“I’m dead Wilson — how do you want to spend your last five months?” – House, very much alive
It was everything the series finale of House should have been. A parade of the past cast members (with Cuddy’s absence being extremely obvious and awkward — wonder what the story behind that was) to give the warm fuzzies, emotional moments and an ending very close to Keith’s predicted Thelma and Louise ending. And it was everything I personally could have asked for: I didn’t want to see Wilson die on-screen, and I couldn’t have abided by House’s death for even one moment, after watching all of his character growth throughout the seasons. All in all, it worked, but I’m still left feeling unsatisfied, because it was the end … and I didn’t want the end.
But end it did, and with the message that all of House’s character growth did mean something, has changed him for the better and has allowed him to move forward to be happy and to give freely to aid in the happiness of others, namely Wilson. Every character House hallucinated allowed him to get one step closer to realizing what he had to do. Kutner’s message was that he didn’t find life interesting anymore, so that a change would be okay. Amber taunted him with the fact that solving the puzzle is what he lives for, and “why would you need more than that?” Stacy reminded him that it’s okay to base your life on love, and that he could choose that at any time — and even more importantly, that House would be better off without Wilson because he would need to look within himself to find what he always relied on Wilson for.
Cameron … at first, she seemed to support House’s curling up and dying, that death would be a reward for all he’s suffered and given. Giving up — just like Wilson did. “You accepted his choice, why not give yourself that gift?” She goes on to convince him that he would be taking the cowardly way out if he did that, which, if I may digress for a moment, is how I felt about Wilson’s decision. House’s decision to die in that fire would have been more cowardly, though, and his immediate and willing choice to change, right then and there, was such a turning point. In that moment, House synthesized his last eight years, his relationships, his hallucination advice and himself as a person to make the right choice. It was powerful.
Even House’s non-hallucinations led him toward the choice he made. Neither Foreman nor Wilson were willing to lie for House to get him out of his jail time. Wilson supported Stacy’s thoughts when he told him that he needed to learn to count on himself because Wilson wouldn’t always be there. The patient was interesting. He was willing to take the fall for House when he thought he was dying. I’m not really sure House saved him because he cared about the puzzle more than himself; I think it was more that he wanted to do the right thing.
In the retrospective preceding the finale, “Swan Song,” David Shore mentioned that there was a definite homage to Holmes with the names House/Holmes and Wilson/Watson and other winks and nods, but that it was “never intended to be a modern-day Holmes.” Be that as it may, you cannot convince me that there was nothing Holmsian about this ending — House faking his death was screaming “The Final Problem” in every way. Dare I say, though, that House was his own Moriarty?
This and that:
Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on May 21, 2012 @ 22:57 EST5EDT
. . . . .
Yep. Missed Cuddy’s appearance … wish it had been otherwise.
I enjoyed this finale, however …
I didn’t think David Shore could pull it off but he did. He went back to the original show and pretty much left everyone happy (except for Cuddy fans).
Chase is now running the department. He always was House’s true successor.
Foreman has learned to value House as a person and not just as someone to butt heads with.
Amber is still the best of diagnostic House.
Hallucination!Stacy sees House as someone who could love and have a family if he would.
Cameron was the one who accepted House for who he was so it is fitting that Hallucination!Cameron is the one who by accepting his decision as long as it was a decision and not a cowardly way out, enabled House to want to keep living. Meanwhile Cameron herself has what she wanted, a job running a hospital department and a family. I’ve missed Cameron so I especially appreciate that Shore was true to the character now.
And House and Wilson ride off into the sunset together. A satisfying ending for the series.
I did watch, even though I haven’t really watched an episode of house since I finished my Virgin Diary a couple of summers ago.
I was reminded just how much more I liked CTB than any other character on the show.
You’re right about the Holmesian ending, Debbie. It felt so right – reestablished the character’s roots.
The heroin addict patient may have been the least interesting part of the episode, but House’s conversation with the patient was important and ties into the episode title. House says something like, “You’re dying so now you’ve suddenly decided to become a good person and do something unselfish… making the world a better place.” I don’t recall the exact quote. But if there’s a “moral to the story” that was it. Everybody dies. We are all dying from the moment we are born; we arrive, the timer starts, the countdown begins, and it’s just a matter of time before we are dead. House muses on this in the burning building when he notes that all of his patients are going to die eventually anyway, so what’s the point. But this conversation with the heroin addict patient answers that question – everyone is in a state of dying, so everyone should come to that state of unselfishness that the patient arrived at when he learned he was dying. House finally realized this is the point – live every moment like you’re dying, because you are dying. The realization frees one to be unselfish, and unselfishness makes the world better.
I suspect that “Everyone dies” will replace “Everyone lies” as House’s new motto, as he enjoys life as a dead man. Great finale!
There were good things in there but many a mystery:
I don’t understand how the patient died nor what sense that has since so much was made of House “saving his life” after the patient had offered to take the fall for him. nor was it explained how the dead patient and house got to the building, nor how or why the building was on fire.
The fingerprints on the soaked tickets also seemed a tad far fetched.
One last point – was House without a cane at the end? I don’t remember seeing him with it after he supposedly “died”. When he was sitting on the steps he did not have it, nor that I can recall in the last scene. Is thre a significance in this?
*POST AUTHOR*
Patient died of drug overdose, Ruby said the rest of it well in her comment.
I didn’t notice the cane, but nice catch! I bet it was significant.
Thanks for that, such a waste having just been saved so recently! Sorrry to asl for more but were we to assume House had gone to visit him to shoot up with him and they had started the fire when high (accidentally or maybe even deliberately?)
Yes, Ruby homes in on the key conversation. The one that means House finally can contradict his own mantra “people don’t change” without actually having been wrong before its just that “people don’t change unless they realise that they are dying”
Houise lost his cane in the building – but he does not get ior use a replacement. I think that is meant to tell us something. He will live without support (no Wilson (soon), no cane and maybe no Vicodin…sorry I am taking it too far!!!)
Thanks for that, such a waste having just been saved so recently! Sorry to ask for more but were we to assume House had gone to visit him to shoot up with him and they had started the fire when high (accidentally or maybe even deliberately?)
Yes, Ruby homes in on the key conversation. The one that means House finally can contradict his own mantra “people don’t change” without actually having been wrong before its just that “people don’t change unless they realise that they are dying”
House lost his cane in the building – but he does not get ior use a replacement. I think that is meant to tell us something. He will live without support (no Wilson (soon), no cane and maybe no Vicodin…sorry I am taking it too far!!!)
*POST AUTHOR*
Yes, I was assuming exactly that, and no, I don’t think you are taking the cane thing so far. Part of what was so fun abotu this show was the symbolism everywhere!
As to the “waste” of the Heroin addict OD after House had saved him, it was foreshadowed when the patient told House he would not quit. He was a bigger fan of the drugs then life itself and compared them to “seeing God”. I think that’s what hooked House to go with him to try some himself. I still have a little trouble with the starting of the fire. I know the patient had burns around his neck from passing out with a lit cigarette, and I’m sure that’s how the fire started, just not sure how he died on the floor by House, but the fire started below. Maybe his burning cig slipped through the floor crack and ignited below.