“Going behind your back works better when you’re not facing us.” – House to Masters
When I started watching House tonight, I thought for sure that my DVR had recorded the wrong show — what was with the slave ship? It turned out to be the beginning of a fascinating case. It’s so amazing that after seven seasons, House writers can still come up with intriguing and unique medical conditions.
And House rarely disappoints … I always get my cheap thrills from the one-liners, like the above quote, like House calling Taub “Dr. 90210″ and the antics like having a live internet porn queen translate Dutch. We can’t forget Wilson as couples counselor: “Say nothing to no one about anything. And that includes me.” What a unique friendship.
Something was different in tonight’s episode, though — instead of taking risks with his patients’ lives, House risked his own. We all know the pattern well: House is wrong several times before the “diagnosis face” comes and he finally hits the nail on the head. What a stupid, egomaniacal choice House made to walk into that room and possibly expose himself to smallpox. Oh, but wait — we are talking about Dr. Greg House, so egomaniacal fits.
I really liked seeing Masters’ (otherwise known as Jen’s virgin) character grow a bit this episode. Her and House seemed to have found a middle ground of trust and she really does seem well-suited to his team. Since this is just a storyline to distract us from Olivia Wilde’s absence, don’t get too attached to House’s newest prodigy … she’s temporary.
Now for the completely and unacceptably annoying part of the episode: Cuddy. Seriously — the working relationship between House and Cuddy has been established for the last seven seasons. I’m pretty sure she was there to experience and witness all of his lies and deceits that he uses to save his patients in his own way. I don’t know why she was surprised and I don’t know why she’s mad. It’s what House does and it seemed that she knew that and accepted it in the premiere when they got together. They discussed this sitting on his couch, for crying out loud. Either the writers think we viewers have amnesia or they have suffered a bit of a concussion because I’m not buying it. Cuddy’s bigger than this and more accepting. She’s mature enough to at least talk it out instead of storming from a room. Will we find out that there’s something more that’s bothering her? I don’t know, but I hope they don’t drag out this contrived storyline for too long. It’s really OK for House and Cuddy to be together and happy.
Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Nov 15, 2010 @ 21:23 EST5EDT
Their relationship is a problem for the show, because if it goes too smoothly it will be boring and unrealistic and out of character for House, but if it’s too tumultuous it will be annoying and contrived (like the relationships in Shonda Rhimes’ shows). It’s a tough spot the writers have put themselves in.
*POST AUTHOR*
But they’ve handled it so beautifully the rest of the season — I didn’t find it annoying or contrived, just two people having normal relationship growing pains. Working it out b/c they love each other and House realizing he can have normal human interactions. It’s been so well done and I don’t believe that it has to get boring. But like this show does every year, they slap us with an annoying story arc mid-way through the season … and it looks like it’s going to be contrived relationship angst. Blah.
It always seemed to me that season 3-7 Cuddy was in love with the idea of House rather than with who he really was and that secretly she thought that if only he were in a relationship with her, it would all work out. In The Softer Side, she asked him to go back on methadone so they could be together even though he said it impaired his diagnostic ability. She was always being surprised at what he did. Wilson and Stacy would be annoyed but they were rarely surprised.