I feel it too reven. Like you, I can't put my finger on it but I feel like I'm just waiting for an impending crisis of epic proportions and it scares me a little.

For some reason I've gotten an itchy feeling about this season. Something so far this season has set this off but I can't figure it out. I've got no facts and I can't pinpoint why but I've got this idea stuck in my head and it will not go away. Something really big is gonna happen. We're not going to expect it and it's going to come out of left field and knock us on our butts. Anyone else feel that, or is it just me being nutty? I feel that too! And the terrifying prospect of weeks and weeks without knowing because of the damn strike (which I support but which I wish hadn't been necessary) is killing me. Nothing HUGE will happen tonight, I feel, because the fact of House finally choosing the two (?) fellows is big enough so as to eclipse anything else even half as huge. Which is a shame, because in the end I don't care. Give me whomever, just DO something with it. And I will take this moment now to pray heavily for BGW. MAYBE BGW is the really big thing that's going to happen. But it's unlikely, I know, because everything is always about House and unless they're willing to have BGW's BGrevelation revolve around his undying love for House, it's not happening at all. Quel tragedie!

reven, I feel it too. I think this season is going to turn on a dime in the same manner that the episodes OD/OR and "Housetraining" did last season. The first halves of those episodes were relatively light, bouncy, and charming, then boom! the mood flipped in a flash to the exceedingly grim and heartrending. I think this is the template for this entire season. I have no idea what the subject of the mood shifting crisis will be, but I'm certain that some choice or action by House will set the shift in motion and that his unfolding reactions will be the chief focus of the ensuing episodes.

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who thinks that something's coming. And it's going to happen with no warning.

Word, blacktop. In House's search for the afterlife, declaration that misery is better than nothing, reckless risking of his life, learning that Thirteen is facing the possibility of an early horrible death and insisting she should know, I see omens of tragedy.

I'm betting that there's a good chance that whatever it is will have something to do with Wilson. And not just because I want it to be that way and because I adore him(which I do to both) but because so far this season we have some bit of open-endedness to him. We have: the "I love you", the patient suing him(which, to me, doesnt feel finished) and the blood thing from last week.

Yep. To what I said add House identifying with yet another patient who doesn't care if he lives and has been harmed by drugs, a patient who was happier when he thought he was dying and Wilson not understanding that while House seemed to, and House trying to teach Wilson not to feel responsible for everyone else's pain - including House's. Something bad is coming and Wilson will be involved as well as House.

It strikes me that TPTB have set themselves up an interesting ability not only to change up the timbre of the season by swapping out the fellows this year, but obviously also three years from now (if we buy into the seven-year aspect that has been mentioned a few times, and not just five years). And while Taub, Kutner and 13 may last three years, it also wouldn't be unprecedented at this point to switch any of them out at any time. It makes me wonder if they're planning on three years for these characters or not, but has got me wondering if a few seasons from now fans of Kutner will be bemoaning his replacement or calling 13's replacement "13-lite." Mind you, I'm one of the people who thinks that the swap out of fellows has brought new life into the show by giving House new characters to play off of, and new people to bring new views of him, but I think that the possibility now to be more free with these supporting characters does open a lot of things for them long term.

I think that this kind of forward drive and flexibility is precisely what TPTB are going for. Keeping Cuddy and Wilson as the constants, with House as the iconic focal point and the fellows as a shifting array lets Shore and co. have the most creative options. I could easily see the seventh season capped by the arrival of another litter of newbies eager to be dazzled by House all over again as the series concludes on an upbeat.

Thought I'd bump this because I feel like the only person who's been intentionally avoiding spoilers in the past week or so (I figured I might as well let these couple of episodes slide past relatively spoiler free) and now the entire Internet seems to be buzzing with new spoiler speculation. Dangit. I can make it a few more hours. Anyone else out there with me? Or am I just hearing echoes?

Sorry Namaste, I wish I had your willpower.

So... where do we go from here? (And by here I mean "Don't Ever Change")

I agree, e_c. It's kind of not fair to us or to Chase to throw that out and then forget about it. (But I have my usual pessimistic doubts that when the writers get settled and back to writing, they will not remember anything about House saying that he needed Chase.)