The House season finale gave us a change of environment from the pristine hospital to the rubble of a disaster site of a collapsed parking garage. Once again the writers left no metaphor opportunity missed. House's emotional state was clearly jagged after last week's declaration that everyone is finding happiness except for him.  Add the discovery that Cuddy and Lucas are engaged and where else could this episode take place but at a poorly lit, precarious disaster site complete with a patient with pinned legs who reminds House of his own leg injury and the lifelong after-effects of its treatment. Only logical choice, obviously.

House looked battered all episode as he resisted his weary state, as did Cuddy.  We agree that it's difficult to tell the difference between regular House and battered House, but trust us, there was a difference. Maybe it was the construction dust coating his rad leather jacket and the dark lighting.  Admirable use of German Expressionism in modern episodic TV. Unless it was a happy accident in which case, bravo for the random use. 

Follow us after the jump for more!

We heart House. We heart the way he metes out tough love and it seems to work out most of the time. We love him because we believe in his struggles and even though he fails when fighting them, he finds the energy to do things like save Taub's marriage.

This week seemed to be all about the difficulty of being in a marriage when one's sexuality falls outside of the traditional monogamous heterosexual model, even though both parties love each other. 

Follow us after the jump to find out about the latest object of House's ire.

 

On this week's House, we were treated to some very interesting and kinda uncomfortable moments. Here's the lesson we learned:  Teenage sex will kill you, no matter what the age of your partner or if you use a condom. 

Once again, the symptoms that our patient of the week initially presented disappeared. The red foam oozing out of her mouth was a li'l cool though - see, eating red pop rocks and carbonated vodka drinks in darkened planetariums can seriously harm you! Mikey, she should have listened to your urban legend. 

So how uncomfortable was it to have the conversation about having sex in front of the parents? Way, if we have anything to say about it. We're not teenagers anymore, but we still want our parents to believe we live a monastic lifestyle. Our inner teenager was screaming excellent excuses and diversions to avoid this uncomfortable sitch, but as usual, the characters on the screen ignored our excellent advice. We were mortified to have a sample of her boyfriend's, erm...squirm...stuff...spread on her arm in front of her mother after a convo about "repeated exposure." Yikes. Since when do we think that the reasoning of, "Mom, we've been together for 3 years." is going to ameliorate Mom's feelings on the matter? We're guessing it doesn't.

All that embarrassment with the boyfriend was for naught, as it turns out.  The key was unlocked in the fascinating dream mapping our crack diagnostic team performed on her.
  More House and our commentary on the icky ending after the jump! Spoiler: They figure out what's wrong with her and she lives.

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So Ms. Blogger has a blogging habit. She's of the blogging ilk that documents all the details of their lives on a moment to moment basis for the sake of transparency and who is relentless in the pursuit of authenticity.  How very Truman Show, n'est-ce pas?  It made us happy that we blog about shows rather than our personal lives since being authentic = talking about all the other people in your life, too, and dragging them into the documented public record with or without their permission. 

Join us after the jump!  There's House's porn and Wilson's starring role in one awaiting! 

This week on House, we were treated to a day in the life of Cuddy.  Nightmarish.  Why anyone would invite that sort of stress is mystifying. 

We learned that Cuddy is not a woman one can cross.  That she really is tough as nails. She does not budge, and calling her itchy names does not shake her resolve. 

We would hate her job, but we admire her for doing it so well, even in the face of Serious Consequences.  Cuddy's got character, in spades.  Pun seriously not intended, really. 

More Cuddy after the jump!

Once again, this week on House we were given evidence that our favorite misanthrope has a conscience and really is a good guy beneath it all. Buried far, far beneath it all. Manipulatively so that his secret good side remains hidden. 

We heart Orlando Jones! We're thrilled that he was a guest cast member this week, and hope that we get to see more of him here and there as the season unfolds.  When House picked him up from prison and hired him, we were suspicious and in full agreement with Foreman when he said that the sole purpose of hiring him as House's assistant was to mess with Foreman.  

Ultimately, we think that House was just being his usual manipulative self, wanting Foreman to give his brother another chance and therefore manipulating the situation so that would be the end result...all the while keeping his reputation as a jackass intact.

Did Wilson and House deserve the pranking they received? More after the jump!

We share House's fascination with psychopaths, and we particularly dug the one this week. And by dug, we mean dislike yet were compelled to watch.  

So the theme this week seemed to be having a conscience, or the lack thereof. Miss Psychopath Patient was a great villain! When she was finally correctly diagnosed, treated, and started having feelings again...we still disliked her. So hooray for a good villain. 

More House after the jump!

What a great House episode to open 2010!  The patient in crisis plotline this week was a little formulaic...you know, House meets despicable sick guy/drug dealer, team is skeptical and self-righteous to sick guy/drug dealer, sick guy/drug dealer turns out to be an undercover cop, sick guy / undercover cop cannot be saved and dies a hero in his wife's (unseen in 16 months) arms.  Cheery!  Only the good die young. 

OK, maybe we're being a little unfair. The interaction between dying guy and his drug dealer scummy buddy (played by Nick Chinlund) was pretty deep and weirdly heart-tugging.  We're inclined to love anything Nick Chinlund does anyway -- the scummier the better.  But we have to say we thought his deep, obvious concern for his dying friend was touching.  Maybe after his arrest he saw the light.  Or maybe he went to prison, honed his skills for a while, and became a real badass. The latter seems more likely, yes?

Fine upstanding examples of manhood, the both of them. Grrr. Sorry, House. We're baffled this week.

House lost a lot of things at the beginning of this season -- his team, his medical license, his mind -- and he's been working hard to regain them all. Sure, he had his old-school team consisting of Foreman, Chase and Cameron, but it just wasn't the same without Thirteen and Taub. Sure, he starts to work first on getting his sanity back. Then he worked on getting his medical license, without too much difficulty. But there's a problem with reassembling the team.

House has four fellows on his team -- and five people he wants to slot in. This is the episode where he resolves this problem in a very House kind of way. The old House kind of way. More after the jump.
  

So, evidence that House has truly changed and is a whole new man is right there in that photo up there -- see it? Nah, we think he was a Mac user before rehab. No, he usually breaks down and talks to the patient eventually. Look closely.... yep, that's House's cane right there. Not just touched by someone else, but held by a patient. Granted, she's using it as a drumstick, and that might make it okay to both the old House and the new House. But what matters is that he handed it to her to let her try. (She failed. Her arms soon stopped working because her potassium was too low.) Yes, it's the little things that make us happy. More after the jump.