4.03 97 Seconds

The other why that interests me is why he's having such difficulty dealing with Chase's reappearance, its not like him to be left speechless by anyone, let alone Chase. My take is that he was used to interacting with Chase as his subordinate, then got used to the idea that Chase wasn't going to be part of his life anymore, and now suddenly Chase is back and none of his old habits of interacting with him quite work for the situation. I don't think he's used to having peer colleagues around who aren't either Wilson or adversarial, and while Cameron is still acting Cameron-y, Chase isn't acting so predictably. Basically, House no longer has a script to follow in his interactions with Chase, and having no interpersonal skills to speak of, he's going to have slowly figure out how to deal with him as a nonadversarial peer rather than being able to improvise on the spot like a more extroverted, more neurotypical person would. House easily juggles facts and discrete concepts, but Chase's role in his life has suddenly become a fuzzy blur and he doesn't know to resolve it or what to resolve it into.

having no interpersonal skills to speak of You say like it's a bad thing! *laughs* House and I are in the same boat. Dexter Morgan, John Constantine, Bobby Goren, the list goes on...

But where I get further annoyed/confused/whatever in House cutting 13 so much slack is that I fail to see where she was miles ahead of her female colleagues, all of whom got fired, I presume, based on House's words to her in the morgue. Since they were working as a team, I'm not sure its accurate to say that 13 came up with the initial (correct) diagnosis all on her own. One of the twins (fat or skinny, I can't tell) was the one that suggested a way to confirm that diagnosis with the tilt test, even though they hadn't realized yet that they hadn't really treated him for it. The vet-turned-doctor at the end is the one who made the connection between viruses that can pass interspecies and why you wouldn't want to give a particular drug to a particular breed of dog. In short, I didn't see her do anything amazing, yet not only did she not get fired, she got assured by House that she'd never make that mistake again. Another radical departure from his treatment of Chase who House resolutely refused to calm at all, preferring to keep him scared. (Scared for years, actually.) I may be wrong, but didn't 13 come up with the diagnosis on her own in the group session? I think she caught House's attention last week when she came up with Greta spending a lot of time at high altitudes, and again when she refused to grab credit for an idea. I think she's been shown to be smarter than most of them or to be a different kind of thinker. That's why I think House kept her on. Even though he's set up some arbitrary seeming challenges, he's looking at the whole cumulative picture. Personally, I don't especially care for her. She's not that interesting. But they've given her traits to justify House cutting her slack on a professional level. With Chase, I can't recall exactly, but House had other issues with him, didn't he? Personal ones. (I must be the only person who thinks S1 sneaky, out-for-himself Chase was much more interesting than current Chase. A meatier character, as well.)

You say like it's a bad thing! Only when you have to deal with a world (or a hospital) full of people who expect you to use them *wry smile*

*snort* Too true. You know, I didn't mention any socially inept girl characters. Boo on me. Gaia Moore, River Tam, Hermione Granger... Does anyone think that Cuddy might have been socially awkward as a child and adolescent? We already know James 'I Can Quote Every Obscure Television Show Under the Sun' Wilson and Gregory 'Poster Child for Maladjustment' House were...*giggles* I think Chase might have been, as well. His dress sense alone. I don't know if I match all the time, but sheesh...

I think House's issues are a little about the person doing the touching, but a lot about the situation. In this case he needed to get somewhere and she was the way to make that happen. If it wasn't urgent then he could have dealt with it himself. He shook Cameron's hand when she was coming back to work, he refused to shake her hand when she quit. He was in control when she was returning, but he was thrown for a loop when she quit and he just shut down. House has that whole tendency to kind of disappear inside of himself when things surprise him. When he can milk the cripple thing he snarks at the fact that people don't rush to his side to see if he's all right (i.e., stumbling in the conference room and being snide with the "no, i'm okay"), but he's always struck me as very much a "don't help me, I can take care of myself" kind of person. If it's not a matter of importance he makes jokes, if it *is* a matter of importance he pushes people away. In any case, it's been three years since he refused to shake Cameron's hand. I think that slowly, in spite of the set back that was Stacy, he's opened up as far as his own personal space goes. When did we see House voluntarily touching anyone? Stacy of course. Than there's the scene with Cameron where he puts his hand on her shoulder (hate Cameron but loved that scene), and I remember him putting his hand on Chases shoulder in the DDX room (epi anyone) which kind of surprises me. Than there's the ass-grabbing scene, but to me that was not really touching, just in jest. Have we ever seen him touch Wilson?

Have we ever seen him touch Wilson? Briefly but yes. Once was during Sex Kills, he sort of patted him on the shoulder right before Wilson's "maybe I need an actual conversation" speech. Then he grabbed his wrist to put in the water in "Safe" but that probably doesn't count. House Training he flicked his ear and then their hands touched as he was stealing his coffee.

I'm commenting on a couple of things from this thread, but in the Chase thread b/c they fit there better than here. peggy06 and Angelfirenze.... follow me! :lol:

It makes me sad when fans angst over what might possibly come in the future that would somehow disqualify their pairing, and have all their own enjoyment in the story and characters ruined by it. Maybe you are under-estimating our ability. I can't speak for anyone else but I can keep my eye on all ships, potential ships and maybe-hinted-at might going to be ships and rather than ruining the ep, it just makes it more fun. :wink: See, you are only watching for ships. Everywhere! :wink: Kidding. I wasn't talking about all shippers and certainly not most slashers (who seem to have a good sense of humor about their pairings). It's just that some of the die hard "My pairing, or none at all!" people out there are the most vocal and narrow minded fans possible. For someone like me, who doesn't watch for any pairings at all, their past behavior (not here, I guess) has made me see ship conspiracies everywhere. Sorry about that. :wink: From the FOX recap: House wakes up in the same room as Allmore. I was wondering why House was turning his head, searching, when he told Wilson that he needed to talk to knife guy. I guess I'm really not that bright. I didn't get that he woke up in the same room the patient was previously in. What were the pills Wilson prescribed for House at the end? My recording isn't high resolution. It looks like something ending in *done to me, but it's all blurry. Anyone?

Hey all, de-lurking after vacation and trying to catch up here ... Are we supposed to make something of the first scene with House in which he stumbles/almost falls when he goes to lean back against the desk? Or was that just a result of walking around too much without the cane just prior? Was there supposed to be some sort of an echo to the patient dreading his condition getting worse? Or just a coincidence, since there was certainly no mention or even any sign of later problems? Or is it just because House nabbed a room with stairs?

When did we see House voluntarily touching anyone? Stacy of course. Than there's the scene with Cameron where he puts his hand on her shoulder (hate Cameron but loved that scene), and I remember him putting his hand on Chases shoulder in the DDX room (epi anyone) which kind of surprises me. I'm not really sure I understand the question...unless it wasn't a question and just a jumping off point to list examples. House doesn't touch people a lot, which is why it's noticeable when he does it. A hand on the shoulder, a handshake or just the return of a physical gesture. A lot of it has to do with being in control. He'll help Cuddy with her fertility treatments because he can play the perv card and make jokes about her ass. He's in control. But, when it's more serious and more intimate, he tends to look uncomfortable. He turns into Mr. Tense when Andie or Cameron or Chase hugs him. He deflected the personal with a joke in all three cases. He shakes a hand when he wins, he freezes up when he realizes that he's completely lost control of the Vogler situation and has lost Cameron in the process. One thing I find interesting about House is that he doesn't use touching so much as he uses *space* when dealing with people. He's a big guy. He's tall and even though he's thin, he's kind of an imposing figure. Maybe the cane adds to that. But, it's always interesting to me when he "crowds" someone because it doesn't always seem to work out the way that I think he thinks it will. I always thought, in "Half Wit", that he came out from behind the desk so that he could intimidate Cameron a bit, forcing her to look up to him and knock off the "I resign" game. It wasn't enough that he had already kind of won (from his POV, since I'm still not sure what her initial reasoning was for going into the office), he had to push it and, in the end, she won. She didn't back down. He failed. Have we ever seen him touch Wilson? I think in the case of Wilson, just allowing him to invade his personal world the way he does is probably the most intimate House is with someone. Wilson's invited into his home. That's a much bigger deal than House going for a kiss with Cameron or grabbing Cuddy's ass. Well, true, although I was kind of under the assumption that "Control" was an attempt to actually show that there are techs on staff that are supposed to be doing some of those testing procedures that CCF do only because they need the screen time. That's what I meant with my parenthetical comment. They've given us a couple of moments where they let us know that the lab techs were there, but that House prefers his team to do all tests themselves. And, honestly, I don't think that they're running tests just because they need the screentime, they're running the tests because House is a control freak who doesn't trust anyone outside of his team. Hence all of the sometimes wastefull "retests" that he does when patients are referred to him. If it was a matter of screentime we could easily have CCF hanging out in the lab while other people do the tests or we could follow them into other parts of the hospital doing other parts of their jobs while the less exciting/less photogenic tests are done off screen. Chase definitely failed to supervise (and/or instruct) correctly, and was certainly flirting, but his negligence wasn't so completely unlike 13's. I wasn't differentiating between what Chase and 13 actually did, I was differentiating between what was going on with House at the time. House is the main reason why there were different reactions. Both of them needed to concentrate and follow through. It's a hard barometer to use (whether or not House like's other people touching his stuff) because there are other occasions when he's just fine with letting the lab tech people do their thing. (The women with eyes that Selma Hayek would die for, for example.) The primary point wasn't about the lab tech, it was about why House chose that moment to get so angry while he wasn't particularly angry (once all was said and done) with 13. However, in the case of the lab tech in "All In" he had no choice. He needed her. He needed to solve that case. He would have let the janitor run the tests if he thought it would help him solve Esther's case. But, it doesn't matter. That was a special case, isolated from this one. Just as the events in "Control" were unique to that situation and the events in "97 Seconds" were unique to that one. There are plenty of things in the show that overlap and are consistent, but these were all three kind of special cases, all of which were affected by bigger things going on with House. House wasn't as distracted during the Tritter arc as he was during the Vogler arc, his obsession with Esther or his recent game playing/death obsession.

But where I get further annoyed/confused/whatever in House cutting 13 so much slack is that I fail to see where she was miles ahead of her female colleagues, all of whom got fired, I presume, based on House's words to her in the morgue. Since they were working as a team, I'm not sure its accurate to say that 13 came up with the initial (correct) diagnosis all on her own. One of the twins (fat or skinny, I can't tell) was the one that suggested a way to confirm that diagnosis with the tilt test, even though they hadn't realized yet that they hadn't really treated him for it. The vet-turned-doctor at the end is the one who made the connection between viruses that can pass interspecies and why you wouldn't want to give a particular drug to a particular breed of dog. In short, I didn't see her do anything amazing, yet not only did she not get fired, she got assured by House that she'd never make that mistake again. Another radical departure from his treatment of Chase who House resolutely refused to calm at all, preferring to keep him scared. (Scared for years, actually.) I may be wrong, but didn't 13 come up with the diagnosis on her own in the group session? I think she caught House's attention last week when she came up with Greta spending a lot of time at high altitudes, and again when she refused to grab credit for an idea. I think she's been shown to be smarter than most of them or to be a different kind of thinker. That's why I think House kept her on. Even though he's set up some arbitrary seeming challenges, he's looking at the whole cumulative picture. Personally, I don't especially care for her. She's not that interesting. But they've given her traits to justify House cutting her slack on a professional level. With Chase, I can't recall exactly, but House had other issues with him, didn't he? Personal ones. (I must be the only person who thinks S1 sneaky, out-for-himself Chase was much more interesting than current Chase. A meatier character, as well.) We don't see 13 come up with anything in the group session other than the observation that House probably already knows the diagnosis himself. (The men, on the other hand, suggest it's something he picked up in Thailand.) The only thing we know of 13 is that she's the one who gives him the pills. At the end of the episode, the vet-doctor tells House that "we" (the women's team) thought it was strongoloid. Now, it's possible that House believes that 13 came up with this on her own and is the ultra team player but there's really not much to suggest this is actually so in this case other than it's she that dispenses the pills. He does appreciate, however, that the women actually treated it while the men theorized instead. I think Chase was more interesting in S1, too. He's a bit too golden right now, though I'm sure that will change. At any rate, until "Control" House didn't have any reason to need to get back at Chase because even though he was a quiet guy, he wasn't the ratting out guy....yet.

I've been contemplating the light socket bit. There was nothing suicidal about it. It was an experiment. It's odd to me that it could be viewed as the act of an unhealthy mind. Because he paged CTB, it would be considered a "low risk, high rescue" attempt on his own life. I'll be surprised if Cuddy (or the Board) doesn't require him to undergo some kind of psychological testing and/or therapy because of it... and then we'd have a new arc: House sees a shrink. Oh boy, that could go in a number of different directions...

I don't think it was the patient's decision not to take the pills. 13 put them on the table in front of him, but before he could take them, Kal Penn's character moved the table out of the way, so the patient could be picked up and carried to the bathroom. I think it simply was a case of 'out of sight, out of mind'. 13 was interrupted by the two guys and (mistakenly) assumed she could trust the patient or the other doctors to make sure the medication would be taken. Lawrence whatever (Kal Penn) and the other guy were much too focused on running their own tests to remind the patient. Once they all were in the bathroom, the dog was left alone in the room and swallowed the pills. That's my take on it. That's my take as well. I'm a bit flummoxed by Cuddy's insistence that House and 13 are to blame to the degree she seems to think. Unless the patient is sectioned, it's not exclusively 13's responsibility to ensure that he complies with treatment. In this case, it seemed to be an unfortunate and, more importantly, unpredictable sequence of events that led to the untimely death of a patient – not premeditation. Likewise wrt House. I can understand Cuddy's reaction if it had been a failure in supervision, but it wasn't, nor was the situation a direct consequence of the team approach. House kept a close eye on treatment (right up until his little experiment, but by then it was already too late) so the notion that 'the game' compromised patient care seems more than a little far-fetched to me. His initial diagnosis was one of threadworm infection. The patient was supposedly treated for said infection and House must have felt confident in letting the applicants work out the diagnosis for themselves – all in all, it was a good teaching case. I laughed out loud at the idiocy of inducing ventricular fibrillation by electrocution. It's really not that effective. Most people who stick a knife in an outlet get a nasty shock and some burns – not a near-death experience (or non-experience as the case may be). Most people who actively electrocute themselves also get a psych referral, but that might just be me getting all finicky and we can't have that because then I'll start raving about the idiocy of doing a contract CT without checking renal function, what the hell kidney failure had to do with the whole thing and why they apparently haven't heard of simple blood tests…and then the men with the big butterfly nets will have to catch me and calm me down.

Maybe the 180 in House's interaction with 13 as opposed to the ducklings is because of the ducklings. After all, he just lost them, starting with Foreman's mistake with Lupe which was brought back here. Maybe House thinks he made a mistake then and is trying to make sure he doesn't make the same mistakes again. (Not that I think he made one)

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