With House/Cuddy, I see both emphasizing the roles. Cuddy never balks at being called "mommy" and obviously feels comfortable treating House as though he were a child in need of minding. But just because she refers to him as acting like a seven year old, that doesn't mean she literally thinks of him as a seven year old and she's his mother. She rolls her eyes and ignores his comments calling her "Mommy" because she knows that's who House is, and calling her Mommy is a minor insult from him. House has also referred to himself as God/Yaweh, but that doesn't mean that people think he actually is the almighty any more than Cuddy or Wilson or whoever else is "Mom" or he's "Dad" to the "kids."

The pole dancer was definitely part of House's subconscious dual view of the role Cuddy plays in his life -- both intellectual and physical. But to me, the "Mommy" reference wasn't a hint into his subconscious, just a typical Housian hyperbolic nickname he uses all the time.

I think the reason House called her "Mommy" in H's H was because the writers wanted to throw the audience off until the WIB threw off her blanket. Until House has a true Freudian slip and calls her "Mommy" inadvertently, I feel that we as an audience must assume that he just calls her that to yank her chain, make her roll her eyes.

I knew there was a Princeton General reference, Hamster. I thought it was in "Kids," but it wasn't there. And House did have his Cameron sexual fantasy -- robo sex. Interesting that both the fantasies with Cameron and Cuddy involved no touching, which goes straight to his issues with social intimacy, in my opinion. (Social intimacy as in sex with a hooker is fine, but sex in which emotions are involved is a whole different issue.)

But I think to overlook an episode which includes subconscious projections of Cuddy both as a "mommy" and as an erotic pole dancer is to miss a rather large Freudian clue. But House's fantasy had absolutely nothing to do with Cuddy as a mommy figure and House calls anyone who tells him "no" mommy, including Wilson. And House is older than Cuddy, met her when she was not his superior and doesn't actually treat her as a mother figure in the way he acts. As we know, she has problems making him listen to her. The Freudian issues seem larger to me when you have House saying things to Cameron like "Our little girl's growing up" and referring to her as one of his kids and he's the daddy, especially given he's much older and her boss at the time. However, I'm not really arguing that because I don't think we're meant to take any of it as anything but House pushing people's buttons. I really think it's a strong possibility he'll call Cameron "mom" as she gets better at the "no" thing. I don't think it'll be a Freudian thing :D .

On a small shallow note I was delighted that the existence of 'Princeton General' hospital is now canon! Very Happy I once referred to it in a fic and got pulled up in a comment by someone telling me there was no such hospital, and unless I've missed a previous mention (entirely possible) it hasn't been canon up to now. There was a Princeton General mention in "Maternity," when the mystery illness strikes the maternity wing and new admissions are being turned away: Cuddy: Excuse me! Hi. Intake sent you up here? Man: Yeah, my wife's contractions are less than - Cuddy: Yeah, Intake messed up. I'm very, very sorry. Nurse Alpret will arrange for an ambulance to take you to Princeton General. What was the hospital House went to when he was drug-seeking? I don't remember the episode, but he was pretending to have some kind of facial injury, then got pissed when the doctor wouldn't prescribe vicodin. called the doctor a moron and keft before security came?

A couple of things I noticed on rewatch: 1) The timing for the bulk of the episode seems to be within about 18 hours. House is in the strip club at 8:50 p.m., just before he does his "Altered States" thing, Foreman refers to the fact that it's 2 a.m. It's still nighttime when the nurse is at his apartment, and later when he wakes up Cuddy (because we hear crickets). Figure it's then sometime that morning by the time they get the bus over for the recreation. (And the bus they're in for the recreation is a different number.) 2) House first asks for the Alzheimer's drugs as he's going into the deprivation tank. Thirteen refuses on account of the likelihood it'll stop his heart. He gets them himself sometime before the recreation on the bus. 3) And the coolest thing. In each one of the hallucinations/hypnosis/dreams, House doesn't have his cane or a limp .... until, that is, the final one. At this point, when he's finally ready to accept all the clues he's been given, he has the cane in his hand. He's finally ready to embrace reality (quite literally) with his illusions.

Robosex wasn't p0rnographic, IMO, just surreal. I guess but that scene just creeps me out. I would feel that way even if it wasn't Cameron on the receiving end of a robot feeling her up. It was just so cold and detatched IMHO. At least the Cuddy stripping was a normal male fantasy. I'd rather be a schoolgirl stripper in a fantasy than be any part of that bizarre robot!sex. Again, not just because it's Cameron, if it had been anybody, that scene still would have left me with the chills. . This is why I think the Amber thing is becoming such a big deal. Not because he has feelings for her, but because her presence is forcing him to confront his feelings for *Wilson.* Slash or no, I agree. I never doubted in the episode that his concern for Amber and psychological inability to face that it was her was about his feelings for Wilson, not Amber.