(S03E21) Well, what a tangled web has been woven on our favorite doctor show now? "Family" was the title of this week's episode, and the prospects of a different family were essentially the topic of discussion for everyone involved. After last week's horrible course of events involving Foreman's decision to give chemotherapy to a patient only to have her die as a result, you wouldn't have thought that the team would go down a similar road without pondering the consequences, would you? Wrong.
Well, not so much that they "didn't look before they nuked," as was said during the show, but they were put in a unique position of having a marrow donor (the younger brother, Matty, to Nick, the kid who underwent the radiation treatment) who just so happens to show up to help out when he sneezes in a clean room. What ensued was nothing more than out of control and utterly frustrating. And that's just about House's experience with Wilson's old dog.
[Possible spoiler below if you haven't watched the show yet!]
So, I'm only about 50% surprised as to which doc it turned out to be, but I definitely saw it coming that one of the team would depart (or at least threaten to do so) at the end of this season. As it turns out, Foreman turning more and more into House (although House says he was always like him, or at least since age 8) has put him in the position of giving his two weeks notice. He makes a strong point by saying that in leaving he won't "save as many" patients, but he won't "kill as many" either. He might be right, might be wrong. So this show goes. That being said, does Foreman's departure absolutely destroy the group? He's obviously been a solid head check for the team as a whole, and as much as House gives him crap for every little thing and take digs at him for the color of his skin (Blackpoleon Blackaparte ring a bell anyone?), I'm guessing he knows what he's doing. It just throws me for a loop that Cameron has Chase chasing her on Tuesdays, which could just drive her batty in the long term. Can they be as successful without Foreman, even if his commentary only made them all, at some point, think twice about what they were about to do?
I really like how Wilson has become more and more integrated to the actual caseload this season. While he kind of just cropped up in seasons past, and even for much of this one, he's definitely been a valued member the last few weeks, and his relationship with House seems to have even gotten a little bit better. I mean, it's not every week that House apologizes to him - or well, anyone - while making him purchase a new cane that Wilson's ex's dog chewed up.
Speaking of that dog, I think that House is definitely going to miss him, even after only having him a week. Wondering if that will make him think twice, yet again, about being alone at home with no love in his life and no man's best friend chewing up his sneakers, either. Then again, I guess he wouldn't have to worry (as much) about a girlfriend eating his stash of meds.
Seeing Foreman do what he had to as the show got closer to the end was one of the more intense things we've
seen in awhile. And, to his credit, he realized it and said so. I don't know if it was more traumatic hearing the kid scream or hearing Foreman talk about how he felt after just going through with it and not even thinking about; what he was inflicting on the young man, and how that helped him make his decision. The only problem, as I see it, is that won't the medical community look to him to be what House is to his team? Obviously they're going to know where he came from and a lot of the doctors know one another very, very well (as we've seen when House has met up with docs from elsewhere), so is Foreman's life really going to change, or is it just that he wants to be out from under House's thumb?I'll give it a six this week for great drama, a nice big huge plot twist, and average jokes and one-liners.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
2-04-2008 @ 10:16AM
ryan said...
hope this helps...the song at the end is "so much more" by brett dennen =)
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5-02-2007 @ 12:59PM
matthew m. barnes said...
here's the thing about this show... i love it (many of us do) but i can't figure out why.
i mean... nothing ever changes. sure... things will change temporarily to make it interesting, but in the end, it always goes back to what it was. House still doesn't have a relationship with anyone. Cuddy still isn't pregnant and hasn't made any real progress with House or anyone else. Cameron and Chase still aren't together. House and Cameron still aren't together. Foreman is still Foreman and Wilson's still Wilson.
on top of that, the vast majority of the episodes follow the same pattern. someone gets sick (they try and fake you out and guess who it's going to be during the opening scene), House and Co. take a shot at figuring it out. they think they get it pretty quickly, they're pretty quickly proved wrong. House does something ethically questionable. Wilson lectures him. House degrades his staff. House makes a comment about Cuddy's clothing or ass. at some point, House shows a brief moment of humanity offering hope that he's not a heartless bastard. at the last minute, someone comes up with a solution and the patient is saved. interspersed are scenes from a plotline involving a romance, a familial relationship, a friendship, a drug addiction, a hostile takeover of the hospital which will, in the end, be resolved in a way that makes the plotline completely irrelevent because nothing has changed.
and yet... i still LOVE this show! and i'm not the only one. look at the ratings... it regularly pummels Lost and Heroes and pretty much everything else that's on. what's wrong with us?
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5-02-2007 @ 11:56AM
David said...
I HATED that episode. It was just so bad. They were talking about firing Foreman, he didn't listen to his bosses at all and he tortured akid and he still didn't get fired! He crossed the line more than House. Where he was torturing the kid it looked like a dream because it was so crazy. Truely awful. They should have ended it with one of the sons dieing.
And I was hoping the whiney ass brit and/or the slutly useless girl that likes House would leave the show.
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5-02-2007 @ 11:59AM
Anthony said...
Wow, did that last paragraph need another pass by the editor.
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5-02-2007 @ 12:07PM
Siobhan said...
I just Love House and all the Characters. I can't imagine Foreman leaving the show as he puts a strong presents of the medical side to things without the harshness of House. The whole cast makes this show because sometimes when i get so mad at House's behavior the other's come right back with their strong views and emotions on things. Which it is my favortie show.
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5-02-2007 @ 12:17PM
scully1058 said...
Bring back the dog that fakes a limp to get Vicodin! House gives the dog a pill, then says "Good boy" - then gives himself a pill and says, "Good boy". Love it!
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5-02-2007 @ 12:19PM
WhizGidget said...
Classic scene with the limping dog and the "good boy" comments, as pointed out by scully.
Foreman provides a different balance and viewpoint, so we know that he can't possibly be leaving the show. It will probably play out similarly to how Cameron tried to leave the first season (without a dinner date between Foreman and House, but anything is possible)
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5-02-2007 @ 1:07PM
Ellie said...
OK, please don't yell at me for this question, because it probably is a dumb one and I just missed something, but can somebody explain why one minute they're telling the parents that they can't take Matt's marrow to save Nick because it's still infected, and then the next minute, Foreman takes the marrow because it can be used? (Which, by the way, is a pretty unrealistic scene -- I don't think any doctor would've done that to a child because he would've needed the parents' permission -- not to mention the torture aspect -- and he would've ended up fired, no matter what the outcome.) Thanks.
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5-02-2007 @ 1:06PM
Rogphi said...
@#1 Chase may be whiny But he isnt a "Brit" try listening with your ears for a change!
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5-02-2007 @ 1:11PM
David said...
Rogphi no neeed to be so negitive... damn.
He SEEMS like a whinie Brit.
And matthew everyone agrees with you, but House is a funny bitch so we watch.
And nothing ever happens on Lost either. :-p
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5-02-2007 @ 1:22PM
Jack said...
I hope those clean rooms are also soundproof, for Foreman's sake.
David: He's a "whiney ass" Australian.
Tom, in the last paragraph, "scream or hearing Foreman talk about how he felt after just going through with it and not even thinking about" from sentence 1 should go after "I don't know if it was more traumatic hearing the kid" in sentence 3. Lines got moved around.
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5-02-2007 @ 1:25PM
LordPaul said...
David - your point still deserves a "fuck you" - you just show your ignorance of both the show & of the world by not knowing (or remembering) that Chase is (obviously to anyone who can tell the difference between accents) an Aussie.
"a whiney Brit" - I'm not entirely sure whether that's derogatory to "Brits" (I certainly don't sound like an Aussie) or Australians (who don't sound like any 'Brits')
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5-02-2007 @ 1:31PM
David said...
1) Ellie, House and/or Wilson noted to the parents that Matty's infection, and its progression, meant that he could not donate his bone marrow to save his brother. I believe they mentioned that even though they identified the infection and were able to begin treating it, he 'would be in no condition' to donate marrow (I forget the exact reason, sorry!). The point of the episode was that Foreman found his inner-House and was willing to take a chance. He decided that Matty was brave enough, and wanted to save his brother strongly enough, that he was willing to put Matty through unbearable pain and extract the bone marrow and try to save his brother. It was portrayed as a completely unethical, inhuman action (the torturing and inappropriate bone marrow extraction from Matty), but at the same time, a human, true-to-medicine call necessary to save Nick. It's the classic dichotomy this show regularly illustrates for the main character.
2) As a few posters have mentioned, this show is repetitive, yet addicting. Because it is so repetitive, however, I am all for one of the three assistants leaving (ok ok .. one of the two leaving .. keep Cameron please, says my inner guy!). Omar Epps has the best acting chops (by far!) after Hugh Laurie, and I'll be sad to see him go, but his character is expendable.
I'd like to see them add another staff doctor to butt heads with House (or, alternatively, to conspire WITH House).
I liked the episode, btw. I thought it was very moving.
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5-02-2007 @ 1:35PM
Cody said...
Great Scott in what tense is the writing of the final paragraph? Another person to help it be read easier should have been asked to edit it.
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5-02-2007 @ 1:38PM
Tom Biro said...
@Cody - something odd happened when this was made live, I think I've corrected the bulk of it, but two or three sentences were completely thrown into a loop. Thanks for pointing it out, all.
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5-02-2007 @ 1:39PM
Randall said...
Foreman wouldn't get fired for torturing the kid. Who is going to fire him? House wouldn't because he did exactly what house wanted. I doubt the parents would tell Cuddy since they just went from having two dead kids to zero dead kids. Did all of you miss the part of the show where he talked about how Foreman had the yips and he was gonna get fired if he couldn't overcome them?
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5-02-2007 @ 2:07PM
David said...
Wow you fuckers are really negitive assholes. He's an Assie.. I mean Aussie, I don't care. All Aussies are are hotter Brits.
So fuck you right back jackass.
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5-02-2007 @ 2:09PM
Walt said...
If anyone ever comments on the lack of decent black acting roles on TV, I'll point them to this episode, even though for the most part this was racially neutral. (the odds on finding matching marrow donors being the set apart here)
Like HOUSE for the logic/character/humor or not, this was a great episode in terms of acting and directing and that shouldn't go by without a mention. Camera shots of the dog, the cancer boy acting, everything. The actual quality of the production here was better than usual. Good stuff, guys.
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5-02-2007 @ 3:05PM
Rogphi said...
@16 David.
Thank you Oscar Wilde!
the point is If you had paid attention during the show he talks about where he is from,he even had a visit from his father. Plus there are enough " brits" on shows to tell the difference.
BTW House is really A "brit" putting on an accent
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5-02-2007 @ 3:08PM
C C said...
This may sound strange, but House's "adventures" with the dog reminded me of "A Fish Called Wanda", where the animal-loving Michael Palin character kept trying to off an old lady, but wound up killing her Yorkies instead. Only House isn't a dog-lover, and his intention was to get rid of Hector, first with Vicodin, then by leaving his front door open. But what ultimately happened? His stereo was stolen.
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