Time is Not a Fixed Construct: The Timeline Thread

Time is Not a Fixed Construct: The Timeline Thread
Feel like you've been neglecting your 'confused' emotion? Haven't hit your head against your desk in a while? Need to find an excuse to jump off some sort of swing set in anguish? We're here to help with that. So, feel free to use this thread to beat the Hector theory to death, try to get your head around the ages of Chase and Cameron and just generally lament the fact that TPTB seemingly hate both canon and consistency. It's ok. We know. Take it away...

Here's my explanation for the Hector timeline: TPTB don't give a rat's ass about continuity. What kind of information can we glean from Hector's age? 1. The dog is old. 2. Somebody on the writing staff has a thing for prime numbers (thirteen?).

Chase and Cameron are both at least 5 years older than the actors that play them. The same goes for Cuddy and Wilson. As for Hector's age. Bonnie did say "he was supposed to be house-broken". So let us assume that Wilson and Bonnie actually got Hector as an adult dog who was supposed to be trained, and the whole "puppy" thing was a term of endearment or way for them to demarcate the dog's adolescence/young adulthood.

In 'Human Error' Wilson said that House has lived in the same apartment for 15 years, and that confused us because that implied that House has been at PPTH for 15 years. This is really reaching, since I'm sure these were throwaway lines that mean nothing, but in 'Meaning' House said that his apartment is eight miles from PPTH. Someone familiar with the area said that in that case House isn't in Princeton at all. So maybe he was working at a nearby hospital and didn't move when he was hired at PPTH.

It wouldn't even have to be a "nearby" hospital according to most people's definitions of "nearby" -- everything in the Mid-Atlantic area is all practically on top of each other. I used to live in Takoma Park, MD, which came to my attention when I worked at one of the colleges outside Philly and noticed that a huge number of our professors lived in Takoma Park. They worked in Philly and commuted all the way from Maryland. I don't think it would be unbelievable at all for him to be living in Princeton (or environs) and working in Trenton, Philadelphia, New York, or any of the smaller towns thereabouts (that nonetheless would still have hospitals of their own) -- especially if he's been fired frequently and didn't have the freedom to pick and choose where he wanted to work. I'm not sure that would be same apartment in "Meaning", though. Someday, I'll get over to the continuity thread, but I always took that line to refer to the previous apt, the one in season 1. Still Princeton or environs, though.

In that magical quantity known as Houseverse time, which lasted longer: the effect of the ketamine treatment (House's leg being pain-free) or Wilson's relationship with Amber?

Leg House returned to work after 8 weeks of rehab. His leg started hurting by the end of Meaning and he was using a cane in the next episode. So I'd say it was 9-10 weeks total. Amber House: You started seeing her right after I fired her. Wilson: I started seeing her four months ago. House: She told Kutner it was four weeks. She died 4 episodes later so, if an episode = 1 week, they were together for 8 weeks, slightly less than the pain-free leg era. ETA: Actually, House's Head and Wilson's Heart took place over 1 day (not 2 weeks), so it was only about 7 weeks.

How much time, though, if any, passed between "Don't Ever Change" and "No More Mr. Nice Guy?"

Unless we're specifically told otherwise, I always assume that episodes take place in real time. The period between Human Error and Alone was 2 weeks because Cuddy said House has spent the last 2 weeks doing nothing. Games to DEC is 4 weeks. But most episodes take place a week apart. Short of there being a calendar prominently displayed with dates being crossed off, I think that's all we can do.

She died 4 episodes later so, if an episode = 1 week, they were together for 8 weeks, slightly less than the pain-free leg era. ETA: Actually, House's Head and Wilson's Heart took place over 1 day (not 2 weeks), so it was only about 7 weeks. Oh my God, House was right that they would only last two months.

I don't recall the pilot script specifying Wilson's age as 37. My bad, it's 38. On page 5: And through this mess comes a 38 year old man, JAMES WILSON. He carries himself with the confidence of one blessed with the power to heal (he also carries a file). His usual purposeful stride has been slowed somewhat so that the man beside him can keep pace. GREG HOUSE, also 38, brilliant but scarred,... The script may be real but as you can see by House's age it was a working version before casting. DS has said that House was originally meant to be younger, before casting. So House and Wilson were originally supposed to be the same age. Once HL was cast House's age changed as he was quite obviously not 38 and it is somewhere closer to his own. RSL was 35 at the time, perhaps Wilson was still meant to be 38 perhaps that changed too. Still a script notation is not canon. Ages that characters were meant to be can change upon casting. Foreman's age also appears to be wrong, as does his first name which became Eric. Chase's starting age is wrong. They changed his age when they cast a younger actor, JS. I believe someone mentioned earlier that in S1 or S2 Chase says he is 30. Neither House’s nor Wilson’s age has ever been specifically stated so they are still up in the air. I could believe that Wilson was 38 at the time of the pilot, RSL looked much younger than that but I can go with it. If House is HL's age then he is 49 now and Wilson is now or about to be 42, a seven year difference, that's credible and yet still significant. And it works for me. :) Wilson went to McGill, which requires a 4 year undergraduate degree for admission. If he started university at 18, he would have been 22 starting med school. We don't know that Wilson went to medical school at McGill. Wilson could have gone there as an undergraduate. Also if Wilson graduated High school early at 16 or 17 he could have started his college career early and gotten to medical school early as well. I believe it is even possible to complete an undergraduate degree in less than 4 years. If you are one of those overachieving types. The problem with the LLB is that if House has known Wilson for 17 years and attended Wilson's family gatherings and weddings, he would have known Wilson for 7 years when the family was in contact with LLB. House said he has met Wilson parents and brother. He doesn’t say he knows them or that he frequented family gatherings. Based on what we have seen of both House and Wilson the past four years they do not spend a lot of, or any, time in the bosom of their families. Also just because LLB didn't disappear for good until 9 years ago in S1 (so 12 years ago S4) LLB could have been out of the home and the family for years before he finally went away or lose touch. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was not a topic that came up even by accident at whatever times House was in the presence of the Wilson clan. Families can be amazingly good at keeping secrets and burying the past especially if the incidents are painful and the family has had lots of practice. The suggestion in Histories of H/W knowing each other 8 years or so got thrown out when it was specifically stated in S3 that House has know Wilson through all three marriages and that W/B (#2) had married @ 16 years early. Just because the marriages were short-lived, doesn't mean they happened in rapid-fire succession. If they didn't, then it means Wilson isn't the emotional vampire House said he was, he's a man who can live comfortably on his own for long periods of time. Then why would he marry these needy women like Bonnie who he doesn't really love? Because needy women don’t necessarily grow on trees. And even Wilson can use some recoup time. It took him almost two years to find Amber after his last divorce. Also Wilson may not be as bad as House said in H vs. G. At the time House was angry at Wilson for lying to him. House was probbaly overstating the case. Like with the sprinting through marriage comment, which he also said at a time when he was upset with Wilson because he thought he was dating again and he thought it too soon after the divorce and Grace. I think 3 marriages over a lifetime is a lot, let alone 3 marriages over 15 or 20 years. A colleague of mine married his first wife at 25, his second at 29, lived with someone for 3 years and then married for the third time at 40. No one really thinks much of it. It's not that unusual among people around here I'm not sure where you are from and certainly multiple marriages are not unusual anywhere. Still it’s not a question of it being unusual but it isn’t the norm and this is three marriages and three divorces by 40. The point is no matter how common it is or isn’t it not what anyone would call desirable.

According to the diplomas in his office, Wilson went to McGill for undergrad, in the College of Arts & Sciences. He went to "The Columbia University"'s "School of Oncolgy" -- so that's probably med school. He also has two diplomas from Penn -- probably his residency and a fellowship. I don't know about McGill, but most US universities will give you college credit if you take Advanced Placement courses in high school and do well on the tests. Through APs, I comped out of an entire year of college, finishing with my Bachelor's at age 20.

House said he has met Wilson parents and brother. He doesn’t say he knows them or that he frequented family gatherings. Based on what we have seen of both House and Wilson the past four years they do not spend a lot of, or any, time in the bosom of their families. Also just because LLB didn't disappear for good until 9 years ago in S1 (so 12 years ago S4) LLB could have been out of the home and the family for years before he finally went away or lose touch. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was not a topic that came up even by accident at whatever times House was in the presence of the Wilson clan. Families can be amazingly good at keeping secrets and burying the past especially if the incidents are painful and the family has had lots of practice. I agree with this, I think there is more evidence supporting the Hector timeline than the LLB timeline, the only real glitch with the LLB timeline is some people not believing that House wouldn't know about LLB and I have no problem buying that he wouldn't know about LLB. House is nosy, but Wilson is a great liar by omission, perhaps that's a family trait, not talking about unpleasant things and as you said, there's no evidence that House really knows Wilson's family, all he said was that he's met them.

(shrug) My problem with Wilson getting through school quickly because he was an overachiever is that Cuddy, who is MORE of an overachiever, didn't. We know that from what she told Stacy in S2. If Cuddy didn't do it I don't see Wilson doing it, somehow. Like with the sprinting through marriage comment, which he also said at a time when he was upset with Wilson because he thought he was dating again and he thought it too soon after the divorce and Grace. I suspect that in the past Wilson had girlfriends between marriages; in S1 House said something like "You loved all your wives, and the women you didn't make it to the altar to. You probably still do." It's not canon but I'd bet that S3 was the longest dry spell in his adult life - more evidence of depression.

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