1.22 Honeymoon
From tv.com: When Stacy insists her husband Mark get tests, House insists he can handle things. But despite the fact Mark's tests prove negative, his steadily growing symptoms indicate he is dying. While House struggles with the mystery and make increasing demands on his staff, Wilson worries about House's emotional well-being, and Cuddy considers adding a new employee to the clinic.

I just rewatched this episode on USA. I just realized that when House walked into the room to give Mark the cocktail his right leg was sticking out of the blankets. When House stabs him its right in the right thigh. I can't believe I never noticed that. Well actually I should thank this board for picking up on all the little things. The last scene was much more heartbreaking for me now as I'm so much more invested in the character. Stacey sort of annoyed me that she told him "he's the one". That was just mean. I did enjoy her arc though. We were able to see a different side of House that I love.

One of the amazing things about that stabbing scene is how, right after he does it, he recedes, he just seems to shrink down to invisible while he's watching to see what happens next. It's amazing to me sometimes the acting choices HL makes, but I never notice them till the umpteenth rewatch, they are so natural and flow from the character. But I think most actors would have kept going with the big moment: HL instantly backed off which really seems authentic for House with his background of being abused. Totally agree spicyride both that the "you're the guy" speech was pretty mean of Stacy since she was just toying with the idea of following through with him, and also that we learned a great deal about House in that arc. Both that he's capable of love and also that he finds it very difficult, more particularly that he is devastatingly aware of how difficult it is for anyone to accept him on his own terms, love him and find happiness with him as he is. So, in a way, that arc showed us that for him, it's both romantic and kind to keep potential lovers at arm's length, since he's very, very aware of how much he's capable of hurting them and being hurt himself. He is a person who feels and thinks deeply, and, once people know that, they can be affected profoundly. But none of that changes who he is and what he's capable of, which, he is convinced, is never enough and which is why he puts people who are or want to be close to him through ongoing tests. He's just never sure until he's really sure (I think that's one of Stacy's spot-on observations). Makes him so much more compelling when they show us those things that illuminate his character.

This is one of my all time favourite episodes and every time I watch the last scene it makes me sad every time. I feel that if HL were to not play House anymore, the whole thing would lose all it's dynamic. Not that that'l ever happen anyway. He is House, and this episode shows it a lot. Stacy did annoy me with that whole 'You're the guy' thing though.

Oh yeah, I hadn't actually thought of it like that. But House did have reasons to do that, I feel. Funny how both times we end up feeling sorry for House, not Stacy. You could tell that House was trying to get Stacy out of his head at that point, and then she comes in and says that, but yes, in a way I think she was just coming to say goodbye like you do. Cuddy must've offered her the job the next day of something though, because it was night-time when Stacy talked to House and day when he left to go home, anyways...

You know, I don't think she needed to get it off her chest as much as she just wanted to see how he would react to hearing it. She wasn't saying goodbye as much as she was trying to see if she still wanted him and if he still wanted her. And when she saw that there was something there on both sides, she decided to stay. So it wasn't a goodbye, it was a "if I stay, will you want me? That's why I think it was mean and thoughtless of her: she was testing him in a way that was utterly devastating to him. He thought for an instant he had her and then in the next instant he lost her. He thought she was saying goodbye forever. Telling him he's the one, bringing up his hopes completely, and then telling him she couldn't be with him: it was just her seeing if maybe this one would be better than the one she had. She loved both, so her indecisiveness about what she wanted brought up all the history and encouraged House to keep going. I think she had feelings for him but it was also flattering to get that kind of attention from someone like him and it also didn't hurt to have his attention focused on her to get him to work on her husband's case. I'm not seeing those were primary motivations but she's no idiot. In part, I think she was playing him. She really does know how to do it. And she is consistently insensitive to who he is. On the roof she tells him she's considering not telling Mark about the two of them, where he clearly expected her to make a clean break. She kept muddying the waters with her flipflopping, but he made it clear at that point: it's not easy but it is simple. One or the other: not both. In both those scenes she's trying to make the facts go away and have it both ways for as long as she can. I'm not saying that she intended to cause hurt, but that she was toying with both House and herself, and Mark, for that matter, when she tried to make the facts different than they were.

I don't think she realized how mean she was either, that's why I said she was thoughtless: she said potentially devastating things to someone without thinking through how it would affect them. IMHO it's mean to be that thoughtless. She did it consistently: she hooked up with House without thinking how that would affect her and Mark; she went back to Mark without thinking how that would hurt House. She just kept using them and testing them to find out her own feelings and to test theirs. I don't hate Stacy, but I also don't think being thoughtlessly cruel gives her a free pass. Being in a relationship with House likely does mean you have to look out for yourself, but disagree that you have to be selfish. Tough, yes, self-reliant, yes, but I'd sure have liked Stacy better if she had shown more real kindness and awareness of the potential consequences of her actions. Of course, I suppose the muddle makes for better drama: when House thinks it through, he comes to the conclusion that they are not right for each other even though they are each other's "one." And part of that is that she abandons her best judgement when it comes to her relationships: I think House realized he couldn't deeply trust her. She abandoned him once, she was then ready to abandon Mark: I think House could do the math, much as it broke his heart to do so.

Unng, same here. No new House for AGES. I'm detoxing. In Aus we missed out on Let Them Eat Cake and Joy To The World. I have my sources though... :idea: But you could see that House knew it wasn't gonna end well again for both of them, and this time (excuse the harshness) he wanted to get there one step ahead to not get hurt as much. I'm not saying he didn't get hurt at all the second time, because he did, I'm just saying he knew he didn't want to get into a relationship and then have it fall on his head again. Does anyone think House should have gotten into that bar fight at the end of The Honeymoon? I read somewhere that originally that was what was going to happen :?

Yeah, I did really like the ending that they chose at the end on the Honeymoon. It was personal, intense and very well acted by HL. By trying to walk I also think that he was trying to prove that he wasn't (forgive this) a cripple, and I think in his eyes he thinks he failed.