I enjoyed this one. Didn't love it, but it was OK. I do pretty much agree with Boffle - But the only time my attention sparked tonight was when House was in the scene: what is he going to do or say? That's always interesting. I kept wanting the camera to follow him. but then, that's always my attitude towards this show. It felt very strange to me when House was in mid-diagnosis and the elevator door closed, cutting of his comments. Felt odd since he's almost always the center of attention. It also seemed odd to me that Cuddy would approach House for advice on admin matters. Are we to suppose that she goes to House for advice at other times? I guess she does go to him for advice on medical matters, but nice to see she respects his opinion on other things. As someone else said, this might not be what I would want to watch every week, but it was kind of interesting for one episode.

Now I know how Cuddy is busy everyday, as an able administrator, loving mother, and charming lover. What a super woman she is! She's almost perfect, when she doesn't have to compete House's crazyness with her immature attitudes. I really liked the scene when she had a sincere talk with House in the car. But when the elevator closed while House was still diagnosing, I just wished the camera went inside. I wanted to know more about the malaria! :D It's nice to have this kind of change of view points once in a while, although what I really want from the show are House and the medical mystery. I wasn't expecting Cuddy to scream in the entrance hall, at the end. I loved it. I wanted to see her more in close-up. :)

Can we please avoid the "working women are too busy to spend time with their babies so they shouldn't have them" issue? Millions of parents are busy executives or work long hours in factories or in the field and manage to love and care for their children just fine. Likewise, there are plenty of parents who couldn't be bothered to get off the couch long enough to go to their child's parent-teacher conference. What we saw was this one character who immediately stopped what she was doing when her daughter needed her, made she sure was in good hands, left specific instructions, checked in with her as often as she could and at the end of the day, baby was happy and content and sleeping beside her mother, mother was happy and content and loving her life.

Very good episode indeed. It did make me see things I did not know about Cuddy and her job (which, I assume, was the goal): the exhaustion, the loneliness of the position, the doubts, etc. Thinking about how easy it would have been for the writers to have her be the "no-House-you-cannot-do-that" woman, I was very pleasantly surprised. Furthermore, it was quite interesting to me to see the relative similarities between Cuddy's job and the diagnosis team's. Especially since one of House's mottoes when it comes to the Dean is that she, unlike him, is not a real doctor and does not behave like one. All the episode through, Cuddy made somewhat-educated guesses; she placed "bets", to use the word that kept coming back. She got it wrong several times but ended up being right; just like the team in general and House in particular do every week. There is no doubt that luck played a great part in her eventual success, but almost all of House's epiphanies are based on sheer good fortune (an unrelated word or gesture is usually at the root of his miraculous realizations). The omnipresence of the word "bitch" bothered me a litttle at first but, by the end of the episode, it had become a compliment (a bit like House and "bastard" or Wilson and... "bitch"). The Atlantic Net guy clearly used it to underline his grudging admiration. It was a nice way to overturn the stigma! Little question: how do they (do not know who "they" are) get babies to cry in films and TV shows? It hadn't bothered me so far but now I wonder. Are the kids Method-trained actors who use their personal experiences to feel what their characters feel or do the directors/actors/parents simply poke the children with a stick? Does Hugh Laurie call them "scumbags"? Side note: I could not agree more with Namaste's latest comment. I think the final scene, which was blissfully quiet, says it all.

As a working mother (whose husband worked out of town when the kids were young), I understand the issues of time (both quality and quantity) spent with young children. Leaving aside judgment of her desire for kids as a single mother, I think Cuddy is doing the best she can for herself and her daughter. (BTW I think she put Rachel in the shower with her to help clear her congestion - remember she was using a mucus-removing squeeze-bulb in the previous scene.) All in all I liked the episode, especially Cuddy's backbone, reminiscent of Season 1, as many have remarked. And yes, I know it's fiction, but I really admire her ability to compartmentalize and multitask, even in very fraught and high-stakes situations. I know I don't have that gift.

I want to stress that in my comment earlier when I said it would have been interesting to see Cuddy make the choice to be childless, I didn't mean that she should not have kids because she was a working mom. Far from it. I just think it would be interesting to see a woman on tv who makes a conscious choice to be childless and prefers her career and feels comfortable on her own. It seems that single characters are always on the quest for the man and the ring which is really disheartening. Yes, I realize it is the goal of most people to share their life with someone, but for some people, they're quite happy with their life path and that doesn't include marriage or children. Now, since it's TVland, they're not going to have a character like that, but it would be nice. Having kids and choosing to be childless are both equally valid and each choice has its own set of rewards.

I just think it would be interesting to see a woman on tv who makes a conscious choice to be childless and prefers her career and feels comfortable on her own. Mary Richards? C.J. Cregg? Liz Lemon? I think there are and have been plenty of single and happy with it female characters. I agree that it's nice to have them, but I don't think it's bad to have a woman in her late 30s/early 40s question that. I've found that it's something a lot of woman go through, even those who are very happy with their lives as it is.

Mary, sure. I didn't watch the West Wing and Liz Lemon has had major baby fever. Remember when she walked off with the toddler? And the man/baby ultimate goal depictions far outweigh a few scattered roles here and there. Yes, it is something alot of women go through. But there are also alot of women who say "Don't want kids, never have" How often have we seen that? Many people tend to look at someone who chooses to be childless as "lesser than," or "selfish" when it's much more complicated than that. Our culture seems to think that anyone who does this is inherently damaged in some way. There's alot of drama to be mined from that. That's all I'm saying.

I was under the impression that the Cuddy-baby thing started because, when the show began, LE pointed out to TPTB that she was of the age when she had to decide whether or not to procreate. If the show were successful, they might need to accommodate a pregnant Cuddy. Having spent so much time discussing it, the writers apparently got interested in the idea of Mama Cuddy so, even when LE didn't have a baby, Cuddy did. I'd rather Cuddy hadn't adopted Rachel because I have no interest in watching a show about motherhood. But she seems to be doing an adequate job. I'd like to see Rachel again when she's ready to graduate from high school. Until then, not so much.

Seems the episode has garnished pretty favorable reviews from the media, including Alan Sepinwall, who has not been kind to the show this year. It definitely is not the format I want to watch every week as I love House but I also love Cuddy so I was happy that she got some screentime. And kudos to LE. Now if they would just spend that much time on an episode with House, all would be well. BTW, did anyone notice Hugh's black eye in the scene with House and Cuddy at the elevator? I rewatched that scene and it seems pretty apparent it was swollen and a little green. I believe this episode was shot around Thanksgiving when Hugh was sporting the "I missed the punch" look.

CJ Cregg had a baby after she left the West Wing. It was mentioned in the season 7 premiere, the scene in which the show flashes forward to the opening of the Bartlet library, I believe. Yes, it is something alot of women go through. But there are also alot of women who say "Don't want kids, never have" How often have we seen that? Many people tend to look at someone who chooses to be childless as "lesser than," or "selfish" when it's much more complicated than that. Our culture seems to think that anyone who does this is inherently damaged in some way. There's alot of drama to be mined from that. That's all I'm saying. I have a co-worker who feels this way and I have great respect for her choice and tell her over and over that no one has the right to tell her what to do with her life or make her feel bad for making this decision. She likes kids just fine, as long as they are someone else's kids and has no desire to have any of her own.