That changes the direction of the episode, I'd say! When we return, House is lying in a hospital bed and coming to, feeling his face to see how bearded he is now - he figures two days - and Cameron is, of course, at his bedside. They discuss his own case a little, but House doesn't even want to know who shot him, and deems gunshot wounds too boring for his attention. He just wants to hear all about the swollen tongue some more, but before Cameron can get too far into it, they wheel Elias Koteas into the same room. Ummm...yeah, right? How is that happening?

House gets up over Cameron's objections to go complain to Cuddy. Wow, House is ethically correct for once! There's a slight bit of sexual tension with Cameron before he heads out, but then he barges into Cuddy's office and before he can even get a word in, she's telling him that Elias Koteas also needs to be in the ICU so there's nothing she can do about it. He's handcuffed to his bed and sedated, so I guess that's safe enough. House is over it by this point, though, and fiddling with his morphine drip. But! He's not turning it up, he's turning it down. Turns out that even though his neck and stomach hurt like the dickens, his leg is doing a-ok. Cuddy sort of mocks him for being upset about how his leg doesn't hurt. That doesn't seem very supportive but I guess she's probably pretty much over his shit by now.

House returns to the room he shares with his would-be killer and wakes him up. Elias Koteas claims he let House live on purpose, because he wanted House to suffer. House is all, "suffer this, bitch!" and sets his machines all haywire and Elias Koteas starts moaning in pain.

I felt bad for a little bit, then the show switched back to the guy with the swollen tongue and it is disgusting. There's a problem, and the Outhouses go check in with House to see what to do next. The important thing here is how Chase comes up with a solution before House does. Losing his edge a bit?