(S06E03) "House was an egotistical, pill popping, lawsuit magnet... and a genius." - Foreman
Change doesn't come easily for House. Fresh out of his stint at Mayfield Psychiatric Hospital and you'd think he'd be craving his old routine. Instead he quits his job. As we learned, though, it was more about coping and less about change. Ironically though, House, the one character who had the biggest change and now has the most to cope with, seems to be doing the best out of them all.
With House's departure from Princeton-Plainsboro, you knew Foreman would step up and lobby to take his position. And you knew Cuddy would say yes. And you knew it would create an ungodly amount of tension between him and Thirteen. We've seen this happen before. Foreman craves the spotlight but whenever he's in it, he fails miserably. Partly because he doesn't have lots of self-confidence and partly because he doesn't know how to properly handle an office romance. I don't think I've ever heard of the ol' "fire your girlfriend to save your relationship" move, but hey -- you never know.
With Remy and Taub, who quit on his own, both gone (I'm assuming it's only temporary considering this news about Jennifer Morrison), it clears up any confusion about how the old team would get back together, but it still leaves the question of House -- what brings him back?
Nothing too mysterious, unfortunately. It seems as though he truly has kicked the Vicodin and replaced it with Ibuprofen, which barely manages the pain. Otherwise, he seems pretty normal. Occupying his time with cooking (obsessively) and freaking out Wilson by having dogs pee in the toilet -- stuff like that is the House we know and love.
But he needs something to alleviate his pain consistently and let's be honest -- the man is a workaholic. While I was thrilled to see Andre Braugher back as Dr. Nolan, his presence in this episode did feel a bit underused. Anyone who knows House could have told him that going back to work is the only thing that'll keep him clean.
Stuff worth mentioning...
- Anyone catch the jab at Jeremy Piven? When Vince, the patient, said he thought he had mercury poisoning, Thirteen asked if he had read any bad reviews about his Broadway show Speed the Plow. Very funny line, but I wonder what the joke behind including it is.
- And speaking of Vince, it was only fitting that Foreman's first case be the most difficult patient ever. How cool was that video game he was working on, though? The whole scene where he hallucinated in the hospital lobby was pretty impressive to watch.
- "I'm short, he's black, you're gay-ish."
- Did we know House was bilingual? Also, I was surprised to find out that Cuddy only had the diagnostic medicine department because of House. It never existed before him, and she didn't seem entirely keen on keeping it going without him.
- Anyone else find it amusing that Thirteen tells Foreman stories about her lesbian encounters to cheer him up?
Like we all knew, House couldn't stay away from this job. He couldn't even stay away from Vince's case when he posted all his symptoms online. It was because of House that Thirteen properly diagnosed him. She and Taub were just starting to get good at this and let's be honest -- Cameron and Chase have to be a little rusty. Any predictions for next week's Princeton-Plainsboro reunion tour?
[Watch full episodes and clips of House, as well as other shows, over at SlashControl.]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
9-29-2009 @ 2:03AM
Andrew said...
I don't watch the show but...
Is that a major spoiler in the first paragraph?
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9-29-2009 @ 2:15AM
Parl said...
ZzZzZzzZzz....
Oh! Is the episode over? This episode had no heart in my opinion. Re-hash of personalities that were never interesting or well-acted in the first place. I'm looking at you, Mr. Epps. Any time an episode focuses on him, he just really brings it down. There's just no depth to his character at all and he's not that great of an actor.
Is this 1990? Are the writers of the show that outdated that they think VR video games are that accessible at that level of sophistication?
Probably a low point in the series in my opinion. Hopefully, the next episode will be better.
Also, re: the comment above about whether there's a spoiler in the review's first paragraph. It didn't reveal anything that wasn't shown in the previews last week.
Reply
9-29-2009 @ 3:01AM
tingrin87 said...
i agree, weak episode - yeah, everyone quits. didn't that happen in the season finale somewhere around season 2 or 3?
to be honest, i found the previews for next week more interesting than the episode. (imo, Foreman is not a dynamic enough character to play the lead)
9-29-2009 @ 4:54AM
JML said...
Here is a humorous answer to your question about why the Jeremy Piven reference was included:
http://www.disgrasian.com/2008/12/lifestyle-asiaphilia-kills.html
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9-29-2009 @ 6:50AM
marcy said...
They were referencing Jeremy Piven's bad reviews in Speed the Plow and his quitting of the play blaming it on mercury poisoning in the joke mentioned above.
I thought it was an annoying episode as well--agreed with the comment above about Foreman's bad acting and the knowledge that the episode was going to be bad as soon as he runs the show.
Loved last week's episode and wish they could use that format instead of the procedural they're stuck in now.
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9-29-2009 @ 6:54AM
Daniel M said...
I liked this episode but not as muc as I did when house was in charge. It was a weird change for foreman to lead the team, it was just an odd thing to watch. Not stale for me just...bland
I'm interested how they will handle house being House again, even though he has changed.
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9-29-2009 @ 8:32AM
hub said...
Yeah, the reviewer knows *why* the referenced Piven, just not why they chose to take the shot at him.
I think there was much more going on with House. His jabs and barbs, while very House-like, were *much* less pointed and mean-spirited than they used to be. He seems to still revel in insults, but the misanthropy is gone from them. It's subtle, but I think House is changing not just coping.
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9-29-2009 @ 8:52AM
John Heltsley said...
It's been established previously that House isn't just bilingual, but multi-lingual. I don't recall exactly how many (they may not have said his total), but he speaks one form of Indian, Portugese, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese and English at the least. I'm just going off episodes I remember him mentioning or speaking them in.
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9-29-2009 @ 9:01AM
Jesse said...
I loved that House was really good at cooking because he realized it's just chemistry. He's like a cranky Alton Brown. Favorite line of the night was when he gave 13 a sample of his egg cracker thing and she says, "That's the best thing I've ever tasted. Yes including what you were just thinking about."
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9-30-2009 @ 10:20AM
mel said...
second only to Cuddy.
"eh tu Booty"
ha ha ha ha
CLASSIC!
9-29-2009 @ 9:09AM
Martin said...
For some reason, I have a suspicion that it isn't just solving medical cases that makes his leg feel better but pulling pranks on people.
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9-29-2009 @ 10:00AM
mike said...
The whole Foreman/13 thing would never happen nowadays. There isn't a single company out there that would let Foreman be the boss of 13 given their relationship - and I'm sure Cuddy knows of their relationship. As soon as one of them got a promotion the other would have to move to another department. Instead we get Foreman firing her at the end of the episode. In real life the next scene would be her calling a lawyer.
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9-30-2009 @ 10:20AM
stg said...
Foreman is an ass.
9-30-2009 @ 10:20AM
stg said...
Foreman is an ass.
She should dump him.
9-29-2009 @ 9:55AM
John said...
Many commentators on this site, and I am sure others, take the episodes one at a time and apply a quick internet style short take on the episode, it is like reviewing a 2000 page Russian novel after every page and deciding that the author did not amuse or entertain them on the preceding page, therefore the rest of the novel had better live up to their expectations or else they are never going to read the book again. I am sure the writers of "House" and many other dramas have sketched out a long arcing story line that is strong enough to last an entire season while keeping their audience engaged week to week. The desire for instant and weekly gratification has been greatly enhanced in the Internet age and something as slow as a weekly TV drama appears to be having a difficult time keeping pace.
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9-29-2009 @ 10:13AM
Kristi said...
I go through a life cycle with this show. . . I like it, start to get bored, stop watching, they come up with something interesting, I watch again. . .and then it starts all over. Can you guess which stage I'm at now? Hint: It has something to do with Foreman.
http://www.orble.com/teevee-house-928/
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9-29-2009 @ 10:31AM
Rhomboid said...
He's more than bilingual. They've made references to him speaking a number of languages over the years. In s01e07 he was researching African sleeping sickness in a journal article written in Portuguese. In s02e18 he speaks Mandarin to the mother of a girl that came in the clinic trying to get birth control pills. In s02e12 he's shown brushing up on his Hindi to humiliate a former classmate who has published in an Indian journal. Wikipedia says he also speaks Spanish and Japanese.
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9-29-2009 @ 1:36PM
Eludium-Q36 said...
Just an aside here, but did you catch Hugh Laurie on Leno late last week ?! OMG, I didn't realize his natural accent is a very pretentious British one! How horrible it is, thank gahd he doesn't use that on the show.
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10-01-2009 @ 10:03AM
Richard D. Clark said...
How are things at that rock you've been living under?
10-06-2009 @ 2:51PM
Loretta Komito said...
I saw Hugh on Leno and he speaks beautifuly. He is english and his accent is very pure english. He is OK in my book.