I thought House should have fired her when she didn't make sure Stark took the pills (knowing he had trouble swallowing) and then told House that he had without double checking, leading to Stark's death. Foreman and Chase have accidentally killed patients too but she was in a competition when she should have been super careful and House was firing people for less reason. I thought he should have fired her for drugging him and forcing medical tests on him, deliberately hurting him while doing it. (She did come off as ready to microwave bunnies in that episode.) I thought he should have fired her when she let a guy with an infectious disease entertain the cancer kids with no immune systems. She's always saying how unhappy she is in the job and complaining about House and how outrageous he is and how much she resents what he tells her to do and how she's not going to lie to the patients for him when she has no trouble lying for herself. So why doesn't she leave already? Cameron may have sounded whiny but she only actually complained when House did something unethical. Why do they set up these situations where she should be fired or she's ready to quit only to produce lame plot contrivances (e.g. Cuddy's out-of-nowhere insistence on a female presence in the department) or have House act out of character so they end up keeping her on the show? It's obvious Olivia Wilde is staying.

For me, it's that I'm constantly aware that she's a character. There seems to be nothing remotely real or convincing about Thirteen. For me all of the issues and character quirks of Cameron, Chase, and Foreman, seemed to be rooted in the background story for their characters. It gave them a sense of realism even if I wanted to strangle them sometimes. Thirteen just reeks of fanfic cliche to me- and not even good fanfic, but the really crappy kind where someone makes up a perfect, brilliant, beautiful, snarky but angsty Mary Sue to go toe to toe with House and eventually get him to show his warm, fuzzy side. I half expect to learn that Thirteen is House's long lost daughter at this point. I must look like Foreman every time she's on my screen, because I can't stop rolling my eyes at her.

Thirteen just reeks of fanfic cliche to me- and not even good fanfic, but the really crappy kind where someone makes up a perfect, brilliant, beautiful, snarky but angsty Mary Sue to go toe to toe with House and eventually get him to show his warm, fuzzy side. I half expect to learn that Thirteen is House's long lost daughter at this point. And then she'll tragically die, but daddy House can't save her. Really, really bad fanfic. :roll:

Ah, I feel a little better now. Fox has changed Thirteen's name badge on its House site to have her listed as "Remy Hadley." The "Rena" spelling, according to Ausiello, was a mistake. So Chase was right all along.

Rena is so last week - they already changed the fox site to Rema a few days ago to match the fall preview clip. Now they have to change that.

I was talking to my brother today about cartoons we watched as children and he mentioned this Japanese cartoon called "Remy" which was the most depressing thing ever. Remy was an orphan who was sold to Mr. Vitalli a street performer and tragedy upon tragedy fell on him (Mr. Vitalli died, then the dancing monkey, then the performing dogs, there was a snow storm, then he was homeless on the streets of Paris, then he ran into his birth Mom and his crippled brother without knowing they were related, then, well you get the picture). So 13 real name is Remy, accident? serendipity? too many depressing japanese cartoons in my past?

It's one of the Japanese tv animations for children, but the original is "San famille" by Hector Henri Malot, a French author in 19th century. (so it's Rémi, in the original.) ...but, you're right, it's depressing, seems like a French version of Oliver Twist :D and I don't deny that we Japanese love some depressing stories, too. (not just nonhuman tv war games. :wink: ) We don't have Season 4 yet, and in Japan, it seems that Cameron has far bigger fan base than Cuddy. (although House is on cable, and we can't expect such a big audience to begin with...) I'm interested to know how we view the storyline and the character of Thirteen when Season 4 starts; too much screen time, storyline too sentimental, too boring, or...do we love her just as we loved Cameron? As for me, I'm not a Cameron fan, and I don't care Thirteen. I think she was supposed to be an annoying character, and in that sense, OW did played it very well..., but after a year and a half, I still can't feel empathy toward her character. ...so why am I reading this thread?...I think I'm bored as there's no House this week. :cry:

I always assumed that we were not supposed to have an abiding sympathy for Thirteen. She has not been presented to the audience as a likeable or attractive figure. On the contrary, Thirteen has been deliberately drawn from the beginning as a brittle, waspish, tough character whose emotions are suppressed due to the extreme stress of her dread of her illness. The confirmation of her worst fears drove her further toward the edge, with acting out and shutting down of the softer emotions her primary response to fear. By design, we met her at the absolute low point of her life and we were given no particular reason to find her a warm or inviting personality because we were deliberately given no information or insight about her underlying character. Now that Thirteen is in the first stages of a romance with Foreman, her gentler and lighter side is able to naturally emerge. It turns out that she has a quirky, bohemian streak with a puckish sense of humor and an intelligent warmth. I think these aspects of Thirteen's personality -- both the forbidding barriers to human contact and the tiny cracks in the harsh facade -- have been well played by OW.

I think I shouldn't be so bitter about the character of Thirteen in this thread. In Season 4, she was the first candidate that attracted me (I didn't know about her career as an actress, but I thought she was good), so I was hoping that she'd get through the competition. It was all these mysteriousness of her caracter, or rather all these talks on her mysteriousness that chilled my enthusiasm. (I'm almost spoiler-free, but at that time, I was reading every spoilers that I can find in Internet...:D) I quite dislike Forman character, so Forteen in Season 5 isn't my favorite arc, but I still think OW is a charming actress with many potentials, and now she seems to be grasping the character of Thirteen better than in Season 4. Thirteen was somewhat like a doll with the fake mask of myteriousness, but she's now a human being with struggles inside, torn with fear and need to be loved. It's true that I don't like Forteen, but that doesn't mean I'm still annoyed by Thirteen. So I agree with you, Cutie Honey, we may expect more humanity from Thirteen from now on. :D Now that Thirteen is in the first stages of a romance with Foreman, her gentler and lighter side is able to naturally emerge. It turns out that she has a quirky, bohemian streak with a puckish sense of humor and an intelligent warmth. I think these aspects of Thirteen's personality -- both the forbidding barriers to human contact and the tiny cracks in the harsh facade -- have been well played by OW. Thirteen's character as you put it as "a quirky, bohemian streak with a puckish sense of humor and an intelligent warmth" interests me too. And maybe you're right, blacktop, she may be intended to be annoying...but don't you think her "annoying period" was way too long? I wish the writers let House make Thirteen test for the Huntington's desease much earlier. :wink:

I sure hope you're right, zumi. If Foreman and Thirteen break up in future, I don't want to see Thirteen to return to her bitchy personality. I hope her happy personality is a permanant thing- and a sign of character growth that will just keep growing. I always assumed that we were not supposed to have an abiding sympathy for Thirteen. She has not been presented to the audience as a likeable or attractive figure. On the contrary, Thirteen has been deliberately drawn from the beginning as a brittle, waspish, tough character whose emotions are suppressed due to the extreme stress of her dread of her illness. I agree with you. In the show she hasn't been presented as a likeable or attractive figure. If that was OW's aim, then she's done a very good job of it. But the way David Shore and Katie Jacobs talk about Thirteen give off the impression that she's supposed to be a sympathetic character. I think they are genuinely confused as to why the audience doesn't seem to like her. It's confusing. Their interpretation of Thirteen seems to be quite different than the audience's interpretation of her.

I'm with blacktop and think they've made it quite clear that she's not a typically sympathetic character and they don't intend her to be. Taub has said more than once that she's screwed up, House has mocked her, Foreman (prior to relationship) got in her face and called her out on it.