So after last week's high-octane action, what's in store for our dysfunctional doc this week? Are we finally gonna get some Huddy? Will Foreman find a miracle cure for 13? Why do I keep asking all these questions? Let's just watch and see.
A fitness trainer is shooting a commercial on stadium steps while her students run behind her. A rather portly gentleman collapses on the bleachers in the middle of the shot. Cut! She asks the director to take five so she can run with her class. She wants to be sweaty and panting in the commercial so she doesn't look like a phony. The guy who fell gets up and keeps going, but the trainer collapses on the bleachers herself. Gotcha! It's the old POW Fakeout: the skinny girl, not the fat guy!
I gotcher phony right here. No self-respecting hipster wears THIS much black.
Cuddy runs to catch the elevator up with House. She gives him the case and follows him to his office, except it's their office now. She's moving in with him while hers is de-crime-scened following last week's hostage crisis. Wow, Cuddy is perky tonight. And I don't just mean her personality. Her wardrobe has shrunk back to its pre-baby size. The woman sure knows how to bounce back from a crisis. She boots House into the conference room and takes his desk.
Name That Disease, Minus Foreteen, Equals Funny
Foreman and 13 are doing the Huntington's trial thing, so the Houseguests are short-staffed today. At least they would be if Cuddy didn't keep butting in. Or "back-seat differentialating", as House calls it. The POW collapsed because of trouble breathing, but the mystery is that her lungs were clean on a CAT scan. Louie says she's probably on steroids, since you have to cheat to get in such good shape. Cuddy thinks it's asthma brought on by exercise. House scoffs at her, then takes the boys out in the hall and admits it's a good theory.
Down in the Experimental Medicine wing, 13 sits out in the hall waiting for her appointment with her better half. She sees another Huntington's patient who's much farther along and having trouble controlling her muscles. We get a flashback to when 13 was actually 13 (or thereabouts), watching her mother go through the same symptoms.
The POW is doing a stress test, trying to reproduce the symptom that put her in the hospital. Louie asks her if she ever indulges herself even a little bit. He doesn't like her much. She says she feels fine, and falls off the bike into his arms.
13 is doing the test with Foreman watching. It appears to involve tapping your fingers on buttons. I would totally kill that test. Half the time I'm just mashing random keys on my keyboard just to keep my fingers moving. She thinks she's taking advantage by being there--she doesn't have any symptoms yet and someone else should get her spot. Hey, yeah, isn't there some rule that says employees of the hospital are ineligible for the test? Are you telling me that a Coke employee can't play a stupid bottlecap game, but just anyone can sign up to prove life-saving drugs work? I ain't buying it. Foreman tells her not to feel guilty, she didn't do so great on the test and her symptoms are starting. Dun dun dun.
Cuddy sits at House's desk, playing with his ball. More on that later. He's tired of exile in the conference room and says the desk is big enough for them to share. I don't know about you, but I get more of a brother-sister vibe from them in this scene. Maybe I'm just flashing back to when I had to split the back seat with my brother on long car trips.
MOM!!! He just breathed in my space!
The Houseguests interrupt this slightly incestuous scene to tell House that the POW's heart stopped. But, like her lungs, her heart appears fine. Maybe it's a tumor? Loumar, go check her out again. Kumar asks Louie for his opinion about another patient. He's running a web site where people can ask him for unofficial second opinions. He's moonlighting. Better yet, he's moonlighting pretending to be House. What an awesome idea. Louie says he'll keep his mouth shut for 30 percent of the take. Even awesomer idea. But back to the first POW. Her stomach is tiny, which means she had a gastric bypass. "Our patient's a big fat cheater," Louie gloats.
Name That Disease: In Which House Loses His Balls
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Comments (7)
Definitely a good episode. I love the interactions between Foreman and Thirteen; they'd make such a hot couple, no?
But agh House, why couldn't you just KISS HER? So unfair, teasing us like that.
1 of 7 | Posted by alex_w | Posted on December 7, 2008 7:15 AM
I agree (with nearly everything you wrote). Very good episode. I was totally fooled by the "dead" girl, too. (Maybe more than you, since I gave up watching Heroes and Lost after the strike.)
I think Cuddy needs someone with more passion and less confussion.
2 of 7 | Posted by fire@will | Posted on December 7, 2008 2:59 PM
I remember way back in season 1or 2 when it was implied House and Cuddy had some sort of history. That may be part of why their chemistry seems more like brother and sister to me. We'll see if they can pull it off.
fire@will: Was there something I wrote that you *didn't* agree with? :)
3 of 7 | Posted by copyhacker | Posted on December 7, 2008 7:02 PM
Cuddy is a whole person and House isn't--that's why it seems weird (to me) that she is so interested in him. Maybe she thinks of him as a fixer-upper? He needs somebody as screwed up as he is--that would be more entertaining, too.
I started feeling like he was just pathetic and creepy sometime last year. It's the way he looks combined with all his sexual comments. I sure wouldn't want to meet him in a dark alley--except I could easily outrun him.
When he was pawing at Cuddy's boob, he sure didn't look like he was enjoying it.
4 of 7 | Posted by pixielated | Posted on December 7, 2008 10:14 PM
Oh, I meant to say this, too. Don't most athletes eat a high carb diet? At least people who do a lot of aerobic exercise do.
And wouldn't POW have had symptoms before this? She had been skinny long enough to have had some cosmetic surgery (seemingly) and become famous.
I was sure that she had some sort of malnutrition, since that is common with gastric bypasses/bandings, etc. They can eat so little that it has to be carefully balanced and they have to take many, many supplements or they could die of malnutrition or vitamin deficiencies.
5 of 7 | Posted by pixielated | Posted on December 7, 2008 10:18 PM
Oh, I meant to say this, too. Don't most athletes eat a high carb diet? At least people who do a lot of aerobic exercise do.
And wouldn't POW have had symptoms before this? She had been skinny long enough to have had some cosmetic surgery (seemingly) and become famous.
I was sure that she had some sort of malnutrition, since that is common with gastric bypasses/bandings, etc. They can eat so little that it has to be carefully balanced and they have to take many, many supplements or they could die of malnutrition or vitamin deficiencies.
6 of 7 | Posted by pixielated | Posted on December 7, 2008 10:19 PM
pixielated: He wasn't enjoying it. He sabotaged the encounter on purpose.
I think the only thing that might get him over his fear of intimacy is some kind of life-threatening situation, and my biggest disappointment in the previous episode is that there wasn't even a hint of that.
7 of 7 | Posted by copyhacker | Posted on December 8, 2008 3:54 AM