This week on House: an insomniac man, a white-trash pregnant woman, and a sassy teenager. Hey, if you haven't seen it in the movies already, it's new to you. So what are we waiting for?
A middle-aged guy argues with his teenage daughter while making coffee in 4 different coffeemakers. They stare at each other blankly, even when they're not arguing. Keep this in mind for later. I love it when the the teaser scene gives you all the clues to what's actually wrong with the Patient of the Week. Just to make sure we know Dad's not right in the head, the scene is done up Fight Club-style. Their apartment is ominously devoid of taste. There are wacky camera angles, extreme closeups, and fisheye stuff that I don't know the technical terms for, but you get the idea. The scene jumps from morning to evening, and the dad has no idea where the time went.
Couldn't afford Brad Pitt for the TV adaptation.
After the credits, House is in Cuddy's office ragging her about her decision to adopt a baby. The mama is a former meth addict and is due in 2 weeks. So Cuddy's going to rescue the kid from a Wal-Mart life and bring it into her attention-starved world. Selfish much, Cuddy? House says she'll change her mind and it'll be too late. "The return policy on those is worse than video games." Word. I tried to take my kid back and they gave me a second one instead. Cuddy escapes House's taunts by giving him the Case Of The Missing Decor.
Name That Disease: The Over-Under Round
Instead of writing symptoms, House is using his whiteboard to start a betting pool on when Cuddy will back out of the adoption. Kumar joins the pool but wants to use a fake name. So House writes down "Kutner" instead. Wait, that's his actual name. House changes it to "Skutner". The name situation has offically gotten so bad that the writers are poking fun at themselves for their inability to come up with decent names. Our POW is a consumer product tester. That explains all the Mr. Coffees. Seems like a fun job, and it gives the Houseguests a ton of possibilities of what could be making him sick. So it's time for...
Unlawful Entry
13 and Louie are in the POW's apartment. They discuss the POW's family situation. The lack of bric-a-brac, even in the daughter's room, creeps them both out. He's a single dad, so 13 cuts him some slack for not papering the room with Jonas Brothers posters. Louie, in a rare display of opinion, says single people shouldn't have kids, and even the traditional family is messed-up because dads don't spend time with their kids. Yay for tying together plot threads! 13 disagrees, because her dad was great. Look how you turned out, says Louie. House is teaching him well. They find some mold along the baseboards, and scurry back to the ranch to have it tested.
13 gives the daughter an exam and a side of heart-to-heart chitchat. The girl says her mom died when she was four, but she doesn't get the big deal about death. This doesn't sit well with Bubbles, who is obsessed with death. She's telling Foreman about this in the lobby, when they run into the POW. He says in a monotone that he's leaving. The Houseguests try to stop him, but he ignores them and keeps walking, Terminator-style. They shine one of those little doctor flashlights into his eyes. He's sleepwalking.
Come with me if you want to live.
Name That Disease: State The Obvious Round
The Houseguests discuss the sleepwalking. Narcolepsy comes up, but isn't that basically the definition of sleepwalking? They rule out the mold. The apartment is clean, and the patient says he never goes anywhere, so where does that leave them? House is doing his usual smarty-pants routine, and then after four long seasons, someone finally says the obvious. "If you know the answer, can you tell us please?" House says he must be going somewhere in his sleep.
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Comments (5)
Aww, really? You didn't like the House-Cuddy hook-up at the end? I thought that was the greatest thing to happen all episode, and all season as well.
The episode was very very good in my opinion; cool story with the whole lack-of-pleasure disease, and when the baby-with-premature-lungs came out I started bawling. Fun times all 'round!
You had me giggling uncontrollably with the "sleep-drives, sleep-buys, et.al" schtick, because it reminded me so much of those shows like The Jetsons, where they would take something ordinary and easily found in real life and just add "space" on to it, i.e. "space casserole, space bike". Loverly.
1 of 5 | Posted by alex_w | Posted on November 1, 2008 7:46 PM
This was a better than average episode... and a fine recap.
I liked seeing more of the soft side of Cuddy. (Now, put her back into the totally age-inappropriate clothing!)
2 of 5 | Posted by fire@will | Posted on November 2, 2008 11:18 AM
Just goes to show how far opinions can vary: I hated this episode. In fact, now that I think about it, was it directed or written by a cast member? some newbie? some nephew of a producer?
It sucked all the way around for me.
3 of 5 | Posted by Memememe | Posted on November 2, 2008 11:49 AM
OMG that was great -- my boss was the only one of us who DIDN'T watch it this week, and she forgot to TiVO it, so we all were jumping up and down about the end, and she was like "what? whaaaat?!" - we didn't tell her, made her wait for her to watch it on USA on the weekend. We're mean like that.
Anyway, I thought it was good.
4 of 5 | Posted by killbondnow | Posted on November 3, 2008 1:48 AM
Last time I saw the baby mama was in the movie The Baby-Sitters Club, where she played a kid they baby-sat.
It was weird seeing her all grown up.
5 of 5 | Posted by mermaidtricks | Posted on November 18, 2008 3:58 PM