this stuff is not my "personal canon"; it's just how I read the three episodes. But that is the definition of personal canon -- how you interpret those scenes, when there is no canon evidence to support one specific view or the other and when, in fact, they can be ambiguous and support multiple interpretations. I interpret it differently, which is why it is my personal canon that Wilson began dosing House sometime after "Family." Neither is wrong. It's just interpretation, just as within the context of the show itself -- without bringing any outside interviews into play -- you can interpret the clinic patient in "It's A Wonderful Lie" as either prostitute or playful innocent. Mind you, I have other bits of personal canon which have absolutely no support in canon (For instance, at Michigan House introduced Cuddy to something called "Hippie Hash" served at an Ann Arbor greasy spoon called the Fleetwood Diner) but interpretations based on canon still count as personal canon in my book.

That's the thing to me too. House knew he wasn't thinking clearly in "Resignation." He also knew, in the fourth season's "Ugly" that he wasn't thinking clearly when it came to Terzi. He recognizes when his thought process goes awry, so why wouldn't he this time? But House doesn't know he isn't thinking clearly in Resignation until that final combination of circumstances where he's denying he's inappropriately smiling while catching sight of himself smiling. He wasn't suspicious for the entire ep, even when he was groggy when waking up. That particular moment allowed that intuitive diagnosis, not a general feeling he was "off" and that needed explaining. It's ok if you believe in your personal canon that House is perfect and can do no wrong, but it was not the case here. And we can't blame others for his own mistakes. Since it makes sense from what we know in canon for Wilson to be dosing House at the least a couple of weeks before Resignation, and we know House decided the ADs affected his thinking particularly by making him inappropriately detached from the situation, I don't think there's any avoidance of any unpalatable facts by reading it this way. I think House has made mistakes and behaved badly in a number of episodes. But this one fits the AD storyline and helps explain why he was so detached from the case, which is unusual for House. With this show's connect the dots storytelling style, I don't think the lack of specific callback to Resignation shuts down the possibility, either. We've had a number of important events happen that would need to be addressed in real life that the show allows to happen offscreen. We get the important snapshots. Wilson knows he's dosing House, so when it's a matter of life and death, why would he just blithely let House get away with such risky behavior without warning him? Unless Wilson really is as crappy of a doctor as some people seem to think. In this case, I think it has to be said Wilson was being a crappy doctor. I mean, no doctor really surrepticiously doses a friend with ADs :D . Apparently Wilson assumed the ADs would have to be beneficial and House didn't need any monitoring and there would be no side effects. Even when House comes to him and says they made him hazy--and it was his own inappropriate behaviour that opened his eyes--Wilson denies the side effect and insists he's happy. Wilson isn't objective here or acting as a doctor. He doesn't want the treatment to have side effects, so he denies the possibility. Somewhat like when the ketamine was failing and Wilson didn't want it to happen, so he denied the seriousness of what House was feeling. Wilson should never be House's doctor. There's no way to nail this down one way or another, so it remains personal canon. But I don't think it's looking for excuses for House. If he was being dosed, the effect would be much like we saw in Resignation.

Personal interpretations are personal interpretations. They are not concrete facts, especially in a show that makes so much ambiguous and does so intentionally. Your timeline may prove it to you, NightOwl, but it doesn't prove it to me. Nor does it have to. We know that the first scene in "Resignation" occurs once Cuddy receives notice of Foreman's resignation. He may have submitted it at the end of the day on Friday and she just got it on a Monday. He may have taken a day or two to write it. We see an episode once a week, which lasts for an hour. But the "real" events of that hour often occur over days. Some episodes show the patients a week after the diagnosis is made or more. Time is fluid in this series. There's no reason to believe that the week between shows that we see is a literal week in their time or a day in their time or an hour in their time. Obviously it's an agree to disagree thing -- both in terms of when Wilson started dosing House and as to what personal canon means.

Do you really think House would wait more than a day to tell Wilson that Foreman quit?

So we are not allowed to discuss different interpretations? No cross-examinations? Asking a question is not the same as trying to force a point of view on someone. :wink:

I'm all about different interpretations, but in this show, using the time line as prove to something, is a bold movement... I love ambiguity, that's the main reason I watch this show, but for something be ambiguous I need at least a clue, a scene, a conversation, you know? Something ambiguous. There are nothing in HT that suggests that House was being dosed. Please, point me a scene, a conversation, anything, that can be called ambiguous. Wilson bringing House's coffee at the end might be read this way, but it was at the end of the episode, Lupe's fate was already sealed. My personal interpretation of that scene is quite different, but I can see this interpretation working for some, and that's fine, my only problem is when someone said that's canon. It's not, it's a personal interpretation.

So we are not allowed to discuss different interpretations? No cross-examinations? Of course. That's why I posted my personal interpretation of canon where it differs from your personal interpretation. But at the same time, I'm not a fan of beating dead horses, so I can agree to disagree without rehashing the same argument again and again, in this case, specifically, the timeline issue.

There are nothing in HT that suggests that House was being dosed. Please, point me a scene, a conversation, anything, that can be called ambiguous. Wilson bringing House's coffee at the end might be read this way, but it was at the end of the episode, Lupe's fate was already sealed. I think we all love the ambiguity in the writing, because it adds so much texture, and debate of course :D . I'm sure this is a YMMV point, but I'll bite on this one. I think this show quite often gives a scene where it looks like we are meant to interpret it one way, and then we get more information later that allows a different interpretation. When House turned down Cameron during their "date," some shippers thought it was all about House's inability to open up to love for Cameron. Later we found out another interpretation, a stronger one to my view, was that, as Cameron said, he could love, he just wasn't in love with her. He was in love with Stacy still and had to resolve that relationship. There was a suspended arc that we had to work backward from to really appreciate how the House/Cameron scene was working. And nothing was written so on the nose that there is one "canon" on the subject. I think HT and Resignation work the same way. The "tell" we have in HT is that House is very distracted from his case and running off to see Bonnie before he has any answers about what's going on with Lupe. Even with Stark, House didn't turn his attention away until he thought he had the answers. In HT, Foreman is taking the lead on that case and House doesn't care. We don't know enough to be able to guess at why, but I think it was telling that the ep ended with Wilson giving House a coffee. When two eps later we find out Wilson was dosing House's coffee for at least a couple of weeks, which fits the timeframe of HT, the coffee in HT seems to carry some thematic resonance to me. We have to work backward, but not too far and the dosing fits not only the final coffee scene but also the way House was acting. The writers were aware of how those shows were going to play out and I don't think they featured a scene with Wilson giving House coffee in HT without knowing that it would resonate when Wilson gives House coffee in Resignation. As usual, nothing is written on the nose--we don't know when exactly Wilson started dosing House--but I think the coffee was very suggestive.

I don't think that House being obsessed with Wilson and Bonnie was indicative of his being drugged because the behavior just didn't fit with what was exhibited when he DID find out he was being dosed. So that just leaves curiosity on House's part. Fine. House's lack of concentration and virtual abandonment of interest in Lupe doomed her. Yet that doesn't even seem to be a consideration on his part. And at the other end of the spectrum, if he really was being dosed and he later discovered this, the lack of anger that Wilson's antics caused a patient's death is equally disturbing. To me, the side effect House showed in Resignation was an emotional disconnect from his job--which sounds rather odd to say about House, but we know for sure he has an obsessive reaction to a problem and we know he secretly cares more than he shows about his patients. In Resignation, we saw him notice his own sense of disconnection from the patient--even House does not see smiling while telling a young girl she's dying as appropriate behaviour. And he didn't even know he was smiling until he saw himself in the mirror. I see the the same sense of disconnection with Lupe, which leaves House free to pursue his interest in Wilson and Cuddy. In HT, House doesn't recognise his "hazy thinking." This type of death does happen in his business. Doubtlessly in another set of circumstances this has happened before and he made peace with it. He doesn't notice his own sense of disconnection from the case. I think the lack of anger in Resignation about HT is par for the course for this show. House can't nail down exactly what was and wasn't a side effect in HT --AD symptoms aren't that precise. Wilson won't even accept House's description of his symptoms in Resignation, though I think House was quite certain that he was "off." I think House cared very much that his department lost Lupe, and he took on the responsibility to make sure it didn't happen again. I think for him that's the main thing he takes from a failure. He seems able to let go of anger when he cares for the person who caused it, particularly Wilson. Given that we had no peeks into what happened between them following Wilson walking out in MLC and no peek into the scene where Wilson agreed to write House prescriptions again, despite blowing off rehab, I don't think it's unusual that we didn't see the scene where House thought back about just exactly when he started getting dosed and taking that up with Wilson. Maybe he never did. I think for House, the most important thing was to nail down what they medically did wrong and make sure it never happens again. If he felt part of that was the effect anti-ds had on him, he'd stop taking them. As you can imagine, in my personal canon, House is not on anti-ds :D .

Brought over from Season 4 discussion thread: So the audience is supposed to realize that Wilson's dosing made House kills a patient while House never realizes it? That doesn't make any sense. Or that House did realize it but did so off-screen, and laughed and shrugged his shoulders and said "oh, that Wilson! Killing my patients like that!" and let it go? That makes even less sense. I completely agree with you here. For House to have some sort of off-screen understanding that he was secretly dosed by Wilson which lead to the death of a patient and then not have any on-screen reaction to that development simply beggars belief. This isn't 'Lost'. Sometimes what you see is what you get. As House said to Foreman at the end of 'House Training', with the way that they practice medicine sometimes they will make mistakes and kill patients. This was the third time that we know of that House decided to zap someone with radiation when they had an infection. If he kept doing it eventually he would kill the patient, and he did. I also didn't think he had an "emotional disconnect" from the patient or case; he was interested enough to visit her when he didn't have to, just to find out why she didn't like Foreman. I didn't see him acting OOC at all. To me House came across as being fairly disinterested in the case. From the first DDX, he's more interested in watching Bonnie and Wilson than hashing it out with the team. By the time Chase presents evidence that her tox screen is clean, he's not even in the room any more. But, to be honest, I found most of the pacing in HT to be kind of weird and the fact is that there is alot of information crammed into this episode which left me feeling that House, while not OOC per se, was definitely a bit off beat. I remember reading Doris Egan's write-up on the episodes in her blog, and there was no mention that there was an underlying story about House killing a patient because he was being drugged. That's a whole different story, and I simply can't accept that we're supposed to take that away from 'Resignation' without being told that's what we're supposed to believe. Again, agreed. I think sometimes we fans can fall in love with weaving intricate storylines based on suppositions and evidence that just hasn't made it to screen. I think there is a reason that when we see Wilson hand House his coffee in HT, it is well after the damage to Lupe is done. House is fallible. If he weren't, there would be no dramatic tension. He missed a diagnosis. Why does it have to be someone else's fault? What also makes this a fairly disappointing episode for me is that they took a story that should rightly be House's and gave it to Foreman. Sure, House gets the blame for green lighting the treatment and he surely had his own regrets about the case, but IMO it would have been far more satisfying to see House come up with the brilliant plan that goes astray and watching the fallout from that. As the story is structured, House seems almost periphery to the events. Anyway. House Training. Not really one of my favorites. (But better than pretty much all of season 4.)

So the audience is supposed to realize that Wilson's dosing made House kills a patient while House never realizes it? That doesn't make any sense. Or that House did realize it but did so off-screen, and laughed and shrugged his shoulders and said "oh, that Wilson! Killing my patients like that!" and let it go? That makes even less sense. I think the audience is supposed to realise that Wilson's decision to dose House had an impact on him he is not happy about, and the impact may have gone as far back as HT, where the combination of House's disinterest in the case and the shot of Wilson giving House coffee raise suspicion that he was being dosed in that episode. The idea of how much culpability House would have and Wilson would have is both interesting and unquantifiable. The show has played with this idea before. When House found out Clarence had an underlying neurology that explained his rage attacks, he and Foreman have different ideas of how much that diminishes his responsibility. I think with the ADs, the "detachment" side effect is also difficult to pin down and quantify, though if one feels it it's a very good reason to quit taking them. Even when House comes to Wilson in Resignation, Wilson is prepared to over ride House's diagnosis of his own feelings. I don't think there's any black and white case to be made by House, and I don't think he would need one to be made, judging from his feelings about Clarence. I think House accepted responsibility in HT and he's not looking to offload it. On the other hand, he wanted to nail down what went wrong with Lupe, and I think if he felt being dosed was one factor, he would decide not to be on them anymore. I'm not sure he would need to nail Wilson to the wall for something he can't pin down and measure. This isn't 'Lost'. Sometimes what you see is what you get. As House said to Foreman at the end of 'House Training', with the way that they practice medicine sometimes they will make mistakes and kill patients. It seems to me, though, that those times when we all agree on what we get are few and far between, and that's the style of the show. I think that House was uncharacteristically detached, and rather than call that OOC or bad writing, I see the coffee as providing us with a link to an episode that can shed light on it. I have no issue at all with House occasionally killing a patient with his methods (well, I would if I were the patient :D --I mean as a dramatic choice for the character), but I think the writers complicated the case by Wilson deciding to do one his House changing schemes during this time frame. His schemes do impact House and have consequences. I remember reading Doris Egan's write-up on the episodes in her blog, and there was no mention that there was an underlying story about House killing a patient because he was being drugged. I love Doris Egan's blog but I'm taking my feelings about the show from the show. I don't think she intends to make her blog the show bible on what's happening. I think the show was intended to link to Resignation and she wasn't responsible for that part, so I'm not looking to her to explain a suspended arc. That's a whole different story, and I simply can't accept that we're supposed to take that away from 'Resignation' without being told that's what we're supposed to believe. I think many of us have a different interpretation for many of the storylines we are watching. The show doesn't intend to nail down only one. I think the writers were deliberately raising the issue of Wilson's and House's feelings for each other in DEC; other very committed and careful viewers think it was simply comic relief and not to be factored into the story. I think the House/Cameron romantic storyline has been brought to a close, with the emphasis being that Cameron needed to look at her own motivatons. Other very committed and careful viewers think that storyline is one of the main narrative threads and House's part is to realise that he loves and needs Cameron. I think the Tritter arc did not prove House is a dangerous out of control addict. Others think it did. The list goes on and on. To me, HT added another one to the list. House is fallible. If he weren't, there would be no dramatic tension. He missed a diagnosis. Why does it have to be someone else's fault? If House had been involved in the case with his usual attention and he missed a diagnosis, I would have no issue. I don't need House to be perfect and don't think he is. But why is it necessary to excuse Wilson's actions as having no impact when he hatches one of his schemes? He's not an angel. His actions have consequences. He dosed House with ADs and those ADs had side effects House didn't like. One can reasonably argue that HT falls within the dosing timeframe. There's a highlighted scene where Wilson gives House coffee. Why not examine what the implications of the dosing might be? Wilson is an active player on the show and in the relationship. I think this season's exploration of just how often Wilson is actually dominant is significant. I think House and Wilson have a fascinating and complex relationship that warrants close examination. House is obviously not an angel and Wilson is less obviously not an angel. I love them both.

I have sworn to let this topic rest, but it seems I can't trust my own word... Jair, I won't try to change your interpretation or your opinion about what we saw in HT, Family and Resignation, but there are some points I want to comment from your posts: When House turned down Cameron during their "date," some shippers thought it was all about House's inability to open up to love for Cameron. Later we found out another interpretation, a stronger one to my view, was that, as Cameron said, he could love, he just wasn't in love with her. At that point (Love Hurts) we already know about a mysterious Stacy in House's past. We didn't know the circumstances of their break up, but we knew he was pinning for her for five years. Her appearance was not a surprise. Even Cameron knew he had lived with someone (Sports Medicine). We had plenty of clues about his "inability" to love. HT and Family didn't work for me in the same way, because before Resignation there are no clues about none of them using AD's. The "tell" we have in HT is that House is very distracted from his case and running off to see Bonnie before he has any answers about what's going on with Lupe. He was no more distracted than he was in Fools for Love and AYA, or DEC. The difference was that he didn't get the right diagnostic, until was too late. The same thing could have happened in the previous episodes, but in HT he trusted Foreman's opinion - like he had already trusted in Autopsy - and both of them were wrong. The way they practice medicine allows deadly mistakes or miraculous healings. But why is it necessary to excuse Wilson's actions as having no impact when he hatches one of his schemes? I wouldn't excuse Wilson's actions if I saw any indications that he had an agenda in HT, but I didn't. And why is necessary one of the Wilson's schemes to justify a mistake of House? Sorry, but no matter how much I try I can't believe that House would miss this kind of implication (a patient's death!) or that he would never confronted Wilson about it. It's a line that I can't see none of them crossing. There's a highlighted scene where Wilson gives House coffee. And that scene works perfectly in the context of the episode too: it was there to show us how true are Bonnie's words about House always needing Wilson and Wilson always being there for him. None of them are angels and both of them are able to screw up the life of the other, but not every House's misstep can be blame on Wilson, or vice-versa. Of course, we can agree to disagree and YMMV and we all have our personal canon :D