5.15 - Unfaithful

Why get hung up on a title that may have been slapped on by closed captioning idiots or post production people? Because the title exists for a reason. They could have just said, "House plays a tune" or "House plays a melody" but they didn't. Add that to Wilson's line about House wanting to be a part of that kids life, and I'm terrified they're going to attempt to make House Cuddy's baby daddy. It's not like she's not practically begging for it anyway. I just cannot believe that House is suddenly pining to be part of this family but I don't know how else to read the situation. I can't sit through House bonding with a child, or having any kind of a surrogate family involving a child, it feels wrong to me.

Definitely agree. I was all "huh?" when Wilson suggested that House wanted to be a part of Rachel's life. I certainly haven't gotten that impression at all. (Sometimes, it has felt quite the opposite!). I hate seeing one thing, but being told another. This whole Huddy arc just makes no sense to me. :? I wish I could understand it, I really do. But it's just a mess of will-they-won't-they, but at this point I no longer care if they do-or-don't! I just want it to end. :lol: I heard it as one of loneliness and despair, of knowing he'll never belong. Not a a note of love in the piece. That's the impression I got too. To me, the song reflected everything House thought about his life at the moment. I got alot of messages from it. Not only that it was about Cuddy and a possible relationship from her. (and I was quite disappointed to learn that it was called "Cuddy's Serenade"). The song seemed to go so much deeper than just a serenade for Cuddy.

I heard it as one of loneliness and despair, of knowing he'll never belong. Then why is it called "Cuddy's Serenade" if it's not about her? It might be about his loneliness, but her name's in the title so that means that his loneliness is focused on not belonging in her life, not just not belonging in general. If you were never on the Internet and never turned on closed captioning (which most people don't) then you'd never know it had a name. Hell, you'd never know it was written by HL. All you'd see and hear was House, lonely and alone at his piano while all these people in his life are gathered together without him. People have complained that there aren't enough moments this season that show House being "human." This is an iconic one that does just that and give us a view of House that his friends never see -- that he'd never let anyone see. Why get hung up on a title that may have been slapped on by closed captioning idiots or post production people? First of all, on a 'man is that a good idea' note, I'm going to start watching the show with close captioning on. Sometimes I misunderstand things people say but it just never occured to me to turn it on. I really don't think this situation is healthy for House. If he really had disdain for human interaction and was just happier being by himself, then I think people should respect that. If, though, he is mired in lonliness and he feels like he doesn't belong within his particular peer group (another unhealthy aspect of this is that your entire peer group shouldn't consist of people you know from your job) then imho, doctor heal thy self. I don't really know if I see a coherent, narrative link in the series long arc of House's character. Again, it might be because it is very subtle or it might be because the writers are doing some characterization judo because they don't feel like they can keep the character fresh if they keep his general conception and philosophy of life exactly the same from the beginning to the end (and the end hasn't happened yet so we don't even know if this is the general philosophy the writers are taking). We've seen him by himself, playing music at the end of episodes before. I think Human Error was the most iconoclastic sketch of House, by himself. He was smiling almost grimly, I think we were meant to see that he was, at least in a way, alright with all of the upheaval. I don't know if they wanted us to think that he didn't really create long standing, concrete bonds with the other people in his universe but it seemed like they might have been going for that. I can respect that, because no one owes anything to anyone else in that sense and if he truly doesn't want to connect with people, if his philosophy on life is misanthropic, in a way it only serves to make him seem even more iconoclastic. Having a knee jerk kind of disdain for normal people isn't really something that should be lauded in my view (having a generally distrusting view of humans and human nature is different but sometimes House seems veer into disdain which isn't even really the definition of misanthropy). Having him decide, 'Oh, I'm lonley now' is a bad idea in my view because he has never really expressed exactly that before. He has expressed lonliness (most notably in Detox) but he seemed to accept that. Also, I don't want to see him get really emo because we've seen time and time again that people are naturally drawn to him and will readily hang out with him (Wilson, Stacy, Cuddy, Cameron, Chase, Lucas, poker night, Honey etc. Even Kumar invited himself to hang out at one point). If he changes his mind and decides that he wants to let the world in a little bit more, then I feel like he would have to change his behavior. Up until One Day, One Room I wasn't even totally on board with the whole, House is damaged emotionally philosophy. Up until then, all we had that we knew was negative in his life was his bad luck to get the infarction and the doctors that didn't diagnose him properly and the residual fall out from that with Stacy. His drug addiction also comes into play but I think the writers have been kind of inconsistent about that. I think his difficulties with people might stem more from the fact that he is a genius on a level that doesn't exist hardly anywhere in the world. I'm reminded of that show Intervention (I don't know if anyone watches it but if you don't you really should because it is quite possibly one of the greatest things ever put on television) and their episode about Gabe, a child genius with a gambling addiction. Great genius can be a burden and It think almost a disadvantage in certain cases because these people share the world with normal people. You can know every aspect of behaviorism, you can boil human nature down to a series equations and concrete formulas but at the end of the day, if you're hungry, you still have to go to the gorcery store and talk to people. If you want money, you have to coexist with other people at a job. House is luckier than I think he realizes because he is, to a certain extent, surrounded by people who accept him for who he is and don't really expect him to jump through the hoops normal people do. In short (I say that after 7 paragraphs) most of his alienation from other people can be placed squarely on his shoulders. I don't know if I'll respect the character as much if this becomes a running theme.

Why get hung up on a title that may have been slapped on by closed captioning idiots or post production people? Because the title exists for a reason. They could have just said, "House plays a tune" or "House plays a melody" but they didn't. Add that to Wilson's line about House wanting to be a part of that kids life, and I'm terrified they're going to attempt to make House Cuddy's baby daddy. It's not like she's not practically begging for it anyway. I just cannot believe that House is suddenly pining to be part of this family but I don't know how else to read the situation. I can't sit through House bonding with a child, or having any kind of a surrogate family involving a child, it feels wrong to me. I agree. House is 50. Most people at that age are not interested in starting a family or getting involved with a ready-made one. House likes his bowling, poker, drinking, medical puzzles, drugs, and hookers. House knows he doesn't have anything to offer Cuddy, just like he realized with Stacy. He broke up with Stacy because he wasn't willing to change to make her happy and she was supposedly the love of his life.

I view House as more likely to engage in a relationship with a kid, if he doesn't have final responsibility for him or her, than anyone else. Uncle Greg. Men over 50 start families all the time, especially if they are successful. Eric Clapton married at 57 and now he has 3 children, never happier. But I think House might be dead or dying by 60. Boffle wrote, "He's an ass but he's a lot more than that. Cuddy's starting to realize how much of an act that is. But it's also part of who he is. Complicated. With Cuddy, he's now trying to see if he can stop the games. ...but huzzah to him for being brave enough to look at it (desires) clearly and try to come to terms with his own heart. Excellent!" House trying to stop the Cuddy games is the best news yet for House's well-being. But, as Boffle wrote, only in his interactions with Cuddy. He continued the judicious use of games to correct the 14 problem in this episode. I think House has been trying to stop the games with Cuddy and relate to her more honestly since the disastrous boob grab in LTEC. In JTTW, he continued with the sexual baiting game but only to maintain the game she had started with her office squatting. He had fouled her with the boob grab but he wasn't going to add insult to injury by abandoning the field. However, I think this was the moment he had had enough of playing games with Cuddy. His anguished face when he was pondering his actions after the boob grab and he questioned Taub about fidelity was on a whole new level of intensity for House in LTEC. So, since the boob grab and even more since Rachel arrived, nothing in relation to Cuddy is a game for House. He takes parenthood very seriously.

But even more, this wasn't an isolated incident for Taub. He has major attitude with a lot of patients. I’ve been trying to find a pattern in his judgmental behavior and it’s still not entirely clear. In LTEC it was the dishonesty of the PoTW that set him off and I assumed it was a form of self hatred since he cheated on his wife. In Painless it was about his suicide attempt. This episode I think we’re back to the hypocrisy. I agree that it’s getting tiresome and I find myself tuning out or forwarding those scenes when he talks at the patients. I confess that I wasn't paying close attention, but I thought the juxtaposition at the end wasn't intended to highlight House's loneliness but rather the essential differences between he and Cuddy that would make a relationship impossible. Cuddy really does want at least some of the conventions of a "normal" life. She and Wilson are actually far better matched. I do think that we have to go beyond what we saw and turn to the music for clues as to what was going on in House’s mind. It's the reason why HL put seems to have put much thought and effort into composing it, after all. The fact that he was playing Jewish folk songs that celebrated life told me that he longed to be at Cuddy’s baby’s simchat bat. The fact that he played a variation of YCAGWYW told me that he wanted to be a part of her life but couldn’t. She and Wilson are actually far better matched. I’ve wondered in passing about a possible relationship between Cuddy and Wilson ever since Forever in season 2. But House’s words always came to mind “You’re too nice for her to like. She’s not needy enough for you to care.” But Wilson has changed somewhat after Amber so it might have a better chance now. I detected a spark between them in this episode when Cuddy called Wilson an idiot and strode into his office. I don’t think the writers will go there, though, so I don’t give much thought to it. I'm terrified they're going to attempt to make House Cuddy's baby daddy I am sure they won’t. Cuddy may lose Rachel. And even if she keeps the baby, the House/Cuddy arc will end and whatever little screen time Cuddy does get will be at the office after it does. The baby will be ‘there’ but we won’t see it. Hope that eases your worries somewhat :)

I like your thinking jim. :-) Yes, House is trying to play it straight, then Cuddy goes for the games, feels bad, apologizes, but she's not done. The whole inviting him/not inviting him starts out as a game, then she tells him not to come, which she thinks is the truth, but she's disappointed not to see him there. So every time she tries the games she fails and realizes she wants him in her life. Somehow. And he's sitting back waiting for her to achieve clarity about what she wants. She may not get it, but at least it won't be because he's muddied the water while she's processing her feelings. He's giving her time. It's really very generous. I mean he's House, so it's self-serving too, but for him, a big step. Also, totally agree that because of his genius and, in a broader sense, the way he looks at things, without blocking out what is socially acceptable or conventional, he tends to have more possibilities open to his thinking than even most very smart folks. At his best, he's wide open about what might have happened or what might be causing a certain situation, and then he sees a pattern forming and can identify when a solution fits more accurately than someone with only conventional linear thinking to draw on. He does both. And as he says in Alone, he has a gift for observation. He also has a gift for action, which is compelling when he chooses to exercise it. But all that is also isolating, he sees more but is less involved, and that is the habit of a lifetime. It's great to ask the question then, can he change himself? Even a little? Of course, it's a huge thing to change oneself and takes great motivation. So if they do decide to give him a relationship with Cuddy, and more especially with Rachel, that would be an awesome thing. I don't think they would make House any less of an ass, because that's part of who he is, but they might give him a nonverbal connection with the child (and nonverbal is where he seems to find his connections with people best) that would be handled well. I don't see why he can't have that sort of relationship. He had a dog and it didn't change him. He changed the dog. Of course, I doubt if they'll have the child on the show permanently, but while she's there, I think it's great to see if the life and wellbeing of the innocent child of someone he cares about is enough motivation for him to grow a little. It gives another facet to this intriguing character who has such deep flaws and such great gifts, but who aspires, in some ways, to be normal, the one thing he'll never be.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that House wants to be normal. But I would say he'd like to figure out how not to be miserable. I also think he'll fail, again and again.

Namaste I don't think he wants to give up his genius or any part of his thinking, observing abiliites. I was thinking more of his seeing himself as an outsider looking in, wanting to be part of the gang and knowing he's not ever going to be. He wonders what it would be like and seems intent on testing that to see if he could be, just as he tests everything else. In a way, for him, he has to be incredibly fearless to test that part of himself because it's such a core aspect. But when he wants to know things, he has no boundaries (cf, sticking knife in socket). And yes, he'll probably fail because he's right, people don't change. But the drama, for me, is seeing his reach exceed his grasp.

Re: the conversation between House and the POTW about House having a "thing" for Cuddy... How/where/when did the POTW get the info that prompted him to ask the question?

Re: the conversation between House and the POTW about House having a "thing" for Cuddy... How/where/when did the POTW get the info that prompted him to ask the question? My take on that scene (one of my favorites in a stellar episode) was that we came upon the conversation at the mid-point. House was scraping the bottom of the Jello cup and the priest was picking over the end of his meal. I think of this a sort of confessional moment: House was able to open up to a stranger whose attitudes he admired and whose insights he did not fear. The priest is a professional trained in the arts of reading people and perceiving their dispositions through minute facial and verbal clues. So I imagine that House raised obliquely his dilemma with Cuddy and the priest took it from there.

Thanks, blacktop. That makes sense. And it confirms that his "thing for Cuddy" is on his mind more than is depicted on screen. Of course, he can't let the conversation get too deep, even in this situation...hence, the "I have a thing for Cuddy's thing" dismissal.

Just saw that ep a few minutes ago and I have to say I didn't like it very much. Again, the problem was the overwhelming feel of wasted potential. The exchanges between House and the PotW appeared rushed, but were otherwise good. And It's been made, but I have to join the choir and point out the absurd underuse of Chase. And for what? For a journey down memory lane? The same old dance about the black guy who has to find a job but really can't, the girl who has been fired for the third time and their romance? It's not even an accurate trip, since Foreman was hired by Cuddy and was not subject to House's firing. Cuddy said she couldn't override House's decision. She obviously could. I can see that as a statement the she actually agreed with him, and that's why she was not willing to keep him nor write a recommendation letter, but if that was the case, then he wouldn't have been brought back in. Not by House alone. Didn't Cuddy get the memo saying that she is still the dean? I won't even comment about the "romance" anymore. Even with Wilson thrown in, it feels like fifth graders who took psychology 101. On a weirder note, I thought very odd the way the priest grabbed the lying kid's head near the end. For a second there I thought he was the one going to get his job back. Which, by the way, is a joke House could have used instead of recycling his old "if..., the terrorists win".

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