4.03 97 Seconds

As soon as I heard the "I love you", I shouted to the bf who was on the computer "Watch out, the internet's going to explode soon". I am not a fervent H/W person but I can see the merit of it in theory... *feels the itch to read H/W fanfic* I really did like the ep tonight. Good times were had by all. We got what, 4 deaths? I got to gaze at the blue eyes enough (though is there such a thing?) and Casual!Wilson is so cute. He looked so worried in the class and at House's bedside. And I totally wasn't expecting the dog to die, I was so sad. Great PotW this week, finally! And I so did a Nelson Muntz at Foreman. He so deserves it, it's not funny anymore. Yay for him grovelling back at House's feet.

Quote: At this point, even though I think House needs some serious psychiatric help, I'd say Wilson needs a lot more. WORD!!! I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks Wilson has bigger problems than House. Particularly right now. He's been living in a hotel for the past two years, but he wants to talk about House being afraid to face himself? That, to me, smacked of hypocrisy. I don't think Wilson even knows who he is. House is older than he is, acts younger than he does, but seems to have a much better idea of what exactly he needs and wants in life. People seem to like to paint Wilson as some sort of handler for House. Someone to keep him on the 'straight'--which...look at my icon and insert small giggle--'and narrow', but who the hell is acting as Wilson's handler? And IF Wilson is House's handler, then House is in a lot of trouble because it seems to me like Wilson is losing the ability to give a damn. He seems to be losing his perspective and objectivity when it comes to this person who is supposed to be his dearest friend. Who, despite everything he says, would do anything to take care of Wilson in a heartbeat. If Wilson asked to move back in, I think House might accept, even though I don't think it would be healthy for House. It's gotten to the point where I only believe he deserves better. Wilson will shamelessly manipulate both his only friends to get them to behave the way he wants them to. That is not a friend. A friend will not continually try to subvert the choices of those he claims to care about and that's been my biggest problem with Wilson for a very long time now and, unfortunately, I don't see it coming to an end any time soon.

Okay, am I the only person who loved the fact that Mercy!Cuddy fired Foreman? Foreman thought that by treating the patient he was being like House, which in his previous environment was A Good Thing; however, no hospital outside of PPTH would let you get away with that for five seconds. It illustrates just how abnormal PPTH really is. Also, this ep reminded us of the fact that Foreman Is Not House: he doesn't run a differential like House, nor does he treat like House. He lacks the spark of brilliance, even though he tried in the whole "blurry vision" scene. I was actually a little disappointed by the "I love you" scene. I didn't really hear any undertone in HL's voice, either joking or trying-to-cover-up-being-sincere. Also, from RSL I was expected something a bit more Poconos-esque, with a full-on reaction. I have come to the conclusion that I cannot stand 13. I knew from the beginning that she wouldn't be fired, but she really is a Mary Sue. Even though she killed her patient, it happened in a way that wasn't really her fault, like it was Chase's in The Mistake. I desperately wanted House to actually fire her. Barring that, I wish he could have explained better why he was keeping her on. As to the Wilson "You've never experienced/you've had near-deaths twice" thing, people really are irrational and make mistakes like that. I found it totally plausible that he would make the one argument before and the other after. But at the same time, I wondered why Three Stories canon wasn't being addressed. But hey! It's not like these writers ignore canon on a regular basis or anything...

I thought Wilson was saying that House has never actually been dead, or at least dead long enough to experience the afterlife. Not that House has never had a near-death experience. despite everything he says, would do anything to take care of Wilson in a heartbeat. Except for the times Wilson has needed help and House has flatly refused to give it. I'm afraid that I don't see where what you say is coming from for this particular episode, Angel. I can understand what you say in general, but why are you attributing it to this? Did you think Wilson was trying to goad House into the knife/socket trick? Shouldn't have spoken up when House made fun of his dying patient's spiritual beliefs? Shouldn't have been a bit freaked that his best friend electrocuted himself just to see what would happen? I liked that Mercy wouldn't let Foreman get away with Houseian medicine, as you say it does show that PPTH is abnormal. But I did roll my eyes when she said that Foreman confused doing the right thing with saving lives. Isn't saving lives supposed to be the right thing? Or was it supposed to read that he confused being right with saving lives, or something? Did anyone else want Cuddy to use the knife/socket thing as an excuse to have House put on suicide watch just to piss him off?

I seem to have this overwhelming ability to be the extremely-minor-minority opinion on threads, so... I liked Omar Epps tonight. I loved the way he showed the fish-out-of-water aspect of Foreman trying to run a team, getting aggravated with their slowness and lapsing into House-snarls--then immediately trying to be the "nice guy" and say encouraging things to them. It cracked me up after Differential #1, when the pseudo-ducklings came up with lame or useless ideas, then Foreman directed them on the exact -*test*-('")s to run--then said, "Good job!" Even the pseudo-ducks looked confused, like, "Huh? What did we do?" I also felt that there was a nice dichotomy in the POV of New York Mercy Cuddy versus the real Cuddy. Foreman was fired for not following the rules, rules that were set up to keep doctors from being cowboys--but he saved his patient's life. I understand the need for rules that protect the grea-*test*-('") number of patients, but as Cuddy said in Fetal Position, to the person whose life is saved, the odds against it don't matter. It was a great contrast between "real world" medical business and fictional PPTH, where House can live and thrive under Cuddy's benevolent dictatorship instead of being fired after the first case, like Foreman. I like my Hospital-in-the-Sky fantasy.

I will not cave to peer pressures of board opining! 1. I really do like Thirteen, and I did not want to. She is not the new Cameron (nor the new Chase). Her dealing with House was a beautiful thing; they play off one another well. I don't want (nor see, frankly), any UST between them at all, so it's not like she's a threat to any major ship. 2. I honestly did not even see the "I love you" as a response to the pain meds offering. Now I see that, yes, TPTB were covering their asses in case of conservative backlash or something (or just a lack of desire to move in the H/W direction so strongly at this time), but the way HL played it was genuine. I thought it wasn't necessarily romantic, though it definitely, definitely was not denying that aspect. AT ALL. I think it has the potential to be romantic. But I'm actually a huge proponent of the House/Wilson CAN Become Canon way of thinking, and I know that's a minority viewpoint. To me, this scene was a huge step in their relationship-- a relationship that has not yet progressed to full-blown romance but really, really could. "Love is friendship that has caught fire." -Ann Landers

I'm afraid that I don't see where what you say is coming from for this particular episode, Angel. I wasn't only referring to this episode. I was talking about everything that's been happening since late season two, since my larger point involves Cuddy, as well. House came to her, practically begging for relief from his pain, and not only did she patronize him, she later mocked him. But Wilson has been the much larger pain in my butt because he shamelessly goads Cuddy into lying to House, lies to House, himself, and seems to think there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Cuddy, at least, felt intense guilt after 'Meaning', Wilson didn't seem to give a damn and none of his actions since then have proven otherwise. It's the constant lying that bothers me. Especially since I've noticed that House...what, has he lied...twice? If that? Wilson doesn't seem to give a damn about his trust and I'm not convinced he cares to have it.

By this point, I'm kind of tired of being a wet blanket. But I'm really not enjoying this whittling down of people that I maybe, someday, might give a shit about. Right now they're just cluttering up the show and being tossed into dramatic turns that I should care about, but don't because I have no connection to them. To compare and contrast, in the pilot and the first few episodes of the S1, I could immediately embrace the characters---all the characters---because I was getting to know all of them at once. The dynamic of introducing an entire soccer team's worth of players and expecting me to bond while teasing me with the original folks lingering, tauntingly, in the wings is just counter-productive. Dramatically, I'm not sure it works for "13" to be in such dispair at the end of the episode. I know nothing about her, not even her name, so how can I possibly be upset on her behalf that they lost their patient? I think there's a reason that it took so long in the first few seasons for the original team to lose a patient; we had to know those characters good and well for an accidental death to really resonate. I had to know their strengths, their weaknesses, their work ethic, their previous brilliant saves and their philosophies before I could begin to put a patient death into perspective for those characters. How on earth am I supposed to do this at the current stage of the game? I have to say that a little Alanis Morrisette music and a "contemplation montage" doesn't provide any more rationale for House to be sticking knives into electrical outlets. I'm struggling with House's reasoning in this episode, because House is a guy that is cursed with being able to do the math. At the point he has the conversation with the SMA kid, he thinks the patient has terminal cancer. And so he launches in to smash the kids delusions about any sort of after life. To Wilson he explains that the kid shouldn't be making decisions based on bad information. It seems to me that House, knowing a patient was terminal and the quality of life was going to be poor, really wouldn't care, at that point, WHY a patient was refusing treatment or choosing to believe in supernatural things. The argument with the kid in "House vs. God" was at least rooted in the debate of medicating a situation that could be easily cured versus putting all faith in God. But in this situation, there was nothing science or medicine could really offer the patient and House just comes off looking like a complete dick for picking the fight. A fight, by the way, that I found far too lightweight to warrant House sticking a knife in the electrical outlet for. And am I the only one that shivers whenever Cuddy makes a joke about being able to outrun House? Given that she helped chop up his leg, I find it incredibly unfunny whenever that facet of her personality comes into view. What new low is next for her character? She's now begun just wearing undergarments into work and little else. As always, there are sharp, clever moments in every episode. But as a whole...meh.

Oh, and isn't Cuddy supposed to be one of THREE female Deans of Medicine in the USA? One of the other ones just happens to be at Mercy? (Or did I dream that? It seems rather low, but I swear I heard that!) Actually, 3 years ago she said she was one of the "three female Chiefs of Medicine at major hospitals." Based on what House said about Mercy in The Jerk (I cost him a crappy opportunity. New York Mercy's where you go to treat boils and cysts and build a 401K.) I doubt it's a "major" hospital. It's probably not even a teaching hospital. But I did roll my eyes when she said that Foreman confused doing the right thing with saving lives. Isn't saving lives supposed to be the right thing? Or was it supposed to read that he confused being right with saving lives, or something? I think she meant that Foreman thinks that, because it saved the patient's life, it was the right thing to do. But the odds were actually against him. And, if he gets to try it another time, he probably will kill another patient. One thing I think she didn't (couldn't) realize is that not only was Foreman trying to exorcise Lupe's ghost, he was trying to prove he's as good as House. In the DDX he kept having non sequitur "eureka" moments. He was trying to show that he, too, could pick up on little things someone said and realize that's the key to the puzzle, thereby solving the case. Well, guess what, Foreman. You aren't as good as House. You're a good neurologist but, when it comes to Diagnostics, you're only a little better than Dr. Buffer.

The part that bothered me most was House's culpability. He did indeed make patient care a game. Had there been no game, there'd have been no rush to do -*test*-('")s and the pill-giving wouldn't have been interrupted. That said, she did just put the pills and water down on the tray. She should have kept track regardless. I was in a job interview situation about 10 years ago in LA. To get to that point, I'd gone through 3 other levels of -*test*-('")ing/profiling/writing essays, etc. I really had no idea what the interview process in LA was going to be about, but needless to say, I did not expect the "survivor" tactic to be used. And I'm not a person that performs well in that scenario, at least not right off the bat. So, needless to say, I didn't get the job. Which, in retrospect, is fine, because I've managed to circumvent the process and get the exact same experience in a far more enjoyable manner. As I'm currently in the search for a new job, I was discussing this past experience on the phone w/ my mom this evening and it hit me all over again how that process of finding the right employee is actually a pretty shitty one. It's crappy for everyone because people react based on panic, fear and one-up-manship rather than just doing the job competently and correctly in a straightforward, non-flashy manner. I think that game totally revealed it's shortcomings on tonight's episode, too. Because you're right; it's very design meant that patient care was going to be totally compromised from the start. And there's something about seeing House being cavalier with patient care that so completely turns me off. As a side note: did the tall-ish guy on the men's team (not the plastic surgeon, not the old fraud, not Kal Penn, not the black Mormon) even get any lines or visibility in last week's episode? Because he seemed to have just...appeared this week. Weird. As a side, side note: I agree with whoever it was that said they'd never tune in to watch "Foreman MD." Zzzzzzzz.....

As a side note: did the tall-ish guy on the men's team (not the plastic surgeon, not the old fraud, not Kal Penn, not the black Mormon) even get any lines or visibility in last week's episode? Because he seemed to have just...appeared this week. Weird. I remember seeing him, and I think he may have had one line, but I can't remember what it was. He and the female former vet had about the same amount of visibility last week.

1. Great episode. Much heavier going than the last couple of weeks, but that’s good. As much as I enjoy the humorous bits, I don’t want House to turn into Scrubs. 2. Kind of felt sorry for Foreman. He was being a little too sappy in his efforts to be a sweet and kind team leader, but in the end he did a very Housian thing to save his patient, and what he got for his efforts were his own words thrown back in his face and an administrator who said he had confused saving the patient’s life with doing the right thing. Payback’s a bitch, isn’t it hon? And no, I'd never tune in to Foreman, MD either. 3. I thought House paged 24 because he knew he wouldn’t be keeping her on and it was therefore OK to pull his almost death in front of her. I think that by the time she came to visit him she suspected this. I want her gone. 4. I had at first assumed the patient skipped the pills on purpose. He wanted out and that was one way to do it. I don’t see him tossing the pills to his dog though. Maybe he hid the pills in his bedding and they dropped on the floor later. 5. I have no problems with 13. I like her better than the other female candidates. 6. Loved the way House and Wilson watched Cuddy as she walked away – the way they both tilted their heads. 7. Please, please keep Scooter. He’s such a nice change from the other characters, and I love the job the actor is doing with his role. 8. I knew a lot of you would adore the ‘I love you’ scene, but House would say ‘I love you’ to George Bush if Bushie offered him pain-killers. I nearly fell out of my chair laughing at that scene, because I knew the excitement it would cause, and to me it was so clear they were throwing the proverbial sop to one part of their audience.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks Wilson has bigger problems than House. Particularly right now. He's been living in a hotel for the past two years, but he wants to talk about House being afraid to face himself? Yes I want him out of the hotel too. But the difference between the way House and Wilson handle problems is like the darkness and the light. House tried to nearly kill himself just to prove he was right about the afterlife, played a game that may have cost his patient's life, and destroyed another's doctor's confidence. House is self-destructive and he doesn't stop until someone makes him stop. I loved the parallel between 4man's boss and Cuddy. Her line was exactly the same one that 4man spoke to Cuddy when she informed him that she would make his temporary position as House's supervisor permanent. Could someone please explain Cuddy? I just don't get it. She told House he was responsible for the death and then nothing!!! And Wilson was just on fire tonight!! Loved the green shirt and his scene with the ducklings and cutthroat Bitch crawling into his office.

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