4.10 It's a Wonderful Lie

Another clue is given during her second visit to the clinic. As House is staring intensely at her darker-than-last-time lips, he asks, "Do you tell your mother what you do? It doesn't matter; I'm curious." She replies, "I don't need to break her heart just so I can feel righteous." So for me, that is her confirmation that she is, indeed, a prostitute. Why would she feel righteous about being a prostitute? Or being such a truth teller to her mother?Yes... righteous about telling the truth to her mother. The episode was partly about lies and truth between parents and children. What else would the clinic patient have meant by that line? Obviously it would break a mother's heart if she knew her daughter were working as a hooker. (Most mothers' hearts anyway.) She's not going to tell her mother the truth, because it would break her heart. So she lies in order to protect her mother's feelings. If she is NOT a hooker (or some other similar profession), then that line makes absolutely no sense.

The episode was partly about lies and truth between parents and children. & isn't it ironic that House, who has this tendency to celebrate the fact that he doesn't lie while everyone else does, is the one providing a pivotal plot lie in the Secret Santa game. The PotW may have lied/told the truth to her daughter (& I'm not happy about her choices) but she seems to have done it with fairly reasonable motives most of the time as did the clinic patient wrt her mother. House, OTH, essentially lied just to get stuff & to sow dissension.

But House has always maintained that "everybody lies." He has also said, "I lied." And we the audience have seen him lie many many times. He usually lies with a useful purpose. Wilson has also caught him in lies. He stated in "Daddy's Boy" that his father should have lied to him. It's the same theme he stated in last night's episode: that parents have a duty to lie to their children about certain things, in order to protect them. Boundaries. That mother had absolutely no boundaries with her daughter; it was completley inappropriate. Remember he told Wilson something like, "Lies serve a purpose. They're a tool," etc. I think that House's view is that lying to your doctor is bad, because your doctor needs all the information in order to diagnose you. But lies do serve a purpose in society, in parenting, etc.

If she is NOT a hooker (or some other similar profession), then that line makes absolutely no sense. It makes sense if she's just toying with House, which I thought she was.

If she is NOT a hooker (or some other similar profession), then that line makes absolutely no sense. It makes sense if she's just toying with House, which I thought she was.I don't think she was toying with him in that moment. I just re-watched that scene... her face was completely serious. She looked sincere there. And Ranee... as for House's lies with the Secret Santa game: I agree that it wasn't "admirable." But it was just House having fun. I honestly don't think he cared about getting "stuff" from them, however. He was just trying to create drama and more competition among the newbies. Like he said to Wilson, "They accused Kutner of screwing up a test. If they liked him, they wouldn't accuse him, and someone might die." (Meaning... if they like him, they'll go easy on him when he really does screw up someday. Maybe try to cover up for him, hide things from House, etc.) I don't condone everything House does, but I do see his motivations most of the time. I don't think he is evil; I think he really is on the side of the angels. I trust his judgment most of the time.

But lies do serve a purpose in society, in parenting, etc. Sure, ITA - & here House uses it for the purposed of conning people out of stuff. I just don't find that admirable, I find it extremely selfish - the PotW & clinic patients were doing it to protect people they love. House wasn't. Nah, I don't think House did the secret santa thing just to get stuff at all: he wanted to keep the fellows off balance, on their toes, questioning everything, keep them in detective mode rather than have them get too comfortable now that they are really hired. He's still teaching them and part of that is teaching them how to look at any kind of evidence without the blinders of "the way things usually are." So, to teach them and, of course, he chooses a teaching method that also messes with their heads and so is fun for him, keeps him invested in their progress. I don't think he gave a damn what they actually gave him but finding out what they'd choose to give him shows him what they thought of him, or at least what they thought would win him over or what they were obligated to do: all very interesting for House. Putting them in a situation where they have to choose between sucking up to their boss or alienating each other: also very interesting. That Foreman bought him nothing: interesting. And House is all about what people will or won't do, their boundaries, and their motivations. He's a classic outsider, trying to discover what makes people tick through manipulation and observation, realizing he has to keep engaged to be effective but doing it in his own way that gives him the answers but not he benefits/issues that come with direct personal attachment.

I don't think she was toying with him in that moment. I just re-watched that scene... her face was completely serious. She looked sincere there. My sense was that she was initially shocked that House would immediately call her out as a prostitute. After that, she just indulged him and went along for the ride. Not that prostitutes can't be and aren't religious, but I don't think most of them carry around billing notices for their nativity plays. Not to mention, she was clearly conning him on the "donkey show" bit; I don't think those even happen outside of Tiajuana and the odds on her being involved in two varying scenarios involving donkeys is just too much to believe, absent her being some sort of farmer. To me, she just completely got one over on House; she convinced a guy who's first guess is the worst of humanity to enter a church on Christmas. But I accept that there is alot of ambiguity in this character. I suppose it works either way you look at it. People that want to believe the best of her can, people that want to believe the worst can, too. And Ranee... as for House's lies with the Secret Santa game: I agree that it wasn't "admirable." But it was just House having fun. I honestly don't think he cared about getting "stuff" from them, however. He was just trying to create drama and more competition among the newbies. Like he said to Wilson, "They accused Kutner of screwing up a test. If they liked him, they wouldn't accuse him, and someone might die." (Meaning... if they like him, they'll go easy on him when he really does screw up someday. Maybe try to cover up for him, hide things from House, etc.) I do think it was a nice contrast to DIYD where House actually found it painful to accept a christmas gift from Cameron (because she actually wanted to give something to him) as opposed to gleefully conning his staff into giving him stuff and trying to read how well they know him by the gifts they give. Never mind that they seem to know him too well this early in the game, but whatever. ETA: Just as a matter of procedure, is it normal that the annual nurse's holiday bonus would come out of the doctor's pockets? That seemed weird to me. Or were they just really fishing to give Cuddy something, anything, to say?

bailey, I don't WANT to believe the worst about her. It's just how I'm reading the scenes. I think the clinic patient's "wonderful lie" is that she's both a prostitute and a religious person. A contradiction. (Or a hypocrite, depends on how you look at it.) And House the character is full of contradictions himself. He just kind of says what he needs to say to fit a situation, to manipulate a situation the way he needs or wants to. It also goes along with all the "things/people are not always as they seem" theme that the show seems to love. ETA: What was up with House's crazy smile at the end? Do you think he's going to, um... hire her? They had great chemistry together.

Sure, ITA - & here House uses it for the purposed of conning people out of stuff. I just don't find that admirable, I find it extremely selfish - the PotW & clinic patients were doing it to protect people they love. House wasn't. You find it shocking that House does something selfish? House has (almost) always been selfish. Here, he gets two things: he gets stuff and he rattles his new team and watches their reactions. ETA: And on a completely different note, I found it interesting to see that they hadn't changed the credits yet. I figured they would have, by now.

You find it shocking that House does something selfish? I didn't say it was shocking - please actually read what I write. I said I didn't find it admirable.

You find it shocking that House does something selfish? I didn't say it was shocking - please actually read what I write. I said I didn't find it admirable. I just find it odd that House doing something unadmirable would be something out of the ordinary, that's all. It's a core part of his jerk personality, and I say this with love for the character, but he's a jerk. The exceptional moments are when he's not and jerk and does something admirable. It's like the old saying: when a dog bites a man, that's not news. When a man bites a dog, that's news.

I am glad to read the comments here, because the different perspectives are so helpful to me. I watched it twice and found this episode the most boring of the season so far. This is not just because of the absence of Cuddy, but also because I did not find the POTW particularly compelling, nor were the DDX scenes or the scenes with Wilson crackling with the usual revelations of character and point of view. Things I loved: -- the POTW daughter was fine and believable in her connection to House and to the other docs: the tough scene with the lollipops was particularly well done. -- the repeated references to the mother-child relationship: House wondered how the POTW and her daughter could interact so successfully without lying; House complained to Wilson about that same "unnatural" relationship; House asked the hooker if she told her mother about her job; the POTW excreted mother's milk; the hooker played the Mother Mary in the church pagent. My conclusion is that House was thinking alot about his own mom as Christmas approached again. -- the repeated references to prophylactic measures of various kinds: the POTW had preventive bilateral mastectomies to guard against the breast cancer she feared she had inherited from her mother; House advised the hooker to remind "Francis" the mule to wear a "love glove;" the hooker wore the St. Nicholas' medal as a protective talisman to guard against harm in her risky line of work. -- the subtle but powerfully telling note of House recognizing himself in the emotionally empty sex life of the POTW who hid her scars from her pick-up partners. -- HL singing in his natural voice. This reminded me of the post-bliss scene in "Need to Know." -- the clinic scenes with the hooker who was essentially honest, except with her own mother. These are the only scenes where I felt the old snap, crackle and pop between the actors. Especially loved House's gentle finger press to the lips to diagnosis the discoloration there. How striking this was as a way to make contact with a woman whose professional standards would normally prohibit kissing. From the exchange of sweetly ironic smiles in the final scene, I think that House's Christmas gift was a free sample from this hooker. Things I didn't like: -- too many foosball scenes, though Hugh looked nice as usual. -- I love RSL's comedic chops but I was definitely ODing on Wilson by the time he appeared for the fourth (or was it fifth) scene with House. For me, these scenes stopped the progress of the story dead. -- House revealing Thirteen's Huntington's fears to the gang as a way to control and discipline her. -- repeated use of the "homie" joke against Foreman. Once was quite funny, but several times in the same episode was tired and unimaginative writing. Same thing goes for the yawn-inducing jibes about Taub's Jewishness. -- five lines for Cuddy? Seriously? And I didn't understand what was meant by those five lines anyway, so why bother with them at all? If anyone doubts how much sparkle and zest LE brings to an episode, let them watch this one and wonder no more. -- the "reveal" that the POTW mother and daughter were not genetically related seemed obvious and unoriginal, though I am glad that the docs kept the secret from the daughter. --the energy level of all the actors seemed low, as if they were phoning in their performances. While I certainly did not hate this episode at all, I was much less moved by it than I had expected to be, which particularly surprised me coming off such a long hiatus. I was ready to be blown away and I wasn't.

-- I love RSL's comedic chops but I was definitely ODing on Wilson by the time he appeared for the fourth (or was it fifth) scene with House. For me, these scenes stopped the progress of the story dead. And I felt exactly the opposite. For a long time it’s been “here are the Wilson scenes” and he doesn’t exist the rest of the time. I like it better when they also have some nothing scenes where they just exchange a few words as they pass in the hall as well as the big interactions. Re the knowing what hurts House, I assumed that was joking. House likes to walk when his leg is hurting him. In The Socratic Method, he took Wilson for a walk from his office to his office and, when Wilson questioned (“Didn’t we just leave your office?”) House said “I like to walk.” And in Who’s Your Daddy there was lots of walking because his leg hurt. Cuddy had 5 lines? I'm going to have to rewatch. I literally don't remember her even being in the episode.

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