To the team's credit, they were forced to visit Amber, it wasn't their idea. Rewatched the ending - does anyone think 13 wears a watch around her neck to remind her that her life is ticking away? So the diet pills were a red herring huh? Wonder who wrote those scripts?

A few people have asked - why was House in the bar in the first place?Well, I think that ties in with the very end, where people are also commenting on House's dialogue on the "final bus ride". Remember, House is a brilliant, but ultimately very LONELY man. His girlfriend is his work, his friends all stem from his work. Once he leaves that building, he's all by himself, and I've always felt that, through the seasons, the writers have shown this gradual progression of a lonely guy getting progressively sick of being alone. He's brilliant at medicine, yet can't keep a personal realtionship going (with the opposite sex). So I wasn't surprised to see him in a bar, drinking alone. At the end he states (paraphrasing), that he should have been the one to have died. Some posters have said that's House getting soft. Why? Remember, he realizes he's venting to someone who is never going to be able to rat him out! He doesn't want to lose Wilson because that's the only close friend he has. He is in constant, TERRIBLE pain, also being a constant reminder of the active life he can't have anymore. I thought it was perfectly logical to have those thoughts. Wilson is going to be hurting for a while but isn't stupid. He realizes that House did not mean to deliberately kill Amber. What happened is one of those tragic accidents that we have all read about - being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Wilson needs House as much as House needs Wilson. House called and asked for Wilson to come get him. House left the bar so Amber wouldn't have to drive him home. One of Amber's dying statements was that she realized that she shouldn't have gotten on the bus. Tragic circumstances. But not House's fault. Who knows what will happen next season? House and Wilson repairing their broken relationship, for sure. But please, no House and Cuddy. I just don't see the sexual chemistry between them. Their dialogue always sounded more brotherly/sisterly to me (even with the butt and boob comments!) 13's Huntington's Disease (and give her a freakin' first name, please!) But seriously, in Season 5 - House needs to get laid. Maybe a research scientist at the hospital. Someone who can handle House's brain. He can sit with her in the cafeteria at lunch and they can verbally spar for a while and then she can proposition him. Something like that. Ok - I have to recover from the eppy. That last 10 minutes caused me to bawl so badly that now I have a hacking cough. Lovely.

I'm surprised to see some comments about that actually being Amber's ghost on the white bus. To me House was clearly talking to himself again, just as he was with The Answer. That's why Amber didn't offer any consolation - she gave the kind of brutal yet honest responses House would tell himself. It's fitting that he would envision her telling them: she was, after all, the female House.

I don't think House is getting soft, or is about to change. The only thing we saw in his "white bus" scene with Amber at the end was some self reflection and self recognition. House may blame himself for Amber's death, but I didn't see any evidence that Wilson blamed House. We've had four seasons of House seemingly taking advantage of Wilson's friendship. We've also seen House be next to useless when Wilson wanted to talk about his divorce in S2. Last night's ep just pulled the outer veil off to show that House really does care for his friend, and will do anything for him, including risking his own life, even after Wilson implied that Amber was more important to him.

Yes, I also think the last scene on the bus with Amber was House's subconscious speaking. He really does not think that he is worth much or worthy of other people's esteem or affection. He really expects to be disliked and hated, even though he does fear it and wants things to be different he really doesn't think that is what will happen. It kind of ties in with the story from last season about the Japanese doctor who wasn't liked or wanted. I truly think that is how House views himself and his leaving the bus at the end of that scene to face what he expects is going to be Wilson's hatred shows a measure of courage.

The second time around was harder. :( I find it interesting to see how Amber continued to parallel House all the way to the end. She dry swallowed the pills on the bus, exactly the same way that House does. And the "You can't always get what you want" line, the same one he tells Cuddy in S1. Hopefully he will get what he needs; Wilson. I do believe House was calling for him when he first woke up and Cuddy told him not to talk. Whether or not Wilson forgives him immediately, is hard enough. House isn't going to be able to forgive himself, I do not think, not for a long time. IMO, he was drinking b/c he was alone, and because he was missing his real partner in life, Wilson (take that as friends or slash). Either way you look at it, Wilson has been the only constant in House's life in the past 5 years, and most likely longer than that (discounting Stacy). I wonder how long Wilson stood there waiting for House to wake up? Wilson didn't look angry, just sad. House obviously hated having to figure out what happened; he was crying and I am sure that was not lost on Wilson, at least I hope not. Wilson finding that note, may have left him less than charitable toward House, but, it isn't like any of them could have imagined the outcome. Where they go with this; well there are thousands of possibilities. Wilson is going to need time to grieve, and House is going to need time to decide if he is going to be miserable or not.

This episode made me cry (several times) but I was also disappointed. Maybe I was setting myself up for failure. I think from the preview "the ending you won't see coming" that I was expecting a twist--that the episode would have been entirely in House's head or that Wilson had had the accident and the episode was in his head. Even though I have watched the show almost from when it started I could not believe that anyone would let House decide anything, or that he would be running around, with a skull fracture. I found it hard to believe that Wilson, who has known House for 17+ years (who I think was the person who made Wilson feel "funny--good" as he told Cameron in "Spin") would ask House to risk his life for someone he was in a relationship with for a couple of months? This finale jumped around so much from dreams to reality I guess I could not distinguish between the two. I was expecting something else and when the show ended I thought "Huh?" I guess the preview was right--I didn't see this end coming.

I have so many responses whirling around my head... ten pages behind on my response. It sucks that right after I watch the show, I have to leave for work. Anyway, some random things I want to say before I go to sleep: This episode was a mixed bag--there were several things that didn't ring true for me. I was pleased that I nailed the reason Amber was in the bar: House called for Wilson to pick him up and got Amber instead. The details after that bothered me; how likely is it that a bus would happen by just in time as House left the bar, but it would sit there and wait long enough for Amber to catch up (she had to pay the bill)? And if she was truly on call, it makes sense that she'd say "I shouldn't have gotten on the bus" when she finds out she's dying because if she had been called for any kind of an emergency, how the hell would she be able to respond if she's going across town on a bus? Whoever said she should have just followed in her car was right on. And the irony wasn't lost on me: Electricity. It was electricity that House tried to kill himself with this season, and it was Amber he paged to make sure he lived to tell about it. She saved his life. He knew she'd come running... this time, she came running when he was self-destructing (doing Wilson's job in his absence), and she lost her own life in the process. Many have said Amber was another House for Wilson, but in this way, she was another Wilson for House. The stuff we saw about Taub (her death makes me realize I actually do love my wife, whoda thunkit!), Kutner (arrested development) and 13 (they got my number right, at least) was really too little, too late for me. These characters haven't grown on me. It doesn't matter that the season got cut short. I just don't have the same feeling for them that I have for the original cast. The closest I came was Amber... so of course they killed her. Or is that the plan? Make the new ones less appealing so we can dump them in Season Five like so many long lost plot points? As for why the original three fellows didn't stop by to check on House, how do we know they didn't? It's not like if we don't see something it doesn't happen. You know all those missing scenes we're always writing? Well, I'm sure there's one where each of them (or possibly Chameron as a team) pops by for a brief conversation with Cuddy: "Any change?" "Nothing yet." "We're going around the corner for some food. If he wakes up--" "Of course." Foreman was giving House crap the entire time about needing his rest... you can't convince me he didn't care about House's wellbeing, in his own Foreman way. Re: Chase putting his hand on Foreman's shoulder in the pub... what happened to the whole "I never liked you anyway" stuff that was going on? I guess we've got to have faith that they've mended fences off-camera. *sigh* CCF are the characters I care about... why can't TPTB realize that we aren't done with them yet? Boffle, you beat me to the "House's Head/Wilson's Heart, both broken" statement. I think House is more comfortable with the domain of the mind, and Wilson is more comfortable with emotions... in this case, I think one could be the cure for the other. (Am I making any sense? Gods I'm tired. Okay, off to bed.) Oh look! A whole herd of teal deer...

I wonder if we'll see a bit of a roll reversal...maybe Wilson will be the cranky one for a while, and House will be a little more subdued. Maybe House will be the one to pick up the pieces for Wilson (as Wilson did for House during the infarction). I really loved the little scene at the end of Cuddy at House's bedside, awww. Yes, I ship Huddy, but it's more than that. House needs to see he does have friends. (I know we didn't see any of the ducklings, new or old, visiting House but it doesn't mean they didn't...we just didn't see it). I think we're going to see a very disturbed Wilson come next season and I wonder at what point the show will pick up from. From the hospital (not likely)? Maybe we'll see House working, and we'll wonder where Wilson is (how's that for some alliteration). I wonder if Wilson will take some time off, or dive into his work, pretending nothing happened. Lots of possibilites. I don't think House is getting soft, or is about to change. The only thing we saw in his "white bus" scene with Amber at the end was some self reflection and self recognition. I don't know, I think House may have already changed. Not in a big whammy, House is passing out candy to all the cancer kids kind of way, but just in a subtle way, maybe by allowing Cuddy or maybe Chase to take on a bigger friendship role. At the end we see him allowing Cuddy to hold his hand, which I don't think it typical. And House got off that bus, he chose the hard route, not the easy one. Wilson's view of House changing back during the Christmas epi was that House was willing to change by being willing to lose Wilson's friendship (okay, I know that was a poor sentence, sorry). It would have been easier to succomb to his injuries, to not wake up and face Wilson knowing he might lose his friendship after all that had happened, but he chose to get off that bus. He chose to get off the airplane (after previously telling the soap star guy that he wouldn't get off the plane). I think (at least temporarily) we'll see a kinder, gentler House. Maybe not in his interactions with everyone, but maybe with Cuddy, maybe with how he deals with his friendship with Wilson (I'm sure they'll eventually make-up and I'm hoping House is the one to initiate the repair). I'm not so sure his snarkiness or his bedside manner will change, but maybe he'll let in a few more people into his inner circle...Chase, Cuddy, etc.

Well, for now all I have to say is that I always liked CTB, I still have "Games" in my DVR I did not want to watch her get fired :cry: now to watch her die!!noooooo. I have all summer to decide to watch either episode.

I wanted to enjoy this episode more than I actually did, but after last week it was a letdown. I agree completely that 13 and Taub are a tedious waste of precious screen time, and I don't care about either one of them. I thought RSL was amazing in his scenes with AD, and she is an awesome actress. Why are we stuck with 13??! I was a little creeped out with Cuddy at House's bedside (I like her less and less with each passing season) and I agree that CC&F would have been there at some point. I do think the writers came up with a realistic way for House and Wilson to be estranged without it being impossible for them to reconcile, but I don't see them having consults about buxom clinic patients for a long, long time.