HOUSE finale 'Help Me' recap
Season 6 - Episode 22 : “Help Me”
Air date : Monday May 17, 2010 at 8/7 c on FOX
Grade: A
Help me - HOUSE season finales have now a reputation of leaving every single one of its fan shattered for a whole summer. These long few months spent with the utmost anticipation for the next season premiere are actually considered as much needed recovery time for some by now. And let’s just say that after this fine hour of compelling television, we will all appreciate a break. House delivers an episode filled with drama, a few shockers and a story that gradually make you feel the tension rising as the minutes go by.
An accident happens and traps a young woman at the dawn of a potentially wonderful life ahead, House needs to face his demons and do some soul searching to be able to help her and the relationship between House (Hugh Laurie) & Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) reach a breaking point.
When the episode begins, the title already makes sense as we witness a man who seems to be at the lowest point in his life, on his bathroom floor, his head bleeding, his breathing jagged and uneven, and his fist tight. House is in pain, a pain that is clearly physical and seemly emotional.
-8 HOURS BEFORE-
(On a personal note, I’ve always been an easy target for episodes that play the flashback and/or forward card because they are very often intriguing from the start and force you to pay more attention to details to figure out why the character gets to the point where you find him beforehand.)
Basically, ‘a crane collapsed in downtown Trenton’ and of course help is needed form PPTH. That is what Cuddy tells House when he barges in her office while she is changing in scrubs & disaster suit from her usual outfit. But he’s House, he doesn’t care about what happens to others who are not in his circle. Instead, he hands her an envelope containing a book. Yes, it is the same book he’s spent a whole week tracking down on the last episode: the ancient copy of a manual that was written by Cuddy’s great grand father, a meaningful and beautiful personal gift he saved to offer her on a special occasion. This day has come. Cuddy opens it to find a few words in her attention; ‘To Lisa and Lucas. Here’s to a new chapter. Best, Greg’. Cuddy is sceptical.
C: Seriously? You’re giving this to US?’
Cuddy isn’t exactly thrilled about this. She appreciate the gift but she is taken aback house would offer this to her and Lucas since they both know he is not happy about them dating and has established he wants to be with her previously this season. But House decides it’s the adult thing to do and wants to show with this gesture that maybe he’s accepted them being serious so he’s giving them a housewarming gift. What message is he trying to pass? He often has an agenda when he does something.
H: ‘The fact that you decide to cohabitate isn’t exactly a spoiler.’
To which Cuddy responds quite uncomfortably. At this point, we are just as confused as House is. House assumes all is not well with them maybe in a last hope that he’s not lost her for good. We sense something odd but we can’t put our finger on it. And it’s not like we even have time to deal with it. Cuddy runs out of her office as fast as she can when House calls her on her awkward behaviour, leaving him questioning her sudden illogical attitude with the same look in his eyes he gets each time he has to solve a mystery for his patients.
-Cut to the accident scene-
House, obviously not dressed to provide help, follows Cuddy on site out of curiosity. He races to it to be more accurate. (Side note: who else is happy to see him on his bike again? Missed this!)
The scene is like a giant anthill packed with EMT, ambulances, helicopters, doctors, victims and more. It only occurs now to House how terrible the incident was as he takes us with him to discover the magnitude of the disaster.
-You know you’re in for a spin when you see on your screen that they are only showing the title of the show; HOUSE instead of the common full credits-
House and Cuddy start to treat victims. They discuss the course of action and we are then taken to Foreman (Omar Epps) and House who are dealing with the crane operator. House detects his typical POTW vibe in his condition so he informs Cuddy that he’ll go back to Princeton with him. He’s taking the easy way out but Cuddy is not buying it. She objects since they need him here. His team will do the usual.
House calls Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) eager to find out if he’s in on what’s going on with Cuddy, as the gift didn’t quite have the effect he had hoped for earlier.
H: ‘She paused for a quick second. She’s hiding something.’
He asks him to investigate Cuddy’s living arrangement intentions and actions towards it.
As he often does in the hospital, House finds a place to hide near a vending machine and he hears someone tap on a pipe. He gets the EMT to search but when they call out, nobody answers. Cuddy and House exchange one of their concerned looks. She leaves to get back to work. But House, certain about what he’s heard, gets inside of the hole determined to see for himself that he was right. Remember, when house is confident about something, he doesn’t quit. He will not rest until proved otherwise.
> First shocker moment: someone grabs his cane!
‘Help me’ is what the woman he’s found pleads.
-End of first act-
H: ‘What’s your name?’
This is strange; House usually doesn’t care for that kind of information.
The patient is more worried about a gift she was supposed to pick up for her husband.
He asks again stating that he needs to check her mental state. There you go! Our House is back. He examines her and explains the situation. But then when he tries to pull her out of where she’s stuck, she yells for her leg. This is the first hint that the patient is going to have a very special significance for House. It is almost granted that we’re not in for our typical House/patient banter.
House realises he has to get back up at this moment and cant deal with her on his own. Despite her screaming at him not to leave her alone in the darks, he goes.
He calls his team back at PPTH in the ER. They discuss his new patient on site and his current one brought back with Foreman. ‘10, 11 and 12’, respectively Chase (Jesse Spencer), Foreman (Omar Epps) and Taub (Peter Jacobson) are all present and answering him on his DDX about the woman. But 13, Remy Hadley (Olivia Wilde), is MIA. House asks but doesn’t have time for the answer.
He’s needed back with the stuck patient Hanna who needs a tibia IV while EMTs are trying to free her with no luck. He does the job and she’s able to start asking him his name. She wants to know more of him since they will be working together.
House gets back to Cuddy who is busy with more victims. He hasn’t forgotten why he’s there.
He questions her about her weirdness. She says everything is fine between her and Lucas (Michael Weston). But since he’s insisting she takes him aside.
C: ‘When I opened it, I didn’t think it was a housewarming gift. I thought it was an engagement present.’
> Second shocker moment: Cuddy is engaged!
House is as dumbfounded as we are and his face is expressing how much he regrets being in the know now and how that was the last thing he could expect or want to find out. But Cuddy says it just happened last night. She does look very concerned about him.
OK, I must admit I smelled this but it still doesn’t make it easier to watch it play out. It’s no secret the audience has had a pretty tepid reaction to say the least toward the Cuddy/Lucas relationship this season for many different reasons. So now, we stay incredulous and aghast at this engagement announcement.
H: ‘No wonder you’d want to hide this from me since I’m such a delicate flower.’
He’s still trying to find something wrong with her like the fact that she’s not wearing the ring.
Cuddy wants to be clear and to set the record straight so she grabs on to both his arms on the side to really get to him and tells him the ring is in her drawer in her office because she was getting ready to get to Trenton.
(pause & permission to freak out: the ring is in THE desk House got back to her in season 5 after she had to redo her office from the damages done by the shooting in ‘Last Resort’, her med school desk that certainly holds a particular meaning for Cuddy and maybe House as well, the one that came from a grand gesture House rarely puts himself through)
C: “This isn’t weird, there’s no mystery, I’m just getting married.’
They are interrupted before anything else is said.
We’re at to PPTH for a minute but we want to stay on site to see what happens there for the remaining of the episode.
We’re back in the hole with an EMT, Cuddy and House.
The man tells them they may have to consider amputation but the patient strongly refuses.
Cuddy is in doctor mode and hasn’t even begun to try to convince her when house interrupts.
H: ‘We’re not cutting off her leg. We don’t have to rush to this just to make his job easier.’
At this exact moment, it’s ‘Three Stories’ all over again. I see House after his leg infarction on his hospital bed saying he wants to keep his leg and that he, the patient, will not allow the doctors to do otherwise.
Cuddy explains the severity of the risks to the patient but House insists they still have time.
The EMT explains the instability of the debris on top of her but she won’t hear it.
Patient: ‘You need to try, it’s my leg.’
It was House’s leg too…
The EMT persists but Cuddy steps in and strings along House and the patient.
C: ‘Captain, he’s a jerk; this is what the patient wants. Can we please just give it a couple more hours?’
The Captain grants them time. Cuddy goes back to triage and House gives his name to the patient who makes him promise not to let them cut her leg. He does the cross finger thingy. Yes, House and his childish humor is always there when you need it but this time I think he does it to put the patient more at ease.
House gets a call from his team about his patient at PPTH and 13 shows up. They discuss his current case. The woman noticed he lied about the cell phone reception previously. Also, she wants him to stay with her. He goes anyway but Cuddy catches him on his motorcycle before he gets a chance to go back to the hospital.
C: ‘She wants you.’
The patient/doctor bonding is in place, at least on her side so far.
C: ’You have to go back. She needs you House.’
Cuddy has this look in her eyes. Maybe the patient is not the only who needs him. But it’s hard to find any sign of attachment to him from Cuddy since we’ve learnt with House the next step she’s taking with Lucas.
-End of second act-
We see our House all covered in dust in his apartment, limping to his bathroom. He looks like he’s in a really bad shape again both physically and mentally. We feel for him. We are scared and intrigued and we are wondering what the heck happened that resulted in him being so traumatized. The atmosphere is really gloomy, oppressing and the tension rises up a notch.
And the soundtrack covering this moment surely doesn’t help to smooth us into the second part of the episode. It just tugs a bit more and tightens the pressure we’ve been experiencing from the start.
-Cut back to the site-
House is with the patient.
Patient: ‘I’m sorry I needed you.’
I don’t think House is sorry. He’s felt so unneeded and useless lately. Wilson kicked him out of his loft to be with Sam, Cuddy’s just informed him that she intends to marry Lucas, he’s quitted therapy because he feels it hasn’t worked out for him, he only has his job left and his ability to help patients nobody else can. That’s not much to hold on to.
He grants the patient a call to her husband. This allows us to realize that this woman has many things to live for since she seems to be in a good relationship, she’s young and probably has a good job in the office building that’s now a pile of wreckage and she has her whole future before her. This is a place where house is not. But talking to her husband makes her BP climb from the emotion and that puts her at risk of bleeding more. That’s why he lied before so he wants her to hang up.
H: ‘That was stupid of me.’
Patient: ‘It was nice.’
The patient/doctor bonding is in place, on his side as well now.
He sits next to her and they chat. She wants to know about his leg. He ironies that a crane fell on it. But then she asks if he would pray with her. And that opens a can of worms for House. He is a man who’s always had the most open hatred grab about religion and he calls his patient on her superstition so he will never encourage this habit since it goes against his belief.
H: ‘I don’t believe in God.’
But it turns out the patient doesn’t either. And that puts them on common grounds.
Patient: ‘I always thought…if I did the right thing…if I treated people right…then good things would happen to me.’
Isn’t that what House has been trying to do this whole past year? The results are up for discussion I concede but basically, he’s done his best all these months, he’s tried, he took baby steps, he acted on this instead of only reacting.
Patient: ‘You think that’s how it works?’
H: ‘I used to but then recently I tried. Now I don’t know.’
He’s tried with Wilson and became closer to him only to have him shut him out when Sam came into the picture. He’s tried with Cuddy but she maintained her relationship with Lucas. He’s tried with his team but then he sobered up…
At PPTH, Taub wants to know what is going on with 13 but she won’t let anything out.
> Third shocker moment; Back in the hole, they try to lift the concrete but it ends up falling down again with a cloud of dust.
-End of third act- this one was smaller. The rhythm is increasing…
The sounds and lights are daunting when all 3 persons trapped recover consciousness. The situation is worsening around them and hastily for the patient as her breathing becomes harder from a tension pneumo thorax. House reinflates it.
The pressure is escalating at this point both for House with the patient and for House with Cuddy.
House is now outside with Cuddy who gives him stitches on his neck.
He gets a call from his team while Cuddy dresses his gash.
The EMT comes with bad news. They need more time to clear the hole for Hanna.
Cuddy suggests amputation again.
H: ‘NO!’
House suggests a course of treatment. Cuddy says it’s insane.
C: ‘It’s not worth it.’
H: yelling ‘really? Coz I think I’m the only one here that knows what a leg is worth. Fortunately you’re not the one who’s in charge, he is.’
Contrary to when she was his doctor during the infarction when she made a decision that went against his will and that he’s always despised and never accepted.
H: ‘And he knows that I’d testify against him if Hanna sues for cutting of her leg without exhausting any other option.’
House is loosing his temper. Cuddy walks towards the captain.
C: ‘Give us a minute.’ She tells him and turns to House.
‘I know you’re angry but please don’t put her life at risk just to get back at me.’
He stands up to gain power, confidence and courage to defend himself, to fight back and meet her eyes. He gets in her face.
H: ‘Really? Wow! So this is all about you now.’
Last episode kind of established it was all about her…
Cuddy says he sided with the patient right after she broke the news of her engagement.
H: ‘Yes that must be it. It’s not that you’re a pathetic narcissist.’
C: ‘I don’t love you. So just accept it and move on with your life instead of making everybody else miserable.’
Cuddy is hard with him. She’s usually the one to defend him (board meeting), save him (Vogler, Tritter), to help him (his leg, the bus crashed, 2 of his heart attacks, the methadone…), to make his life more comfortable even by doing her job. She usually takes in what he says to her and gives it back to him because she can. But today, she’d had enough. Today and probably since last year, they’ve reached a point of no return and that means she’s hurting him first. She’d done being cautious. She’s done indulging him. It’s like everything she kept to herself is suddenly rushing out and what’s about to be said between them is not pretty but then again nothing really is with these 2.
House gets into his ass-hood mode, the same ass-hood mode from before his hallucinations last season when he said to her ‘You can go suckle on the little bastard child who makes you feel good about yourself.’ whereas he came to her for help. If you remember, she replied ‘Screw you!’ because at this point he went too far for her. He insulted her in the most hurtful way. And he doesn’t fail to do just the same now, even worse I should say, taking all aspect of her life that he cannot bare and that bring her some sort of happiness to throw them in her face.
H: ‘That’s great! A life lesson from a middle aged single mom who’s dating a man child.’
It's a very harsh decree from House and this is at their low point. It's also a realisation against his insistent denial that she and Lucas are engaged. She thinks it's about them, but House's visceral reaction to the amputation idea has come from deep in his own experience, right?
House is not used to her being so openly cutting to him. He also hasn’t really had the time to process her news and when he feels threatened; his first reflex is to fight back. He can be cruel with no reason so when he’s given a reason, he does some damages. And like Cuddy said once ‘He knows just where to poke sharp sticks.’.
But in Cuddy’s book, he’s gone too far again. She’s fed up and starts to tell him off, she speaks the truth. She’s done taking his crap and his abuse. She feels she shouldn’t have to apologize for trying to get something out of life and be happy and she stands up for herself. She gets angry and she’s hurt so that triggers the same reaction from her that she’s had the last time.
C: Screw you!’
‘I’m sick of making excuses for you. I’m sick of people having to tip toe around you and make their lives worse while they keep you from collapsing. I’m done.’
She’s stating the obvious but it’s nonetheless very difficult to take in. she’s tried for years to make his life more at ease at work and reach out to him on a personal level.
When House orders her to stay away from his patient she wonders why and assumes it’s because he still wants to save her legs.
C: ‘It really worked out well for you, didn’t it?’
He can’t deny it didn’t. He has this knowing look that says it all. They both know what life altering consequences keeping his leg had. He has to live in constant pain and that wouldn’t leave anybody without a shift.
But she doesn’t stop there. She makes sure he fully gets her point.
C: ‘What do you have in your life? Honestly, tell me. I’m moving on, Wilson is moving on. And you? You’ve got nothing House. Nothing.’
Cuddy says she’s going to try to convince the patient to let them cut the leg off and that he should stay out of it. But all of this leaves him wondering, questioning what he’s just been told. And you can tell, he’s slowly acknowledging this statement as he lowers his stare and swift from his defensive attitude.
Their argument is a watershed certainly and it clears the air between them so they can each see things straight. House realizes that he has lost his objectivity and needs to muster it for the patient. It's a wakeup call for him that makes it possible for him to do the right thing for the patient.
The patient won’t listen to Cuddy and of course House goes back to the patient.
One of house’s most hearted scenes happens before our eyes that roots back to his leg injury and presents a deep soul searching new revelation and confession coming from the core of this multi layered character who hardly ever opens himself up for real.
By accepting that he can’t save the patient leg, he admits that he shouldn’t have wanted to have his saved.
House recounts his story and how the doctors wanted to amputate while he didn’t. He said they had to do this risky procedure that almost killed him.
Patient: ‘But you saved your leg.’
H: ‘I wish I hadn’t.’
Cuddy looks at him crying without saying anything. She sympathizes with him for what he’s been through. It’s not often she gets to see the real House in front of her let alone spilling his guts like this. She probably also feels relief at this moment from all the guilt she’s had for years since she was the one to order the procedure on his thigh muscle. He continues and slips a few soft and true stares to Cuddy in the process.
H: ‘I’m in pain, every day and it changed me, made me a harder person, worse person. And now, now I’m alone. You don’t want to be like me. … You have a life.
‘OK’ says the patient.
And House looks at Cuddy saying ‘I got it’. He steps up! He’s being very brave and considerate to spare her the horror of what is about to take place. Cuddy’s just being the toughest she’s ever being to him and yet his gentle ‘I've got it!’ taking the amputation kit from her is so very, very House at his most fundamental. He’s being protective of Cuddy. Cuddy nearly never sees this part of him. No one does. She is in tears as he talks to the patient from the heart.
We don’t know it yet, but cutting this woman’s leg in these poor conditions will feel like being on a military field.
-End of fourth act-
Cuddy’s gone and House is explaining the procedure to the patient. He is honest but still tries to puts her at ease if that can be done under such circumstances. He warns her about the pain. She grabs on his gloved hand. You can see her wedding band.
With no hesitation, House gets in position to start. He gives Hanna one last quick look. We are all holding our breaths. He takes a scalpel and cuts in her leg skin. He then takes the electric saw and does the job under the screams of the woman.
> Fourth shocker: the patient’s leg is amputated without anaesthesia
A few EMTs are gathered behind but when we’re outside the hole, the place that was loud and moving is now silent still and we see Cuddy as she hears the patient yelling from inside.
She’s absently staring at a low point and the expression on her face is one that conveys how horrendous what is happening to this woman is. She’s also amazed, amazed at House for doing this heroic act and for doing this by himself. They’ve just had this awful conversation where she’s been dreadful to him only to watch him be the most wonderful he could be with the patient right after and now he’s doing to her what he never had the guts to do for himself.
When House opened up to the patient, you noticed changes in both House and Cuddy.
On the one hand, House is able to see what's best for the patient because he realizes that it would have been better for him too back then to allow the doctors to do their jobs and so he's able to convince the patient. One the other hand, Cuddy is able to see that maybe the man with whom she's reached a breaking point might not be as bad as she pictures. She’s impressed by him, and not just impressed at his brilliance and bravery. House’s actions don’t go unnoticed by Cuddy who keeps silent for the residual of the episode but her looks speak volume. She is concerned for him. She can’t help herself regardless of her asserting that she’s done with him. I think Cuddy sees the side of House she rarely does and only guesses is there.
House puts on his jacket and even forgets his cane to follow the patient who is carried out and shortly reunited with her husband. They say they love each other.
Cuddy looks at House. He was able to make this possible for them. He looks back. They don’t speak. He goes in the ambulance with them. But not without giving Cuddy one last long look before he slams the doors shut, as if telling her that he is the one who’s done now because he has too, leaving Cuddy standing still. She’s full of remorses; she’s lost something, someone.
In the ambulance on the way to PPTH, House is grave and silent until he gets a call from his team about his patient. He finds out what’s wrong with him at the exact same time his patient’s condition deteriorates with her BP and her breathing first. House tries blood thinner and he thinks it’s a cloth but it’s not working. Then, he gets a horrified look in his eyes when he realizes he’s wrong. Whenever he has his usual epiphanies, his eyes are showing triumph and he hurries to the patient too proud to have figured out the issue and fix it. But not today, today, he’s looking defeated and sits back. Patient has a fat embolism from the amputation.
Despite the husband shooting for him to do something, House doesn’t because he knows there’s nothing else he can do.
Instead he locks eyes with his patient, his eyes full of regrets and compassion. He’s made a connection with her during these hours spent together and he’s devastated.
In the ER, Foreman rushes to the ambulance but when he opens the door, everybody sits quietly, hopeless because Hanna is dead.
-End of fifth act-
Outside the ambulance, Foreman tells House that even in the OR, he might not have been able to save her. But House doesn’t want to hear any of this so he leaves. Foreman follows him in the lobby.
Foreman: ‘You can’t blame yourself for her death. This wasn’t your fault.’
H: ‘That’s the point! I did everything right. She died anyway. Why the hell do you think that would make me feel any better?’
House limps. He’s hurting more than ever. He’s bleeding and he’s bent on the front desk. Again, his mental state always has an effect on his physical pain. Foreman notices the really bad shape House is in.
Foreman: ‘You shouldn’t be alone right now.’
H: ‘I’m going to give you a task as an employee: get out of my way!’
Both men exchange a long hard gaze but Foreman knows better than to antagonize House when he’s in this state and folds letting him go.
13 is deposing an envelope on House’s desk upstairs and Taub walks in. She says she’s taking time off so that must mean she’s not OK.
The place is dark, the music keeps getting alarmingly upsetting and we fear for the worse.
House enters his apartment. He’s pacing to his bathroom in rhythm with the anxiety loosened by the nerve wrecking music. He gets to his destination and takes a good look at himself in the mirror. After noticing his injuries, he gets a flash from the last look of his patient before she died. This is too much for him. He grabs onto the mirror only to snatch it off the wall revealing 2 bottles of Vicodin hidden in a secret stash behind.
He gets a hold of them and let himself fall on the floor.
He looks at the meds and breaths jaggedly from what he’s about to do. He takes a few pills in his hand. He’s beaten, he’s hit rock bottom, he’s all alone with nobody he can say ‘help me’ to. You are certain he is going to his demise. At this point, I would hand him a Vicodin myself…
But the tensed music stops as if House’s trouble is about to stop and we see someone in scrubs pass on the screen: it’s Cuddy! Is House hallucinating again? Are we hallucinating again? Not this time.
> Fith shocker: Cuddy shows up at House’s place
Then, begins a scene between them that one might have only dreamed off since the last 2 season finales. It takes the exact opposite direction in the execution it did in House’s Vicodin induced hallucination last year.
Cuddy doesn’t grab away his pills like he would expect.
C: ‘If you want to go back on drugs, that’s your choice.’
Contrary to when he thought she took away that pill he was about to get on his bathroom floor one year earlier. She’s not trying to make decisions for him anymore; she’s allowing him to be him. Cuddy won’t be his saviour and come to his rescue in an unrealistic way like his past hallucination might have hinted. She respects him as an adult because she knows now better than ever what he thinks and feels. She lets him be responsible for his action.
She just wants to take care of him and change his dressing.
H: ‘Is that why you’re here for?’
(it’s sounding a lot like ‘Is that why you think I’m here?’ when in last year’s hallucination House was certain she only cared for her hospital biggest asset)
House assumes Foreman sent her. But no, once again, it is just her like it was just her trying to ‘be friends’ with him just a couple of episodes ago when she came up to his office. ‘Funny, that’s the last thing I want us to be’ was his reply telling her in his own way that he loves her and wants her.
He’s established many times this season what’s in his mind. He was only waiting for her to get there and had lost almost all hope but she shows up.
When she mentions Lucas, House, again being his pessimist self -how could he be otherwise after the past few hours?-, assumes again he’s in for more bad news about her and Lucas. But she surprises him.
C: ‘I ended it.’
The way House reacts at this declaration is exactly reflecting our own reaction. That beautiful close-up shot of him conveys so much in an instant. Hugh Laurie has always had the most expressive eyes and a face that can make you feel at least 10 different emotions at once and he outdoes his best work right there.
H: ‘What?’
House is incredulous. There is no way. This is too good to be true. He’s already given up. He is now hoping again. Is this for real? We wonder with him.
C: ‘I'm stuck, House. I keep wanting to move forward, I keep wanting to move on, and I can't. I’m in my new house, my new fiancée, and all I can think about is you. I just need to know if you and I can work.’
And there you have it: the explanation for a year long antagonizing approach coming straight from Cuddy’s lips. It took her some time but she doesn’t even have to say more in order for him to get what she needs, for us to justify the cold treatment she’s given House this past year. Basically, she was scared and in denial of her love.
Our Dean of Medicine is not your typical woman. She is just as twisted and damaged as House which makes her very complex and layered. She never takes the obvious way in or out and she is always over thinking things. She is smart and will rationalize anything she can setting aside her feelings quite often by fear of being overwhelmed by them and fail by her standards. She’s worked hard to be where she is, who she is and she knows too damn well that Gregory House could be the one to either make her or break her and that’s because there is no other men she feels that way about. So she feels the risks are too high to give a go at a relationship she could only envisioned complicated, heavy and not ending well before.
So when she tells him off out loud she does it to push him away to protect herself. She’s being hard to him but really she’s being hard on herself just like when House wants to punish himself he hurts the ones around him he cares about. It’s a way for her to slap herself for having these feelings in the first place and trying to convince herself that there is nothing between them. By exposing him to the truth of his impact on other and his general conduct in life, she’s also expressing what she was never able to say before. She kept many frustrations and a lot of pain bottled up for years to easy his life thinking that he had it worse then her but on this particular occasion, she unloads on him for her own benefit making him understand more her point of view and where she’s coming from with him.
This being said loud and clear, she feels relieved just like when he set s her free of the burden of his leg and her part in his misery.
It’s only then, when everything is said out in the open that they are able to take it to the next level. That is to say House doing right and good by the patient. He knows now, that maybe he wasn’t so wring because something great is happening to him.
H: ‘You think I can fix myself?’
C: "I don't know."
She’s answering him honestly. She doesn’t pretend to give him false hope and fake optimism. She’s not telling him what he wants to hear just to make him feel better (last year’s hallucination). She doesn’t want to fix him anymore. She is letting him be him, be the judge, drive.
H: ’Because I'm the most screwed-up person in the world.’
House has never been this raw and he pours out his soul to her like he’s never dared before.
She knows he could get worse and yet she seems OK with a House not perfect, not whole and not healed…yet.
C: "I know. I love you. I wish I didn't, but I can't help it."
She’s really done this time. She’s done fighting what her own instinct and nature are telling her. She surrenders, she’s ready for him.
She helps him up and he’s towering her now. The music is back: a simple and sweet violin is playing as opposed to the sad violins of last year’s long drive to the asylum.
House takes his time. He’s not rushing like he had in his hallucination. He’s longed for her as much as she has and they kiss.
In all their messiness, physical and emotional, they find a way towards one another. They are dirty and messy but they don’t care. Their relationship has been this way and yet tonight, their coming together feels so simple. They are breathing each other in and out. They both come a long way and have showed so much growth to get where they stand now.
But when he starts questioning his sanity, she is able to comfort him that their moment is not a hallucination and as they exchange a heart-warming smile, they continue to endeavour their gentle and tender moment by another kiss. The camera then gives us another close shot but focused of their hands joined together now.
Everything in this whole scene is genuine and flows.
The saddest episode ever for House ended in the happiest possible way. Mark the day; it never happens in the HOUSE world as we know it.
She helped him, he helped her, and they help themselves and each other.
It feels like the order has been restored in the universe after a long season of suffering.
Fades to black!
(I call myself, and this is probably because I’ve been called this way too many times, a spoiler whore. But oh Lord, how good did it feel to be right where everybody else was and experience this compelling, long-awaited, rewarding, raw moment that was served to us! I am so glad TPTB over at house was able to keep this under wrap. Kudos to them! There is no better feeling for an audience that has been faithful, patient, oblivious, upset and passionate to finally get what they want.)
Hugh Laurie needs to be saluted for an intense gut-wrenching performance. He and Lisa Edelstein were at the top of their game not missing one bit. What could easily turn into an over the top loud type of acting is handled so perfectly by these 2 with much subtly, strength and emotions. House is a show that leaves so many things unsaid but that we appreciate only by the nuanced acting. They need an EMMY stat after this!
Everything from the sharp writing (Peter Blake & Russel Friend & Garrett Lerner who delivered major compelling fan favourite pieces in the past), the superb directing (Greg Yataines used Canon 5d Mark II small cameras to shoot and it just allowed him and us to be in the scenes right next to the actors and experience with them the degree of what was going on as well as their feelings), the background music in rhythm to the plot and events of the hour up until the final route taken by a suffering House, the lighting and filters used in the shooting: bright & cold on site as opposed to dark & warm when we are at House’s place; all served to fully involve us and enhance our understanding of the whole episode.
Oh boy! When the TPTB’s Tweeted us, “it’s going to be ‘cranetastic’ & ‘breathtaking’!” we hadn’t quiet taken in consideration the full meaning and implication of the declaration. But once again, they took us for a spin. And after such an uneven season, the audience couldn’t really get a grip on how it would end. I would say they managed to deliver a finale that had the elements of both fantastic episodes of the season 4 finale with the bus crash with the mix of the magnificent of the last couple of episode of the season 5 finale giving us an hour packed with action and emotions. ‘Help me’ felt grand and deep and it’s surely going to take a full new season to explore this new relationship for our favourite genius misanthrope.
I am eager to find out how they will deal with this relationship. After all Cuddy is still his boss and she’s still a mother.
See you all in September for more HOUSE reviews. In the meantime, I’m hoping to keep you posted on more HOUSE news this summer so don’t hesitate to come back and wander around.
-HOUSE season 6 finale aired on Monday May 17 at 7/8 C on FOX-