I enjoyed this episode. It was beautifully acted. I don't mind that the ending was a bit sentimental for my taste. I like that House has recogonized that he wants to change and try to be happy. I like that he feels ready to move on. It will be interesting to see if he can sustain his motivation to be happy. I'm looking forward to seeing how it all plays out. That said, I really hope that if the Huddy mating dance continues this season, we see something much more mature. Clearly, House is capable of a mature, adult relationship. I could get on board with Huddy if it doesn't play like a junior high romance. Ok, there, I said it. I feel better now. It's so interesting to me how people see House. I don't see a creepy, balding old guy when I look at House (or HL for that matter). I like that he looks like lots of middle aged men I know. I want to see all of Greg House's 50 years on his face (and body). I probably feel that way since I'm closer to 50 than I am to 30. Whatever the case, I liked the episode. I can't wait to see more.

Am I the only one who took issue with the Lydia story line? Now, it was done beautifully, it showed that House can connect with people and love and get hurt etcetc. But taking away the storytelling-art, if this was real, Lydia really really bothers me. I feel like she took advantage of him. I feel like if it was about a male visitor to an asylum hooking up with a girl who has hallucinated and is depressed... it would be seen as 'wrong'. But the fact that she was woman made it ok. I feel like she was a sane woman, with some issues for focusing on the sister in law so much, but she wasn't depressed enough to be in an asylum herself. And House was a guy STRUGGLING in an asylum, finishing going through Vicodin withdrawel, being depressed... and she just wants to have fun with him. She admited she didn't care about the long term, just wanted to have fun right now and didn't seem to worry or care about anyone getting hurt later, as long as it was nice now. Her intentions totally remind me of high school boys who want to 'have fun' right now and have no intention of long term relationships. Or take advantage of girls who are craving for any kind of connection with a human.. kind of like Lydia did. House was 'broken' and she took advantage of that, had no intentions or discussions about leaving her husband or long term life. And didn't even have then decency to sit down and discuss with House why she has to leave. Am I putting too much into this? I know House needed her to show him he can love and get hurt, and it was nice in a storyline way. But as an actual person and analyzing this as if they were real.. she really bothered me. Am I the only one who is thinking this way?

I liked her, but it was complicated. I don't think she was maliciously toying with him; I think she genuinely liked him and started to fall in love with him. She saw that he was mostly sane (he wasn't hallucinating when they met) and maybe she saw that he needed someone and felt she could be kind to him this way. When House said it would end with someone being hurt, she said everything ends, she didn't mislead him. She was moved by what he did for her sister-in-law and felt a real connection with him, but really, once he saw her child, he must have known she couldn't choose him. Maybe she shouldn't have done it, but I think, as painful as it was, the better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all sort of thinking is what was going on here. He needed her and she needed him for that one moment and, well, they'll always have Mayfield, I guess.

I didn't catch the smoking. I'm calling it 20 even though my list is longer because some hospitals are just crappy. So some of the "errors" are things that shouldn't happen, rather than things that wouldn't. Also because I may well be wrong about some things--I only ever worked in one hospital. 1-A detoxing House is locked into his room (and so far as I know detox is done in medical facilities because of the potential for medical problems with it, rehab is done in the psych hospital, so count that as possibly two mistakes because no one gets locked into a room). 2-Isolation is used as a punishment, which is completely unethical. You put someone in isolation when they are out of control, to protect them and the people around them, not when they don't do what you want. 3-A prn is given orally to a patient who is being restrained for agitation, because apparently not only does the hospital not care about its staff members losing their fingers or their patients choking, but also because the situation isn't urgent enough to warrant a faster acting form of drug administration. Drugs to calm agitated patients are given by injection into the muscles. 4-Phone calls are denied, and 5-Visitors are denied, both unethical. Some drug rehabs don't allow visitors because they fear the patients druggie friends will bring them drugs, but House isn't in rehab. 7-There's a patient who's been hospitalized for ten years, as if any insurance company would pay for that. 8-House is in a state hospital when he should have insurance enough for a private facility. 9-There's a meds nurse who doesn't check so much as the top of a patient's tongue for meds, let alone the cheeks or lip pouch in front. 10-Nolan, the, what, medical director? laid a huge guilt trip on House, his patient, when it's Nolan's own security that failed in a major way. You do NOT blame psych patient for their erratic behavior--that's why he's in your hospital. 11-Nolan, a psychiatrist who sees individual inpatients in his office (a rare thing), which has potential weapons and medications that are not secured (I'm fairly sure that is illegal. The drug part, I mean). 12-An administrator who walks the wards (I never saw it happen). 13-An administrator/therapist who is so unprofessional as to hand his patient a day pass to diagnose the therapist's father and cries in front of his patient. 14-Lydia doesn't seem to keep to the visiting hours, and 15-Visitors aren't watched by staff. Then again 16- There don't seem to be any staff in the evenings. Does everyone go home at night? I can see House stealing the keys to a room, so I won't hold that one against Mayfield. 17-Add to that the shrink who shakes her butt at her patients. 18-Plus there's the inevitable bit of malpractice by the evil shrink treating freedom man. There are many lousy therapists out there, though, so maybe this one shouldn't count. 19-Almost forgot the patient who wanted Haldol. No one wants Haldol. 20—Nolan blackmails House to stay. This is not altruism. He gets bucks per bed filled. 21—Arguable whether this should get its own number, but what they heck. Where’s the security? 22—House tells the “orderlies” (mental health techs) that he’s not having a psychotic break. Did anyone even look up what that term means? A psychotic break is what House had at the end of House Divided--its the descent into psychosis. What the blond shrink thought House was doing was losing control, or becoming agitated. 23-Nolan tells house the discharge plans for Cello Woman, in violation of her confidentiality. And previously 1- Wilson claiming that the treatment for psychosis is ECT, when it isn't and 2- That ECT causes brain damage (which it did, old style, and can still in the new style, but that isn't usual) 3-A couple of staff surrounded House when he walked in to Mayfield in Both Sides Now. That’s a good way to lose a prospective patient, because its very intimidating and many people would just turn around and walk away at that point. Or they could incite a crisis that they can’t handle because the staff can't restrain or medicate someone who isn't their patient. I also disagree with the portrayal of psychosis, but that's probably something that can't be helped. The episodes themselves were great, which is more important. Shadowcat, thank you for putting so beautifully and concisely what bothered me about this episode. I've logged plenty of time in various institutions and there were so many errors, simplifications and outright wrongness in "Broken" it ruined it for me. During my last stay, the two patients put in isolation were a wild woman who was running into other patients' rooms and screaming incoherently at them; even when she was given drugs it had no effect on her behavior. My room was near the isolation rooms, and I had to listen to her pound on the door and scream all night. The other room was used to observe an actively suicidal patient, with nurses sitting in the doorway round the clock. If a patient was agitated, they were simply sent to their rooms. And Shadowcat is right, no one wants Haldol. Also, at every hospital I've been to, med techs and nurses check where you are about every ten to twenty minutes, day and night. Actually, it would have heightened the dramatic tension if House and Lydia had had to avoid the check-ins. House was definitely psychotic at the end of Season 5, but in this episode, detox from Vicodin and bingo, no more psychosis, just depression. Not even the kind of suicidal depression that keeps people in the hospital. No discussion of his father's death, Amber's death, Kutner's death, his hideous childhood--all great fodder for TV drama. No, what he needed was to get laid, find the miracle music box and get a re-birthday cake. Presto-chango, it's Happy Guy House! With a smiley-face t-shirt, no less. There's not being "real" on television, and then there is deliberately misrepresenting that reality, minimizing the pain of those who suffer from genuine mental illness and spreading the idea that all you have to is "man up" and change your attitude. Guess I might as well read "The Secret" and toss out out my meds.

Just enjoy the episode!Sorry but I had to say it because I tought it was one of the best ever.Yes,I said it.It seem that hald the fandom likes it and the other hates it

Sorry for the lateness, school tends to get in the way of everything. Also, sorry for the length. :oops: I like, but didn't love the episode. There were definitely some great parts, but there were a couple things that irked me. 1) House was very happy. And while I'm happy he felt better, it was hard to see him as House. It also made the episode feel less and less real. 2)Lydia irritated me to no end. I honestly could not remotely tolerate her. wiirenet said a lot of what I was thinking. She seemed selfish and mostly concerned for herself, and silly. Letting two people from a mental institution escape with no supervision does not equal an intelligent person in my mind. The two things that really stood out were: when House basically told her that if they continued that someone was going to get hurt and she answered with something like "I want to be happy. I was happy and now I'm not." and the feeling that she had no feelings for her family. House says, "I want you to stay" and she says, "I don't want to go." And all I could think of were the poor kids who were going to end up with a mother who cared more about the guy she had an affair with then her own kids. 3)The sex scene. I'm 15 and not (completely) naive, but it was rather long and I thought the message could have been conveyed the same way they did it for C/Ch, H/Cu, etc. I might have missed something (I think someone mentioned that House cried), because my dad decided to check up on me and was not happy. But yeah, long and awkward. (For me, anyway) Again, sorry for the ridiculously long post. I didn't hate the episode, though it kind of looks like it.

I just have to chime in again about how much I loved this episode. It reminded me in the best way of S1-3 House who in my opinion was a much more nuanced and subtle character. I think TPTB made him too one note (all snark all the time), and wasted much of HL's enormous talent, which was so beautifully on display in this episode. My god, the trace of tears when he was making love to Lydia...amazing stuff. Also, I didn't find anything wrong with Lydia's behavior. People do all kinds of things to make their lives bearable, and she was played with just the right touch of melancholy so that I believed she had a "good" marriage, just not a happy one. My grade: A+!!

I mentioned earlier that I saw Lydia's character as very selfish, so I agree with what some of the other posters are saying. I did not find her likable or thoughtful. I think that subplot was one of the weak spots of the premier, but despite that, the premier was very good storytelling. But, then, I've been hooked on House for years and most likely will continue to be, despite the minor hiccups.

I don't think half the fandom liked it and the other didn't. I think much more liked it, some almost completely and some with some grumbles on certain aspects. The ones who did not like it mostly are actually quite small. I find it interesting that I don't care if House even goes back but goes to another hosptial. The only one I think I would kind of miss is Wilson but even he could go.

Aww. I guess "Lost" producer Damon Lindehof liked the episode. Greg Yaitanes and Sara Hess both tweeted that he sent the "House" people warm cookies and cold milk in congratulations. (Which may have also been in congrats for ratings success, but still ... class act.)