If Amber and House were on the bus together, wouldn't someone else on the bus remember that? If they were fighting, I would think someone would know that. If they were "together" (in an intimate way), wouldn't they be sitting next to each other and someone might have noticed that. Because House had amnesia and has been crashing around the ER harassing everyone, I would think someone would have said something to him or the other doctors. "I don't know! Why don't you ask that woman you were with?"

NightOwl, I'm beginning to think maybe you shouldn't completely abandon your theory just yet. I just saw a screencap of the scene where Cuddy is standing in House's bedroom doorway, and behind her on the wall is a framed picture of red ribbon. Then House has the epiphany of the red scarf (we later find out Amber is wearing) he used as a tourniquet. In the promos, SPOILER-->during the House/Amber "affair" scene Amber is dressed all in red. Also, she appears to be covered with a red blanket in the hospital. Strange things are afoot!!

i really hope they weren't SPOILER having an affair.. for some reason i think not. i think house genuinely cared or was shocked or something when he saw amber got injured that badly (i was like.. youch! that looks sooo painful when they show amber with that metal stick jabbed in.. ow ow ow!) that was his bestfriend's girlfriend there man! (oh but then again... for some reason during house's mri, wilson said.. unless house did have feelings for her.. hmm ah so confusing!) on the other hand, since we did see amber taken away from the rescuers, i really hope she lives! gah... can't believe i have to wait for another weekk -.-

Wow. That was amazing. Suspenseful. Tortuous twisty plot. Hugh Laurie superb, powerful, subtle. House retains his calm. Inner self. Dialogues that are really self and self, yet not in a No Reason way. House's humanity and beautiful decency. The moment when his hand started to shake. All the things everyone here has said. Strong, tense, mysterious: wow. I don't think I can wait for next week. Why didn't they care that his skull was fractured beyond putting him to bed? So many questions. I don't think he was having an affair with Amber. I think maybe he had been following her to see if she was cheating on Wilson in some way and then confronted her on the bus and found out that her reasons were good. They wre ok. And then the crash! And then hands reaching out. Her leg that he wraps in red. And the guilt from that fact that he couldn't save her kept her name hidden. Yeah, maybe this is going into speculation area...

I officially have no idea why Amber was consigned to cleaning poopy sheets a couple weeks ago because clearly she doesn't work at PPTH. I think there were some really great things about this episode: Number one, of course, was Hugh's performance which was absolutely perfect. The bus scene, too, was fantastic (even if it did end up reminding me of "Fearless") and I was gasping at the scene of House and Amber reaching for each other. Number two, I definitely need to take up yoga if Lisa E's body is the result of that devoted study. (I really don't think I could do vegan, I just don't.) I'm probably the only one that found the pole dancing to be kind of pointlessly gratuitous, but then again, there's much this season that I've found pointlessly gratuitous. Then again, House sat through 2 long pole dances and still didn't put it together that a pole pierced Amber's leg. Kudos to Lisa E, though, for pulling off a convincing routine. Acting or no, I would have been mortified. (I wonder if the CPR was her big make out scene for the season.) My favorite "small moment" was that the first clue of the necklace was that House saw the fly in the ointment, which perfectly describes his feelings about Amber. Okay, okay, it wasn't much, but I liked it. But even though everyone was technically given something to do in this episode, the bloated cast still just does not work. At all. Because giving everyone something to do inevitably means that characters end up doing (or not doing) things that contradict their character. For example, couldn't figure out why Foreman the neurologist, wasn't more interested or indeed, involved in, trying to suss out House's neurological problem. Excellent use of Chase and an effective manner of getting House to tap into his subconscious to seek the answer, but absent being hypnotized, I didn't buy the fact that House was able to drift so easily in and out of his hallucinations, regardless of his somewhat comical stimulants. As a narrative device, I found Chase far more effective than watching 13 stand next to House while he got into the tank. (In fact, I can pretty much never figure out what 13's point is in any particular scene. Is she evocative of something? Does she have a deeper tie to the story? The cynic in me says she's awkwardly placed in scenes because she's the young, cute thing, because as a relation to House it makes not much sense at all.) I was a second late in flipping back during the commercial break, so I missed Cameron's big scene of stitching up House. It was probably my own projection, but I figured this episode might have addressed the CCF issue of why on earth they landed with those idiotic, impossible jobs, but (at least in this episode) they didn't tie in as effectively to House's story (either narratively or emotionally) as they might have. Maybe next episode. Or not. I am curious as to how they resolve things next episode. Like others, I SPOILER in no way think that House and Amber were having an affair. I think it would be pretty cheap to kill her off so quickly (and with such an overtly Housian injury) but then again, no one gets to be happy on this show and that should go doubly for Wilson. Jair made an interesting point earlier about how the first half of the season was the technical set-up while the second half should have theoretically been the emotional pay off. I do agree that that was probably the intention. But the road to hell is paved with good intentions and I'm not sure that narratively that plan really works. By having the first half be so technical, I was unable to form any attachments to the team that was selected. Literally, none of them do a damn thing for me. So now they loiter around, clogging up episodes and representing emotional blackholes where I suspect there should be resonance. I don't buy that they have any connection to House nor he to them. As such, unless they are literally pushed aside (As in "Frozen") I fear that entire episodes will never fully work for me, which is too bad because you can only go to the Wilson and Cuddy well so often. Still, I guess that means that Hugh should win some triple-platinum acting award since he's got to navigate around all those cardboard cut-outs on his way to connecting with the audience. Is it bad that I wanted the entire team to be on the bus?

OK, I think the reason I know that SPOILER House didn't "do" Amber is cause they always said they didn't want this show to turn into a Soap. And we all know there's nothing more soapy than a best friend sleeping with the friend's girl. So there. No sexy time with Amber/House.

Elompanti wrote: You got me interested here, because the picture is quite prominently featured in the background. Here's a screenshot of Cuddy standing in the doorway with the picture in the background from this episode. So I wondered whether it has always been there and went through several episode screencaps to see if we ever saw that wall before. I stumbled across "Resignation" where you can see that there is no picture on this specific wall (screencap), but the exact picture, together with another similar one, hangs on one of the bedroom walls (screencap). I don't really believe that this part with Cuddy was a hallucination, though. Maybe the actual picture inspired the authors to include this storyline of the ribbon and they then placed the picture in the hallway to give us (and House) a clue. Ahh, right you are. The picture probably is a coincidence. There were some weird moments, though, especially in his apartment. That nurse was not only Stephen King-ish, as Bedawyn mentioned upthread, but I almost thought she could have been Amber in a fat suit. She just looked slightly artificial to me. But I was spoiled, so it's quite possible that my mind jumped to that conclusion because of that. I guess heavy symbolism coupled with accidental spoilage (I always thought the pictures were somewhat safe!) brings out the conspiracy theorist in me. So much to chew on in this wonderful episode, and we're only halfway there.

Did anyone else notice the weird things going on with HL pupils throughout out the show, esp. in the final bus scene just before he realized that the girl in black was Amber? Clue :?:

I didn't notice anything about his pupils, sorry. But, I loved that during the first hallucination/memory when they faded to black and white, House's eyes were the last thing to fade. I thought that was pretty neat.

Did anyone notice that in the bus recreation, everyone wore signs around their necks with pictures/identifying numbers (Jane Doe #1)...eerily similar to the 40 new fellows wearing numbers at the start of the season? I'm beginning to wonder if it isn't all a dream, yep the whole season. Maybe instead of Amber reviving House, he'll wake up to find it's Wilson and Cuddy saving his life (cause his heart stopped yet again ?!?!). Crazy theory, I know but there's something dream like about the whole episode, not just the hallucinations.

Yeah. I don't think House was really remembering how she was before the actual accident. I think you're right because here she's sitting across from him but in the promo SPOILER-->it looks like she's sitting next to him.

I loved that they managed to squeeze in a POTW who House diagnoses correctly. And the way they revealed 13's name (which matched the name on the betting slip, nice!). Most of all though I loved the way HL played that final scene. Sad, subdued, intense and so many other emotions I can't describe in my own language, let alone in English. Was I the only one who thought the lady in black looked exactly like 13? I knew she had to portray Amber in some way, but she only made me think of 13. So many things to wonder about!

I don't know...the bus crash looked amazing, but the I found the story line a bit underwhelming. I think it's largely because the last thing the show needs to do is tease the possibility of yet another ship. I don't really believe that House slept with Amber, so I can't figure why they would even suggest that possibility. It was probably my own projection, but I figured this episode might have addressed the CCF issue of why on earth they landed with those idiotic, impossible jobs, but (at least in this episode) they didn't tie in as effectively to House's story (either narratively or emotionally) as they might have. Maybe next episode. Or not. ETA:Thank you ,bailey, for taking the time to express what I was much too lazy to type out. A big part of my disappointment is that, with the exception of Wilson, the entire supporting cast is being rendered increasingly pointless. They may appear, but they never seem to tie into the story in any significant way.