The fellowships are to teach doctors to be better diagnosticians, not to be like House. Just ask Foreman :wink: But there's being a good diagnostician and there's getting a diagnosis while staring at a girl's ass. Or dreaming it, or having it come to you when your friend drugs your coffee. If that isn't an innate ability than House isn't special, and House being special is the whole point of the character.

They have to throw the fellows a bone every once in a while. House can't always be right and they can't always be wrong. I don't think it's a threat to House if he has one fellow who does have a gift for making intuitive leaps from random clues like Chase has done. House is still the pro, but even he had to start somewhere. What he does is so much guts and guesswork to augment with the genius. It might be too much if they all started to have those moments, but I don't think it detracts from House to have someone else get it right on a rare occassion--especially if it's a case like Airborne where House isn't even around to get it right. It doesn't make House less special if Chase has two epiphanies in a three years to House's 69.

I'm not talking about whether or not they get it right, I'm talking about the WAY they get it right. The ducklings usually get it right by just saying "it could be this because A and B lead to C". The epiphanies, connecting A to C without going through B, that makes House special. Not how many they get right.

I know what you mean. I just don't think it makes House less special if someone else has an epiphany on occassion. They're all supposed to be incredibly intelligent people. It stands to reason that at least one of them would be intuitive, not just academic. Doesn't everyone have an epiphany now and then, even in real life? I think that if House was the only one ever shown to be able to make those leaps, it would turn House into some sort of super-hero. I don't think he's supposed to be all-knowing or all- powerful. He's wrong more than he's right (good thing or the episodes would be ten minutes each). It's just that he usually gets it right... eventually.

House's epiphanies aren't just luck. He does a ton of studying and obviously has a near-encyclopedic memory. I don't think anyone, including Chase is near him in that. In Airborne, Chase's ah-ha moment was that the cat not eating meant something so he went back to re-investigate. In the same circumstances, House would have said "The cat didn't eat it's food. It's not a brain tumor, it's an air-born toxin." But, of course, House couldn't have that epiphany as he doesn't check out the patients' homes. In Finding Judas, Chase did have a "House moment." But House was hardly at the top of his game that day. If he had been, I expect he would have realized what the little girl had earlier.

I guess my problem is the show's insinuation that to be a good diagnostician you have to be like House, by which I mean the epiphany thing and the going about analyzing everyone thing. You have to have his style, right down to his shoes. Not just his knowledge and his intelligence.

If you're completely spoiler phobic, read no futher. However, at this point, I think the ducklings coming back is no longer considered a spoiler because it's very much in mainstream media, and this references that. I believe it's a safe topic though. New thought! Chasers, gather around.... Do you think that the way the ducklings left in HE could be foreshadowing for the way they come back/way they interact with House when they get back? Specifically since all I really give a rat's patootie about is Chase: Chase, though fired, left on good terms. I don't mean just in his zen-like acceptance. He was not so caught up in himself that he lost track of the patient--pointing out the problem in the PET scan to Cameron and Foreman. Also, when House needed him to find out the results of the PET scan, Chase did not hesitate to call him back and give him the answer he needed. That was before we saw Zen!Chase, so being told "You're still fired" didn't make him angry. We saw immediately that House could fire Chase and Chase could still work cooperatively and peacefully with House. Watching the Half-Wit commentary made me think that they really do put a lot of effort into letting tiny moments say a lot about the characters. If the scenes in HW were supposed to tell us something about each character, then what we saw was that Cameron will kiss you and stab you at the same time; Foreman will tell you what he needs to say for his conscience to be clear, whether it's the truth or not; and Chase... was just Chase, honestly upset at the prospect of losing someone he genuinely cares about. He wasn't playing a game or manipulating when he approached House. So, perhaps the same amount of consideration went into the way they left and how they'll come back.

I think so. Chase has be the only character who consistently ignores the bullshit and drama around him to focus on the task at hand, so I don't think he'll have any problem working with House again. House, however, will probably have a hell of a (potentially humorous) time adjusting to the shift in the power balance between them. Chase isn't exactly going to be around the corner at season start, so somebody-be it House, Cuddy, or Wilson- will likely have to seek him out for some reason. mY guess/fangirl hope is that it will have to do with the "cool procedure" that Penn's character can't quite figure all th steps to.( I'm pretty sure that's been officially mentioned, but just in case it's a spoiler.) I also want to know why the hell Chase will even consider coming back, since House isn't exactly peaches and cream to work with. The only reason I can think of are 1.) he misses the challenge, 2.) he resorts to House-like antics which aren't appreciated at his new place of employment, or 3.) the rest of the medical community treats him more like Chase, Jr. rather than a doctor with his own merits (probably a stretch, but...)

4. He actually does like House. He's said so. Certainly not all the time, and less so recently. But if he came back he would no longer be in the whipping boy position with House. And the fact that House would want him back that much would certainly prove to him that House respects him as a doctor (regardless of what House might say.)

IMO its might also have a sense of security & being "home", something that's unique to himself & not his parents. Plus in a scenario where PPTH/House/Cuddy or whoever (speculation here) wants him back has to be good for his ego at some level, & I'm not necessarily talking completely professionally, maybe more in a personal emotional level given how rootless Chase is as a character.

the rest of the medical community treats him more like Chase, Jr. rather than a doctor with his own merits That's my fanwank for why he left Australia.

That's another thing I want to know about Chase. Along with more about his mom, his issues with Fat people. Why House did hire him...etc. I want to know why he left Australia.

From the Foreman thread: Foreman has to let himself believe Chase was handed everything because it's easier to think he's pampered than it is to accept that he might actually be just as intelligent and driven as Foreman is. Intelligent yes, driven no. Okay, this is one of my pet peeves. And I'm not aiming that at you personally, Taiga. It comes up a lot in the fandom. I've found that it's often based on a quote that didn't even air and isn't any more canon than Chase proposing to Cameron. How does Chase get labeled as lacking drive? He's somewhere around 30 years old has has finished medical school; whatever training he had to do prior to becoming a critical care specialist (typically an intensivist is also trained in pulmonology, anesthesiology, surgery, nephrology, or some other field first); and put in 4 years with House in "the most prestigious fellowship in the country." He traveled 10,000 miles away from home to do his time in this fellowship. He could have stayed in Australia and eased his way into a cushy position based on his last name. To say this is a man without drive defies logic IMO. I think his motives may be entirely different than Foreman's, but that doesn't make his thirst for knowledge any less impressive to me. I don't think Chase is about the prestige, but that he really wants to learn. I think that's reflected in his speciality. Critical care is a whole-body speciality. It seems like Chase wants to know as much as he can about caring for and diagnosing the whole person. I think he has more humility about him than Cameron and Foreman which is why he had to have someone throw him out of the nest instead of making the leap himself. I don't see that as a lack of drive, but a lack of self-confidence (though not a lack of confidence in his own medical judgment by the end of season 3).

How does Chase get labeled as lacking drive? By "drive" I meant professional ambition, and I do get that from the show. Unlike Foreman or Cameron he's never expressed an interest in being a leader and has never tried to publish a paper. It doesn't mean he doesn't want to be a good doctor, though it's also been strongly implied that he didn't want to be a doctor at all. It means he doesn't want the great career. It's not a bad thing.