Remotely connected. OK, so only by disease, but I recall that some people were absolutely certain of getting genetic testing for Huntington's, which 13 put of for so long. Here's a story on NPR about someone in the same condition and his decisions about getting genetic testing for Huntington's. Sabine says that he's seen a lot of death, destruction and suffering throughout the world during his life, but "nothing that I've experienced compares with that test in terms of the terror that it inflicted on me."

From the Media Thread the people whining about 13 are mirror images of the whining about Cameron (and I'll still take 13's issues over that mawkish, stereotype of a sweet ingenue falling for the gruff mentor anyday that was Cameron for the first two seasons). In theory I would agree with this wholeheartedly if it weren't for: Neither JM nor OW is a great actress but JM's ability was sufficient to portray Cameron. I don't think OW is up to the task of Thirteen. Cameron's issues were sprinkled through almost every episode for 2-3 years. Even when I was rolling my eyes at her, there were plenty of other things to enjoy in the episode. There were many episodes where she got more screen time than the other fellows but there were none where she was more important than House. The same couldn't be said about Thirteen in the first half of Season 5. The sheer number of episodes that were all about her, sometimes to the point where she had more screen time than House, tainted that character forever (for me.) I also felt that way about Foreman's long goodbye in Season 3. This year, now that she is simply one of the fellows, I find her much, much more tolerable, but it is hard to dump all the baggage she acquired in Season 5. I guess the difference is that Cameron often annoyed me (a LOT), but I never hated her. Thirteen I have hated.

I think it was the fact that Cameron's issues were sprinkled constantly over multiple seasons was the thing I hated the most. But then, as I've said, I absolutely detest the sweet ingenue/gruff mentor thing. To me, Cameron's endless issues were like Chinese water torture that stretched on and on without an end in sight. While I disliked having Thirteen's issues be at the heart of a handful of episodes I didn't mind them as much because -- as I said ... HATE THE INGENUE/MENTOR THING -- and Thirteen is actually dealing with her Huntington's issues. It's not this persistent drip, drip, drip of the crush. And hey, dealing with your imminent death is a real life and death issue to deal with. I'd expect a character to have to deal with that. Having a crush on your boss? Not so much. Also, and I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I actually like the way OW plays Thirteen. To me, she's supposed to have tamped down emotions. That's the way she plays it -- not a sign that she's unable to act.

In addition to what P said comparing 13 and Cameron and how they've put way too much focus on 13: We never had flashbacks of Cameron's childhood. We never saw Cameron's parents. Cameron never had a guest patient play an arc just so they could tell her story. Cameron's life has never been in danger, much less on multiple overly-dramatic instances. They never fired Cameron only to hire her back immediately. Cameron never had an episode named for her. Cameron never killed a dog. :wink: I'm of the opinion that OW is a terrible actress. I always think about how she had a dying patient and said, "Get the paddles" with all the sense of urgency of someone about to play ping-pong. I don't think that's tamped down emotions. I think that's an inability to deliver the goods. House keeps his emotions in check and compare what Hugh Laurie can do to what OW can do. There's a drastic skill difference here.

From the Spoiler Discussion Thread: I'd rather they didn't go for a Thirteen/Chase hook-up, to be honest, even a friendship doesn't appeal to me. She was in a relationship with Foreman, who's always been portrayed as very different from Chase, different temperament, different background, different values... I guess I just don't see Thirteen "connecting" with someone like Chase when she used to be drawn to someone of Foreman's kind. What I can't understand is what we're supposed to imagine she's drawn to. I'd have thought she would be more drawn to Kutner, initially. Serious underneath the smileys; I think they gave her the depth to see that, but they never show it to us. Foreman's supposed to be the opposite of that, I guess; smiling under the serious façade, though I never see it. So while I think it's odd for the female doctors to just make the rounds, dating, (though perhaps not, what do I know about it?) I don't know why she would or wouldn't go for any of them, as the writers never tell us. If they demonstrated a real connection between her and Chase, I could maybe at least find it engaging. What, Kutner? I always got the impression that she looked down on him and treated him condescendingly, except for when he died of course, because that's when she got reminded that she should have treated him with more respect. As for her taste in men/friends, I too have never understood her attraction to Foreman, which is why that whole relationship confused me. But let's just take it as a given, and then we can deduce from Foreman's personality what type of person Thirteen probably likes. And as far as I'm concerned, that's not someone like Chase. Then again, it's possible to like different people for different reasons, so it's not impossible for her to become friends with Chase I guess.

I think since you quoted from a spoiler thread it may be important to note that it was based on a sort of musing speculation, not anything anyone knows is happening. At least, not that I know of, myself. !! I dunno. What if the writing theory was like, whenever Thirteen and Foreman were close to each other, it was all zingy and hot and they finally had to go with that, then because he's all serious and stuff, made it into more than just sex, but then they didn't really coalesce that well in those other ways? I mean, ahem. This does happen. And then another person who was just also there and around might later grab your attention for some whole other reason or because they are available, whereas they were not before. Thirteen might be like that. It's all very speculative, of course. As to Kutner, I think he unnerved her in some way. But there's no way to tell how that might have gone, of course. It seems to me that we still don't get to know her all that well after all this time, only through how other people see her, and sort of how she sees her illness.

Actually I never got the impression that it was primarily about physical attraction with Foreman. It started when he got very involved with her health and took a big interest in her mental state and her future, and he was the one she opened up to about her disease. I suppose that makes sense. I might ask why they make him so difficult to like, but I guess that's another thread. I keep wanting to like her, and only was tired or bored of her in season 5, more than irritated, like many others. I think because I really dig Olivia Wilde. So I'd really like to see her do something proactive, rather than reactive, in a way that lets us get to know her. Maybe her leaving and apparent return, since she's clearly still on the show, will give us some of that. **Edited to spoiler bar spoilerish info. EC

Apologies for mis-posting facetious suggestions about Thirteen’s possible whereabouts (I’m new here and clicked the wrong thingy), but does anyone have any ideas about where Hadley might actually have gone and why? I miss her sandpapery presence on the team (who seem oddly flappy without her), and I miss the unique connection she had with House: his way of peering at her. But I like my secondary characters to stay secondary: by the time she left at the start of this season she’d won back much of the kudos lost in S5, but it’s hard to see how her story might be resumed without returning to that level of over-exposure.

does anyone have any ideas about where Hadley might actually have gone and why? Discussion in the spoiler thread may address this.