(S04E03) Do your sex organs dangle, cutthroat bitch? -- House, speaking to Amber
Geez, Jen got the easy reviewcap last week. I think there were 32 different subplots in this week's episode of House. It was almost like watching an episode of Lost. Well, might as well sit down and get comfortable, because here we go.
We were graced with two different patients this week. The main one, and the one that the remaining candidates worked on, was a young man who had a degenerative muscular condition who suddenly fainted in the middle of a busy intersection. The second patient, the one that was treated by House alone, had recently been in an auto accident and was seemingly suicidal.
House decides to split the remaining ten candidates into two teams -- men vs. women (or danglers vs. non-danglers) -- to diagnose this case. Amber, known for the rest of this post as C.B. (short for cutthroat bitch), requests to side with the men, which doesn't make any of them jump for joy. They know that she is quite manipulative (Mr. BYU saw this first hand last episode) and they think they can do a better job. However, they really aren't doing well without her.
It seems that C.B. knows about House's former team members. First, she goes to Cameron down in the ER to try and persuade her to help the cause. Cameron gives her a treatment, and C.B. uses it to keep herself on the men's team. Turns out that the treatment, something about bugs being used to detect infection, doesn't really work. Or, it isn't given a chance to work since the patient's throat closes up.
Over on the women's side Thirteen takes command of the team and tries to determine the cause of the fainting. Together they come up with a virus he caught while in Thailand. All she does is prescribe a few pills to clear everything up. Since this is an hour show that really doesn't do the trick. Yet, she is heartened when House rules for their team. The men's team, on the other hand, gets placed in the penalty box due to the lack of time management on their end.
That doesn't stop their team from trying to determine what the diagnosis is for Stark. As they are trying to determine the next course of action Kutner (Kal Penn) discovers that House is recording their moves via a webcam. What they are doing is a no-no. When this is noticed C.B. suddenly makes her way out of House's office (where they were holed up). It doesn't matter, though, since he fires the men's team at the Tribal Council. His final (or so we think) remarks to that team are 'You make me want to stop dangling'.
C.B. is not down yet. She speaks to Chase to try and convince him that additional labs should be performed on the patient. She gets him to reluctantly agree after she mentions that this would be a good opportunity to get back at his former leader. When she takes a blood sample what comes into the vial is not red, but green. Which means, according to House, that he's either a Vulcan or something worse is happening.
We'll get back to Stark in a bit. I want to talk about House's second patient because, eventually, these two tie together. The second patient, when greeted by House, immediately sticks a knife blade into a live electrical socket, knocking him out instantly. House is utterly curious why this patient did something this idiotic. The patient explains that he seems to have had an out-of-body experience after an auto accident earlier in the week and he wanted to get the same feeling again. House chalks it all up to chemicals and science, but the patient disagrees.
Meanwhile, back at the first patient . . . It's no longer a competition for the candidates as they need to determine why Stark's kidneys are failing. After some further diagnosis House determines that it's cancer, which began in his eye socket. So, he wants to remove the eye. Stark isn't too happy about that and decides he just wants to die, House, being the religious zealot that he is, scoffs at Stark's feelings about the afterlife, then gets into a row with Wilson about giving the patient some form of peace in his final moments.
This is where the two patient storylines combine. See, House is getting a little tired hearing about what's out there when you collapse dead here. So, he tries to learn for himself by sticking a knife into a live electrical socket. Sure, his heart stops for a minute, but give the man credit for trying. Before he nearly kills himself, though, he pages C.B., who happens to stop by House's office just before he experiments.
Turns out that, if House had just waited a bit longer, he would've heard from both Thirteen and C.B. (who seem to be the leading candidates for his new team) that Stark didn't have cancer. Further tests performed by Wilson and the candidates, while House was still unconscious, determined that Stark had a form a pneumonia, which was treatable.
Yet, Stark dies anyway. Shortly after his guide dog dies as well. The pills Stark was given were never taken and somehow ended up near a sofa where his dog lay. The dog ate the pills. As Thirteen was the lead physician administering the medication she was solely at fault and was sure she was going to be fired. Yet, in a rare show of compassion, House kept Thirteen on.
And, as Thirteen leaves the morgue feeling a bit better about herself, House turns to the now-dead Stark and mutters 'As for you, well, I told you so'. Of course this means that House saw nothing in the brief moments that the was dead. Or, maybe it doesn't.
Whew! All right, let's review (ooh, a rhyme). I didn't like this episode. There was just too much going on at one time to really follow. With ten extra cast members to work with the whole episode seemed very cluttered. I know, you're probably thinking that if I felt this week was cluttered what about last week when there were 40 or so cast members. True, but at least the entire episode was focused pretty much on them. This week it was just harder to follow all of them with the other stuff going on.
What I really didn't enjoy about this episode were the Foreman sequences. To me, it felt like the producers just threw him in haphazardly to show the viewers how he will end up being part of House's universe once again. It could have been done better. In fact, I wouldn't have minded it they devoted an entire episode showing him in action and how he seemingly was the anti-House. Yes, the results could have been the same -- Foreman realizes that what House taught him about taking chances was the way to go -- but at least it would have been more satisfying to watch.
There were a few good things about the episode. I liked the focus on C.B. and Thirteen. Last week, C.B. was shown to be extremely manipulative. This episode that side of her was diminished and we saw the physician that she really is. Also of interest were Chase's comments to House after he confronted his former student about the labs C.B. performed. I liked the 'if you want to vent, leave a message' part the best. I think House is beginning to realize that he can't pick on those guys anymore.
Finally, this was another episode where Greg didn't seem to take any pain killers. He was prescribed them after his accident (to which House replied to Wilson 'I love you') and they were prominently displayed on the bed tray, but we never saw him pop any. Could the producers be setting us up for an episode about the end to House's addiction?
Gosh, you read all of that? Good for you! Take a week off and come back on October 23rd for another exciting episode of House.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
10-10-2007 @ 12:44AM
Ian said...
I actually enjoyed this episode a lot. It felt more like House, and less like House 2.0. The frantic pace is familiar with the show, and I love it when House starts questioning his life; is there something else out there? Important question with no answer, and House hates not knowing things. The Foreman stuff was a bit weak, but it did show us that it is hard to get a practice when you're trained that there are no rules.
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10-10-2007 @ 12:44AM
Paul said...
I thought the episode was great! There was a lot going on, yes, but the main themes were well-developed. House once again tackling the "afterlife" question, Foreman's short-lived new life, and the continued whittling down of the new team were all nice to see and given enough time without overtaking the episode too much.
Also, as an unrelated side note, if these Reviewcaps are going to continue, it'd really be nice to separate the "review" from the "recap" with headings or something. All this recap and very little review is becoming increasingly annoying.
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10-10-2007 @ 1:08AM
C.E. Crosslin said...
I really enjoyed this episode, honestly. While I agree with you that the Foreman subplot seemed a bit contrived, there was a sharp contrast between the way that House was treating his team (tribal council, "dangler" jokes) and Foreman's "touchy-feely" approach to teams. In the end, neither worked and I was stuck sitting on my sofa with this "Well, what the fuck did that even mean?" feeling, but still. The teams worked great together, hilariously so, and the Wilson/House friendship struck a chord, deep down, with the questions of life vs. the afterlife.
I agree with Paul's comment that the recap is HUGE and the review is, honestly, very small and not as nice to look at. I'd rather read the review.
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10-10-2007 @ 1:19AM
The Midnight Penguin said...
I may be the only one here, but I disliked you referring to Amber as "C.B." It's not like HEROES "HRG" title which was taken due to the fact we didn't know his name for a while and he had to have a name (that seemed to be picked up by many outlets). Just typing out C.B. is a lot more effort than Amber, and I didn't find it humorous (I assume its intent) ...IMO.
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10-10-2007 @ 1:23AM
Brittany said...
I LOVED this episode,but I need some help!! While house was contemplating what he was going to do (before he stuck the knife in the socket) they were playing a REALLY pretty song. Does anyone know what that song was?? I'd love to be able to download it. Thanks
Brittany
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12-06-2007 @ 4:26PM
anthony said...
have you discovered what the song is in the episode of dr House season 4 episode 3. I find it too very nice and I would like to have it. Could you just give me the name of the song or the artist please.
thanks :)
10-10-2007 @ 1:50AM
tcolberg said...
House did take Vicodin in last week's episode; the reviewer missed it.
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10-10-2007 @ 2:52AM
Brad said...
I really thought this was a good episode. I also really loved seeing Foreman "try" to not be House and you can see it in him that hes struggling with that. Its like we may be seeing what House once was before he became the House that we all know and love.
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10-10-2007 @ 3:52AM
Sam McConnell said...
One plot hole that really confuses me is a question that House stated but never answered: Why did House fire the female team (other then the guilty girl) despite their correct diagnosis? We of course could see it coming a mile away considering the other team was much better developed, but why?
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10-10-2007 @ 6:56AM
dianne said...
i am in love with the show house . i wish that they would show it every night to the week. i like the way he acts he is also always pretty cool and right on key more house it's got my vote
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10-10-2007 @ 7:02AM
Doug Nelson said...
If you're going to criticize the Foreman segments in your review, you might want to at least mention them in your recap.
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10-10-2007 @ 7:18AM
Chris W said...
Hey, can anyone confirm whether the plastic surgeon contender dropped the F-bomb. I thought I heard him say "get the **** out of the way" when the patient was crashing (earlier in the episode, before he had the boob job idea).
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10-10-2007 @ 8:17AM
Michael Moncur said...
I agree about the Foreman sequences - they almost seemed like commercials. I just wanted to get back to House. And now I'm worried that they'll bring back Foreman and House won't be able to hire three new people - we need the new blood.
But as for this:
Finally, this was another episode where Greg didn't seem to take any pain killers.
No it isn't. He clearly took them several times in episodes 1 and 2. As for this one, he wasn't shown swallowing them, but considering his comment to Wilson, he certainly planned to.
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10-10-2007 @ 7:52AM
Alicia said...
I'm not a huge fan of the recap/review either. What I like about TV Squad is the reviews.... not the recaps. I watched the episode.
I didn't see House take any pain killers either this episode, but... I may have missed it. He did take them last week.
I LOVE the look on Foreman's face when he was right, and was talking ot his boss... and then got fired... although those cut scenes were just bad IMO. Start them at the beginning, not about half way through. It just seemed choppy, and it interupted the feel.
It doesn't surprise me about House keeping on 13. She screwed up, and screwed up big. BUT he also knows that will make her better.
As for CB... I hate her. When the chic opens her mouth it drives me crazy. I really really hope she isn't one to stay. (Although I am sure she will.)
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10-10-2007 @ 8:54AM
Bala said...
I dunno why you guys keep putting out these "recaps" when its clear that most of your readers (like me) come to this site to read the review of an episode after watching it and/or share/clarify the inside jokes/plotlines we missed (too many slashes ;)). Can we please go back to having just the reviews?
As for the episode, I thought it was very well directed. Back and forth between the candidates, House's interaction with the accident victim and to complete the question of "what happened to foreman". I especially loved 13 (who's the new cameron i guess).
And, yes I dont think House has stopped taking Vicodin and please dont say that he *did not* take the pills in the last episode as he clearly did and mentioned as such many times in the comments for the last week's review.
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10-10-2007 @ 8:56AM
nukethewhalesagain said...
I agree with he reviewer. I did not like this episode at all. The sad thing is that there were several good possible storylines in this episode but not enough time to flesh them out. I agree that the Foreman scenes could have been their own episode but I understand why that didn't happen; people watch House to see House and most probably won't like an episode that doesn't have him in it. But to put his story in this episode with so much going on was just wrong.
The knife-in-the-socket guy could have had his own episode too. That would have been an interesting episode with more exploration of life and death but it probably wouldn't have worked too well with so many people on House's staff.
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10-10-2007 @ 9:31AM
jessie said...
I am sorry but I don't buy the "dog ate my medication" excuse. Those aide dogs are trained and just wouldn't do that unless maybe the guy fed the pills to his dog because he wanted to die. So, that was pretty stupid.
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10-10-2007 @ 9:33AM
Rich Keller said...
About the reviewcaps: The recaps that we are writing are being used in a bigger AOL initiative. So they will be staying for the time being. Both Jen and I are still trying to work are way through this format. By the time the show returns in two weeks you will see more review admist the recap, which will make for an easier read.
About adding the Foreman sequences to the recap: Frankly, I felt that these were incidental scenes, even though it did set up Foreman's potential return to Princeton-Plainsboro. The main crux of the story involved the two patients.
Using C.B. to describe Amber: C.B. was the term House, and others, used to describe Amber throughout the episode. I was using it just to cover my butt, since I wasn't too sure what her name really was.
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10-10-2007 @ 9:48AM
sg said...
I like both the recap and the reviews. The recaps are great if you happen to miss an episode, or part of one. Keep up the good work!
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10-10-2007 @ 10:34AM
Jimmy said...
What I enjoyed most about this episode was Chase's basically telling House to F off if he was going to be an ass and Cameron's condescending wave as she walked away. These characters are actually becoming for interesting now that they're no longer under House's thumb. It was also nice to see Cuddy dress down house for putting his games ahead of the patient's well-being. It wasn't much of a dress down, but it was better than what she usually does, which is to enable his dysfunctional behavior.
The Foreman scenes? Filler, nothing more. I read somewhere over the summer that Foreman will get his own team. I wonder he'll take some of House's cast-offs -- C.B. for example -- because based on what I've read, the Kal Penn character, Thirteen, and Plastic Surgeon guy are going to be House's new team. If Foreman gets his own team it will be an interesting dynamic to see these two doctor's compete for patients.
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