I think he explained it slightly in Insensitive -- every drink he takes, he has to weigh that against how far the bathroom is. (Plus, unless he wants to walk around with a water bottle all the time, being able to get pain relief without finding something to drink can be a useful skill.) But yeah, he does often take a sip of something with his pill.

I think he explained it slightly in Insensitive -- every drink he takes, he has to weigh that against how far the bathroom is. I really didn't accept that statement as true. He was trying to one-up the POTW and that response had a nice symmetry to her remark. I was probably wrong.

So much WORD, sasmom!

A little late....But my LJ commentary on TRS Episode 4x02 The Right Stuff The Right Stuff is one of my favorite movies (not to say novels—by Tom Wolfe) of all time. Despite its length, I can watch it beginning to end each time and enjoy the trials and tests of the astronaut wannabes. When I had heard that House was going to weed out the candidates for his coveted fellowships ala Survivor, I was, to say the least, highly skeptical. I saw comedy and silliness (which the show House is certainly capable doing) rather than serious (and occasionally dark) drama coming week after week for several episodes. My husband said told me how dubious it all sounded and how much it stretched the bounds of drama into comedy. This all before we saw the episode. To say that The Right Stuff is my favorite episode of the infant fourth season is ridiculous (since there have only been two episodes total as I write this a week late). But I believe that the episode will go down as one of my favorites of the season when it is all said and done (sometime in May). The main reason I loved this episode is the same one for pretty much every episode that I love: what it reveals about the “real” House. The House that is kept under guards posted every thirty feet, known really only to himself and us lucky viewers who get to be the flies on the wall of his office, his home or certain patient rooms. I like the way House is testing the fellowship candidates. He sets them to work and observes how well they do their jobs. How creative they are; how observant they are; how skillful they are. This is a supremely Housian way to hire. As he says: “Why have them sit in his office and schmooze about surfing movies?” I thought his assigning some of the fellows to wash his car was equally a test. How much would they take that was not “diagnosis-related?” He didn’t bat an eye when Cut-throat pixie stole his keys. The patient, an ambitious pilot with “The Right Stuff” comes to House with $50,000, which she plops on his desk. “You’re the best,” she declares. “You don’t care about anyone but yourself.” I’m sure she was assuming that House would pocket the money and run the tests off the books and behind the hosptial’s back. But the first little clue about House comes in the throwaway line that he wasn’t considering the money for himself, but for the hospital. Love House and his integrity. “What’s in it for me?” She tempts him with a puzzle. The game’s afoot. House sees Chase. Or “sees” Chase. House feigns nonchalance, and may genuinely feel that Chase has returned until Wilson suggests otherwise, playing with House’s mind in a way only Wilson can. Everyone calls House on being the grand manipulator. House is pretty easily manipulated himself. Both Wilson and Cuddy (and Stacy) have done it. Wilson suggests that it’s residual guilt from having fired Chase. House disagrees, but is clearly bothered by it. The next fellow he “sees” is Cameron. Again, Wilson playing mind games, baits House into thinking maybe that he is hallucinating them in some version of residual feeling for them. Enough so that when he finally “sees” Foreman (who we now know could not have been at PPTH in a lab coat), it seriously unnerves him. The power of suggestion planted by Wilson may have fed that incident. House continues testing and treating the patient until the incident in the treadmill room. House goes into full-on doctor mode (one of my favorite House states) as he does the percussion thing, looking for masses. It a beautiful teaching moment as the fellows get to observe House not as the consulting physician, not as the snarky, sarcastic lecturer, but as a serious and working physician. “If you have a good ear…” he begins. We know that House has a great ear, being a musician, etc. He gets serious with the patient (again something colleagues rarely get to see). The game is over, he tells her sadly. She then does something that his former fellows, Cuddy and Wilson never witness. She gets to House. She appeals to him and his is visibly affected by her plea, as his hardened defenses come down slightly. One of the new fellows comes up with an idea as to how to perform the invasive procedure they need to do while concealing the true nature of the surgery. Score a point for Skippy’s son (Walter Jacobsen, the erstwhile Chicago political reporter is Peter’s dad. Walter has ever been known by the nickname Skippy—he was a Chicago Cub Batboy in his youth). This is when House’s vision of Chase becomes real (as it always had been). I loved that moment when Chase, knowing that House already knew the diagnosis, answered the question, much as Cameron did when House was telling his tale in 3 Stories. They’ve cured Greta, but her disease could recur, endangering her career with NASA. The fellows encourage her to tell her NASA superiors, but she would not do it. Her dream would be shattered. House intervenes, telling the two doctors and Greta that it was unnecessary. He reported her disease to NASA. He says this coldly, emphasizing the coldness by stalking off, a hard look on his face, leaving Greta in tears. House calls Wilson on his mind games, to which Wilson fesses up. But how to explain Foreman? House is still pretty unnerved; enough that he won’t admit to Wilson that he’s “seen” Foreman. Does House have residual feelings about the fellows? Clearly he does, but, like everything else about House’s emotions, this is suppressed. It’s time to pare down the fellows. He does it matter-of-factly, and detachedly. He has no attachments to these folks. It comes down to what they did or failed to do. “I did nothing wrong,” says the eastern European doctor. “Others took risks.” This is something that House values. It’s a given that these are all highly competent doctors. House seeks something special. Something that he can use and in exchange someone he can teach. He asks “26” to stick around and talk for a minute. The next scene is the payoff (one of two) for me in this episode. House tells Scooter that he knows that he’s not a doctor. But what he does next and the exchange between the two men is, for me, the thing that defines House. He is kind (the way he is with a patient) and tells him that he can’t keep him as a doctor, but can keep him around (I’m reminded of Alan Rickman’s Blalock in “Something the Lord Made) for his opinion. House rebuffs (fairly mildly) that sitting in on medical classes is not the same as becoming a doctor. “This isn’t my dream job,” Scooter replies. “Yes it is,” House returns. “It’s just not your dream title.” House follows this up with the final scene with Cameron. I loved this scene (I’m NOT a Cam/House shipper by any stretch of anyone’s imagination). House is looking rather longingly in at her. Much as he did Chase. He reveals that he didn’t (after all) call NASA after Cameron admits that it was she who sent him Greta. “Why would you do that?” she asks. Why would he 1)lie and 2) do something kind for someone. For the second time. “I needed to fix some leaky faucets,” House replies. Does he mean that if the candidates knew he had blood running through his veins and had a streak of humanity, that would skew their image of him? Or did he want to make sure they didn’t squeal and crush Greta’s dreams? I think he meant both. “You couldn’t kill her dream,” Cameron postulates, diagnosing House. And she’s right. IT’s the only thing that fits, given that he had just done the same thing with Scooter. Random observations: I liked Chase and Cameron in this episode. I liked the fellows. They’re smart, sassy, creative. I like them. I love House in this. I loved that they showed House fixing his own (broken) guitar. It shows House concentrating, focused and with amazingly steady, meticulous hands. I loved this. I loved the philosophical discussion with Cole about (what I call) pikuach nefesh (saving a life) and its superseding keeping (most of) the Bible’s commandments and requirements. Wilson’s a jerk, and I’m stunned at House’s forgiveness for his breaking the beloved (and expensive) Flying V.

And we have finally up - the episode recap for this episode - plus Sasmom's informative review: http://www.houseofwhining.com/viewtopic.php?t=316