We have no information in canon about how House and Stacy ended up moving in together after their first disasterous date. We don't know what happened. All Stacy says is "Our first date didn’t, either. I was never going to see him again. Week later I moved in." but that suggests to me that House was the one who contacted her again, not the other way around. And when Stacy came back, it was definitely House who pursued her in the beginning. In fact, I think that she dresses the way she does because she can -- she is in a position of power and control and influence and can demonstrate that by dressing to please herself and stun onlookers. If I accept her style of dressing (which I have a hard time doing because I've never seen anyone in any administrative position in a hospital dress sexy), this would be how I would see it too. Any female who dresses in that style would always be getting hit on and it would take a self-assured and self-confident woman to be able to handle it. I know someone on the show (Katie Jacobs?) described House and Cuddy as two damaged people but I'm having trouble seeing it in her. She doesn't have a backstory of damage (unlike Chase's family or Cameron's PDH, both of which stories have been around since season 1) and she doesn't act damaged, as Wilson does with his almost pathological need to fix people and House with his limp and twisty character. Except in her dealings with House season 3 on, Cuddy seems to be to be a normal, professionally ambitious woman who focussed on her career and not her relationships and who, when she hit her late thirties, realized if she didn't get out there love and family wasn't going to come and find her. I don't know of any woman who hasn't been lying to her mother since she was 12. Or 8, in the case of my niece. It's possible that Cuddy turned down Vogler for love of House. But I'd like to think it was because she finally figured out Vogler's game, that he wanted complete control. By that point, everyone knew it, Wilson, Chase, Foreman, Cameron, even House. I think that was the first shot at destroying Cuddy's character, that someone so boardroom savvy couldn't see what Vogler was up to from the first time he showed up. Or maybe she did but she thought she could get around him. Cuddy's had a history of making bad medical judgements based on her emotions (Humpty Dumpty, Fetal Position, Joy, JTTW) but she usually made good administrative calls. I always thought that may have had something to do with why she concentrated on admin rather than practise. But season 3 that started her making bad judgements wrt House, administrative ones not just personal ones. In Big Baby Cameron took on what had been Cuddy's role (figuratively as well as literally) in the first seasons while Cuddy dealt with, and continues to deal with in The Greater Good, the morass of her emotions. I'm not sure how it serves the narrative to do that to Cuddy other than to show that when a woman gets involved with House, her brains leak away. Someone suggested to me that if they wanted to explore Cuddy's relationship to House and why it couldn't work out between them, doing it through her guilt towards him from the debridement and any possible resentment he may have would have been a better way to do it. David Foster said in an interview that Cuddy created the department of diagnostic medicine to get House back to work, and there's been a lot of leeway on her part that isn't explained entirely by his ability to diagnose where others haven't. At the least, it would have been something more mature than planting herself in his office hoping he will ask her to the prom.

I DO think her behavior in "Let Them Eat Cake" and "Greater Good" trashed her character. So do I. I had to watch the "I think we're supposed to kiss now" scene a few times because I honestly could not believe what I had seen. The Cuddy I liked knew who House was. That Cuddy did not. She really expected him to kiss her and that they would start a relationship from there. She was honestly shocked that he grabbed her boob instead. Did the fumes from the stink bomb mess with her memory? She knows him, she was clear in "The Itch" that she knew it would only bring trouble to try and start anything with House. That moment, IMHO, was not revealing what was always there, it was just bizarre and it trashed her character. She should have known better, she's known House longer than anyone else on this show has and his actions surprised her? That was just a ridiculous scene. I'll admit, she's shown sings of being capable of the crap she pulled in "The Greater Good" before. The laxatives and the thong, but I thought both of those instances were bad for her character too. The laxatives weren't funny and the thong was practically permission not to respect her or take her seriously. Here she just took it to another level, a worse level, IMO. Cuddy in S1 did not have to stoop to House's level. Maybe she didn't have real power over him then, but she's not getting what she wants now by playing his game either. She's making an @ss of herself. And yeah, she is coming off as desperate and pathetic.

I obviously need to agree to disagree with people when it comes to Cuddy. To me, times when she was "dumbed down" or acted inappropriately were proper to telling the story. In "Greater Good," for instance, she stepped over the line, she was called on it, she acknowledged it and she apologized for it. It was an important plot point and one that was key to understanding that her character wasn't easily going to forgive and forget needing to leave her baby behind -- yet also knowing she'd screwed up in the way she acted. Besides, it allowed for a Housian gesture of apology of recognizing her emotional issues at that point and allowing her to beat herself out on him. It was almost sweet in the twisted way that House sees the world. Yes, she's acted poorly, and at the bulk of those points she's berated herself for "stooping to" House's level. But to me, if she handled House perfectly, if she never screwed up, if she never recognized those screwups, she'd be a boring character. But like I said ... agree to disagree. Where some people see character assassination, I see flaws that make her more interesting. (And entertaining. It is just TV drama after all, not a documentary on the travails of today's female executives. I thought the fact that Cuddy played House on the great thong search -- and almost got away with it -- was fun, and not intended to be anything else.)

I have the sense that in David Shore's House-world only the character of House needs to be strictly and faithfully maintained, developed, and serviced. With all other characters Shore reserves the dramatic luxury of skewing, tweaking, stretching, or distorting if it serves the story swirling around House. The only problem I have with that is my loyalty to Cuddy. My solution is to not take the "office squatting" or "bitter practical jokes" as a manifestation of her inner character but a writer's caricature, a flight of fancy, or artistic license that is only temporarily valid. Then its back to reset within more realistic, believable, and organic boundaries.

KJ is not a writer, and "Greater Good" was written by women, not men. Perfectly content and happy people do not make for good drama -- whether they're male or female. And the fact that I like screwed up people -- or anyone likes screwed up people -- does not make them anti-feminist.

For some reason, Hollywood insults bisexuals in a way that they couldn't get away with doing to any other group. It disgusts me that the one bisexual character on prime time TV is a slutty drug user, who jumps into a relationship with a guy the minute he shows some interest in her. During her downward spiral she had all the girl on girl action she wanted but now that things are looking up she needs a big strong man? I don't understand why GLADD hasn't done anything. I had a problem with this is well. Obviously, it was a relationship of convenience for the writers to involve 13 and Foreman but I didn't appreciate the plot device. Why bother to make her bi then? I expect "gaywashing" from shows like Grey's Anatomy (I finally threw in the towel after the firing of Brooke Smith) but not from House. I don't think it was some sort of intentional slight, but I find it really unfortunate that this was the direction that they decided to go in.

Although this season has had some wonderful writing , the 13 arc has succeeded in ruining it for me to a considerable extent. One could argue that season 5 is no different from past seasons which also had storylines that created dissatisfaction among different sections of the audience .Vogler, Cam’s crush on House, House/Stacy, Tritter and the Survivor arc come to mind. But those storylines all lasted for only a few episodes and they didn’t dominate even those few episodes. More importantly, they had House at the center of them. The main trouble with this season is that the 13 arc has dominated the show in a way that no other arc in the past has. Not only has it received an extraordinary amount of screen time it has also lasted for an inordinate length of time having been featured in almost every single episode of the season in some way, shape or form. But most importantly (with the exception of Last Resort) it didn’t feature House till very recently. The result is that it has felt like two shows with little connection to each other - House MD and 13 MD - crammed into one. The other trouble is the arc itself. The idea that a beautiful, young doctor faces the certain prospect of dying a slow and early death from a disease that has no cure is a powerful one with a lot of irony. It’s something that we can all relate to because we know we’re going to die and the story had the potential to both stir our emotions and raise interesting questions in our mind about how we would respond if we knew when and how we were going to meet death. In order for this to happen we needed to empathize with the character as well as relate to her experiences in some way. So they should either have picked an existing cast member who the audience has developed a relationship with over a period of time or a new cast member who was a damn good actor and they should have shown how her fear and misery causes her to withdraw from life in everyday situations. (For example something as simple as a scene with her colleagues asking her out for a drink and her turning down their invitation followed by a scene with her alone at home, scared and lonely, perhaps picking up the phone to let her dad know she tested positive but not being able to and trying to sound cheerful instead.) But we got a new cast member who is at best a mediocre actor and we got drugs and anonymous sex with women followed by a hostage crisis followed by an unlikely romance with a colleague followed by brain tumors.... The writers went for these really big and dramatic moments and threw too many things into the mix like bisexuality and romance. BIGGER! and MORE! seems to be their mantra for this arc. Even the House character hasn’t experienced anywhere near the kind or number of things that 13 has experienced in such a short space of time. But the Huntington’s by itself was a big and powerful idea and what it needed was subtle writing with quiet, poignant moments. One of the rare moments they achieved this was when we saw 13 connecting with Janice or experiencing a fleeting moment of hope because she thought the drugs were working and announcing that she wanted to have kids. Another problem with the arc is that the romance between 13 and Foreman feels sudden, has little to no credibility and feels completely OOC for the characters. Well OOC for Foreman anyway. I honestly have no idea what 13’s character is like except that she has HC, is bisexual and was ashamed and angry with her dying mom when she was a kid. With all the other romances on the show we have had a substantial build up (Chase/Cam, House /Cuddy, House/Stacy) that lasted over several episodes. Here we got an episode where House calls Foreman boring. Although nothing House has said has ever bothered him before, for some reason this does and he trots off to discuss it with Chase who tells him, yes, he is boring because he doesn’t give enough of a damn about anything. Then in the following episode we suddenly get a scene with him lecturing 13 about her downward spiral with a phony look of concern on his face. Since he has always been cold and calculating it felt like he decided to stop being boring, switched his emotions on and suddenly started caring about a colleague with a fatal disease. The writer’s missed a wonderful opportunity to have him mention his mom dying of Alzheimer’s and I would have bought the scene if he had. But they didn’t and the romance felt like a plot device hurriedly put in place for the drug trial. I actually liked the drug trial and the idea that 13 meets a patient in an advanced stage of HC and sees her future. But instead of focusing on that they chose to throw in yet another subplot with Foreman being rude to Janice, 13 convincing him to apologize to her and them ending up kissing. And whatever little sympathy I had begun to feel for 13 (all due to Lori Petty’s awesome acting) disappeared. And Foreman is caring and sensitive to 13 while he’s mean to Janice? Didn’t make any sense whatsoever. Some people have argued that the long wait has been worth it because after running parallel to each other House’s and 13’s storylines have finally merged. I do get the connections between their storylines. They are both dying. But while House is killing himself slowly with his Vicodin intake, 13 is dying rapidly for reasons beyond her control. They have both been withdrawn from the world around them and they’re both tentatively stepping out of that isolation. 13 is finally taking positive steps to prepare herself for the future while House seemed to be contemplating it. And of course because one parallel between House and 13 is not enough we got yet another parallel between House/Stacy and Foreteen as well. I am all for subtle writing but the problem is they have made absolutely no effort to draw our attention to the parallels in any way, shape or form and so the two storylines have felt very disconnected. And the arcs have been tied together in a way that makes it hard to care that they have. We got a scene with House telling Foreman that love makes you do irrational things and pretty much pushing him into doing to 13 what Stacy did to him followed by a scene with him going over to 13’s House and playing Cupid. It honestly makes no sense. The bottom line? This could have been one of the most interesting storylines on the show if it had been properly written and cast and given the amount of time that an arc of a supporting character that doesn’t involve House deserves. Let's just say it didn't turn out quite like that and frankly, I never thought I'd say this about the writing for this show but.I ended up feeling like the writer's were being lazy and insulting my intelligence at several points in the arc. .

Well said, Namaste. I very much agree with your take on the show. All the characters are more or less flawed, they are not poster children for any particular cause: the y are meant for entertainment purposes only, and on that front it works very well for me. ETA: Sorry, misread someone's post. Apolgies to all. Carry on.

I love your post maya. I agree with everything you said 100% So much could have been done with Thirteen's Huntington's plot... But instead of a well-written beautiful arc that tugs the heartstrings, we got melodrama after melodrama that feels like a bunch of fanfictions tacked together. How many near-death scenarios does the girl have to face?! It's the smaller things that have me feeling sorry for her. I felt more sympathy for her simple "I want kids" line, than when she went blind or even when she had a gun to her head. David Shore hould take Wilson's advice to heart: "Start small" I can't help but think the only reason Thirteen is in a relationship with Foreman is because the writers thought "Foreteen" was a clever name. Foreman was more interesting when he was a career-motivated character. It makes no sense to me why he would put his entire career on the line for a woman who he's only been going out with for TWO FRICKIN' WEEKS! It contradicts everything we've seen in Foreman from the last few seasons. I know some people can fall in love in a short amount of time, but I can't see Foreman throwing away his medical credentials for a woman, no matter how much he loves her. Heck, his barely-mentioned relationship with Wendy a few seasons ago was more interesting and believable. David Shore seems to have a huge blind spot about this, but he'd better wake up. Everyone else seems to see it. Judging by what Omar Epps recently said, even the actors are starting to see it. I can only hope that David Shore finally takes criticisms on board, and that the second half of Season 5 (or Season 6) will be improved. I know every show gets its own handful of criticisms, but everywhere there are sites, reviewers, forums, fans, etc complaining about the same things. Surely DS and KJ are seeing this?

Judging by what Omar Epps recently said, even the actors are starting to see it. Joking with/teasing/giving your co-workers crap in a lighthearted celebretory moment when everyone is laughing does not equal "I'm pissed at my bosses and think they're morons." It was a joke. The fact that they're comfortable enough to tease each other is a good sign of a happy and healthy environment in my world. Hell, in my family, a comment like that is our way of saying "I love you."

OE might have meant it as a joke, but the words he used suggested he believes there is a bit of truth behind it. (especially considering its what fans have been saying all season). It wouldn't have been half as funny if OE said Kal Penn or Peter Jackobson love the episodes they "stars" in. It'd make no sense in that instance because it isn't true. Don't get me wrong. I wasn't suggesting OE is pissed at David Shore or any of his co-workers. But a joke like that certainly seems like he's noticed the amount of screentime Thirteen gets. For all we know, it could be an inside joke that they all laugh at when they read each episode script. I twouldnt' surprise me. Honestly, I'm amazed DS and KJ don't seem to have noticed Thirteen's embiggening amount of screentime yet.