1.08 Poison

1.08 Poison
From tv.com: When a high school student falls victim to a mysterious but lethal poisoning, House and his team jump in to find out what is killing the teen. Given a low heart rate and a clean tox screen, House sends Cameron and Foreman to the teen's home to find the hot new drug House is sure he's taking. They don't find any drugs, but think they've come up with the answers, until a second unrelated student is admitted with identical symptoms. With the boys' lives hanging in the balance, House and the team have to connect the dots – fast. Meanwhile, an 82-year-old patient has become enamored with House while he helps her figure out the basis of her renewed fascination with her sexual feelings.

Ahhh! A Foreman/House episode. So rare these days.

I was watching some old Season 1 episodes today and I realized that Chase almost had more screentime and lines in this episode than in all of Season 4. It made me sad.

I was watching some old Season 1 episodes today and I realized that Chase almost had more screentime and lines in this episode than in all of Season 4. It made me sad. I love Poison and the House/Chase con of the CDC call. Not to mention, this is the episode with Georgia. Pure love.

The CDC call was awesome. Maybe I'm just bad with accents, but Chase's didn't sound too bad. And the poem. We shall never forget the poem.

Love Georgia. Hate "Poison." To me, it's the weakest episode they've ever done. I simply don't care about the POTW (or patients, as the case may be), because we don't know anything about them at all. The kid doesn't even really speak until the last scene, and the mom's not sympathetic at all to me. I would have much preferred to have Georgia and her case as the POTW and the kid as a sidelight. (It's also when they started the whole Foreman whining "I'm nothing like House, exact when I'm supposedly exactly like him" thing, which to me hasn't worked for four seasons.) Sorry, but if this had been the first episode I saw, not even Georgia and House combined would have brought me back for more.

I liked the episode and I did feel sympathetic to the mother. She was right to believe in her son and to fight for him because some of the treatments the doctors suggested were based on the assumption that he was lying. It was easy to see that both the doctors and the mother had the kid's best interest at heart and to see both of their sides. I thought Chase, Cameron, and Foreman were all used very well in the episode and it had a nice balance of humor and drama. I agree HTR--Chase's accent wasn't that bad. I'm from the South and I found it believable. What I found laughable was Cuddy's impression of Stacy's Southern accent. Now *that* was a bad Southern accent. LOL

(e_c, I think Cuddy's accent was bad on purpose. Or, you know, not.) I found that Chi's parents were exactly like my friend Nancy's parents. They even looked similar. It was very strange.

I liked the episode and I did feel sympathetic to the mother. She was right to believe in her son and to fight for him because some of the treatments the doctors suggested were based on the assumption that he was lying. Advocating for your kid is one thing. But she irked me beyond belief with the sense of entitlement that she believed the CDC was going to sweep in because of a phone call from a New Jersey housewife. She had a real sense of superiority that went beyond believing in her kid. She thought she knew more than anyone. All I could think is: Lady, you ain't nearly as special as you think you are. (She probably annoyed me just because she reminds me of so many people in real life who claim they're going to get a lawyer or they want to talk to your manager, or whatever because they think they're better than everyone else.) When you make House look like he's being the more reasonable person, that's saying something. I could have bought it if the actress brought a sense that she was acting out of fear, that she was terrified that something was going wrong. All I got out of her was a sense that she simply that she was smarter about everything and wanted to control everything. I liked Chi's parents on the other hand. They made it clear that they were advocating for him without acting as if they knew the medicine better than the doctors.

I'm prejudiced because I adore Roxanne Hart who played the mother. But I liked her for most of the episode. If she had accepted what they insisted was the right treatment the first time (when House came in with the release form saying it wasn't the hospital's fault if her son "kicks off") he would have died. So she was right to not accept House's opinions automatically. But she lost me in the final scene when she and Cameron were wheeling her son out of the hospital and she told him "Oh, honey I’m just glad you’re alive. Let’s get you home so you can rest. Maybe I am too hard on you. You don’t have to make up that test till next week. You can stay in bed and work on your applications." WTF? He just almost died. Can't he spend two days in bed watching TV? That scene has also always bugged me because Cameron was wheeling the kid out while House and Foreman got credit for being the arrogant jerks who saved his life. 1. The mother didn't like Chase so I can understand why she didn't credit him. But she didn't like Foreman either ("She’s not really a big fan of mine.") and he was certainly no more involved in the diagnosis than Cameron or Chase was. 2. Cameron was standing right there while she said it. Cameron also was the one who wheeled the guy in Que Sera Sera out (so he could fall on her) and Margo in Need to Know. I guess functioning as a discharge nurse is woman's work.

You know this episode and DNR is when I started to notice Foreman's specialness, I did not get it then, I don't get it now.

That scene has also always bugged me because Cameron was wheeling the kid out while House and Foreman got credit for being the arrogant jerks who saved his life. 1. The mother didn't like Chase so I can understand why she didn't credit him. But she didn't like Foreman either ("She’s not really a big fan of mine.") and he was certainly no more involved in the diagnosis than Cameron or Chase was. 2. Cameron was standing right there while she said it. That actually annoyed me quite a bit too. Chase and Cameron had been instrumental in saving his life--Chase was working his ass off in that episode doing his intensivist stuff, keeping the kids alive long enough for the diagnosis to be reached. If he hadn't done his job well, they never would have made it long enough to get cured. This was when they tried to put Foreman somehow as more important than Chase and Cameron and that was annoying. He's not "special" just because he locks horns with House or wears the same shoes.

Chase and Cameron had been instrumental in saving his life--Chase was working his ass off in that episode doing his intensivist stuff, keeping the kids alive long enough for the diagnosis to be reached. If he hadn't done his job well, they never would have made it long enough to get cured. This was when they tried to put Foreman somehow as more important than Chase and Cameron and that was annoying. He's not "special" just because he locks horns with House or wears the same shoes. Exactly. Chase actually seemed to play more of a role in the diagnostic procedure than Foreman did. Like Namaste said, all the Foreman in this episode was mainly to start the "House=Foreman" thing that would then carry on the next 3 seasons.

The Chase one I can understand. The mother took a dislike to him after the scene when he tried to convince her that Matt might have taken some drugs by saying he had worried his mother when he was that age and look how he turned out. At that age his mother had almost finished drinking herself to death so she probably wouldn't have noticed if Chase were stoned every day. CHASE: I’m the primary. HOUSE: Yeah, but the mom wants to get rid of you. And you know me, I’m a people-pleasing kind of guy. CHASE: She complained? About me? HOUSE: She went to the principal. Told Cuddy you took drugs in high school. This is gonna go on your permanent record. After that, other than dealing with Matt's seizure Chase's involvement was pretty much invisible to her -- in the DDX, making phone calls or treating Chi. So she wouldn't know what his contributions were. Cameron wasn't invisible to her but was apparently only good for pushing a wheelchair, not getting credit as a doctor.

They were heavy handed in pushing the Foreman-is-like-House comparisons in this episode, from the shoes to the refusing to answer a question by snarking to not caring about the patient only the puzzle, as House pointed out. Giving the praise to House&Foreman seems like more of the same. The mother seemed to take some sort of instant dislike to Cameron too, or maybe by that point she was annoyed by the whole lot of them. Mom: What, you’re gonna tell me some tough decision you had to make? Cameron: I know how hard this is for you. Mom: Maybe embroider the story a little, make it fit. Cameron: I can’t imagine being in your position. Mom: Honesty. A kind of vulnerable honesty, that’s your thing. And the looks. They send a single woman to hustle the single mother.

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