Season 3 General Discussion
Your general thoughts on Season 3 belong here.

Overall, I was pleased with Season 3. In some ways it was a sporadic season, but in some ways it was awesome. I thought the Tritter arc lasted about 2 episodes too long and got a little bit too far into the realm of impossible/unethical decisions by having House go to jail. I mean, we all knew he wouldn't stay in jail, so it was kind of pointless. I also thought that dragging out Foreman's resignation was annoying. It only made me dislike Foreman and be resentful of the amount of time spent on his personal little arc. He already gets more screentime and dialogue than the other two ducklings. I wish he would go away for a while so I could miss him because I generally like Foreman. Now I'm just sick of him. I LOVED that Chase got some great moments this season and really "glowed" as a doctor and a nice person. I thought he got shortchanged by being villianized in season 1 when we didn't know him well enough to be forgiving (as we were when Wilson left House in his own vomit in season 3). I love that they showed that he's really an intuitive thinker and has good medical judgement. I loved his epiphanies and the way he started vocalizing his observations. It made me wonder if he was always this observant and just lacked the confidence to speak up. House punching him was the best thing that happened to him since it made him stop seeking House's approval and stop being scared to stand up to House. I'm glad Cameron was more than just "the compassionate one." All along, they've told us was the good one or the moral one while they showed us that her morals were skewed. I liked that she got called on her "not delightful" behavior a few times and seemed to grow from it. I love that she seems to have gotten over her House crush. That was the most annoying thing about her. Some of my favorite episodes of the series come from Season 3: Finding Judas, Half Wit, The Jerk, Airborne. At the same time, my absolute least favorite of the entire series also comes from season 3: ODOR. It had it's highs and lows, but I think season 3 will be the season I pull out to watch over and over again.

Now that I have the DVDs for S3, I have to say I skip over every scene with Tritter! For some reason that just sucked so much! Well, there was a scene or two that got me hot: when Tritter pulls H over and whips him around and kind of "manhandles" him. DAYUM!! Love that cute tummy! There was something cool about watching H get totally powned. The whole Cam/Chase thing was so not good for me. I pretty much loathed how that played out. It felt so unnatural and odd.

DAYUM!! Love that cute tummy! Tritter tummy or House tummy? See, I'm odd in that I didn't mind the Tritter arc, just how Tritter just excused everything at the end and dropped his vendetta. Also, it did seem a little forced - like they only had him for a set number of episodes and they were going to make the most of the screen-time they had. So, the story was rushed, things were crammed together, and we were pulled too fast through the storyline. But I did like the idea of Tritter.

On the whole, I really enjoyed Season 3. Too much foreman at the end at the expense of House (the character). Unlike some, I did understand and enjoy the CC relationship--and I thought I would not. At the end of the season, I jotted down my rough outline of the season on my LJ, and (hopefully) with your kind permission, I'm posting here an edited version of it. Act I—The happiness scale: The season started out so hopeful, as we saw House for the first time, all sweaty and running. Running into work. But he was at a loss. A loss as to how to insert meaning into his life. His Season 2 hallucination convinced him that meaning was lacking in his miserable, lonely existence. And season 3, as much as anything, was about House’s search for meaning. And for healing. House’s journey was also about change—change that is in his control and change that is not in his control. So much of season 3 was about things that House could not control: the terrible disappointment of the Ketamine’s failure. Who can forget that devastating scene in Cane and Able as in the physio room as House tries to push past the pain—as much to deny its return as to prove Wilson wrong. The tragedy of that episode’s final scene to the song “Gravity” as House seeks out the familiarity of his cane, his face awash in the defeat of that moment. The conclusion of Act one revisited the Happiness scale espoused by Wilson in Meaning, when House accepted the gift from the autistic Adam. “That was a 10” said Wilson. For House, the “10” was getting back on his insistence (for reasons I think even he didn’t understand) the carpet Cuddy had removed. Cameron tells him that not all change is bad; misunderstanding that it is change for changes sake that House hates. I wonder if his change-aversion stems from the time of the infarction when his right to choose was ripped from him, or if it goes back farther than that? Everything else in his life changed abruptly in what had to be a terrible reminder of the infarction. That carpet was something he could control when everything else in his life was spiraling out of control. It became, in effect, his anchor. Act II As Act II unfolded, things spiraled completely out of House’s control. House’s refusal to accept Tritter's intrusion into his life as something threatening and serious and inisistence that it was something to be ignored “and it will go away” dug him into even deeper trouble. But those events swept everyone in his orbit careening wildly with him. But through it, House continued in his own way to seek meaning or at least to understand it. Son of Coma Guy and Merry Little Christmas struck me as specific examples of this journey. In SoCG, House helped a man make sense of his own tragedy by helping him die and thereby saving his son’s life. It was poignant moment, not driven by ego or the puzzle but out of respect for one person’s desire to make his death meaningful. House risked his career by assisting the man’s suicide at a time when (had the police found out) would have ramped up House’s legal difficulties exponentially. But he did it anyway. House’s explanation of the Buraku—a man who is an outcast—a freak—but who has a gift no one else had, and within that lay his salvation; his value, was a poignant take on why House became a doctor. House appears to revel in his uniqueness—his outsider status—but does he really? In Merry Little Christmas we had the first of at several episodes where House offers someone who, like him, is a “freak”—an outcast—the chance to become “normal, or seeks it out for himself.” It was an echo back to No Reason, where House was willing to risk his gift for a “normal” life; and a an echo back to Meaning when, again, House fought (when no one else would) for his patient’s opportunity to be “normal.” A gift that House wanted to give him (despite the fact that his motives were questioned along the way by everyone he works with). The Tritter arc ended (some hated it, I did not) and bridged to act III with One Day One Room (an episode that one either loved or hated, depending on which message board you read). We assume that House didn’t change after the events of the Tritter arc. That his encounter with Tritter didn’t affect him, nor his time in rehab. I disagree with that assessment. And ODOR is my proof text for it. Rehab put House in a particularly vulnerable place. He hates change, but rehab is all about change (yeah, I know he was getting black market Vicodin, but he still had therapy and group, etc.—and probably not the amount of vicodin he had been taking). It was at this vulnerable time that the life of a young rape victim, who simply wanted “to talk” entered his sphere. He resisted connecting with her, until he could no longer and when she wore down his resistance, his reveal about having been abused by his father gave more information about why House so very much needs to control as much of his out-of-control life as he can; why change is hard for him, once he’s comfortable (as he can be)—he doesn’t have enough trust to believe that unknown is safe for him, maybe. And this explains some (although not all) of why House is the way he is. I believe that he had never told anyone about the abuse until that moment, when he’s in a room with a stranger for just that one moment. He can share it an release that part of the burden a little bit and never have to see her again. House often reveals things about himself to perfect strangers rather than risk doing so with those who know him the best. Act III After the heaviness of the first two acts, we get the humor of Needle in a Haystack before embarking once again on House’s journey for “normal” and for some degree of control over his life. We got little hints in Insensitive and Half-Wit that House is seeking something to help himself. Something to give him back some control and put him back to where he was at the beginning of the season. He’s continuing to research alternate and radical therapies to fix his leg or at least alleviate his pain without the use of the very destructive Vicodin. And in Fetal Position, we see him begin to reach out—take baby steps to change the facts of his life just a little. To take back some control over the course of his existence and steer himself in a positive direction. In One Day One Room House says he visits the jogging park (even though he can no longer run) to “watch and imagine.” In Fetal Position, more of this sense of his torn inner life is revealed as he plans for a vacation that a man in his physical condition cannot possible take: The Galapagos Islands; Vancouver Island; the Andes mountains. He imagines, he desires. But to actually do would require bigger steps towards change than he is emotionally able to make. Part of House is also beginning to feel a different emotion, suggesting another change is on the horizon if he would only reach out for it. His journey includes a side trip to a realization that he is attracted to Cuddy. This comes to a head in Top Secret when she confronts him with his attraction, leaving him, at first speechless, and then smiling wistfully as she walks away from him. Their flirtation and his obvious attraction for her bridge into the final act of the season: The “Foreman’s Camille-like resignation” act. House continues his baby steps of change as his journey continues. Whether those baby steps were fueled by the antidepressants Wilson was slipping him or not, who knows. House allows himself the pleasure of a young woman’s company and flirtation, something he would have never done two years ago. Or even a year ago. Our change-averse, out of control doctor has edged closer and closer to joining society (not becoming someone completely different, but trying –with difficulty—to edge closer to the humanity he was craving in his No Reason hallucination. Which brings us finally to the finale. I always look for the introspective/reflective moments (yeah, I know, that's me)--but I did enjoy the theme of change and accepting change. After all that transpired this season, I think this episode may have clarified for House what his place is in the grand scheme of things: he heals people--people who everyone else has given up for dead. It wasn't until Cuddy pushed him that he accepted that she was dead and told the husband. House was reluctant to pull the plug because he didn't know why Marina's heart wasn't beating (she wasn't brain dead, however, and as long as she could be kept alive, he could still figure it out, he thinks), and as long as it was there was hope. He didn't have to tell the husband that he (House) had failed him. And I do think that House cared very deeply about failing the husband, Marina and himself. Their expectations (I think) weighed heavily on him (despite what he was saying). There was an echo back to Lupe as he tells Cuddy: he doesn’t want to do the autopsy only to find out that there was something they could have fixed, but just missed. House does not want a repeat of that failure from House Training. Anyway, back to the change thing. Back at his apartment, House is far from sleeping. He is processing what Wilson told him as well as Marina's case. Why not pick up the phone? Why listen to the phone ring all night rather than talk to the husband as Foreman asks? And then, in the middle of the night, haul himself back into the hospital, where he would still have to deal with them (but this time in person?). House had nothing new to tell the husband. They had no results; there was nothing for House to say. House doesn't believe in platitudes. He can't say: "everything will be alright now that I'm on the job." He said as much to Lupe and she died. He doesn't know how to make small talk, so he avoids talking to him at all. House comes back in because he's a person of actions rather than words. I loved the scene where House was sitting on his sofa, the phone ringing incessantly, the husband's voice pleading in his ear--and House tuning it out to stare broodingly at his childhood guitar (I think it's the first time we've actually seen that particular guitar. Sometimes the Strat's there; sometime its that Gibson acoustic/electric. House seems to have a thing for Gibson guitars). House is contemplating his own feelings about change. And big changes are afoot. And in the end, House accepts them, and to his own very great surprise, he survived them (for now). And as if to punctuate it, buys a new guitar to replace the old cheapie k-mart special hanging on wall. House does something in the episode that I’ve never seen him do—and that is to kick back and actually bond with a patient’s family . That is a first, I think. I wonder if that has anything to do with his no longer having the need to project an image of complete non-emotion and detachment. Or I wonder if he’s trying to prove to himself that (believing his own self-image) he was NOT attached in any way to any of the fellows, and their leaving simply does not affect him in any way, shape or form. I wonder how long he’ll be able to delude himself about that? That would prove to him that he is not (as Wilson contended) change-averse. Although (except the---very, very strange---firing of Chase) the fellows’ leaving was out of his control, he was proving that (by having them all gone and being OK with it—at least on the outside and for the moment) he was back in control of his life in a way he had not been all season—since he could run again.

sasmom, so much to think about there! I'd like to pick up on one point, Chase's firing (I've no doubt I'll come back to others later!). IMO that event wasn't strange & was forshadowed particularly by The Jerk. Nate is to House what House has apparently been to Chase in many ways regarding the obnoxious behavior for the sake of it. House walks away from that episode with the idea that simply being a jerk is a losing proposition for everyone around the jerk even when they cling as the mother does (& by extention possibly Chase to House), but there's a specific lesson from Nate that he applies first to Foreman, that manipulation can be used to teach as lesson or win a battle. The problem is - Chase is the one duckling who can see through House's manipulation, he figures out what's going on wrt the interview sabotage. And that's a key part of what makes Chase ready to move on, not just the medical lessons, though he's already got them down, but that Chase can see through House (more clearly than even Wilson or Cuddy) and come Human Error, finally isn't prepared to put up with it anymore. He's not going to leave of his own bat, but if he stays he's going to eventually possibly force House to change his behavior in a way House may not want to or atleast ensure he'll be less successful in how he operates in the future. Firing Chase is partly altruistic, but its partly self-protecting as well.

I didn't think the firing of Chase was strange either. It was clear all season that Chase's sudden morphing into a mini-House (and that I disliked, not that he developed into a good doctor but that they had to make him be a House-like doctor to do it) was leading somewhere. They're fellows, they were always supposed to leave when they became good diagnosticians. That moment had come, and House recognized it and acted accordingly. The meditation on change was probably what prompted House to do what he knew should be done, get Chase to leave. I can understand why some people claim that House had to fire Chase because he'd become afraid of Chase's magical House-reading abilities, but I don't buy it myself. If House couldn't stand being around people who understand him, he wouldn't be friends with Wilson (and would hate his human lie detector mother, which he says he doesn't). I hated the Tritter arc because it was so wildly unrealistic, one detective having God-like powers to pursue a guy and then suddenly giving up when a judge points out how stupid it is. It also didn't make sense for a storyline view: I could understand House not learning anything from the experience, but neither did anyone else. Not to mention that it was basically a repeat of the Volger storyline. I also miss the clinic patients and quasi-realistic medicine.

Okay, season 3. I for one, loved Meaning. I don't care that the medical aspect was wrong. To me, that arc was about House getting a taste of being whole and then having it yanked away from him. Ah, the angst! *rubs hands gleefully* I still hate the lie about the patient with Addison's, and although there's not a chance it'll happen, I still want an apology from Wilson. I'm neutral on most of the Tritter arc, but I did like MLC and Words and Deeds. And, despite Wilson being my least favorite character and holding a grudge on him for the lie and the reaction to House saying he was in pain, I have no hard feelings towards him for leaving House when he overdosed. I'm willing to accept that within the Houseverse, he knew House wasn't in any danger. Some of the relatively hated episodes of the season I liked. ODOR for one. I never felt the abuse was intended to explain completely why House is who he is. It's just another bit of an unsolvable puzzle. And, I love those more quiet moments, although I also love House being zany and obnoxious, but you know me. I just plain love House. Season 3 was when I started noticing Chase more. Have no opinion on the start of the friends with benefits thing between him and Cameron. Found the flowers just because he knew Cameron liked flowers to be one of his sweetest moments. Still hate the Tuesday reminders, don't think it was evil or stalkerish, but it still annoyed me. And, hearkening back to Lord Peter Whatshisface doesn't help. Old Pete would have gotten a kick in the groin from me. But, aside from the scenes with House and the guest stars, my favorite moments in both Half Wit and The Jerk were between House and Chase. Well, except for Chase finally telling the kid in The Jerk to just shut up before he shoved the hamburgers down his throat. Which I loved. Don't have anything to say about Foreman or Cameron, although I don't hate either one. I also hated when House had less screen time in certain episodes Favorite season 3 episodes? Quite a few. Meaning, Cane and Able, Informed Consent (although this took a couple of looks for me to appreciate it -and it's also one of the episodes that says to me that although House is largely, maybe overwhelmingly interested in the puzzle, it's not all that matters to him when it comes to the patients. At least not all patients.) Lines in the Sand, Son of a Coma Guy, Merry Little Christmas, Words and Deeds, One Day, One Room, Half-Wit, The Jerk. And, bits and pieces of other episodes. I'm sure there must have been some episode I wasn't all that thrilled with. Probably one where I felt there wasn't enough House in it. But, overall, I was very satisfied with the season.

Its strange, I have a real love/hate relationship with s3. I uniformly pretty much adored s1 (despite my hate of the date), s2 gave me Autopsy & Mistake & Forever & even if I was a bit meh about Euphoria & a few other eps I was still happy to watch them. But s3 - there are episodes I loathe &, much as I hate to say it, I will likely never watch again (i.e. QSS, W&D, & OD,OR & maybe a couple of others if I'm feeling cranky). While I loved to watch the Chase growth arc & Wilson's struggles during the Tritter arc, I also wanted to throttle Foreman & Cameron at times & then stomp on them as I never have other fictional characters. And its doubly weird, because I don't have that reaction to House, despite his many idiocies. Unfortunately the thing that also distinguishes s3 for me is the general downgrading of the believability of the medicine (I come from a family of docs & my brother watches the show with me & even he's pissed off at it in s3, tells me its riddled with errors this season in a way it never was previously) & the stupidity in how the legal issues were handled during Tritter. There were some good initial concepts (like House stealing the prescription pad pages) but the resolution was just ludicrous.

I feel pretty much the same as saara_zaara, albeit with different likes and dislikes. I can find hardly anything wrong with season 1....Nope. Loved pretty much every damned minute of it. I liked the Vogler arc. I liked the date. I thought they did a brilliant job of alluding to Stacy throughout the second half of the season and peeling away one layer of how scorched House was. And I found season 1 House a guy with whom it was completely plausible that Cameron could be infatuated by. Season 2...Still damned solid. I'd re-watch pretty much every episode quite happily, and have. I fall into the camp of loving "No Reason." Season 3...largely favorable but some real unease setting in. "Meaning"--I quite liked this episode or at the very least, the potential that it held for unraveling the rest of the season. But man, did things feel rushed when it came to "Cane & Able." I didn't feel as though they spent enough time exploring the time period between House getting shot (well, they spent absolutely no time exploring that, in fact), his short lived happiness and his return to the cane. It felt a little "wham, bam, thank you, ma'am" for me. I'm afraid I don't have any good understanding as to Cuddy's motivations in participating in "the big lie" other than she was going along with Wilson. Wilson's stated rationale sounded altruistic; Cuddy's sounded self-serving. For the first time, I disliked Cuddy. "Informed Consent" was a very strong, lovely episode tackling an interesting health care dilemma but it fell during a time when I wished there was more about House adjusting to the ketamine/big lie fall out. "Lines in the Sand" I thought was pretty damn good as well. I liked the kid POTW. I even liked the Ali sub-plot. As someone who's been the victim of bloody, violent crime like House, I understood exactly his attachment to the carpet. Cuddy made even less sense to me. Seeing LE's recent S4 promo clip helped solidify why: she makes it a mission to include sexy innuendo in all her scenes---apparently even when it's wildly inappropriate. Which is how I felt about her confrontation with House about Ali. She's telling House to deal with the teenage girl stalker while flirting with him and completely missing the point about why House needed his carpet back. "Fools for Love"--Totally predictable plot line about the POTW, but I enjoyed House being distracted by Wilson's love life to the point he misses Foreman's. And as one who didn't mind the Tritter Arc, I thought David Morse had an excellent intro as Tritter. DM & Hugh played the spite war in the exam room so well together. Both so intense, so easy to see how that transaction turned so bad so fast. Yes, some of the legalities of the Tritter arc were just plain implausible, but I try not to hold legal/medical formalities against TPTB. Particularly not when the whole Tritter arc provided a forum for Hugh & RSL to do some of their best work together. The one medical case that I found mind bogglingly awful was W&D where they erased the guy's memories. Whatever. "Merry Little Christmas" was perhaps Hugh's acting triumph of the season. He may win the Emmy with "Half-Wit" as his submission but he just displayed the gamut in "MLC." And I was quite engaged with the POTW as well, so bonus. I'm okay with the conclusion of "Words and Deeds" and the tentative resumption of House/Wilson's friendship. Wilson got his apology (which I thought was genuine) as well as the understanding that House wasn't going to change. I'm not sure how Cuddy's declaration that House brings down everyone around him was ever resolved but apparently it was when I wasn't looking. I'm one of the few who enjoyed "One Day, One Room." I found Hugh's acting exquisite. I do wish they'd either kept more of Cameron's B-plot or scrapped it all together. I don't think there was enough there to really make it compelling (though I love the guest star, Geoffrey Lewis) and I wished it had paralleled House's story a little more closely. "Needles in the Haystack" was awful. I only watched it the one time but really didn't enjoy it. For the first time, it felt like, wheelchair tricks or not, Hugh was just phoning that one in. The medicine was lame. Really? The guy swallowed a toothpick? Foreman lecturing another patient about what they should do with their life was tiresome. And I thought Cuddy's "you lose" moment to House was just plain despicable coming after a bizarre executive decision to make House's entry into the hospital all the more physically challenging. "Insensitive" and "Half-Wit"--both great. Also time to mention that it was nice seeing Chase having a bit of growth and a distinct personality. "Top Secret"--all that pee. Mostly liked it. Liked the POTW. Pretty sure I never again need to see a man insert a catheter into himself. Not crazy about the reveal that 2 years ago House was somehow insanely jealous that Cuddy was kissing some Marine at a hospital function. That wasn't the guy I was watching in season 1 and it seemed like the only woman haunting him was Stacy, not Cuddy. But whatever. "Fetal Position"--mostly ugh. Wasn't engaged in the case at all. Loved the photo of House that had the ducklings staring. I really liked the idea that House was trying to take a vacation but just couldn't, for various reasons. But LE dialed up the Cuddy well past 11 and it screeched so loud it practically made my hair curl. No mas. "Airborne"--virtually all ugh. Hated House & Cuddy story in the air, hated the Cameron & Chase story on the ground and in the patient's bed. I liked Wilson figuring out all about Robin and giving her a call, even if the actress playing Robin was dreadful. Mini-Chase was adorable. The rest of the season is a bit of a blur in my mind. All had some very good moments in them, but the last third of the season felt very "off" to me, very unbalanced. "Housetraining" the most unbalanced of all episodes, I felt. I can appreciate the dramatic effect they were going for, but it was lost on me by the pacing of the story and having House so seemingly distanced from the case at all. Having him more interested in what Wilson and Cuddy are up to versus the patient's mystery illness I felt was a weird choice---particularly compared to earlier in the season where Wilson and Cuddy were convinced House was going to kill someone with his methods. It turns out he killed someone by being completely non-chalant about the patient and the team's treating of her. (At least that's how it appeared. Again, the pacing seemed jarringly strange to me.) A further downside to season 3? I can barely remember any clinic patients this year. And, narratively, they didn't try anything daring in the vein of "Three Stories" "The Mistake" or "No Reason." I appreciate it when show's change it up a bit and I'd like to see a little more of that in season 4.

Quick feelings about the season (BessieMae and Baily and I are very much on the same wavelength -- no surprise) Loved: Meaning, Cane and Able, Invormed Consent and LitS. To me these were a terrific beginning to the season. I, like others, wish that we'd learned a little more overtlyabout how this was all affecting House, but I think the fear, and the disappointment of the ketamine failure fed into the next arc and made House's downfall all the more tragic and inevitable. I liked the Tritter arc, and since I watch for the character story (house in particular) I didn't care how outlandishly Tritter played. I particularly liked Son of Coma Guy, Finding Judas and Merry Little Christmas. Also WAD within that arc. Like Bessie and Baily, I really, really like ODOR. Period. Did not like Needle in a haystack particularly or Airborne, but I really did like Fetal Position (again for what it told us about House). Adored H-W, liked Top Secret. Enjoyed Act Your Age and 3/4 of HouseTraining. The season finished up strongly (IMHO) with the last four episodes. I did not like the emphasis on Foreman and had not the finale showed us that the PTB do NOT intend for us to see FOreman as mini House, I would have really hated it. But Wilson's own little: "Foreman doesn't want to become what he THINKS you are," made it right for me. Hous e lets people see what he wants them to see. And only that. Wilson and Cuddy know him from an earlier time and maybe have more of a handle as to how he was. We get those glimpes and see who House is as well. He's, yes, a puzzle solver, but it's not all of who he is.

A few more things after reading other posts. I liked the House and Wilson scenes in Act Your Age (that was the one with the "seriously's, right?) And, he was 100% less annoying in the way he approached House about his lack of objectivity with the CIPA patient. But, probably the most I've liked Wilson was him being on speed. Add Finding Judas to another episode I liked. I love wordless moments and the look of shock and horror on House's face after he hit Chase -plus the way his hand shook a little- was one of my favorite moments to look at and over analyze. I don't recall Fetal Position too clearly, even though I did watch the repeat not too long ago, but I don't remember Cuddy annoying me in it.

bailey, that's a good point about the blur of the season. s4 really lacked distinctive PotW & clinic patients. Where are the John Henrys & Andies & Anikas of s4? The mom who won't buy her daughter a birthday cake & little boy who slept on the red couch? I've got the feeling that my favorite s4 eps coincide with the PotW I found interesting & distinctive, not necessarily likable. I loved Nate in The Jerk, probably put up with a lot in FP & Airborne because I liked Emma & Fran & Air!Chase & Half-Wit had a lot added to it by Patrick's Dad. They were distinctive characters, but the brother & sister in FFL, the kid in Needle, the fireman? Completely forgettable for me, I can't even remember their names in most instances.

Overall: S3 was not my favorite. It MIGHT have been, if Tritter hadnt been around fr 6 episodes. Favorite Episodes: Insensitive, Half-Wit, Act Your Age, and Resignation Least Favorite Episodes: One Day, One Room, Words and Deeds, anything with Tritter(except for Finding Judas)