Agreed, TrooperCam. It's really too bad they didn't 1) Get a better actress for Eve, and 2) Trash the Cameron sub-arc in that ep entirely. The important thing is that Eve did see right through him, so there really isn't any denying that House's father was abusive. If House was lying to make her feel better, she would've bought the grandmother story. Several things other than Daddy's Boy tipped me off to the abusive past, but I can't think of the examples off-hand, other than House's general "damaged" demeanor, and his tendency to jump to that conclusion about others (patients) a lot.

My abuse-metre was set off in Autopsy: Chase: She wanted one kiss before she dies. If she’s never kissed a boy it’s a fair bet she’s never had sex. House: Tell that to all the hookers who won’t kiss me on the mouth. Hey, here’s a theory, she has been molested, seeks refuge in romantic fantasies with older men with great hair. And I think you left out the punch line, victims of molestation learn to work the angles. Manipulate people. It sounded too familiar to me to be a coincidence.

The abuse House described wasn't sexual.

Taiga, ITA with your post, specially, It makes sense to me if the abuse was what House described in OD, OR: a parent rigid in his beliefs of right and wrong who went too far in enforcing discipline, a father and son of two completely different personalities destined to clash and never understand each other. If it is brought up again I want some clarification because I'm sick of fans thinking Daddy House was this monster who regularly beat his son for the sheer sadistic pleasure of it and daily told little Greg that he hated him. One of the things, between so many, that I dislike about this episode is the notion that House's father was so evil and the need to make House a poor abused victm. Yes, people can be assholes just because they can. It's not so unusual. Worst: they never mention sexual abuse, still a lot of fans think that's the case, a better writing would prevent that idea. And YES, Eve was a walking-talking cliche! I have this insane idea that if someone in House's Fandon had writing that story it would not take a long time to someone else do a MST.

Not only this eppy is the worst ever, it actually made me feel this might be the end of the show for me, and for that I hate it even more. After all the Tritter angst!fest we needed something lighter to up the mood a bit. Instead we got horrid writing and a main "actress" that made even HL look bad. It have always been my fanon that House has daddy issues, BUT WHY LIKE THAT?? It should have been verbal and mental abuse, not physical, god, I can't even stand it. That episode (except the H/W bits) didn't happen and that's it. ETA - I have this insane idea that if someone in House's Fandon had writing that story it would not take a long time to someone else do a MST. Lully, you are so right, and it's so funny and sad. *sigh*.

ODOR might have been written poorly, but it's unrealistic to make a character that is just magically assholicious. Does anyone remember if there ever was a reason given why Mark Craig from St Elsewhere being a grade A ass or that he just was that, an ass.

I think he was just a complete tosser.

Okay, I didn't mean asshole=abuse. In House's case, yes, that's a fair bit of why he is how he is. However, characters that are assholes just because also have their reasons. I won't rattle them all off, but to write a character that isn't molded by it's environment (good or bad) usually results in an unrealistic character. The less human a character seems, the less we appreciate it.

While I do think it makes sense that House was abused, I'm still disappointed in that because it's not necessary to explain the character. His incredibly high IQ can do that on it's own. Also, being exceptionally brilliant makes House unique. Being an abuse victim makes him another statistic.

From another thread: putting it down to parental abuse or the infarction or Stacy's betrayal or addiction or a mental illness (ie depression) kind of makes him a victim of circumstances rather than being who he chooses to be given his intelligence, experience, circumstances. - sweet fern Well, we know he was (mostly) like this before the infarction and Stacy's betrayal and addiction, and probably before the depression too. I don't think he's a victim of circumstances and if House were a real person he'd probably say the same. Whether he was abused as a child or not, he's an adult now. It's his choice to act like an asshole. From House's description of his father and the specific type of abuse involved (which his father probably doesn't consider abuse at all), I think that House's exceptional intelligence and personality (he's been alienating people since he was three) in a way lead to some of the abuse. It's 100% Daddy House's fault and 0% House's, don't get me wrong, but maybe a different son - one less likely to challenge authority - would have gotten along with the Marine pilot just fine. In that case Daddy House was just the first person to be offput by House, and his reaction simply worsened House's nature instead of causing it.

After Daddy's boy, I figured House was the victim of mental abuse. No matter what horrible thing someone accuses him of, he never argues or tries to explain it. He just says "Yes, my fault." On the other hand, he has a very hard time accepting any complements other than about his medical gift. And I didn't think it was a question of John House telling him he was a worthless pile of shit for 17 years. In DB we saw on Daddy's face how much he wanted to connect with his son. But he still contradicted every single thing House said. The patterns were set too deeply. The fact that Daddy wanted to have a relationship with House is why I totally would not have believed a "House was beaten and whipped daily" reveal. The overly strict, discipline a child the same way you would a Marine recruit, I could buy. I don't mind a series of reveals showing how House got to be the way he is. This isn't Damien House, born the spawn of the devil. His personality is partly nature, of course, but also the product of a series of things that happened to him as he was growing up. Some kids do fine moving from place to place as a child. House, whose basic personality is that of a loner probably became more isolated because of it. Especially as kids would be unlikely to welcome a new kid who was also brilliant and made them look dumb. Some kids do well in a very structured environment. House probably could never stop challenging authority, especially when his father wasn't around. Specific annoyances about ODOR include Eve's insistance that he wouldn't have called his grandmother Oma if she did that but she had no problem with his calling his father Dad when he was the guilty one. I am vehemently pro-choice but I hated that Eve had to have an abortion. She was only a week or so pregnant. All they had to do was have House say, in the foosball scene, that she was considering her options and she still had a couple of months to decide. And, without a doubt, Eve was the least sympathetic rape victim in history. (I hope that made sense. My father has called me every few minutes while I was writing it because he wanted to send an e-mail attachment. It was only his second time. I walked him through it. Next call I walked him through checking his "sent items" folder. And the last call was because the title of the document was not the same as the eventual title of the story in the document so he was worried that when the person opened it, it wouldn't be the correct article. He's 88.) ETA: I forgot my absolute favorite thing about this episode. The way House looked when he was in the park.

Specific annoyances about ODOR include Eve's insistance that he wouldn't have called his grandmother Oma if she did that but she had no problem with his calling his father Dad when he was the guilty one. Yes, that didn't make sense. I know a family where the father was severely abusive and the mother screwy, and the grown kids still call them by affectionate nicknames.

But abusive relationships aren't simple. At all. In fact they're more complex than healthy relationships. Someone had to say it and I'm glad it was you. My thoughts exactly. Having been abused doesn't make House any less complex. Abuse didn't cause all of House's issues and so it can't be cited as making him any less real, any less fascinating, any less screwed up than he is; it just adds another layer to it all.