4.03 97 Seconds

Since I can't agree with your initial premise that the game contributed to the patient's death, I don't follow you to your conclusion either. If I did, though, I would have to ask--then isn't Cuddy a killer too? Because House is on her staff, she knew about the game, had reservations even but allowed it anyway. Wasn't she too negligent because she too should have "known" that the game could have a negative impact on patient care? She could have stopped it but did nothing--she's guilty too. It seems more likely to me that Cuddy should have foreseen the potential problems with the game than that House could have foreseen that an actually qualified doctor could screw up giving a patient two pills and making sure he took them. Yes, I agree that Cuddy is also guilty. Not because she hired House, but because she knowing let him get away with this free-for-all. And this in spite of the fact that she did have concerns. I think a responsible administrator would have put the kibosh on it. She let House walk all over her. In that scene, I wasn't even sure he was telling the truth about knowing the diagnosis. This wasn't (as far as she knew) a situation where a maverick approach was necessary to get a diagnosis. The rules didn't need to be bent here. And if Cuddy could see potential problems, so could House. He's a smart man. He didn't have to be able to foresee the specific error that happened, but he surely could have seen that pitting aggressive candidates against one another in a race was asking for trouble. Or, at the least, was not in the patient's best interests. I was listening to TRS in the background tonight but I'm still not clear on how House gathered the group of 40. Did he just tell everyone who sent in a resume to show up? If that's all he did, he's even more negligent in not keeping closer tabs on them. I realize this Survivor game makes for good TV, and I've enjoyed it up to a point. But I hate it when they make House use poor medical judgment. I hate it when patients die, especially when it shouldn't have happened. As interesting as this episode was, it still leaves a bad taste because of that.

House is in shock momentarily witnessing this bizarre act, probably in the moment before, wondering if once again he was going to be attacked by a patient. Hmm, that's a good point. In the scene where Sparky pulls out the knife House immediately backs away and says, "Hey!" Aside from the natural instinct, House could be extra skittish from having been previously attacked. But that's probably reaching - I'm still a bit annoyed that the fallout from having been almost killed by a patient was never really dealt with.

Gosh. I’ve spent nearly 2,000 words talking about House and his motivations. I’ve barely spoken about the patient, the fellow-wannabes, CCF or any of the regular crew. Please, if this is rambling, continue! I enjoyed every word and could go on for days. Care to join me as the season progresses? Sure. So much of the discussion has been on Wilson and the team(s)--new and old... House is the most fascinating of characters. His motivations are never simple and even (or especially) in this case, he reasons for doing what he did were ambiguous. I still am conflicted, given the way he averted his eyes when speaking to Wilson, refusing to answer the question of "why" except to throw it back on Wilson, what House's real reasons for trying that stunt were. Has he internalized (more than we know) the loss of his team; the fact they've come back to work elsewhere--rejecting him (and in Cameron's case and Chases--snarkily)? Edited to add: I replayed the scenes leading up to the outlet to get a handle on House's frame of mind and emotional state (so easy because HL is such a tremendous actor). First, House concludes that they were wrong about the worms, which seems to really rattle him as he throws the game out the window and is angry that the wannabes haven't picked up on that. He then runs into Chase, who is flippant and Cameron who is snarky (Chase has every reason to be flippant--House fired him). House's frustration builds (he looks boxed into a corner). Then he has the run in with Cuddy (who tries to shoot him down about the Cancer) and finally wilson who lectures him about his bedside manner and goads him about not knowing about the afterlife. Maybe House was hit harder by the loss (and has been good at hiding it) since he was left alone by the staff. By the time he's in his office brooding, his patient is dying; he's pretty much alone and miserable. Misery is better than nothing. But what if there's more than nothing? House's doubts about a higher power have always been pretty tenuous, and not lifelong (he had sheet music for "What a friend we have in Jesus" in the episode House v God and was playing it when Wilson came to his apartment. I think that was the piece, anyway. It goes back to Wilson's question about House's motivation: You didn't care if you died? Or was it a statement (it's ambiguously delivered)? House is backed into a corner, no allies and the loss of his team (which would have solved the case with him by now) weighs on him, taunted by Chase and Cameron's presence and snarkiness toward him. House's self-esteem is normally very low, maybe this pushed him over in a very passive way. I'm analyzing this too much.

Had there only been one team working with the patient, he wouldn't have been carried to the bathroom while the first doctor was getting him some water. So yes, I think the competition was a contributing factor. Poeia, I don't expect you or anyone here to agree with me--in fact, I think the writers agree with you!--but I think all the blame falls squarely on 13 and nobody else and that the competition did not have anything to do with it. There was nothing except 13's lack of assertiveness that allowed the second team's arrival to interrupt her treatment. I just watched that scene again and her is how the action goes: she shows him the pills in the cup then sets them on the tray, he asks for water, she crosses the room and while she's there the guys come in, she crosses back to the bed with the water which she sets on the tray by the pills, banters with the guys and then she is just gone. Sure, that was distracting but a doctor who can do her job competently only when she isn't distracted by anything is not going to save so many lives. I don't think we can say with any certainty that she would not have put the pills and water on the tray and simply walked out even if the guys had not come in and distracted her. She chose to leave because she thought she was done, she saw winning the game as more important than patient care, than actually focussing her attention on the patient. (House didn't as shown by how angry he was when finally entered into the dx when he thought his initial diagnosis was wrong.) If she made that assumption, then she is the one responsible for making it. She's not an impressionable and easily distracted teenager--she ought to know how to practice medicine competently no matter what the distraction--if she failed at that, she failed; it's just whiny to blame it on House or Cuddy or the game. I admit part of my feeling about this are colored by the "it's not poor little pretty, fragile, hapless 13's fault--House and his Big Bad Game are to blame, not the so-called doctor who didn't bother to make sure her patient actually took the pills" attitude of which I am afraid this is going to be only the first manifestation. I can already see 13 as the new Cameron in that there will always be people who, no matter what she does, will insist it's not her fault. I hope not but it wouldn't surprise me since House not only didn't fire her, he was actually nice (for House) to her about it and Cuddy is all about blaming it not on her but on House. gah. I'm babbling.... :x It just didn't sit right with me that when you get right down to it, it was her fault but she's not getting the blame she deserves.

It goes back to Wilson's question about House's motivation: You didn't care if you died? Or was it a statement (it's ambiguously delivered)? "Maybe you didn't want to die, but you didn't CARE IF YOU LIVED!" That's the line, and my netspeak interpretation of it. He was angry and it seemed like a declarative statement, rather than a question. Agreed that wilson was angry with House for having nearly killed himself (again). but his voice goes up slightly at the end, so yes, declarative statement with some part of a question thrown in, as if to ask House to please, please explain himself better.

Amen Sasmom! I think House is almost fragile right now. He has to hire a team, fought it as long as he could, then went about it in a crazy way. But I don't think his heart is in it. He doesn't seem to be interested in any of the applicants like he usually would be. He just doesn't seem to care (IMO). It has to be tied in with the loss of his old team, who were there so much longer than any of his other fellows,I believe,and somehow got to him to the point where he actually cared about them. I only have to watch him every time Foreman tells him he hates him last season to see this. I really agree with you about the effect on him Cameron and Chase have had since they came back.Backed into a corner indeed.

Playing catch-up here after vacation! I think what resonated with House and what pushed him to do his little experiment was the patient saying that he wanted out of his useless body. So does House. I thought that's why he reacted so strongly to the patient, whereas before he's accepted it when patients with terminal illness wanted to die. House doesn't take that ultimate solution because he believes that a life with pain is better than nothing. But if there is something more, well then... But in the end House found there was nothing and so he's going to hang in there for a bit longer. A very bleak look into House's mind. Maybe he's becoming more desperate? It was clear that House had something to talk to the patient about and if it had been "in your FACE!!" I don't think he would have been quite so quietly anxious about it. There have been cases of NDEs where the person saw hell, not heaven. On second viewing I agree that the dog at the pills when the male doctors came in to run tests on the patient and spilled the pills onto the floor. What I can't understand is why the guy didn't then say "hey, I didn't get those meds you gave me". It doesn't make sense because at that point I didn't see him as suicidal; he only resigned himself to dying when he thought he had terminal cancer. And couldn't they TEST for those threadworms somehow, by looking at the guy's lung fluid or something? I'm convinced now that Thirteen will make the cut because the actress is the prettiest of the bunch + brunette. It depresses me that I think that way. I think it would be realistic and refreshing if none of the new female characters has even a hint of UST with House That's all I want for Christmas, Santa! I thought that House didn't fire Thirteen because, as Cuddy said, he's partially responsible for what happened. The patient would have taken the pills and everything would have worked out if everyone hadn't been distracted by this game. He can also hold this over her head to manipulate her in the future if he keeps her. I also don't see why Thirteen has to have some big secret at all! Why can't she just not like House being nosy about her personal life? I had a boss who was the same (not that rude, of course) and I made it a point to not tell him anything either just because he annoyed me. Silja, wouldn't that bug test only work if the parasites were in the patient's blood? Would the threadworms have shown up in the bugs' feces if Volakis had continued the test? In retrospect the patient's speech about how miserable his life was bothered me because studies have shown a big difference between people who have been disabled all their lives vs the able-bodied. The able see the disabled as miserable with poor quality of life; the disabled rate their quality of life as high as the able-bodied rate their own and are no more miserable than anyone else. That speech sounded like an able-bodied person's view of a disabled man, not a disabled person's view of himself. would the PotW die that quickly after not taking the pills? On Polite Dissent Scott said that the drug they gave the guy for that pneumonia they thought he had was a chemotherapy drug which suppresses the immune system, which would have made him sicker from his real illness. I'm still not clear on how House gathered the group of 40. Did he just tell everyone who sent in a resume to show up? Given that one of the hires didn't even have a medical degree, that's what I think he did.

There have been cases of NDEs where the person saw hell, not heaven. Taiga that makes so much sense that it caused a lightbulb to pop above my head (not to mix metaphors or anything). House was too anxious and was too upset when he woke up and speaking to Wilson for "nothing" to have happened. The best explanation is that he DID see something, but what he saw was terrible and not the angels with wings scenario. First time I've seen that idea expressed (forgive me if someone else said it) and it makes complete sense.

Silja, wouldn't that bug test only work if the parasites were in the patient's blood? Would the threadworms have shown up in the bugs' feces if Volakis had continued the test? You rang? S. stercoralis (that's the name of the little buggers and we might as well get that right) does migrate via the bloodstream but the idea of using xenodiagnosis is farfetched – particularly since they could have performed a simple, sensitive, reliable blood test and found antibodies against the critters *shrugs* I suspect we're supposed to not know that the blood test exists and pretend that a tilt table test is remotely relevant even though it's buggeringly useless. Taiga that makes so much sense that it caused a lightbulb to pop above my head (not to mix metaphors or anything). House was too anxious and was too upset when he woke up and speaking to Wilson for "nothing" to have happened. The best explanation is that he DID see something, but what he saw was terrible and not the angels with wings scenario. First time I've seen that idea expressed (forgive me if someone else said it) and it makes complete sense. It doesn’t make sense to me and (unsurprisingly really) I don't agree with you. If he indeed saw nothing at all (and I'm inclined to think that's the case) then he'll have woken up with his last memory (barring retrograde amnesia) being of sticking a knife in an outlet and feeling 110V racing through his arm. That would throw me for a loop. I don't think his restlessness is indicative of anything other than the inherent confusion of waking up in a hospital room and hearing 'you're an idiot' as the first thing. Another issue is what a NDE really is (and I don't mean the why, I mean the what). I've spent a little time reading up on it and there are two main conclusions: A) NDE's are relatively common in cases of spontaneous cardiac arrest (15-30%) and B) the predominant experience is one of peace, absence of fear and pain and a feeling being outside time and space. Unpleasant or frightening experiences are rare. There are several studies that have likened NRE's to the experiences common to ketamine and lysergic acid hallucinations and I have to say that the descriptions I've read lead me to think that it might be a good comparison. I also came across the observation that the 'content' of an NRE seems to be determined by the person's expectations. A person with strong Christian faith appears more likely to experience, or interpret the experience as, Christian imagery. The sample size is understandably limited and it's not as if one could set up a double-blind randomized trial (or rather: not likely that one could obtain approval for it) so I'm vary of interpreting the data – especially since all of the reports are from groups in the Western world where the population is predominantly Judeo-Christian. I'd be very interested in seeing data from e.g. India or China.

I must be missing something Silja. You changed from talking about NDEs to NREs in your post. What's an NRE?

NRE is short for: Me not type well. Me mean NDE.

NRE is short for: Me not type well. Me mean NDE. and here I was trying so hard to figure out what NRE stood for--"Neo Religious Expreience" "Never Relenting Electrocution." Nothing fit. 8)

idonmatrix wrote: Yes I agree with you. House is responsible and Cuddy is ultimately responsible because she knew what he was doing and the potential harm to the patient. I just hope that the writers don't just drop this because it's a good theme to continue, i.e. How far is Cuddy willing to go and what is she willing sacrifice - doctors (recall Wilson and the Tritter arc) and patients to keep House? I agree that this would be an excellent theme to explore further this season. I think that these first three episodes of season four have lined up several intriguing areas for exploration including the darkening, twisting, and distorting of House's relationship with Cuddy. Anger coated heavily with disappointment, rather than simple sexual attraction, has been the underlying mood between House and Cuddy so far this season. My guess is that TPTB are intending to press this to the break point, just as they did for Wilson last season in the Tritter arc.

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