![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bironicI have nothing to say that you all aren't already thinking. But. God. I have been waiting for an episode like this for... oh, since "Histories."
There wasn't much new in this except the details -- the single phone call, the blame, being the older brother, the brother's name -- we knew Wilson is a people-pleaser to the point of pathology, we knew he molds himself to be what his partner/whoever needs, we knew he blames himself in part for his brother disappearing, we knew he likes to be around House because he can relax from all that niceness; fandom called the brother's full name/nickname thing and the schizophrenia. But still. So beautiful. So well-handled, so that even though I knew Wilson's secret had to do with his brother (spoilers were all cut on the f-list at the time, but mentions of the brother rose right after, so oh well), watching how it unfolded with Wilson and between Wilson and House was riveting. Just riveting. And it coupled so well with the patient's arc, for a change. This is why we have social rules about glossing over truths, and this is why sometimes we don't. House hides the nice things while the patient hides the meanness. And both are horrible. And both sometimes have their place. And House wants to fix himself more each week.
Doris Egan. There are no words.
.
Other stuff. Let's see.
- Kutner likes Harry Potter; more bonus points for him.
- Kutner and Taub in the cafeteria recapitulated House and Wilson, further reinforcing Taub = Wilson, following on Taub (lying about) playing racquetball with him.
- Wilson played tennis in college. (Mm.)
- Loved House giving Taub a once-over during the differential when he thought Taub was really stealing Wilson's attention/affection from him, checking out the competition.
- In the real world, Cuddy and Thirteen probably wouldn't have smiled after House setting them up for misogynistic comments.
- Mrs. PotW needed to be a little more understanding about what her husband was going through, even though it had to hurt badly to hear such blunt opinions about what were probably weak/sore spots.
- The way Thirteen told Foreman he was a sweet-talker, I for the first time believed they were dating.
- I cannot tell you the number of times Phineas Gage was brought up in my neuroscience class last semester.
- We probably won't, but I'd like to meet Wilson's brother. For God's sake, we've met Mrs. Taub, but not Julie or Danny or any other family members (or friends, or staff...). Bonnie was nice, but it isn't the same.
I sympathize too much with Wilson blaming himself for having caused horrible things to happen to other people. I want to tell him what someone told me, and what hopefully his therapist (if he's still seeing one) will tell him, and which House just about told him, which is that blaming yourself is a kind of egotism, to think that you can have such an effect all by yourself, and he doesn't have that kind of power.
This was such a relief after the manic last episode, which should have taken six weeks to do instead of 40 minutes. Next week's looks unbelievably bad, but hopefully that's deceiving. If not, nowhere to go but down after tonight, so why not go all the way down, I suppose.
Unrelated: commercial about Abilify right after the line about depression: ultimate irony, or brilliant ad placement?
There wasn't much new in this except the details -- the single phone call, the blame, being the older brother, the brother's name -- we knew Wilson is a people-pleaser to the point of pathology, we knew he molds himself to be what his partner/whoever needs, we knew he blames himself in part for his brother disappearing, we knew he likes to be around House because he can relax from all that niceness; fandom called the brother's full name/nickname thing and the schizophrenia. But still. So beautiful. So well-handled, so that even though I knew Wilson's secret had to do with his brother (spoilers were all cut on the f-list at the time, but mentions of the brother rose right after, so oh well), watching how it unfolded with Wilson and between Wilson and House was riveting. Just riveting. And it coupled so well with the patient's arc, for a change. This is why we have social rules about glossing over truths, and this is why sometimes we don't. House hides the nice things while the patient hides the meanness. And both are horrible. And both sometimes have their place. And House wants to fix himself more each week.
Doris Egan. There are no words.
.
Other stuff. Let's see.
- Kutner likes Harry Potter; more bonus points for him.
- Kutner and Taub in the cafeteria recapitulated House and Wilson, further reinforcing Taub = Wilson, following on Taub (lying about) playing racquetball with him.
- Wilson played tennis in college. (Mm.)
- Loved House giving Taub a once-over during the differential when he thought Taub was really stealing Wilson's attention/affection from him, checking out the competition.
- In the real world, Cuddy and Thirteen probably wouldn't have smiled after House setting them up for misogynistic comments.
- Mrs. PotW needed to be a little more understanding about what her husband was going through, even though it had to hurt badly to hear such blunt opinions about what were probably weak/sore spots.
- The way Thirteen told Foreman he was a sweet-talker, I for the first time believed they were dating.
- I cannot tell you the number of times Phineas Gage was brought up in my neuroscience class last semester.
- We probably won't, but I'd like to meet Wilson's brother. For God's sake, we've met Mrs. Taub, but not Julie or Danny or any other family members (or friends, or staff...). Bonnie was nice, but it isn't the same.
I sympathize too much with Wilson blaming himself for having caused horrible things to happen to other people. I want to tell him what someone told me, and what hopefully his therapist (if he's still seeing one) will tell him, and which House just about told him, which is that blaming yourself is a kind of egotism, to think that you can have such an effect all by yourself, and he doesn't have that kind of power.
This was such a relief after the manic last episode, which should have taken six weeks to do instead of 40 minutes. Next week's looks unbelievably bad, but hopefully that's deceiving. If not, nowhere to go but down after tonight, so why not go all the way down, I suppose.
Unrelated: commercial about Abilify right after the line about depression: ultimate irony, or brilliant ad placement?
no subject
Date: Mar. 10th, 2009 04:05 pm (UTC)Why can't it be both?
They had 2 Abilify ads during House. The second ad was about using Abilify to prevent acute manic episodes in bipolar disorder. In retrospect I find this extremely amusing because what do they use to treat acute mania? Anti-psychotics!