What attracted Wilson to House? House is blindingly brilliant, clever, funny, and vibrant. Put "kind to a stranger" on top of that, and why wouldn't Wilson be attracted? I doubt that neediness entered into the picture until later.

I doubt that we will ever learn anything more precise about why House and Wilson chose each other at that New Orleans conference. But I always think that this self-description Holmes offers Watson in "A Study in Scarlet" is particularly apt for House: "My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram, or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere. I can dispense then with artificial stimulants. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation." So the Doris Egan explanation that House would always be on the look-out for someone to relieve his boredom and occupy his mind with puzzles and challenges makes perfect sense to me. He found such a person in Wilson. As to why Wilson took up with House, I think the Great Detective has a phrase for that too: I know my dear Watson, that you share my love for all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum routine of everyday life."

What an excellent response, blacktop. Plus, as I wrote earlier, Wilson was smokin' when he was a youngster. And I still wouldn't kick him out of bed. House was pretty hot too, if you go by "Three Histories" pre-infarction. Yes, I am that shallow. But this is the shipping forum.

Love the Holmes reference, thanks blacktop. That puts it into perspective beautifully. I guess I'm the only one who doesn't mind pudgy Wilson. Of course he was sexier when younger - I think that's true for many of us - but there's something rather cozy about him, even with a few extra pounds. Especially in a sweater vest. I would like to curl up next to Wilson (the fictional character, I mean). But I might also ask him to play racquetball with me and we could both trim down a bit while having fun. Of course all this Wilson interaction is in my imagination, where he exists, we know each other, and I am good at racquetball instead of my actual duck-and-cover approach. Imagination knows no boundaries!

From the s7 You Must Remember This thread: (also why encourage, or rater urge, Wilson to see other women if House wants him for himself...? but that's another topic). Yes, House encourages Wilson to start dating other women, but there's a contradiction in House's actions in this episode. If House was really that eager for Wilson to start dating women, as I said before he would have been relieved when he suspected that Wilson was dating Sarah --when he thought it was a woman--. The obvious thing to do was be happy for Wilson and because Wilson was not going to spend the evening with him whining about Sam, and wait until the date had happened to learn how it went on and ask Wilson who Sarah was and where did he meet her. But instead, House got all possessive once again and went around Wilson to find out who that Sarah could be. He knew that Wilson was up to something by the shoes he was wearing in the first season. (It most closely echoes the lengths that House went to in "Frozen" to find out who Wilson was dating -- not because House is possessive, but because he simply had to know. He then had a problem because it was Amber -- just as he had a problem because Wilson was dating Sam, but he's certainly encouraged Wilson to strike out when there wasn't a history or other issues, like marriage, involved.) Had to know what? If Wilson was dating? No, because he already knew that, he had already come to that conclusion. Who was he dating? Ok I'll bite, even if I don't think it was that. Then how do you explain Don't Ever Change? You know, when House spent the episode (and the other episodes) bullying Amber (when he had already satisfied his curiosity, or, when he bullied Sam too? You say he had a problem because it was Amber... why exactly? What made him think that Amber would hurt Wilson that bad? That is hardly simple curiosity or control issues.

I think House wants Wilson to date women, but I wasn't part of the whole discussion on that other thread so I don't know the background for this. I see them both as bisexual so I don't think them dating women excludes the possibility of them being in love with each other. Right now House is preoccupied with his relationship with Cuddy and I agree with her assessment: he does want Wilson to have someone so he's not left alone.

I don't think it excludes the bisexual opportunity either, but my problem was how out-of-character it is that House would think such a thing (that Wilson is going to end up a spinster and all alone when Wilson has proved throughout the seasons that this isn't likely for him -and all that because Wilson's got a cat?!, I think that's an insult to House's supposedly high IQ-). As Poeia described, it was based on Wilson's past experience with a cat - as well as House's unreasonable belief that men with cats do not get dates. With the exception of Steve McQueen, House doesn't seem to be much of an animal person, I'm sorry to say (because I love animals). As far as his uneasiness when he believed Sarah was a woman, I thought that was due to his uneasiness as being lied to by his best friend and his girlfriend - I don't think he minds the lie so much as not being able to detect the lie! He knows that both have lied to him, but when he can't tell if they're lying, it grates on him. It does seem that House is always going to intrude on Wilson's relationships with women in some way or another. But encouraging him to hook up at that trashy bar was a gesture of kindness on House's part. He was trying to help Wilson get his mojo back. That Wilson didn't sleep with the willing barista is supposed to mean that he's lost his mojo, I guess - thus the scene at the end with Wilson alone with his cat. However I though it was to Wilson's credit that he didn't hook up with a near-stranger who might have been drunk as well. I think House does want him to date women or at least sleep with them, but he thinks that Wilson's approach to relationships (and hook-ups) is less.... manly, perhaps? than his own.

But they never said it was about Wilson's ability to find someone, it was about his attitude towards dating and his expectations about finding someone for a romantic relationship. And they actually have shown us that Wilson in a way withdraws into himself whenever he loses a partner, be it through divorce or death: After his third divorce he was depicted living alone in a hotel room, hooking up with a terminal cancer patient (which, let's face it, didn't have real potential to become a longterm thing) and being depressed throughout season 2(?)-3 and maybe even beyond that, with Amber being the first healthy and worthwhile relationship (at all) in a long while, as far as we were shown. After losing Amber it took Wilson until 'The Greater Good' to wash up an old dirty cup of hers and get "unstuck" and 'The Social Contract' was the first episode where we learned that he had started seeing someone again, which was way into season 5. So I wouldn't say that Wilson's tendency to cut himself off is made up out of thin air or that it contradicts his "panty peeler skills". The difference I see is House's response to it, so I think the whole storyline was meant to make a statement about House's state of mind now that he's not lonely anymore, how being in a relationship affects his feelings and actions. Back then House didn't like Wilson dating, but now he's bothered by Wilson being alone, urging him to go out and end the "pity party". Exaggerating the significance of Wilson getting a cat and his dramatically overstated concern that Wilson will end up a spinster served as a pretext for House to "harass" Wilson into going out (not only for Wilson I guess, but probably also to invent a reason to justify his obsession in front of himself), while at the same time concealing his own emotions and discomfort with the new situation, which I believe were the actual motive behind his actions. The fact that House's concern was premature and so out of proportion wasn't idiotic or simplistic, quite the contrary, it was meant to indicate that there's something more to House's behaviour.