“I need you. I want you to be around as long as possible because I don’t know what I’m going to do without you.” – House
“No! Don’t do that! I don’t owe you anything. Our entire relationship has been about you. My dying is about me.” – Wilson
I think I’m a sociopath; I always seem to take House’s side when it comes to moral and ethical issues, like the one presented in tonight’s penultimate episode of House. I think Wilson should try the chemo, or an alternative treatment or … something. Just something, anything.
House screamed at Taub that he is in pain every day, that life is pain and that he wanted to end it many times, but didn’t — he kept on fighting. His whole life has been a fight. That’s the least Wilson could do for the people who love him, namely House. I get that it’s all healthy and crap for House to embrace acceptance — acceptance of Wilson’s impending death, acceptance of Wilson’s decision for his own health choices. I get all that. But at the end of the day, Wilson won’t fight because he’s afraid, and because he’s seen too much as an oncologist. He doesn’t want to die, but he’s not going to fight to live, either. That just feels wrong, no matter how respectful and loyal it is for House to support whatever decision Wilson makes.
Even Foreman agrees with me. I loved that conversation that Foreman had with Wilson, declaring that as House’s best friend for more than 20 years, he actually is responsible for House’s happiness, and that chemo may not make his life any better, but caring will. If Wilson cares enough for House, he’ll do the chemo, and caring is what life’s all about. Preach it, Foreman!
Why was Wilson so resistant to everything House was trying to show him? In his own way (for better or for worse … I get that he used fake people, but I loved the line, “They’re giving you a standing “O” somewhere!”), House wanted Wilson to know that he cared about him and loved him. And that there were many people who felt the same, who were alive because of him and wouldn’t want him to give up without a fight. Would Wilson have agreed with his own decision if one of his patients were making it? No, because he’s making the decision from a place of fear, not a place of peace.
I don’t know; as I’m writing this, maybe I’ve missed the whole point. Maybe Wilson gets it, he gets all of it, and he doesn’t want his life to be about the fight. He doesn’t want to be like House, stuck in misery. Maybe he truly doesn’t believe that it’s “our human responsibility to stay alive” no matter what the cost to happiness and quality of life. Maybe he really does just want to spend his last days enjoying the time he has left. I still have to question whether or not that honors who he is as a person, though. Is choosing not to fight really the only choice between acceptance and misery? Isn’t there another way? Does anyone else feel he’s made the decision too quickly?
And how about Wilson finally deciding to try the first round of chemo for House, and House refusing to let him so that he could finally be a selfless friend? I think I rather liked House not telling Wilson what he needed to hear (that his left meant something, that he was worthwhile and that House loved him) until he decided to fight. Maybe I’m the one who needs the lesson in acceptance. …
Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on May 14, 2012 @ 22:00 EST5EDT
. . . . .
Seriously … it’s House.
There can’t be “a happy ending” …
Yeah I think House will OD before going back to jail. It there is a happy ending that be the biggest shock in TV history. Haha
Hugh Laurie, when asked to describe the finale in one word, said, “Uplifting.” And yet I can’t help wondering if House is going to kill himself in the last episode. I mean, he has two options: Live and continue to endure a painful existence without his best friend. Or die and be free of pain; more interestingly, perhaps a seed of doubt has been planted in House’s mind regarding the afterlife; perhaps he is 99% sure there is no afterlife, but the tiny chance of reuniting with Wilson is more attractive than the certainty of being separated from him in life. Of course, I’m just using my imagination. I would much rather see House happy. There were so many powerful moments in last night’s episode that reminded us why we fight to live, and I would hate to see House give up on life.
*POST AUTHOR*
So here’s a guess — maybe in an overdose-induced hallucination, House encounters people from his past, both dead and alive — Cameron, Masters, Kutner, etc. — and they all convince him that he’s been doing the right thing by fighting for life and happiness. So he continues on and knows that he will see Wilson again in the afterlife. Maybe? ;-)
I’m actually hoping we don’t see Wilson die … that’s one I can stand to just imagine happens in the future of the no-longer-a-series-series.
OK, I’m biased, but I like that idea of the hallucination. Makes it easy to explain lots of past characters returning.
The thing is that House has always believed he’s been doing the right thing. That’s the only thing that’s kept him going, his belief in the rightness of what he does. He was terrible at relationships and cruel to patients and fellows alike but he always believed in the rightness of what he did.
If I could have anything for the finale, it would be for us to find House in coma after being shot and learn that seasons 3 – 8 were all a hallucination. Ain’t going to happen though.
Speaking as someone who went through chemotherapy a couple of years ago and at one point thought that dying was better than going through chemo, it seemed to me incredibly selfish of House to ask Wilson to keep doing the chemo for House’s sake. Wilson almost always tried to do what was best for House but with the exception of the procedure to find out what was wrong with Amber, House only did what was right for himself, (and Amber wouldn’t have died if House hadn’t called Wilson to get him out of the bar). Asking Wilson to suffer through that so he could stay around for House’s sake was typical House. Foreman telling Wilson that he was responsible for House’s happiness reinforced that the show still refuses to allow House to grow up emotionally. No one is responsible for House’s happiness but House himself.
“Uplifting” doesn’t have to be in the traditional sense; it could mean a more ethereal sense (heaven, afterlife, etc.) meaning Wilson’s death, House’s death. It wouldn’t make sense to NOT have Wilson die, otherwise, why all the chemo/no chemo, “my terms” dialogue? So if House doesn’t have Wilson, what does he really have?
One thing I have really liked about this show is how it got into the complexities of the characters. I didn’t like Foreman telling Wilson he is responsible for House’s happiness (even if it is true to some extent.) Yes, it’s important to give a cancer patient something to fight for, but that’s a lot to put on somebody.
Agree w/ some earlier posters about possible hallucination sequence (only other reason for Cameron to be there is for a funeral.)
I’m gonna miss House though I do think it’s the right time to end the series. I hope the ending is more statisfying than some other recent series endings (Desperate Housewives.)
Get you kleenex handy.