House, Sweet House
In which House gets happy on some new meds and really screws up a case by humoring some over-protective parents, Cuddy screws up by giving House an ultimatum (about his job), Thirteen screws up the patient's psyche, and Taub/Kutner screw with Foreman/Thirteen. Everyone's caught up in the mind games (others or their own) and the patient is the one who suffers -- a lot. As in, Thirteen has to shove a needle through his chest into his heart while he's awake and trying, but failing, to breathe. Sadly, House is the only one who realizes all this is a problem, and he's the one who came closest to dying this week. Miserable bastard.
So here's what happened. House starts taking Methadone for pain, making him a lot less miserable than he usually is. This freaks out everyone working for him, as well it should. He's asking permission before taking people's food, he's talking to the patient's parents, and only messing with the morons in the free clinic a little bit.
But then he doses off in his office and stops breathing. The genius doctors who work for him figure out that they need to get the signals going to his brain again and Foreman runs over to induce pain - faster than waiting for a crash cart and safer. One wonders, however, why Foreman doesn't do the obvious and punch House in his bum leg. Instead, he does what I suppose they taught him in med school - he twists House's nipples. All very entertaining. Hugh Laurie really puts his comedy skills to good use.
Meanwhile, Taub figures out that Thirteen and Foreman are faking their break-up -- but House doesn't. This is to illustrate that House is dumber on the Methadone. This is supposed to shake the foundations of our reality. Apparently we're too accustomed to seeing House be wrong all the time -- jumping from one wild conclusion to the next -- but it freaks out everyone else.
So Wilson finally figures out what's going on with House and tells Cuddy, who promptly tells him to stop taking the meds or get a new job. So House does the reasonable thing and quits. Cuddy then convinces him to come back by setting up a supervised dosing schedule.
In the middle of all this wackiness there really is a patient. It's a young teenager who was born as both boy and girl - some cells in his body are male, some female. His parents chose to make him look like a boy and not tell him what's going on. When he collapses after a basketball game at school, the parents assume something has gone horribly wrong with his "condition" and ask House to do an MRI to check for a uterus floating around in the boy's abdomen. House had already shot that idea down, but when the parents ask he okays it -- sending the kid down to radiology for a big shot of contrast dye into his veins while the machine takes a picture. No blind uterus.
In fact, when he showed up to the hospital there was nothing wrong with him except dehydration from too much Red Bull. Foreman even pegged that right off the bat. But when they dosed him up with contrast dye for the MRI, his overworked kidneys couldn't take it. So the dye stayed in his body too long and wreaked enough havoc to make House et al think there was a fatal illness at work. This gave Thirteen the chance to rummage through his room at home and find a depressing poem, which she decides must mean he's suicidal. So she tells the kid his parents are lying to him. Parents feel backed into a corner and tell the kid the truth. This is where he explains that the depressing poem is part of an English class assignment (I always loved those English assignments where they told you how to feel) and he wasn't really all that depressed before he found out he was a freak. Good job, Thirteen.
Don't worry, House eventually figured it out, even in his non-miserable stupor. He marches into the patient's room and tells the parents all this was their fault for insisting on the MRI. "You gave birth to a freak of nature. Doesn't mean it's okay to treat him like one." Aww, grumpy House makes everything all better.
Which is why he decides not to take the new meds. Reset button successfully pushed. We get our usual House back at the end of the show. Um, yay?
But then he doses off in his office and stops breathing. The genius doctors who work for him figure out that they need to get the signals going to his brain again and Foreman runs over to induce pain - faster than waiting for a crash cart and safer. One wonders, however, why Foreman doesn't do the obvious and punch House in his bum leg. Instead, he does what I suppose they taught him in med school - he twists House's nipples. All very entertaining. Hugh Laurie really puts his comedy skills to good use.
Meanwhile, Taub figures out that Thirteen and Foreman are faking their break-up -- but House doesn't. This is to illustrate that House is dumber on the Methadone. This is supposed to shake the foundations of our reality. Apparently we're too accustomed to seeing House be wrong all the time -- jumping from one wild conclusion to the next -- but it freaks out everyone else.
So Wilson finally figures out what's going on with House and tells Cuddy, who promptly tells him to stop taking the meds or get a new job. So House does the reasonable thing and quits. Cuddy then convinces him to come back by setting up a supervised dosing schedule.
In the middle of all this wackiness there really is a patient. It's a young teenager who was born as both boy and girl - some cells in his body are male, some female. His parents chose to make him look like a boy and not tell him what's going on. When he collapses after a basketball game at school, the parents assume something has gone horribly wrong with his "condition" and ask House to do an MRI to check for a uterus floating around in the boy's abdomen. House had already shot that idea down, but when the parents ask he okays it -- sending the kid down to radiology for a big shot of contrast dye into his veins while the machine takes a picture. No blind uterus.
In fact, when he showed up to the hospital there was nothing wrong with him except dehydration from too much Red Bull. Foreman even pegged that right off the bat. But when they dosed him up with contrast dye for the MRI, his overworked kidneys couldn't take it. So the dye stayed in his body too long and wreaked enough havoc to make House et al think there was a fatal illness at work. This gave Thirteen the chance to rummage through his room at home and find a depressing poem, which she decides must mean he's suicidal. So she tells the kid his parents are lying to him. Parents feel backed into a corner and tell the kid the truth. This is where he explains that the depressing poem is part of an English class assignment (I always loved those English assignments where they told you how to feel) and he wasn't really all that depressed before he found out he was a freak. Good job, Thirteen.
Don't worry, House eventually figured it out, even in his non-miserable stupor. He marches into the patient's room and tells the parents all this was their fault for insisting on the MRI. "You gave birth to a freak of nature. Doesn't mean it's okay to treat him like one." Aww, grumpy House makes everything all better.
Which is why he decides not to take the new meds. Reset button successfully pushed. We get our usual House back at the end of the show. Um, yay?