TVSquad

I always look forward to watching House on Mondays. Since about season two, when I think the show really started to develop its secondary characters, I have been hooked on the writing and amazed at the kind of outlandish plots I would tolerate that I would never be able to pass by on, say, other medical dramas. But I'm looking forward to tonight's episode with a bit of trepidation. And that's because they may have finally found an outlandish plot I can't quite get past.

For those who still have last week's episode on DVR and are likely to write us letters because we spoiled it for you - SPOILER ALERT. Then again, why are you reading something about tonight's episode if you haven't watched last week's episode yet?

There. Consider that fair space between the alert and the actual spoiler info. From here on out, you have no one to blame but yourself.

I enjoyed most of last week's episode. I thought James Earl Jones was tremendous as the genocidal dictator President Dibala, and for the most part, the writing brought up some great questions, both from the standpoint of plot and philosophy. But then it all soured for me. Dibala met his end, and Chase, who had sparred with Dibala in a couple of scenes, was implicated in his death. His actions, we were told, were ultimately responsible for Dibala's death. To top it off, Foreman helped to cover it up.

All of this would have been fine for a stand-alone teleplay. But now we move on with the season knowing that Chase helped to kill a world leader and Foreman helped hide it. That seems a bit too major to leave behind, and it's tough to see that being brought up and resolved in future episodes without, well, making an international incident of it.

There is a lot going on now with the power struggle between House and Foreman, and how the rest of the team plays into that. I'm looking forward to seeing how that gets resolved. But if the Dibala storyline continues, the logical conclusion seems to be that Chase and Foreman would both get bounced from the hospital, if not from practicing medicine itself. And that large-scale drama simply isn't as interesting as the interpersonal conflicts developing now as House straddles the line between outsider and team leader. The Dibala storyline can only really serve as a flashy distraction.

If the writers can find a way out of this one without that flashy distraction (and I think just ignoring the result of last week's episode would be kind of a cheap way out), I will be amazed. But then, I've seen some pretty amazing writing on House, so I'm hopeful.