6.22 - Help Me

ps--Eric is evil Wrong fandom, I know, but never the wrong time.

I still say she texted him. ;-) Lucas - I dnt luv u. Ring in desk drw. Pls move out. I <3 H. Srry. C u, Cuddy Hey, as long as he's gone, I don't care. LOL! Poor Cuddy. She tried, I mean she really, really, tried, to want what she thinks she's supposed to want. Lucas almost surely knew that he was out of his league. I'm betting he wasn't really surprised when she either rescinded her acceptance of his proposal, or (my bet) hesitated in the first place.

Except for Hugh Laurie this final was just low and soappy for me. As for the ending, don't make me begin with that. Well, I should have known better. I'm not a shipper at all but I don't know, I never feel this Cuddy/House attraction at all since day 1 so it always felt flat for me. It's a shame because this season began very well but got lost after 10 épisodes. That was tolerable but I would never watch that a second time.

I still say she texted him. ;-) Lucas - I dnt luv u. Ring in desk drw. Pls move out. I <3 H. Srry. C u, Cuddy Hey, as long as he's gone, I don't care. I love you. Just wanted to say that. I'd text you but my cell phone is dead. For realz, as the fangirls say.

ps--Eric is evil Wrong fandom, I know, but never the wrong time. Absolutely! I mentally add that to almost every note I send. :-) Beamin' love back atcha, Cuddyclothes!

I wonder what Lucas texted back? Lisa - WTF? OK packing. Glad I'm babystting Rachel rnt u? Got 2 run--candle fell over. L I can't top your text, though.

Superb episode with extraordinary acting from beginning to end. I was particularly impressed with the anti-sappiness of it all: -- Cuddy was brutal but not excessive as she told off House in the first act in her moment of anger, a moment that has been building all season, if not for the past several years. -- House was direct and honest as he told Hannah about his infarction and the desolation of its aftermath. His willingness to at last reckon with the changes wrought by his pain and his mistaken decisions about his leg was a scene of muted catharsis. Hugh Laurie's voice reached amazing depths of softness, sorrow, and longing without once sinking into bathos. -- House was also recognizably his blunt and honest self when he told Hannah about the precise pain she could expect with the amputation. He respected her by holding nothing back. Having Cuddy witness House's bravery from a distance and through sounds only was both subdued and gripping. -- I was afraid that Cuddy would once again ride to House's rescue to recreate their usual dysfunctional pattern as the savior in the final scene and it was sheer joy to have the opposite happen. Sitting on the bathroom floor, in a recall of the similar scene in "Both Sides Now," House assumes she is there to save him, to leap across to grab the pills from him in superhero fashion. But Cuddy warmly and wisely puts the decision back into his hands. When House threw away the pills it echoed the scene in BSN in which House threw away the coffee cup under questioning from Wilson. This time, freed from his illusion, House was once again chosing to be the man with Cuddy rather than the man with the puzzles. Cuddy too has shed her illusions: she is no longer in pursuit of the false stability of a conventional life with Lucas. She doesn't want to love an addict, but she has no choice, her heart cannot be denied. She doesn't buoy up House's hopes with unfounded optimism, but tells him the simple truth. She doesn't know what the future holds, but she thinks they will be O.K. The words that come to mind to best describe this final scene are plain, unvarnished, muted, and deeply earned. -- The quiet fear and simple longing of this underplayed final scene was beautifully set up by the emotional fireworks of the previous scene in which House reaches the breaking point in front of Foreman. Hugh Laurie reached bravura heights in that scene, matched by the soft lustre of his quieter moments of despair and hope. For the cartharsis, for the restraint, for the gutsiness and the grit, this performance in "Help Me" is the one I hope finally wins Hugh Laurie the Emmy he has deserved all these years.

Thanks, blacktop. I always love reading your take on an episode. So eloquently put. Just wanted to say that.

I thought the gesture of him throwing the pills was well considered. It was a moment of choice after he had been sitting o the floor trying to decide what to do with his life. He literally threw the pills behind him. Intentionally. In the past. Done. Just letting them slip from his hands would have made it seem like he was distracted, not making a decision. At that moment House was making a conscious decision, not being swept up in the moment. He decided to approach Cuddy immediately, tenderly and seriously choosing her and the future instead of choosing the vicodin and the past. Well-played, I say. Hello! I'm a loooong time lurker, but this episode gave me the courage to speak out. I really, really loved this episode. I didn't think the last moment with Cuddy and House was shoehorned in or out of the blue or out of character. I do have to confess that I love House/Cuddy, but I also love House/Wilson, House/Everyone, House/Anywhere, House/AnySituation. So I loved that we ended this season with something different with someone different. I think the closest we ever had a season finale where the show didn't end in a sad lonely place was season 3 with the Cuban couple. We see House CHOOSE to be okay with being alone after his fellows leave/quit. And he seemed content in his own way. But this was before the bus crash, the hallucinations, the Mayfield trip. So to quote Boffle, I really like that he makes a choice here too. And it's a choice NOT to be alone. (I guess I like the idea of choices versus things done to him...) It's a choice that I cannot wait to see play out in season 7!! My favorite HL moment was when he finds out that Cuddy is engaged to Lucas and it's the following scene with him and Hannah. He has this far away look in his eyes that made my heart wrench. I'm a fan of actors that can convey so much without saying..ANYTHING!! Is it bad of me as a House/Cuddy fan, but as a book lover, that when after they kissed and the hand shot, my mind first went to House's gift? I was thinking okay, how are both House and Cuddy going to erase Lucas's name out of that book without already destroying the value? LOL! I guess for someone who usually just read comments, I had a lot to say! LOL! One more thought, I am a HUGE fan of Boffle and blacktop. Thanks for all your insights!

I loved the episode, mostly because of the stellar acting. The conversations between House and Hannah sounded just right. That final scene, yeah, I'm not sure. What did make me smile was the bit where House could not get up, and Cuddy helped him. The hand, the smiles, that felt just right to me, and I would have preferred it if that had been the last shot. I don't envy Doris Egan, who will have to find a way to follow up on this, and perhaps try to resuscitate her 'own' part of fandom.

Thank you blacktop, that was wonderfully written. I wish I could express myself like you have. I just loved this episode. It made so much sense as an ending to this season to me. I am stoked other posters felt the same way I did.

I was terribly sad and I cried when Cuddy practically butchered House, dismissing him as a person and telling him it would have been better if he had died back when he had his infarction. When she rubbed it in his nose that he was alone. He did everything and got just hatred back. To top it all, she conned him into giving up his beliefs and browbeating the woman into agreeing with the amputation. Had he stand up to her for his patient, the women might have survived, and lived to tell the tale. In pain or not. She wasn't dismissing him "as a person." What she saw was a doctor who was putting his personal feelings in front of his job. After all, he was the one who tried to discuss romantic relationships IN THE MIDDLE OF A DISASTER AREA. Whether or not she deduced correctly that he was arguing against amputation because of her is beside the point (although admittedly narcissistic - but what's new with Cuddy?). She hit the nail right on the head that only he was holding himself back. Everyone else was trying to move on, but he kept himself stuck. And there's no guarantee that the patient would have survived any more than she would have in the situation they were eventually in. In fact, it was looking less and less likely. The point is... does one really want to live like House? Is it better to have a leg and be a burden on your loved ones or to amputate your leg and move on with your life? I agree to disagree. He had every right to fight for keeping the leg, his own and the leg of the patient. He was advocating for the right of his patient to make her own decission, and he had good medical reasons to do that. Cuddy's words hurt not only House, but me too. I was full fledged crying when she smashed him and step on him like on a cockroach (every pun intended) and I was deeply upset when he negated himself and told the worst version of his life story to Hanna. I was stumped when he pronounced that he had a fat embolus and felt as devastated as House 'felt'. First of all, there is one single reason to love this episode: Hugh Laurie. I never believed he could play any better than he usually does play House, and he proved me wrong. The feelings he expressed here, the fast changing of feelings, from devastation to disbelief over desperate hope and finally wanting to believe and spare his disbelief... Gosh! As bad and hard to believe the turn of events happened, and made me cry loud: Nooo!, at the second look, I can see where the TPTB come from: The hurtful things they did to each other since the season 5, and the terrible things Cuddy did to House since she adopted her girl can be viewed from the point: “You always hurt the one you love”, and, if I might say, you tend to hurt them worse. From that point of view, and dismissing my disbelieve about Cuddy and House dealing the site of the crash where they didn't come by chance, I watched the episode again, fully intending to enjoy the wonderful acting. I was death tired and freezing at the point (almost 5 am!), but I couldn't sleep anyway, I was that upset. I cleared my mind and watched it like a movie. WAM! So great! I never believed someone could do such a terrific job! When Cuddy smashed him, saying practically that he is a worthless miserable waste of space, hurting everyone in the process and rubbed it in his face how he is completely alone, I wanted to see some part of the building smashing her scull. LE must have done well her job to make me that mad. And Hugh was grandiose. The devastated look he had, and afterward, his voice sounding as if he had bin crying hard, debasing himself, denying everything he fought so hard to gain, diminishing his own beliefs... Just to try and save this young woman. Being this emotional, he lost his fate in his own credo. And the fate smashed him hard for it: He made 'the right decision', like every 'reasonable doctor' would have done, did the amputation himself, even if It must have pained him almost as hard as his patient to do it as it was for her to endure it... and as a 'thanks' from the fate she died. She died not in spite of the amputation but because of it. This mass of feelings, all in a short time span, and especially also the spectrum of feelings he sowed in the soapy ending, he did an incredible masterful peace of art. Had it bin a cinema movie, I'd have hoped for Oscar, now I hope for the long earned Emmy. If I were a Huddy, I'd stop looking after this episode. Knowing that no one gets to be happy on this show for more than a few episodes, this is the best episode to find conclusion and stop looking you can ever get. I'm not a Huddy, so I'm staying. I can only hope they try to avoid the same mistakes next season.

Lucas - I dnt luv u. Ring in desk drw. Pls move out. I <3 H. Srry. C u, Cuddy Lol! For some reason it cracks me up to imagine that Cuddy would use "H" as an acronym for House, and assume that Lucas knows who she's talking about. Hm, when I think about it, I actually would like to see a real breakup scene between Cuddy and Lucas. No, I'm not gloating... (in your face, Lucas!) ps--Eric is evil Hee. That reminds me of what's going to tide me over the House hiatus...;). What did make me smile was the bit where House could not get up, and Cuddy helped him. He he, that scene makes me smile too! It's kind of nice that she's also literally helping him up ;). And that he's allowing her to. Usually he ignores helping hands, but in this scene he's actually asking for her assistance. And I'm shocked, Cuddy actually owns sneakers! And the team looked so cosy in their sweaters and t-shirts, they should wear them more often ;).

I agree to disagree. He had every right to fight for keeping the leg, his own and the leg of the patient. He was advocating for the right of his patient to make her own decission, and he had good medical reasons to do that. He had every right to make that decision about his own leg. And, considering his own history, it was right of him to advocate for Hanna up to a point. As long as they weren't putting any other victims' lives in danger because they were using so many resources on her, he was right to prevent them from taking the easy route as long as they could. But there was finally a point at which he was refusing the amputation for Hanna for the wrong reasons. Letting Hanna keep her leg until it killed her wasn't going to change what happened to him a decade ago. And, unlike House, she didn't have the knowledge needed to make an informed choice. It took Cuddy's yelling at him to make him realize that they had run out of time and he had to tell Hanna that. I loved when he told her "It's just a leg." It was the perfect tie-in to Three Stories. Not excessive and very, very real. I fully understand House's decision to keep his emotional distance from patients. Whenever he allows himself to empathize with them, rather than treat them as a bunch of symptoms, it is so painful for him you get the feeling he literally feels everything they are going through. Lovely analysis, blacktop ETA: And I'm shocked, Cuddy actually owns sneakers! She wasn't jogging in stilettos at the beginning of Humpty, Dumpty.

I thought the gesture of him throwing the pills was well considered. It was a moment of choice after he had been sitting o the floor trying to decide what to do with his life. He literally threw the pills behind him. Intentionally. In the past. Done. Just letting them slip from his hands would have made it seem like he was distracted, not making a decision. At that moment House was making a conscious decision, not being swept up in the moment. He decided to approach Cuddy immediately, tenderly and seriously choosing her and the future instead of choosing the vicodin and the past. Well-played, I say. Completely agree. Well played indeed. Great post, blacktop

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