House sends Cameron to go through Zfaadkv's medical records, Foreman to test his blood, and Louie and Kumar to his apartment. The POW gives them his address. House notes that he must not be expecting to go back.
House calls the outside world and tells the negotiator to send in someone to pick up the POW's blood so Foreman can test it. Zxvbpfft hangs up the phone and says to look outside. He heard SWAT guys outside the window. New symptom: super hearing, which indicates some kind of nerve trouble. House and 13 tell the POW to smile, which he does, to hilarious effect.
Cheese!
His smile is lopsided, which could mean nerve damage. House tells the POW they have a test but it's dangerous and painful--it hurts if there's no nerve damage, but not if there is. House asks for capsaicin, which if I'm not mistaken is the ingredient that makes peppers hot. The POW insists that Cuddy bring the stuff in again. The negotiator says to leave Cuddy out of it, and he has to trade a hostage. House interrupts to tell the negotiator that calling the POW by his first name over and over is creepy, not assuring. Finally someone calls out this particularly annoying tendency of fictional hostage negotiators. Outside, Cuddy says OK too quickly, which makes the negotiator question her objectivity. House as the terrorist, vs. a hostage negotiator, would make a great episode.
Slo-mo cam again as the guy with the GSW is wheeled out to safety. Zsvrcaw asks for a volunteer to take the painful and dangerous test. This one is resolved by the time-honored finger-on-the-nose method. What's next, eeny-meeny-miney-moe? 13 volunteers instead. House says her terminal illness has given her a death wish. "Everything's not some fascinating character flaw," says 13. Ah, but on this show it is. She collapses in pain after getting the injection. OK, it's the POW's turn now. House asks him why he's throwing away his life just to find out what's wrong with him, and shoots him up with pepper juice. He collapses in pain too. Wouldn't that be a great time to, you know, GRAB THE GUN? Anyway, it's not nerve damage, so... next?
Louie and Kumar inspect the apartment. Everything's all set out for them, medicines and everything--more evidence that he wasn't planning on returning. They find a picture of his mom, who has "a droopy eye, fat face, thick neck." Cameron thinks this is a symptom of some genetic disease. "Or she's just ugly," says House. Bwahaha. Foreman tests the POW's blood and finds no infection. Meanwhile, 13 looks up from her vantage point on the floor and sees that his jugular is distended. Could be a heart problem. His heart is racing, but isn't that a normal sign of, like, stress and stuff? The POW demands paddles to zap his heart with. Good old paddles. House demands the gun in return. Standoff. 13 says she'll go get some drugs to slow his heart with. POW gives her thirty seconds. House and the nurse hostage debate whether 13 will come back or run. OK, time's up. The nurse volunteers to be shot and then panics, right before 13 comes back Just In Time. The POW insists 13 take all the same drugs he takes, so he can make sure there are no interactions. House is about to give the POW the shot when he notices heart is back to normal, but the POW is sweating on only one side of his face. This can only mean a tumor, which can only mean--yep, time to call Wilson.
Wilson is also going about his biz like there's not a hostage situation downstairs. Which is pretty much true. At least there shouldn't still be a situation. Jack Bauer would eat this loser for a light bedtime snack. In fact, I'm pretty sure he did on at least one occasion. Zxwrlty has a dry mouth, and swollen glands, which means metastasized lung cancer. POW insists on proof. He wants an X-ray. "Damn, I left my CT machine in my other pants," says House. So it's time for a field trip. Several hostages scurry out as the POW shuffles off to radiology, with House, 13 and the remaining hostages tied around him as a shield. This looks really silly. Where did this guy go to terrorist school? House keeps pushing the POW's buttons and he insists he just wants an answer.
What has 12 feet, an unpronounceable name, and coughs?
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Comments (1)
Well - at least it wasn't as formulaic as usual. I did also find myself yelling at House to take the gun from the guy (home alone - I need a life). I was also expecting House to face charges (from the hostage negotiator) for handing the gun back to the perp. Of course, in real life, as soon as the SWAT guys heard the guy was unarmed, they'd have rushed into the room and dragged him out of the CAT scanner. Things like that can irritate me, but I do understand that sometimes the writers can't figure out a better way to advance the story.
I enjoyed when 13 realized that her life was worth fighting for.
1 of 1 | Posted by fire@will | Posted on December 2, 2008 10:36 AM