I didn't really see any ambiguity on the prostitute question Neither did I, it didn't occur to me that others would think she wasn't one. But then again when I watched the final scene in 'Distractions' it was clear to me that Paula was a prostitute and that House called her over to have sex with her, to me it wasn't ambiguous at all, yet afterwards I kept reading all this furious arguments that either she wasn't a prostitute or House hired her for some other purpose than sex.

It's funny that you and I can both spot the prostitutes so clearly but we're diametrically opposed on the issue of whether Wilson dosed House in House Training. :lol:

She was a personal chef. Or a massage therapist. You know, for his leg. Cuz Ingrid wasn't available at midnight!

Of course Wilson dosed House: it's why he was so OOC, so distracted in that episode, it took till he saw himself smiling when he thought he wasn't, later on, to even realize he was off, hazy: it was such a subtle change (and huge props to HL for acting that slight shade of difference so effectively and consistently). At least that's what I thought, but now that I look at your post, Night Owl I realize I may have just stepped in it. (backs away from dosing issue slowly...) ETA: Paula was clearly a prostitute, but "Mary" was rather coy bout it. Until I read the writer's intention, I could have gone either way with her... (no, not like that! Eesh!!)

Oh Boffle, haven't you been to the House Training thread? Or the Season 4 General Discussion thread? :roll: :P ETA: You say coy; I say... straightforward yet playful.

Oops, been doing laundry. I'll check 'em out. Oh and yeah, maybe all three: starting out straightforward but meeting his attitude with her own and then playing with him and at the end coy. :-)

Boffle, you win the Internet! You are brilliant! (I have to warn you about the Season 4 General Discussion and House Training threads though: You may not want to go to either until the topics change. Oh wait... maybe you should go there and change the topics!)

I think I was the first to raise the possibility that the clinic patient in IAWL may not have been a prostitute. The church scene showed that the "donkey show" had nothing to do with a sex performance, so when she agreed with House (It's a donkey or a mule. I can never remember) she was teasing him by agreeing with his assumptions. Therefore her seeming agreement with him during her first visit may have also been a joke. On the "is a prostitute" side, we have that she gets checked for HIV 4 times a year, immediately checked her labia when she broke out in sores on her neck and she wore a Saint Nicholas medal. With Paula I don't think there was any ambiguity. She was hired to come to his home. As Bailey said, it wasn't for midnight cleaning. (And I'm always amused by the people who try to fanwank that Paula was the only time he ever hired a hooker.) But DonkeyGirl was a patient at the clinic. She didn't put "hooker" on her admissions form. And House's assumptions about people have sometimes been wrong in the past. I like the ambiguity with this one.

It's funny that you and I can both spot the prostitutes so clearly I lived in a "high traffic" area, if you know what I mean. I like the ambiguity with this one. I don't know if I'd call it that. (My I'm being argumentative tonight, what's with that?). Have you ever seen 'Bladerunner'? Before the Replicate (robot) kills his creater he says a word that sounds like "fothker". The director had told the actor to pronounce it so it wasn't clear if he was saying "father" or "fucker". That's ambiguity. It's designed to be open to interpretation. Whereas what I took from the comments of this ep's writer was that we were, indeed, supposed to think that she was a prostitute. If that's so, then it's a failure of the writing if we thought otherwise.

If that's so, then it's a failure of the writing if we thought otherwise. While I think the writing could have said outright: "Yes, she's a hooker," I don't think that it necessarily would have been unclear in other fandoms. "House" (and "Lost" and a few others) intentionally creates ambiguity, so the audience is accustomed to looking for ambiguity even where not be intended. It's a double edged sword, then, that people seek out ambiguity even where it's not written.

I don't know, I thought the clinic patient was a prostitute, but I found many of the analyses of why the themes and ironies in that storyline worked just as well with her playing House from the get go to be very interesting. Either way, there were ironies with the madonna/whore comparison and with House's assumptions. Since the scene's intended themes didn't fall apart with an alternate interpretation, my feeling is that the writer would not feel those viewers had missed the boat. Indeed, she went out of her way to not nail down the prostitute ID concretely. Even if in her mind she intended to make her a prostitute, she didn't seem to feel it important enough to remove any doubt. I think she'd be fine with the discussion that happened about that scene. In general, I think David Shore's interest with this show is to generate discussion about the themes he's interested in, and that's why he's comfortable with all the ambiguity.

"House" (and "Lost" and a few others) intentionally creates ambiguity, so the audience is accustomed to looking for ambiguity even where not be intended. It's a double edged sword, then, that people seek out ambiguity even where it's not written. Well, it keeps us entertained doesn't it! I'm completely not a doctor, but the medicine in this one felt weak to me. If her cancer caused all those symptoms, wouldn't that mean it was so far advanced she would die anyway? None of this "some chemo and you'll be fine stuff"? Or was everything caused by that magical illness, paraneoplastic syndrome? (They really have to start looking for new illnesses).

Fox just reaired this, and I am falling in love with it all over again. Wilson in that reindeer hat . "It's a moose. On a Jew." Donkey Girl and her "creepy smile." House's many devilish grins. House *singing!* Kutner's adorkable moments. I love this ep. Now if only they'd given mah Cammy a speaking part, it would have been perfection.