I don't recall a quote from David Foster that would imply that they've made up diseases. I do recall hearing him -- and others -- say that they are careful to maintain at least some connection to reality. So while the symptoms may not normally match the disease -- seizures, for instance, which are very visible and dramatic -- they could also have the patient have a very high fever, which could lead to seizures.

I can't understand why Cuddy didn't get that Mayo Scare thing under control right away. As soon as they all walked into the clinic, couldn't she have made an announcement that reassured everyone that the scare had been a fake? She *is* the Dean of Medicine, after all. I too thought it was strange. I just knew she going to put a stop to it and then she gave that line 2007 Scare of . . . whatever. The other thing that I find strange is in her scene with Wilson she referred to House as a 14 year old. Then in the mirror scene with House, she denied that she has the hots for him. So here's the part I don't get. What normal, healthy woman is attracted to someone who acts like a 14 year old. That's just so eeeewwww. I don't mind Cuddy being attracted to House, I just wish she'd stop referring to him as a 14 year old cause if they ever do the onscreen nasty, I going to end up thinking she's molesting a child.

I don't think we're supposed to be miserable by default (and I see miserable as used on the show as the only alternative for happy, which just isn't true) but I doubt we're supposed to be HAPPY constantly, either. Neither do I. What I meant was that House seems to have given up on the idea of ever experiencing happiness at all or of being "normal" ie even keel. His speech suggested to me that he's resigned to always being miserable. I'm with Silja on hating that they made up a disease, that is lazy and cheating. I was very disappointed when I read the Polite Dissent review and they said there wasn't such a thing. They haven't made up a disease before but have changed it wildly (that amoeba in 'Euphoria' doesn't cause the symptoms it did and is 97% fatal, for instance), but making up a disease completely really made me lose some respect for the writers. Does anybody else think it significant that when the patient "mirrored" House all he picked up was that House was horny?

Neither do I. What I meant was that House seems to have given up on the idea of ever experiencing happiness at all or of being "normal" ie even keel. His speech suggested to me that he's resigned to always being miserable. That's my issue. 99.9% of the time, if they hadn't had characters tell me that House is miserable, I wouldn't see it. I don't see it. I just know I'm supposed to. So right now, from what I'm shown, I get the sense of a bunch of people, House included, who have no idea of what normal emotions and the normal range are. Obviously examples excluded, House strikes me as pretty healthy in terms of his emotions. I just can't see always miserable from House.

That's my issue. 99.9% of the time, if they hadn't had characters tell me that House is miserable, I wouldn't see it. I don't see it. I just know I'm supposed to. So right now, from what I'm shown, I get the sense of a bunch of people, House included, who have no idea of what normal emotions and the normal range are. Obviously examples excluded, House strikes me as pretty healthy in terms of his emotions. I just can't see always miserable from House. I don't either, Bessie Mae and I don't see depression either. And I know from depression. Nobody who goes at his job with the energy and zest House does seems depressed to me. That's what I was trying to get at before, what some see as "depressed" I see as accepting reality and having reasonable expectations of what one can expect from life. A certain amount of cynicism, yes,--everybody lies, there's always going to be some misery around (especially if you've got that constant pain in your leg and everyone you've ever trusted has betrayed you...)--but I don't see that as depressed or permanently and perpetually completely or only miserable. Is the exact dialog from that scene here somewhere? I thought it was but then I couldn't find it.... :?

I don't recall that quote, and maybe I haven't been paying attention (highly probable) but I can't recall any other fantasy-diseases. I should have been clearer in that: he (or whoever it was) didn't say that they've used fake diseases as the DOTW, only that they'd tweaked things and made things up in the periphery. My comment was more about Foster (who I like and wasn't criticising) then about the show as a whole. Since he's only done a few interviews that we've seen, it shouldn't be too hard for me to confirm if he's the guy I'm thinking of, but in all honesty, I just didn't feel like looking last night.

That's my issue. 99.9% of the time, if they hadn't had characters tell me that House is miserable, I wouldn't see it. I don't see it. I just know I'm supposed to. This season, I wouldn't call House miserable, even in S1, I don't think I would've called House miserable. In S2 and S3 I could tell on my own that he was miserable. Although, I don't think that happy, healthy people stick knifes into electrical outlets. As for the depression, well I've never been seriously depressed but I am close to somebody who has been and I never would have known if they hadn't told me, I think they were trying to protect me but I never would have thought that that person was depressed, so I'm not a good person to pick up on that.

Although, I don't think that happy, healthy people stick knifes into electrical outlets. I don't necessarily see this in House's case as a measurement of his happiness v. depression/misery either though. Ordinarily a person who does something like sticking a knife into an electrical outlet so as to cause his own death does so because he wants to die. Period. In House's case, he did it because he wanted to experience "death" as scientific investigation and then be revived. It's similar in my mind to his reply to Wilson wrt the speed that if he had a heart attack from it, big deal, he was in the hospital wasn't he? Neither House's intention nor his expectation was to stay dead. You might say he is willing to take risks to a potentially suicidal (or homocidal in Wilson's case) degree to find out something he wants to know or that his faith in modern medicine is suicidally optimistic but I don't think he was emotionally suicidal...he wasn't trying to die for the sake of being dead but for the pursuit of knowledge. Might make him crazy in some other way but I don't think it demonstrates depression or misery.... :wink:

Does anybody else think it significant that when the patient "mirrored" House all he picked up was that House was horny? If anything, I thought it was a fairly wasted opportunity to learn something interesting about House. What we found out was that he thinks 13 is hot, is frustrated and that Cuddy has great Cuddy's Fun-Bags. Not really moving the ball very far forward, IMO. Are you implying House is supposed to be a a multi-dimensional character, and not just a hoot? :shock:

I know I said I wouldn't be back... I lied! Well, actually, I've read this whole thread already and the damage is done, plus I've got an article I really don't want to work on :wink: I wasn't being clear, sorry. I wasn't speaking of whether she indeed switched the pills, but about my puzzlement that she felt it was an appropriate response to his actions. I was reminded of the final scene between them in Needle in a Haystack where she taunted him as if the bet was a game that could be won. It wasn't for House, it was about making his day a little more bearable and she didn't seem to realise that until he stood up and limped over to her. I thought she's learned something from that. I had hoped that she'd come to a new understanding of his disability. However, now she's back to using it against him either to win or humble him. I'm wondering what the point was of Needle in a Haystack, if she's gone right back to seeing him as a recalcitrant child whose honest need for pain relief can be used to rein him in. I honestly don't understand Cuddy's motives anymore. I honestly don't see the seriousness or significance of either of Cuddy's pranks or games to the extent that some people do, but I have no personal basis on which to make that claim. So I'm going to go with House's take on these, since they're directed at him and he's the best judge of how he feels about them: I think I'd describe his reaction both situations as 'amused'. There was an interesting bit in the Polite Dissent article that made me go 'huh?': And if patients with Mirror Syndrome do mimic the strongest personality about them, why would he copy Wilson in the ER and not House, who is clearly the dominant personality. Why did he pick one name and stay with it? Wouldn’t he pick a new name every time he encountered someone dominant? Shouldn’t he be Gregory House? I don't know if that's a nitpickable point... edit: About the 'mirror' guy only reading House as 'horny'... That's not surprising to me: House seems like he'd be pretty hard to read. We'd all be rolling our eyes if the patient came up with something deep, new and exciting about House. And we'd roll them harder if the patient said something cliche, like he's 'miserable'.

I honestly don't see the seriousness or significance of either of Cuddy's pranks or games to the extent that some people do, but I have no personal basis on which to make that claim. So I'm going to go with House's take on these, since they're directed at him and he's the best judge of how he feels about them: I think I'd describe his reaction both situations as 'amused'. Did you find House expressing amusement in this scene? From Needle in a Haystack: Cuddy: Oh ho ho ho. House: This is my last day living the life of leisure. So, are you going to tell Dr. Whitner she’s out of my space or can I? Cuddy: Why would I do that? House: Because, you said that you would. And lying is wrong. Cuddy: I said I would give you the space if you made it a whole week… House: Which I... Cuddy: You didn’t. The bet didn’t stipulate that you had to be in the chair for a week unless you had to barge into an operating room and shove your hands in a kid’s bowels. House: How’d you know about that? Cuddy: You lost. House: I saved a life. Two minutes out of the chair to save a kid’s life. Cuddy: You lost, House. House: I earned that space. Cuddy: No you didn’t. House: I earn that space every day I limp into that building and do my damn job. Cuddy: You lo-hos-ost. House: Hey (lurches out of chair and lurches up to Cuddy) You were never going to give me that space, were you? I saw Whitner the other day. She knew about the bet. Didn’t seem that worried. Cuddy: She knew I’d win. House: She doesn’t know me. In fact she doesn’t know anything except what you tell her. And you told her that you were never going to give me that space, didn’t you? Just tell me – do you at least feel a little guilty? If you want to teach me lessons, don’t make commitments you can’t keep. I suppose you could argue that this scene was all a fake to manipulate Cuddy into giving him the space back but I thought there was some truth to it....ymmv

For what it's worth, if you're going to bring up "Needle In A Haystack," I found that a far, far, far more lightweight outing than "Mirror Mirror." "NIAH," in my opinion, gave us zero insight into any of the characters. In "Mirror Mirror" we had glimpses into the newbies' states of minds, and House's take that misery is status quo.