5.18 - Here Kitty

One of the few things we know about Kutner is that he was a bully, and he bullies House here. I pretty much agreed with 13's reaction. Bullshit that Kutner "bullied" House! House teased Kutner repeatedly over and over, then pranked Kutner, and Kutner pranked him back. Effect on House? He had to sit in pee for half a second. Not bullying. Not even close. I don't really get why Wilson was being so hoity toity about House doing an autopsy on the coma guy. I thought it was valid that he might be looking for a connection to the cat since there were so many deaths the cat "predicted." I don't think it was House doing the autopsy; I think it was House doing the autopsy right then instead of taking care of his patient. House wasn't doing the autopsy to save lives, but to prove his point -- the one that he was clinging to as strongly as anybody else was clinging to superstition, even though no one was challenging him on it. House was being immensely stubborn. Which is part of who he is, and generally there's a benefit to his stubbornness. This time, not really, which was what Wilson pointed out. (And then promptly left! No drawn-out lecture! YAY!)

I loved that House was going to play with his toy cars at the end, that's just so cute. I don't know how fast I would have noticed the pee. Once my kitten peed on my blanket and it took me a few minutes to realize what happened. At first I thought he had but it was just warm and it didn't feel wet so I wasn't sure, then I felt it. Darn cat. And I wouldn't call what Kutner did bullying. He was getting even. House started it. Gross that it was his own pee? Definately. Bullying? I don't think so. (And then promptly left! No drawn-out lecture! YAY!) Agreed, I thought their scenes actually fit nicely with what we saw last week. Especially the last one. House bragged (but not obnoxiously so), Wilson easily admitted he was right, and House even led Wilson to the answer for himself instead of just coming out and saying it even though he knew. Cuddy's so much hotter now that those bangs are gone or brushed to the side or whatever happened to them. And she was so much better than she has been acting for most of this season. Still, I wasn't broken up to see her disappear halfway through the episode.

Bullying? I don't think so. Yeah probably not the exact right word for Kutner's aggressive retaliation to House's games, though I do think peeing on his expensive chair was ratcheting it up a notch. Anyway, my point was to contrast Taub and Kutner's differeing responses to House's games. Taub doesn't deal with them well because he's used to maintaing a professional veneer of competence and House doesn't let him get away with it, he wants real, thorough competence, and Kutner seems to relish the games, so House has to go pretty far to shock him. I like to see House get some of his own stuff back from time to time, but sometimes I think just like House does, people trying to get back at him go too far. Cuddy did with the trip wire, and to a much lesser degree, I thought Kutner did here too. It was pretty disgusting imho.

This might be me failing at belief suspension, but I don't think kittehs (even Death Kitties) are allowed to roam around hospitals. I loved Therapy Cat, BTW. That cracked me up. Kutner peeing on House's chair wasn't bullying, IMO, so much as it was just really, really hilarious.

I don't think it was House doing the autopsy; I think it was House doing the autopsy right then instead of taking care of his patient. House wasn't doing the autopsy to save lives, but to prove his point -- the one that he was clinging to as strongly as anybody else was clinging to superstition, and that no one was challenging him on. Which carried through to the end, when he went to brag to Wilson about solving the mystery of the cat's abilities and figuring out what the patient had...BEFORE calling the OR to stop her surgery. Which was sort of a "whoa" moment, considering that we'd already seen Chase all scrubbed up and ready to go. I thought it was weird that House didn't *smell* the peed on chair before he sat in it, but maybe he thought it was just the litter box. Thirteen's reaction was great, especially preceded by "Why are you still alive?" I just thought of this after watching the one Taub scene, but I liked Foreman very gently and diplomatically telling Taub to empty the litterbox and he would take care of it next time. I'm not sure why, but it just struck me as Foreman trying to be constructive and get things back on task.

Kutner didn't necessarily have to pee on the chair himself. I'm sure he could've just emptied a bit of urine from a catheter bag. :lol: It was an okay ep. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it. I wish they would've focused a bit more on the patient and bit less on Taub's soap opera. All the House/Taub/Kutner interactions seemed a bit forced to me for some reason. It was as though the writers suddenly realized that the team has no dynamic with House or each other, so they tried to create it then cram it all into one ep. However, the Snoreteen was largely in the background and Cuddy seemed like an adult again, so I can't complain too much. Chase with a patient is always a good thing, too.

Secondary gain from the patient's blankets was one of the reasons that was speculated for the cat's behavior. Also speculated is what Foreman brought up - that the cat might smell organ failure or something like that. I don't know if anyone ever followed up to study patterns in what he was doing, though. I'm sure the nursing home just appreciates the early warning system.

This might be me failing at belief suspension, but I don't think kittehs (even Death Kitties) are allowed to roam around hospitals. Roam around, no. That's why they were all searching so hard when kitty wandered away. But any animal that has been bathed and checked out can be a therapy visitor to hospitals. Dogs are simply the most common. Besides, this is the hospital that keeps a barn in the basement, complete with pigs. :lol: Cuddy did with the trip wire, and to a much lesser degree, I thought Kutner did here too. It was pretty disgusting imho. I don't think House was as grossed out as he seemed to be. In Safe he caused Wilson to pee on his couch (and was unhappy that Wilson hadn't put plastic wrap on the toilet so the floor would get peed on.) In Top Secret, when he dreamed he was wearing a catheter bag that ripped, his main comment was that urine is sterile. Of course, he didn't like it when Hank Wiggins' catheter bag broke on him and when Harvey spilled the apple juice House thought was urine he said "Well, he peed on me. I’m not into that." So, while I don't think House would like that someone pissed on his chair, he's fine as long as Kutner pays for the dry cleaning.

Since this ep was based on that story in the news a few years ago about a death predicting cat in a nursing home, I was wondering if anyone knew if it turned out to be the same explanation for the cat's behavior in that case. There was an article published on it in The New England Journal of Medicine. You can access part of the original article here. I think you need to be a subscriber to access the full text version. But Wikipedia has the following summary of it: No one is certain if Oscar's behavior is scientifically significant. Nor is there certainty whether his behavior results from inborn abilities or is the result of learned behavior from him living nearly his entire life in an end-stage medical facility where death is quite common and expected. Dr. Joan Teno, a professor of community health at Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in Providence who cares for Steere House residents and sees Oscar on a regular basis, said: "It's not that the cat is consistently there first. But the cat always does manage to make an appearance, and it always seems to be in the last two hours."<5> Dr. Dosa (also affiliated with Alpert Medical School), who describes the phenomenon in an essay in the July 26 issue of the NEJM, says that "(Oscar) doesn't make too many mistakes. He seems to understand when patients are about to die," speculating that "the cat might be picking up on specific odors surrounding death." Dr. Teno supports this view: "I think there are certain chemicals released when someone is dying, and he is smelling and sensing those." <2> Some animal behavior experts say the explanation about Oscar sensing a smell associated with dying is a plausible one. "I suspect he is smelling some chemical released just before dying," says Margie Scherk, a veterinarian in Vancouver, British Columbia and president of the American Association of Feline Practitioners. "Cats can smell a lot of things we can't," she says. "And cats can certainly detect illness." Dr. Jill Goldman, a certified applied animal behaviorist in Laguna Beach, California says that "Cats have a superb sense of smell," adding that keeping a dying patient company may also be learned behavior. "There has been ample opportunity for him to make an association between 'that' smell ".<2> The sense of smell may, however, be just one explanation. Dr. Daniel Estep, a certified applied animal behaviorist in Littleton, Colorado suggests that "One of the things that happen with people who are dying is that they are not moving around much. Maybe the cat is picking up on the fact that the person on the bed is very quiet. It may not be smell or sounds, but just the lack of movement."<2> Dr. Thomas Graves, a feline expert from the University of Illinois, told the BBC: "Cats often can sense when their owners are sick or when another animal is sick. They can sense when the weather will change, they're famous for being sensitive to premonitions of earthquakes." <6>

Looks like Hugh for once wasn't available for a shot when only his arm was visible. When he's stroking DeathKitty on his desk that arm is incredibly hairy and incredibly not HL. Pretty sure that in the elevator scene when House is carrying DeathKitty in the bag (and the cat not visible, but the bag moves) they put one of the moving inner body prosthetics in there. It moves exactly like that. Glad they added a familiar looking brick wall with windows (like in Cuddy's office courtyard) to the outside shots, when they are searching for DeathKitty. It made it look much more like the outside of PPTH than any other outside scene. So was I the only one completely weirded out by Kutner tasting the fake blood that House spewed all over him? Nah, doctors develop a strong tolerance for bodily fluids. :wink: This might be me failing at belief suspension, but I don't think kittehs (even Death Kitties) are allowed to roam around hospitals. But it didn't. That's why House made sure nobody saw him take Kitty into coma guy's room (using the crash cart) and then closed the blinds. Then he carried it around in a bag and pretended Kitty's sounds were made by Wilson.

Looks like Hugh for once wasn't available for a shot when only his arm was visible. When he's stroking DeathKitty on his desk that arm is incredibly hairy and incredibly not HL. I noticed that too and was like huh? That's so not his arm. The hair was really dark too.

I don't think anyone's mentioned this yet, but last week Chase wasn't a brain surgeon. This week he was. Melbourne has weird surgical rotations they do hypnosis and neurosurgery aside from general :p Or maybe he learned neurosurgery by hypnosis ... who knows :D But I 'm not complaining, at least we get to see Chase a little bit. Didn't comment on the epi before, might as well do it now. It was a good filler epi imo, I am feeling very happy with the lack of 13/14 drama, thought overall it was an enjoyable epi even for the House uninitiated (it is sweeps after all isn't it?). Plus the epi reinforced my House is a decent human being under it all belief, in the way he treated both Kutner and especially Taub. Yes he pushed Taub but once his curiosity was satisfied he made sure the door was left wide open for Taub. A real ass wouldn't have let him back in.

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