I knew that the title was from the line "A house divided against itself cannot stand" from Lincoln's "House Divided" speech. But doughty7 on TWOP pointed out the relevance of the paragraph from which the line is taken to House's state of mind. I wanted to share it here. "If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it. We are now far into the fifth year, since a policy was initiated, with the avowed object, and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only, not ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached, and passed. "A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved -- I do not expect the house to fall -- but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.

Then if we follow this analogy, who here is the slave, and who the master? :wink:

The House divided reference may be to fallout from a House/Cuddy hookup. Then they'll have to decide if they're together or not, because they have to be one or the other - not both. Wilson's an idiot when it comes to women. I could see him becoming entangled with Cuddy without meaning to. What I don't see is Cuddy going for it. My official prediction is that "A House Divided" refers to the team ie the Diagnostic Medicine department as a whole. That something happens to cause Chase and Cameron to become involved again. Given the spoilers that Chase and Cameron are more heavily involved in the last episodes of the season, my prediction is "A House Divided" will be about a medical issue that sucks in all nine of the regulars, and they end up taking opposing positions, along different lines than we might expect (e.g., Chase and Cameron don't agree; Cuddy and Taub are on the same side; etc.). A medical issue? On this show? It's been so long I'm having trouble remembering what that's like... oh, yeah, it's coming back to me, it's great. I hope you're right. Maybe the hint of romance for Wilson is with the crazy nurse with the cat...

As Housewhore4 said, part of it is probably that he's afraid to try; part of it is, as Ariadne said, that he's asked more than once if Cuddy wants a relationship with House as he is now, and she's never given any indication that the answer is yes. If Cuddy thinks that a deeper relationship with House is as good idea, then she is going to have to be the one to start it. And we have seen Cuddy conflicted by this and being as scared as House. I don't think for one minute that House has decided not to have a relationship with her. They have shown us all all along and especially this season that he thinks of her more than just his boss. He is waiting for her to show that she can handle the real House and not try to change him. So to me, it is Cuddy that has stalled the process. If she opened herself up to him and stopped the game playing, he would be all in.

sdemar wrote, "So to me, it is Cuddy that has stalled the process. If she opened herself up to him and stopped the game playing, he would be all in." I think, if he overcomes his past with Stacy, House will be all in even if Cuddy is not, in a fashion that only Hugh Laurie could conjure. But Cuddy will not be ready. She is currently at the shame level. She still has some hard lessons to learn. Shore strives for elegance and symmetry in his beginnings and endings. So I'm thinking, as someone way upthread surmised, the "House Divided" conflict could have something to do with a "Stacy's Choice" scenario. All the threads could be included, Cuddy, Wilson, Chase/Cameron, etc. House carries around his backpack to and from work, his psychological load. At work he relieves himself from his load and he finds solace from his demons. But Shore has been taking out these "crosses to bear" from the backback, one by one and causing House to engage with them. Therein lies the road to his emancipation. This season, he is dealing with his father's death and accepting who he is because of his father. He has accepted his uncompromising need for Wilson. Now he should engage with his last ghost, that I'm aware of, Stacy. Thus, I predict a "Stacy's Choice" scenario. Only then can he move on with Cuddy or someone else or, eventually, Stacy herself. Or just be more content alone. I vote for Cameron as the near death victim. (the baby Rachel would be too much for me)

My take on it? They'll do something along the lines of schizophrenia for House ... Any Huddy action will be clouded by it, ie they ll give Huddy but not in a "relationship" way it will probably be a sideeffect, or will be open to be interpreted as one. And my guess would be Chase/Cameron, having distance from House for a while will recognize it first and probably involve themselves in helping him.

New Spoilers, so I guess the new argument is, lights on or off? :P

House said in Unfaithful that the department was broken and still nothing has changed. :( A House Divided feels like a tease. Shore strives for elegance and symmetry in his beginnings and endings... Now he should engage with his last ghost, that I'm aware of, Stacy. Thus, I predict a "Stacy's Choice" scenario. Only then can he move on with Cuddy or someone else or, eventually, Stacy herself. Or just be more content alone. I vote for Cameron as the near death victim. (the baby Rachel would be too much for me) I'm not sure if Shore still considers Stacy's dilemma as a ghost. In terms of her actual decision, House made peace with it in season 2. If House does reprise Stacy's dilemma as someone involved in the decision, as you said Shore likes symmetry so I vote no to either Cameron or Wilson as the near death victim unless it's after the Huddy sex. I don't know if the writers remember season 2 but it's a little too close to Cameron in Spin, wanting to sleep with Joe because it was so hard watching PDH die. It is the cheesiest of cheeses to have House sleep with Cuddy because he's so upset that the person he cares for is dying but having seen the Thirteen storylines this season, I wouldn't put it past them. I vote for Chase because we know that Jesse Spencer will be back next year and House feels closer to him than to Foreman or the new team (I hope). Shore said "what's the point of killing off someone the audience doesn't care about?" so no sense in making it Kutner or Taub because I get the feeling few people are invested in either. If someone is really going to die, setting up a potential House arc of failing to get the right answer soon enough (because Amber didn't really count) and dealing with that fall-out, I vote Thirteen or Foreman.

They killed someone at the end of last season, why do it again? we know that Jesse Spencer will be back next year and House feels closer to him than to Foreman or the new team (I hope). The new team maybe, Foreman definitely not. I too thought the Stacy thing was settled. Actually I could be wrong but I seem to remember reading something where Sela Ward said she thought Stacy and House should end up together at the end of the series and DS said no, their story was done. Lordie, I'm sick of House being traumatized.

In non-Huddy news, Chase (Jesse Spencer) and Cameron (Jennifer Morrison) will finally move back to the forefront in a ''really cool'' way, and there will be a ''hint'' of a new romance for Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard). This is the 2nd time DS has said a situation would be done in a "really cool way". The 1st time was when he discussed H/C approaching f_ckhood. Perhaps this episode features both of these scenarios and it will be a really cool episode. I also don't believe Wilson is going to have a new girlfriend. He is still dealing with the loss of Amber and is slowly re-emerging after washing her cup. And it is only a "hint" so I don't thinkt that means anything definitive.

They killed someone at the end of last season, why do it again? Agreed. I don't want to see someone die this season. What would be the point? You can thin out the cast without killing characters. Once in a while, it's really effective, but two seasons in a row? To me, that kind of takes the impact out of both deaths. Like how I'm now bored everytime House gets sick or hurt. They do it so often that it's lost all meaning. This is the 2nd time DS has said a situation would be done in a "really cool way". The 1st time was when he discussed H/C approaching f_ckhood. Perhaps this episode features both of these scenarios and it will be a really cool episode. I just figured they used the same quote from him twice to describe both events because they don't have any new info to give out. Everything in that spoiler has already been said. They used the same "a hint" for Wilson too. I wouldn't read anything into it.

New thing I noticed in the full ep description, that may or may not be significant: "Wilson suspects House may be hiding something from him." Interesting.