5.24 - Both Sides Now

I was just thinking...House's hallucinated happy world involved Cuddy not being Cuddy - he essentially erased Rachel (who is now a very fundamental part of Cuddy) in this fantasy by having Cuddy sweep his insult under the rug and then up and abandon her to be with him. He wants someone else in a Cuddy-shaped package. And The Softer Side pretty much showed Cuddy wants someone else in a House-shaped package, but not House as he really is. And now I'm very interested to see what their relationship will be like next season.

Even completely spoiled this was an incredible episode. I almost get tired of shouting out what an incredible actor Hugh Laurie is. Almost :lol: . Some random thoughts and questions after watching it twice. Why did House go into Cuddy's office in 'Under my skin' if not for her help? Did he really want to quit? Why the cruel remark? In this ep. what was it that Cuddy was playing with in her office? Coins? Why does she look merely annoyed in the lobby when House has made his big announcement and is she crying in the next scene? Another hallucination? Taub was once again a pleasure. I thought that Wilson looked much more sad/shocked in the scene in his office than in the last one. My mind can't take it all in yet.

It just occurred to me that when House sat up to put his pants on in Under My Skin, the fact that we could see his thigh but no scar wasn't a continuity error. It was a clue.

It just occurred to me that when House sat up to put his pants on in Under My Skin, the fact that we could see his thigh but no scar wasn't a continuity error. It was a clue. Was it? I thought the hallucination/delusion of his interactions with live people didn't begin until Cuddy's office.

It just occurred to me that when House sat up to put his pants on in Under My Skin, the fact that we could see his thigh but no scar wasn't a continuity error. It was a clue. Was it? I thought the hallucination/delusion of his interactions with live people didn't begin until Cuddy's office. That's what I thought as well, but I guess in rewatch we will wonder about many more scenes. The one in the elevator when things started to get blurred, was that when it started?

I think if I were a Huddy I would be jumping for joy at this point. Yes, the sex was a hallucination but it's canon that House wants to have a real relationship with Cuddy and is willing to go after her to get it which is the most romantic he's been since Stacy. (I have no idea why Ausiello thought they would be upset at this.) And so the Huddy continues into next season. There was also a lot of good House/Wilson stuff proving that House's feelings for Cuddy don't threaten that bond. HL did a great job on the acting. Everyone did but as usual he got the golden stuff. Chase, with the patience of a saint, married Cameron so fans of that relationship are happy. I think the only group that got royally screwed over were those who were fans of Cameron in seasons 1 and 2. The blonde bimbo in these episodes, the one who is such a ditz that she can't give up her dead husband's sperm (couldn't she keep a sweater of his instead?) and goes to House for relationship advice instead of being the one in the know, bears no relationship to the original Cameron that I had been waiting to get back. Sadly, unlike Amber who may well be back next May, Cameron truly is dead.

See, I think this was a swiss cheese sort of situation the last few episodes. Things were real, but when we got to House's POV, unreliable. We thought he knew when he was hallucinating because of Amber's appearance and we thought that was his only hallucination. But now, it seems that he didn't know at the end when he was hallucinating and it strikes me that that may have been going on since "Locked In", like the elevator scene with Wilson saying you're alone" terrified him and may well have been an early hallucination. Maybe he didn't give himself insulin shock but merely had the idea of doing it and we saw how his mind played that out. Wilson was odd there too. I think there were some "off" things that happened, including the undamaged thigh, that may have happened only or partially, in House's head. He doesn't limp when he hallucinates and people are kinder to him.

I did not cry, but it was still an awesome episode. I'll save my crying for when they kill off Hurley on Lost. (And no, I haven't been reading spoilers, I am just totally calling it. Hurley has the mark of death on him ;) ) I liked that they ended the season like this. In fact, I it was satisfying enough for it to be a series ender. They could never do another House again and I would be cool with that :)

I think the only group that got royally screwed over were those who were fans of Cameron in seasons 1 and 2. The blonde bimbo in these episodes, the one who is such a ditz that she can't give up her dead husband's sperm (couldn't she keep a sweater of his instead?) and goes to House for relationship advice instead of being the one in the know, bears no relationship to the original Cameron that I had been waiting to get back. Sadly, unlike Amber who may well be back next May, Cameron truly is dead. I hated "crush" Cameron, and I'm glad she's gone. The woman who's here now is someone who still hates to give up on dreams (whether it was the impossible one of reforming House or this one of letting go of that final piece of her husband), but -- as we've seen since the third season -- someone who's accepted what she has now, rather than some fantasy that never will be. She's moving forward with her life, rather than looking back. I like that. Interesting, though, that as Cameron moves forward and fully gives herself into this new reality (v. the fantasy of PDH or House), House was giving himself into fantasy.

Ha! Namaste, your rotating avatars are making my head spin :D On topic: I really enjoyed this episode, and I can't wait for season 6. I think this is the most broken we've ever seen House and, while I feel bad for him, I like where his story's headed. That psychiatric hospital looked like a place Dr. Hannibal Lector would be proud to call home...

I thought the hallucination/delusion of his interactions with live people didn't begin until Cuddy's office. I thought his delusions or his dissociate state started once he used the insulin injection. From that moment on I think a lot of what we saw was a hallucination, including Wilson giving him his pants. I think House never even went to that bar, Wilson never really picked him from there. House went to Cuddy’s office because he might never have left the hospital, before that moment. I watched the two episodes in a row and wow! That was intense! I need to rewatch them at least three more times to get the nuances a little better. I still can't decided which Wilson was real and which wasn’t, because some of their scenes and dialogue were very odd and in some of them Wilson seemed more like IdAmber then his usual self. Interesting that House created a fake life that mirrors the life that Wilson wants him to have: be happy, be with someone, try to be with Cuddy, try something other than Vicodin. Of course it was a lie, he based it on someone else’s expectations. But above all: Thank God, that back story between House and Cuddy was untrue! That was bothering me even more than the instant!detox… Great season ending – I thought it was more heartbreaking than the last one, if this is possible. And I just couldn’t stop some tears when they were looking at each other at the end. Perfect and haunting! On a happy note: C&C are just too adorable for words!

This was perfect. A very interesting POTW, a surprising clinickish patient, Cameron's substory being resolved quickly and reasonably and I take off my hat to the hallucination semi-arc. Really, this was excellent. It's not like they haven't used this plot device before (It's been used three times, if I recall correctly), so it was a little bit repetitive, but alarmingly well done so it wasn't boring nor did it feel like a revisit. Very similar to No Reason, but somewhat better because this didn't feel somewhat like a cop-out. Great. Cameron's substory made me feel a little sad, but for the actors. It is not in any way a fault, but it kind of ruined the happy ending for me. There's a look JS gives when he's hugging a crying Cameron that just seems heavy and detracted. Works for the scene and maybe I'm reading too much, but is was sad. Considering this season and the last's trajectory, I think I'm going to watch only the finales. They are way above the rest in every possible way.

See, I think this was a swiss cheese sort of situation the last few episodes. Things were real, but when we got to House's POV, unreliable. We thought he knew when he was hallucinating because of Amber's appearance and we thought that was his only hallucination. But now, it seems that he didn't know at the end when he was hallucinating and it strikes me that that may have been going on since "Locked In" I agree. I had always felt that there was something prescient about the elevator scene in "Locked In". Now I have to go back and rewatch all of those episodes. I bet I find lots of other "clues", too. I think that House started losing it long before even he knew he was losing it. Hallucinating Wilson's dead girlfriend is one thing. Hallucinating normal interactions and day to day activities and only realizing much later that they may or may not have happened must have been devastating to House. Oh, I can't wait to go back several eps and try to sort out the realities!! :idea:

I think the only group that got royally screwed over were those who were fans of Cameron in seasons 1 and 2. The blonde bimbo in these episodes, the one who is such a ditz that she can't give up her dead husband's sperm (couldn't she keep a sweater of his instead?) and goes to House for relationship advice instead of being the one in the know, bears no relationship to the original Cameron that I had been waiting to get back. Sadly, unlike Amber who may well be back next May, Cameron truly is dead. I hated "crush" Cameron, and I'm glad she's gone. The woman who's here now is someone who still hates to give up on dreams (whether it was the impossible one of reforming House or this one of letting go of that final piece of her husband), but -- as we've seen since the third season -- someone who's accepted what she has now, rather than some fantasy that never will be. She's moving forward with her life, rather than looking back. I like that. Interesting, though, that as Cameron moves forward and fully gives herself into this new reality (v. the fantasy of PDH or House), House was giving himself into fantasy. ITA. And I thought holding onto that sperm, while sort of weird, was very consistent with that old Cameron. It is, after all, a link to life, and when thought of that way much harder to part with. When she was younger and in the full flush of her love and grief she might have genuinely planned to go ahead and use it when all of that stuff she had to do - med school, residency, etc. was out of her way. (In a way, it's weirdly topical - someone on TWOP pointed out that lots of people in the armed forces are freezing sperm and ova before leaving for war, and no one's really given much thought to how that's going to work out if they die and the spouse moves on to a new relationship without using it.) And Cameron would hardly be the first person to think she knew everything about relationships and find out that in practice, she didn't. That list includes pretty much everyone in the entire world. I don't think she really wanted relationship advice from House so much as that human whiteboard - lay out the facts, see how they add up. (Unfortunately, the rational mind, which probably would have deduced more quickly that Cameron's claim of needing a backup was BS, wasn't in at the moment.)

The current Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital defintely not anywhere near as imposing as the original: here

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