Noa, I completely agree with what you say about Chase's reactions to the patients in Heavy/Que Sera being colored by what happened with his mother. Because despite how much I'm sure he loved her, he was also bound to be angry at her for drinking herself to death and leaving him without a mother sometime in his late teens. To watch her go through that no doubt colors his views on people who are seemingly doing themselves in, whether it be by alcohol, drugs, or obesity. On the whole, Chase is very kind and professional with patients, so his odd behavior with these particular patients, I really think, are affected by his past. We see this sort of behavior from each of the fellows in turn, I think.
On another note, I'm re-watching "Damned if you do" and am remembering just how much I love this episode. What GREAT character development for Chase. :D
Any speculation on what Chase did while he was off for a year+ while House was in jail? I wonder if he found religion again since he said he had faith that he'd get his job back. I've very interested to know his reasons for taking the time off. A doctor as qualified as he is would be in very high demand. Another thing we know is that money isn't a problem for him if he could take a year off from working.
Poeia- 11-08-2011
I speculated in the episode thread that it was something like a religious retreat. When they thought they had a diagnosis and every said "He's going to die" and went home, Chase stayed and kept a bedside vigil of sorts with the patient. That reinforced that with me.
I worked out the timeline and it was about 14 months:
House fled the country for 3 months
Because he accepted the first deal, I'll assume that House went to prison as soon as he arrived back in the states. Twenty Vicodin opens when he has served 8 months
After the events of that episode, House has another 8 months added to his sentence. Foreman gets him out after 2 of them. (Worst case scenario would be that he finished his initial 12-month sentence and then served 2 months of the additional time. That would add 4 months to my calculations.)
Transplant, when he was released, was episode 2. So he's been out almost 1 month.
3 + 8 + 2 + 1 = 14
Somehow I don't think Chase was waiting tables the whole time.
oufti- 11-10-2011
I have no idea. He seems kind of changed after these 14 or so month.
I really hope writers will adress it but, knowing this show, I'm not sur they will.
I was really glad that both Foreman and House seemt happy about Chase's return. I really wish we will have more scenes between them.
I found it nice that House use "the prodigual son" about him, since it's Chase's favourite (cf. season 1).
tricia-j- 11-10-2011
I think that was the nun's favorite, not Chase's.
oufti- 01-25-2012
No reaction about Chase having a baby sister?
Well, I for one, don't know what to think about it.
We knew about his alcoholic mother. We knew about his stepmother but a real baby sister that's not what I was expecting.
I was expecting a half sister and I've fanwank a dead baby brother/sister that triggered his mother fall. I remember in cursed, Chase cut his father during a sentence when his father talked about his mother being sick before something.
Well, at least it gave some clue about Chase's character. He is quite dark indeed.
Noa- 01-25-2012
I was expecting a half sister and I've fanwank a dead baby brother/sister that triggered his mother fall. I remember in cursed, Chase cut his father during a sentence when his father talked about his mother being sick before something.
That at least would have made sense (actually, I wrote a fic some time ago where Chase finds out he's had an older brother who suffered and died of cildhood epilepsy, and learns that Rowan donated his money to a foundation that does research on the disease).
I really felt disappointed about the sister story. It felt as if to fit the patient's story as a care taker. A dead, alcoholic mother obviously isn't enough, so hey, let's give him another drug abusive relative that Chase can make amends with. Kind of irritating. I always assumed Chase was an only child. Someone who really had to learn how to look out for himself. His whole persona and demeanor suggested that. I wish they didn't have to pull the abandoned relative card again and again. It gets old. :(
I know there was a mention in 3-05 when House asked if it is coincidence when Chase's sister has great hair, but that was purely to make a point, diagnostically. It never occured to me that Chase would have a baby sister. Sadly, I'm not interested in that kind of contrived storytelling at all.
Poeia- 01-25-2012
I remember in cursed, Chase cut his father during a sentence when his father talked about his mother being sick before something.
Chase: I was 15 years old when you walked out. Now you’re walking back in?
Rowan: I left your mother. I didn’t leave you.
Chase: Mum was living on gin and tonics, how was I supposed to take care of her?
Rowan: She wasn’t your responsibility.
Chase: I know! She was yours.
Rowan: I’m sorry she died. I’m sorry you had to deal with that. But she was falling apart long before –
I always assumed the last part of that sentence was something like "But she was falling apart long before I left." That, of course, makes what Rowan did worse. If she had fallen apart as a result of her husband leaving her, one could argue that he might not have known what would happen. But if she were already a mess, he knew what he was leaving Chase to deal with.
extra_cat- 01-27-2012
It really annoyed me at first for them to give Chase a sister because a showrunner once said he had no family back home. I always thought the sister with great hair comment was just to make a point about genetics. On the other hand though, I like that this opens up some possible storylines for Chase. It's still a little annoying that they threw her in out of the blue though. I'm sure if she was meant to exist all this time she would have been mentioned in Cursed because Rowan left Chase alone to deal with not only his alcoholic mother, but also a baby sister IN DIAPERS. Who took care of the baby while Chase was in school? Was she left alone with the drunken mother? Are there no child welfare laws in Australia?
What about the fact that Chase opened up to Adams like it was nothing when he wouldn't share even a tiny bit of information with Cameron a few years ago. Has he changed that much? Is it because House already told the team that he had an alcoholic mother? I found it interesting and a little out of character for him to be so open with her when we never even once had a moment of him talking about his mother with Cameron, his wife.
Cuddyclothes- 05-04-2012
Does anyone else feel that Chase is being groomed to take over the team next year?
KChan88- 05-04-2012
I absolutely feel that way, Cuddyclothes! From the moment a few episodes back, where House faked his liver failure and passed Chase that rat, I suspected that that was the direction they were heading. And this past week's episode only served to cement that feeling for me. Chase clearly took charge of all the differentials, he stood up to the parents, he symbolically sat at the head of the table, he stood by the window like House sometimes does, he came up the diagnoses in the end, completely independent of House's aid. The rest of the team too, seemed to look to him for guidance. I personally think it's a really awesome story direction, and seems really fitting. :)
Noa- 05-04-2012
Does anyone else feel that Chase is being groomed to take over the team next year?
I think that Chase is ready to leave PPTH, and moreover, he's probably ready to leave House.
I always assumed he stuck around because he felt safe with House, and probably for some degree of convinience, too. He took a year off from being a doctor when House was in jail. It really makes me believe that he is, in a very personal way, depending on House, but he gradually grew out of it during the last couple of episodes.
He's been in House's orbit for ten years now. He could have left a few times before, yet he chose not to. He left when House left, too, and he came back when House asked him to. He's never been ambitious, and I think he's fairly content with his job on the team. And I want to believe that being on House's team matters to him in a more personal than professional way. He always seems to be comfortable around House, and I truly think he enjoyed his antics and unconventional behaviour more than just a few times. Add as a bonus that House obviously cared, nurtured and protected him more than anybody else in his life with an absent father, an alcoholic mother and a broken marriage.
I thought that, when Chase got fired in S3, he was fired because House saw him fit to leave. He was the only fellow he could affort to let go, because he knew that Chase - as opposed to his other fellows - would do okay without being under his wings anymore. As House so aptly stated, he has learned all he could.
When Chase returned to diagnostics in S6, he needed to be in a place where he would feel secure enough to keep going. House provided that sort of security by hiring him back. I think Chase is much more the guy who seeks security rather than challenge. He has built his own personal comfort zone around House. And even though he's not driven by ambition, he might realise that he can't or doesn't want to stick with House forever. It would almost be like a son leaving the house (pun intended) where he was born and raised to go out of his own. That would actually make a perfect exit for Chase, sad as it is. I'd love to see him as House's legal heir and staying at PPTH, but unless House doesn't die or retire, he might just be heading for Oz and build his own diagnostics department when the show ends. That could be one of those scenarios when I wish I wouldn't ship them so hard. :(
