hopefully never have to suffer through. It wouldn’t work, as plain and simple as that.
House may be back, but until he has his doctor's license back, Foreman remains head of the department though he knows his days are numbered. All House is allowed to do is sitting in and offering his medical opinions in the differentials to a less than enthused Foreman who remains in a seriously bad mood throughout the whole episode due to realizing that there won’t be any career advancement for him as long as House stays.
In a different, more evil reality Foreman, who's becoming a little tyrant himself, might consider killing House off to get his job. He clearly would sell his own grandmother to have his way.
Once again we get a glimpse into House and Wilson’s private lives: When House returns home from work, Wilson asks him about his day, knowing only too well how hard it must have been for House to accept having no real influence on the decisions made, and about Cuddy’s reaction to his choice to continue heading the diagnostics department.
Whenever Wilson does something unusual, House notices it right away. Seeing what Wilson has cooked them for dinner, he immediately realizes garlic is missing, but that seems to be an essential ingredient, at least for them: “We always use garlic on Chicken Florentine.” So obviously even though House stopped cooking to relieve his pain, he continues cooking together with Wilson at home.
Anyway, it doesn’t escape House’s watchful eyes that Wilson isn’t wearing shoes and that the volume of the TV is set suspiciously low to be listened to comfortably either. The second day in a row. Enough clues for him to solve the little mystery. When he starts banging his cane loudly on the floor to test his theory, Wilson, who’s been trying to make him back off by distracting him with banter, can’t help smiling because he truly likes House’s ability to read him like a book, no matter how much he obfuscates. Realizing that there’s someone knowing you that well, is very comforting. Of course his banging gets a response immediately. “I told you to get that echo fixed!” This is just so typically House and Wilson has a hard time trying to hide his amusement behind his hand.
Reluctantly Wilson admits that there’s a problem with an unfriendly downstairs neighbour, a Vietnam veteran named Murphy, who is a total jerk. He feels annoyed by the smells resulting from House’s nightly cooking sessions and is also weary of the additional noise caused by House’s walking around the apartment using his cane (or other activities we haven’t been shown). It is not the first time the guy has complained about that, and since he is sitting on the condo board, he’s got influence on the decision whether the back garden gets renovated or not, and Wilson wants to have that done. He’s obviously had enough exhausting confrontations with their easily-aggravated neighbor off-screen to know “there’s no winning with this guy”.
On hearing this, House’s expression becomes dangerous: “What’s his name?” The message is clear: No one messes with or intimidates Wilson. Yet believing it’s a fight they cannot win anyway, Wilson doesn’t want House to confront him or try out the new “coping and relating skills” he’s been taught by “the whitecoats”.
House agrees, but he and Murphy run across each other at the mailboxes anyway. At first House tries to play nice by apologizing to him for the noise and promising: “We will try to figure out a way to be quieter.” By saying “we” again instead of “I,” he tactfully informs him that he and Wilson belong together and that they’re both responsible for the noise, suggesting it’s not just the cane that causes the additional noise at night... It’s not touched on openly but it’s well possible that their neighbor has noticed that the two roomies living above him are both male and that he feels disturbed by that and tries to find ways to make their lives as difficult as possible. After all, we’ve never had the pleasure of meeting him before when Amber was still alive, and it’s hard to imagine that they were quieter when they spend time together. Yet he hasn’t felt bothered by that. So there might be some hidden homophobia involved here as well.
It’s interesting to see that the “decorated war hero” is almost House’s look-alike with the beard, blue eyes and the rumpled clothes. The unpleasant, rude and openly aggressive way he behaves and talks probably mirror what people not knowing the real House and his complex personality saw when meeting him for the very first time before his stay at Mayfield.
House isn't intimidated by their neighbor's aggressive behavior, though after his attempts to communicate and apologize have backfired, he realizes why Wilson has described the guy as a jerk who's impossible to talk to. Instead of working it out with House, Murphy complains to Wilson about the whole situation and they obviously have another nasty encounter or phone call in which the neighbor tries to set Wilson against House:
Wilson: It’s just a wild coincidence that he thought you were a rude jerk.
House: Come on, give me the benefit of the doubt. You said he’s a jerk, I barely talked.
Wilson: You *talked*!
So it is going to take some more convincing until House has earned Wilson's trust and until Wilson is truly able to believe House has changed and is not trying to push Murphy's buttons intentionally. So far he thinks that opening his mouth to say something has already been a huge mistake. On the other hand, his reaction might merely indicate that he has had enough experience in dealing with his neighbor to know that Murphy will twist House's words anyway and that any further conversation will just complicate an already difficult situation.
House being House gets suspicious because something seems fishy about the Vietnam veteran, who’s got a letter from his private medical insurance and is just in the middle of his 50s, which is rather young for what he claims to be. Wilson is horrified at the thought that House might have broken into Murphy's apartment, but House calms him by explaining that so far he’s only investigated a little and checked their neigbor's records online.
Despite the evidence at hand Wilson doesn’t buy that Murphy is just faking to be a Vietnam hero to get attention and adulation and tells House to write the guy a letter of apology instead of spying on him to appease him. And surprisingly House does what he wants without arguing, just because Wilson tells him to do it. This is something truly altruistic since House doesn’t want things to get complicated for Wilson, even though personally he believes the guy is a liar.
Arriving in front of the jerk’s apartment, House notices that the cleaning lady has left the door open which leads to an internal struggle to resist the strong temptation to enter and take a look. But House doesn’t step inside. When he is trying to leave the letter on the doorstep, his cane slips on the wet ground, causing him to fall down and knock the over the bucket. Since putting the letter down would’ve made it unreadable now, he has no choice but to enter the room. At least that is probably how he justifies stepping inside to himself. Anyway, all he does is put the letter onto the table and quickly glance at the wall.
Seeing the Canadian flag, he jumps to the wrong conclusions, convinced that he’s able to finally nail the guy and seeks a new confrontation, already basking in his victory. But House quickly realizes that he’s made a huge mistake when their neighbor reveals that he was indeed in Vietnam, where he tried to rescue a kid from a land mine, which cost him his arm and that he’s been in constant pain for 36 years as a result. In retrospect House realizes that admitting to having been in his apartment, making all kinds of accusations and calling him an “idiot” wasn’t the best way to get along with him better.
When Murphy threatens to press charges, Wilson, who is clearly intimidated by him, sees no alternative but promising that House would move out to make him back off. Essentially, he tries to protect House from a lawsuit and probably from going to jail but he cannot look him in the eyes at first, as if he knows he’ll find disbelief and hurt there when telling House that he is supposed to leave his new home again: This is something Wilson is unable to stand.
“I truly believe you’ve changed enough to know this is the right thing,” he says while looking pleadingly into House’s eyes, begging him not to get more involved to avoid getting in serious trouble Wilson wouldn’t be able to save him from. He’s probably also remembering the Tritter fiasco here. House doesn't promise anything.
But where could he go? Back to his old, dark apartment full of daunting memories? That would have been a true setback. House clearly enjoys living with Wilson and doesn’t want to return to his former living condition that entailed sitting in an empty apartment miserable and all alone after work. He knows that his future is with Wilson, and it’s obvious that he does not want to lose the place (or person) he calls home now.
Surprisingly it doesn’t seem to disturb House that he and Wilson are living in Amber’s apartment despite the fact that Wilson hasn’t changed much in there to give it a more personal touch. Actually, there’s barely anything relating to him and his personality at all aside from clothes, books and food. Perhaps he’s just gotten used to keeping everything important to him at the hospital anyway after having lived with several wives, which always ended with her getting the house and him crashing on House’s couch or staying at hotels. Maybe he’s just given up on trying to make the place where he sleeps a real home.
Why is Wilson still staying in Amber's apartment? Out of convenience, just because it’s there and because moving would mean additional stress when all he wants is time and a place to relax? Wilson seems exhausted.
On the other hand, this would have been an opportunity for him and House to move to a new place together. But if they had done it merely to avoid further conflicts with their neighbor, it would’ve been a snap decision, nothing but a step out of necessity. I’d prefer seeing them talk about it and make it a conscious decision to stay together. Aside from that, it takes patience and lots of viewings to find a suitable home. So they couldn’t have moved out right away.
So what does House do in this situation he had manoeuvred himself into with their neighbor? Threatened to lose his new home again, he falls back into his old behaviour and tactics: Since it has turned out that talking absolutely doesn’t lead anywhere with this guy and that he’s much easier to be around when he’s unable to speak, he drugs and gags him without further ado and tapes him to his chair. It remains unclear where House got the stuff he uses to knock Murphy out but since he knows how many different kinds of painkillers the other man uses, he has obviously snooped around in his medicine cabinet and satisfied his curiosity.
The situation gets tense and scary when the other man regains consciousness, and for a moment one is temped to feel sympathy for the jerk, who is visibly scared to death and fights what House wants to do for him at first. It takes some time until he realizes that House is not going to hurt him. Of course he can relate to being in constant pain and he knows what that does to people.
Since vision often overpowers the other senses, he uses a mirror box to help alleviate the man’s phantom limb pain. When it is working, the neighbor is so grateful and relieved to finally be free of the torturous pain that has made him miserable for 36 years, he does not only allow House to stay without pressing any charges, but also agrees on the renovation of the garden. So even though House is the one who has helped him, he also shows his gratitude by doing something nice for Wilson, his partner, either because House asked him to do so or because he wanted to and came up with the idea himself. It doesn’t matter. Either one demonstrates that he perceives the two men as a couple and knows that fulfilling Wilson’s wish is all the thanks House needs and wants.
Freeing the man from his pain is as if House is curing himself. In a way Murphy is like an evil version of House, minus his diagnostic skills, talents and sense of humor. Maybe it’s also seeing and realizing what he himself was like due to his pain not so long ago that made House fight to keep what he’s already gained. The utter relief and joy of finally not feeling any more pain that is visible in Murphy's face, his weeping and his sincere gratitude as well as his different behavior and attitude mirror House’s own development during the last episodes.
Basically we relive House’s change again in “The Tyrant”, and we are also reminded that he has taken increasing amounts of Vicodin to stop being in intolerable pain nobody else could truly relate to. And that the only thing that has truly changed in House’s life is that now he’s moved in with his best friend.
Wilson is still struggling with certain trust issues, which becomes apparent when he’s unable to accept that House has really tried to be nice to the neighbor without purposefully insulting him as the old House would’ve done. At first he doesn’t believe House, then he says he wants to be believe him until finally he gives him the benefit of the doubt as House has asked him before. This shows how attentively they truly listen to each other even if they're having an argument. Of course, that’s not the same as having complete trust in House, but it’s supposed to be a process, and he’s getting there.
It is amusing, though, that at first when meeting Murphy at the mailboxes, House truly hasn’t done anything, yet Wilson is unable to give him said "benefit of the doubt". Later when he’s really done something, namely drugged, kidnapped and duct-taped their neighbor, Wilson is granting what House wished for, knowing only too well that House has done something probably not so nice that has just turned out well. Here it is hinted again that things like these are exactly what Wilson loves about House and his personality.
None of them are good at expressing their affection for each other openly, but what Wilson really means in that scene when he says: “I think I wanna give you the benefit of the doubt” is that House surprised the hell out of him and that he’s happy about the outcome and starts to trust in him a little more again.
The episode ends with the two of them sitting on the sofa, the same posture, the same body language, completely at ease, before watching some nature programme on TV, exclaiming gleefully exactly at the same time when seeing an alligator swallow a frog, which shows that at the end they’re as in tune with each other as ever. And they lived happily ever after. Hopefully soon in their own house with a beautiful garden.