4.03 97 Seconds

I had a very sad theory on my way to work today where I thought that House did the light-socket thing because he wanted to see something. He wanted to feel the same way about death that his patient did. Everyone is afraid of death to some extent; maybe he just wanted that assurance, that kind of peace. Who knows? God, House is such a puzzle!

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) I had considered this. That House is still reeling from the residual effects of the Lupe death as well. But in this instance, I would think the patients death would annoy him even more than Foreman's overreach with Lupe. This wasn't a case of a simple infection masquerading as something else that they got zealous on. It is was an easy diagnosis with an easy treatment that should never have spiraled out of control the way it did. It was never zebras versus horses. House really ought to be horrified that the patient died, not willing to ease 13's conscience and let her keep her job. (Though to be fair, she was beating herself up.) His soothing also seems a bit out of place after he's witnessed her pretty much claim defeat in the dead patients' room and consider the final puzzle a "purely academic exercise." Personally, I do think House deserves some blame because I think part of his methodology in hiring a new team kicked up alot of unnecessary dust that obscured the playing field and put the patient at risk, first and foremost. Cuddy was actually correct from the onset about this scenario. No wonder she's pissed at him at the end. (Cuthroat Bitch was also right, though not necessarily in an authentic, non-manipulative kind of way.) I'm wondering if the two events aren't even leading to some sort of arc where House questions his own self-worth as a doctor. It's the one area of his life where he hasn't really questioned himself or had any lagging sense of ability. 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. Oh, I agree that House was the one in a different place in the two cases. (Or any two cases for that matter.) But I'm struggling with "why" he should be so radically different in his treatment of employees. Or potential employees. In both cases, screw-ups cost lives and cost jobs. House was pissed in "Control" before he even admitted to himself what Vogler's power actually was.

But I'm struggling with "why" he should be so radically different in his treatment of employees. Or potential employees. In both cases, screw-ups cost lives and cost jobs. House was pissed in "Control" before he even admitted to himself what Vogler's power actually was. Maybe he's changed because House also learns from his mistakes? He saw the difference in Chase's reactions in "Control" and Chase's reaction from "The Mistake" and learned his own lesson from that. I'd say that lesson was just as evident with the way he treated Foreman last season.

Hi all, I am a couple of days late to this party, but wanted to pipe in with my two cents worth. I am relatively new to posting, and have yet to figure out how to quote from multiple posters and multiple pages, so please bear with me. Upthread, DOB1234 said: "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." DOB, I had the same reaction, it seemed like a shout-out to a certain segment of the audience (although I also found it sincere, and I do believe these two men, who don't always understand each other, do love each other -- but so much has already been said about that). Something I have not seen mentioned here (I think I read all 17 pages pretty well, but forgive me if I am bringing up something already discussed that I somehow bleeped over) --- in the opening scene when House first walks in, he hands Amber/24 his cane and says, "Would you mind holding my metaphor for a second?" I chuckled out loud at this, too, because it seemed like TPTB were expressing a certain self-awareness at their own cleverness (House's cane as a metaphor for his his being emotionally crippled? House's cane as a metaphor for his needing something/one for support?). Did anyone else catch this, or even care about it? It took me briefly out of the moment... Sherlock21b said: "So Foreman ends up falling on his face because he got away from House to avoid becoming him ... and instead became a pale imitation. Who didn't see that coming?" Sherlock, I have never liked Foreman. His arrogance puts me off completely. I will be glad to see him have his comeuppance. I hope he does. I fear, however, that TPTB won't go that route... (I don't read spoilers; it's just a gut feeling.) As for all the talk about why House paged Amber, my immediate take on that, outside of all that he actually said to her, was that he knew she'd come 'a runnin' -- her nickname is, after all, cut-throat bitch! Overall, I really liked this episode. I am enjoying the season, so far, and am looking forward to seeing where TPTB take these wonderful characters.

Hi all, in the opening scene when House first walks in, he hands Amber/24 his cane and says, "Would you mind holding my metaphor for a second?" I chuckled out loud at this, too, because it seemed like TPTB were expressing a certain self-awareness at their own cleverness (House's cane as a metaphor for his his being emotionally crippled? House's cane as a metaphor for his needing something/one for support?). Did anyone else catch this, or even care about it? It took me briefly out of the moment... Considering that House frequently refers to his cane as "the hard wood" I assumed that "hold my metaphor" was a reference to his dick, not his being emotionally or physically crippled. But then again, I have a dirty mind. It's possible that that scene was less of an innuendo than I supposed. Maybe he's changed because House also learns from his mistakes? He saw the difference in Chase's reactions in "Control" and Chase's reaction from "The Mistake" and learned his own lesson from that. I'd say that lesson was just as evident with the way he treated Foreman last season. Namaste, that is possible, but I saw the differences between Control/Mistake and Housetraining completely differently. In Control/Mistake, both errors were negligent/not following through kind of errors. With Lupe in Housetraining, they were actually just being risky and aggressive and going with treatment that House agreed with. I can see House allowing grace for trying something daring and failing. I don't see him allowing room for negligence, though, which is where 13's error fell. (And why he was pissed at Chase in both Control and the Mistake.) House has never settled with those kind of errors in the past and I really find it odd now. Actually, I find it kind of a cheap way to skip a whole lot of character development on 13's part and ram her into the show in a way that other characters spent a long time toiling on, but that's another matter completely.

Considering that House frequently refers to his cane as "the hard wood" I assumed that "hold my metaphor" was a reference to his dick, not his being emotionally or physically crippled. But then again, I have a dirty mind. It seems I have a dirty mind too. That was my interpretation (and slight gigglesnort) I don't see it as negligence, sorry. 13 did nothing wrong, neither did 6/9 or whatshisname who were also in the room. It's not in the same category as Control or The Mistake. It was the unfortunate result of a series of equally unfortunate events - not a doctor who suspects a patient isn't telling the whole story or making a procedural error. 13 didn't make an error because there is no procedure for staring at a patient while he downs his medication unless said patient is sectioned and deemed a danger to himself. It is, however, exactly the sort of slip-up that happens all over the world, every day. The hard part is that no single person can be blamed. The patient, the doctor, the other doctors, the janitorial staff, the dog, House. They all get a sliver of blame, but I don't agree with Cuddy when she points at House and pronounces him ultimately responsible for events far outside his influence.

It's part of the writers' plan to slowly get the audience to realize that House and Wilson are both Friends of Dorothy. You've just won anything imaginable. Marry me. 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. True, and beautifully put. Your interpretation will certainly enhance my enjoyment of House/Chase scenes from now on, thak you. :) I'm totally chiming in on the Cane = Dick in the hold my metaphore scene. And House's mind is clearly as dirty as ours ;)

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? I wondered that too, Namaste, and I was surprised no one had brought it up yet. I thought maybe it was either deliberate, House walked without the cane and stumbled, or accidental, HL went to lean against the desk, but guessed its location incorrectly and that was just a cover. Kind of like the "bless you" scene in the clinic (I forget the episode).

I just noticed that Wilson was holding a stethoscope in the 'classroom' scene, any idea's on why? Did he check the POTW before going in there, checked on House? I know what I believe ;)

I don't see it as negligence, sorry. 13 did nothing wrong, neither did 6/9 or whatshisname who were also in the room. It's not in the same category as Control or The Mistake. It was the unfortunate result of a series of equally unfortunate events - not a doctor who suspects a patient isn't telling the whole story or making a procedural error. 13 didn't make an error because there is no procedure for staring at a patient while he downs his medication unless said patient is sectioned and deemed a danger to himself. It is, however, exactly the sort of slip-up that happens all over the world, every day. The hard part is that no single person can be blamed. The patient, the doctor, the other doctors, the janitorial staff, the dog, House. They all get a sliver of blame, but I don't agree with Cuddy when she points at House and pronounces him ultimately responsible for events far outside his influence. I'll preface this by saying that I'm obviously not a doctor. And I'm thinking that maybe you are. Or at least work in the medical field somehow. But it seems to me that there should be a distinction--whether it's written down in code or not---between merely dispensing medication and confirming that it's consumed. Because not noting the difference-- particularly in a patient that is admitted and under scrutiny--seems entirely counter-productive. My experiences in medical care are entirely from A.) relatives that work in health care B.) the few times I've been treated myself and C.) television shows. :-) However, it seems logical to me that that a vigilant physician would confirm that the proper drugs were actually taken for noting in the charts. There can't really be a notation for "well, I gave him the drugs but not sure they were ingested" can there? And in the context of the show it seems like it was considered a mistake by House because he called it so when talking to Cuddy at the end. He called her an idiot. 13, that is, not Cuddy. Which I guess is actually House-speak for "love" but, still....

One thing that bothers me about those pills is why the patient wouldn't have spoken up about them. "Oh, by the way, what happened to those pills I was supposed to take?" He was completely alert at this point, as evidenced by the fact that he was aware of the competition amongst House's candidates and was joking around with them. Why wouldn't he have said something about those pills? Also, and this is a small weird point. When I re-watched the opening scene of this episode I noticed that when the woman has just braked her car to a screeching halt and has jumped out to run to the aid of wheelchair guy, there are two other people in the background running towards them. It looks to me as if the man on the right comes to a halt and is raising something, a camera(?), towards his face. That's what it looks like to me, and if so, it would be a tiny little reference to the fact that these days it seems that half the people in the world are trying to shoot video of the other half.

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? I wondered that too, Namaste, and I was surprised no one had brought it up yet. I thought maybe it was either deliberate, House walked without the cane and stumbled, or accidental, HL went to lean against the desk, but guessed its location incorrectly and that was just a cover. Kind of like the "bless you" scene in the clinic (I forget the episode). Now that you guys remind me, I remember seeing it, thinking it was significant but forgetting about it during the course of the episode, because there was no follow up. I would like it to mean something, but I'm not sure it will. Hoping for follow ups on the little details can be disappointing on this show, or at least require a lot of patience. ... 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. :lol: Quick! Break out the Ativan. Thank you for the insight. I guess it's a blessing not to be a doctor when watching House. I always like to think they know their stuff and have reasons for even the most outrageous things they do, and maybe just fail to get that reasoning across in 43 minutes. But I guess that more often than not the medicine is just 'out there'. Maybe they used the electrocution purely for the shock factor - no pun intended. It's FOX after all and we can't have an episode without someone getting shocked! I'm just glad the 1 or 2 seizures per episode ratio from season 1 has gone down as much as it has. Out of curiosity... if I wanted to get my heart to stop and get some funky visions, what would I do instead?

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. I'm with bailey on this one. She did make a mistake. And given the patient's physical limitations, doubly so. What she should have done was spoken up for herself when the men's team members came in, gotten the glass of water and said, "hold up, boys, you can carry him to the john and get your stool sample as soon as he has swallowed these pills and I'm done with him." Especially if she is the top-notch, assertive, always-cool and calm type who is going to end up getting the job. Instead, she acted like a confused newbie (which she isn't, she's a qualified doctor who should have been being extra vigilant since she wants the job), let the guys take over her patient without following through and wasn't even concentrating enough to realize she didn't see him take the pills. She was an idiot imo and so ineffectual and lacking in confidence that the patient died. There is no justification for her screwing up; she let the guys walk all over her procedure (is giving a patient pills a procedure?). I don't like Cut-throat Bitch, but can you see her letting the men barge in and carry off the patient before she was done with him? Given the patient's condition--all the things he needed help with--didn't he say he couldn't even eat?--she should have tipped the pills into his mouth herself. She just wasn't paying attention. bailey's right: Actually, I find it kind of a cheap way to skip a whole lot of character development on 13's part and ram her into the show in a way that other characters spent a long time toiling on, but that's another matter completely. I don't agree with Cuddy when she points at House and pronounces him ultimately responsible I think the same but for a different reason. I think Cuddy's logic is specious: first, House only hired 13 and the rest of the team because Cuddy was all over his ass about it, second, if House is responsible because he hired 13, doesn't the responsibility keep moving up the ladder to Cuddy because she hired House? If the rationale is you are responsible for your hirelings mistake, isn't Cuddy responsible for House's (supposed) mistake just as much as he is responsible for 13's? Am I missing something here or is my logic screwed up because I can't see how the logical extension of Cuddy's thinking isn't that she is just as much to blame as House and 13. Help me out here, I promise not to bite anybody. :wink:

Considering that House frequently refers to his cane as "the hard wood" I assumed that "hold my metaphor" was a reference to his dick, not his being emotionally or physically crippled. But then again, I have a dirty mind. It's possible that that scene was less of an innuendo than I supposed. Now I feel like an idiot, because usually my mind goes there, too. Hmph. Must stop watching with so many distractions in the room (sorry hubby and son!). It's making me miss all the good innuendo.

Now I feel like an idiot, because usually my mind goes there, too. Hmph. Must stop watching with so many distractions in the room (sorry hubby and son!). It's making me miss all the good innuendo. If it makes you feel any better, someone is going to have to explain to me what a "Friend of Dorothy" means. The best guess I can come up with is that it's a Judy Garland/Gay Icon type reference, but I'm really not sure...

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