House 3.20

[bironic]

I just finished watching, and I'm just sad that they decided to kill off a well-liked character for a reason that didn't make much sense. cryptictac wrote a post that makes the suicide fit him, but I think it takes work, not to mention retroactive fitting-in of an interpretation that neither the actor nor the showrunners were thinking of at that point (IMO). They didn't know Kal Penn was leaving until two episodes before this. That explains why they worked so hard to make him likeable in the last couple of weeks, particularly last week, so the death would hurt us more. But not why he'd do it. He did seem like a happy guy. He ate alone, was into solitary geeky things (and we all know that in the media, geeky = unhappy), had a traumatic childhood, and I understand that part of the point was to say that suicide can seem to come out of nowhere in someone you think is happy, but as ahab99 said, I still feel that the whole thing was contrived. For the shock value. For how it would reflect on House's own troubled mind. That's exploitation of a character. (And that's leaving out people's outrage over the loss of a minority character/cast member; from the interview I read, leaving was Penn's decision.)

I read the Yahoo article when I finished the episode, and David Shore confirmed my worst suspicions. Yahoo asked him (after talking with Penn, and while also talking with Katie Jacobs) why they decided on the suicide instead of having the character leave the show in some other way, and in two paragraphs of an answer, Shore never gave a reason that related to Kutner.

Why have Kutner kill himself, instead of sending the character off another way?
David Shore: I guess obviously stirring the pot brings something to any show. Look, Kal came to us with his opportunities and we were very excited for him, but it created a creative problem for us. I'm very happy with the way it worked out. It gave us an opportunity to do something unexpected, and what's fascinating about it is it's a question that House can't answer, and he's the man who has the answers to everything. And it's just so unexpected for the Kutner character and that was what was really exciting about it -- the unexpected nature of it, and the fact that there are no simple answers, and nothing that House can figure out.

Did you consider any other ways to have the character leave?
DS: We considered many ways to have the character leave. Ultimately this was the story that allowed us to really have the greatest impact on House in particular. There's an impact on everybody, but in particular the man who craves answers not having an answer. That is what really excited us about this story.

From http://tv.yahoo.com/blog/house-the-truth-behind-the-shocking-surprise--229

Argh. Focusing on House solving a puzzle and worrying about what it means for his own stability and obsessing over personal/medical puzzles to distract himself from grief, while interesting, is not a respectful way to send someone off.

Okay, that over with, what's left.

• Meat Loaf is a better actor than he is a singer. However, the almost-there line about the patient doing anything for love was just, *wince*.


• Kutner's adopted parents were scary-looking.


• I had two favorite parts. One was Taub breaking down in the hallway. That's what made me tear up finally. Man, the way his face just crumpled. I'm thinking he feels as much guilt as House—certainly lets himself feel the guilt more than House does—between being closer to Kutner than Thirteen or House was, and making up excuses for him that morning. I can imagine him blaming himself along the lines of, if I hadn't said anything, would we have gotten to him in time?


• The other was Wilson snapping at Cuddy. At a different time it might have felt like another instance of how the show can never seem to decide what their relationship is (see also: Tritter arc, when Cuddy refused to sympathize with what he was going through), but tonight it struck the right note. Since this thing started between her and House this season, I bet Wilson has felt that she's siding more with House than ever, to Wilson's detriment. Although, still it doesn't entirely make sense in the context of things like Wilson helping her through the whole baby thing. Or maybe it does; Wilson's there for her, but now he can expect that she won't always be there for him. Either way, Wilson wasn't in the best of mental places then, between Kutner's death, memories of Amber's death, and House being a wacko again, making him more likely to snap instead of repress.


• Loved House's soft, "Good to see you." Didn't love Wilson having to moralize again. Twice.


• Super-blue-gray filter reinforced grief and feeling of disconnection, as did the grief-stricken voices in the first ddx scene, but I didn't quite buy that they'd all sit down and be able to do a ddx. Saying the possibilities in rough and/or tear-choked voices is not as convincing as having the conversation break down.

Comments

[ahab99.livejournal.com]

God, WTF, David shore? For real? God, I was really hoping someone would come up with a quote that would prove this idea not true, but...I guess not. Suicide can be unexpected, but Kutner is not just an object to prove House is right or wrong! I mean, I guess I have to see if there's still fall out next week, but throwing out "suicide can be unexpected" does NOT justify their decision to not care at all about Kutner and why he could have done this. Hmph. Freaking A, show. :(

I agree on Taub, though - I took his "grief, not pity" thing at first as him trying not to let it affect him, but it's going to hit him the hardest. First of all, he was the one who admitted he had attempted suicide in his past and how he hated the idea now, and second of all, he was clearly the closest to Kutner. It kills me that the show had the two of them doing things like making bets off-camera and being all buddy/buddy about things, and now we'll never get to see more of that. Argh.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

:(

Suicide can be unexpected, but Kutner is not just an object to prove House is right or wrong!

I hope there *is* an interview out there where Shore or Jacobs had a character-based reason for choosing suicide over other exits. If there isn't, maybe there will be one soon, as they realize how stupid it sounds to do it for House's character. (Or maybe they won't realize. They love House. Everything's about House, always.)

[daasgrrl.livejournal.com]

I think I've finally been through everything I wanted to say about Kutner, but yes, damn, I wanted to know more about HIM and his background and his geekiness rather than having House brooding (again).

Loved House's soft, "Good to see you." Didn't love Wilson having to moralize again. Twice.

Yes and yes. As I was saying to someone recently... I kind of want to slap Wilsonn every time he gets That Look. I mean, I adore him, obviously. But still.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Sigh. We probably are on the road to feeling what House feels when Wilson comes by. I guess it's too much to ask at this point for a moment -- just one moment! -- where Wilson, or anyone, is able to really give House a modicum of comfort. He's too stubborn to let anyone in, and they're left with no recourse but to be confrontational when they still care.

Were you the one who mentioned in your reaction post that it would have been more enjoyable if we'd uncovered bits and pieces of Kutner's life as House investigated, even if he still didn't reach a conclusion? I agree with whoever said that. Even X number of seasons -- what is it, two now? -- with these new fellows, we still know very little about them, and that would have been a good opportunity. A last opportunity, now lost, I'm sure, as next week we'll be on to something new.

[daasgrrl.livejournal.com]

I don't think I said that explicity, but I alluded to it in a comment somewhere. But I agree, whoever said it. I fully expected it to be an episode All About Kutner, even if it was done posthumously, in House's inimical style. They could have kept the lack of explanation, but I still wanted to know about him. Because I may be wrong, but I don't remember an episode about Kutner the way we had Taub and (many) 13 episodes.

Yeah, look, I don't think we even know enough about the OLD fellows!

[bironic.livejournal.com]

I know! That was my refrain when they swapped casts. They hadn't done anything with the first batch, and then we were juggling three *more* without learning enough. Grr.

We didn't have a Kutner episode, IIRC. Just the mentions of his parents/adoption, the one where he admitted to having been a bully at school (oh noes, maybe a sign of depression?), and the glimpse of the lonely cereal.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

another instance of how the show can never seem to decide what their relationship is

I think the show's been clear on what their relationship is: He supports her, and she doesn't give a crap about him. The Tritter arc was an extended-episode streak of her not caring, which was partly because the show wanted the drama of Wilson being absolutely at the bottom, having nothing. I get that.

The biggest indicator to me, though, because it's something that simply did not have to happen, is when Cuddy told Wilson to go to hell, during the "couples counseling" she forced him and House to do. Yes, Wilson was snippy to her but what. the. fuck. She knew he was still grieving, still in pain, and she tricked him to get him there, and then blackmailed him to stay... and she can't hold herself in check from cursing at him?

Kutner's adoptive parents looked older than House's.

The suicide pissed me off because the show needs somebody who has a positive view on the world. Somebody! Not everybody who is happy is insane, physically sick, or covering up.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

No! The show is allergic to optimism! Kutner had to go!

*sigh*

Huh. Maybe you're right about Cuddy-->Wilson. Maybe my problem wasn't that the show wasn't being clear, but that my own (too high?) opinion of Cuddy's feelings for Wilson were in conflict with the series'. She held him when Amber was dying; she ... oh God, was that all? ETA: oh, right, what I was going to say was, she went on that sort-of date with him, and took him to dinner when she was mulling over sperm donors, but both of those could be seen in a purely self-interested light. /ETA She's been in collusion with him before, but always for House's sake. Oh, man. (I don't remember her cursing at Wilson after couples therapy, but most of the beginning of this season is a dim memory because I watched it in very awkward circumstances.)

[daasgrrl.livejournal.com]

The suicide pissed me off because the show needs somebody who has a positive view on the world. Somebody! Not everybody who is happy is insane, physically sick, or covering up.

Oh, good point! Well, he was obviously Doomed From the Start, then...

[bell]

....And here I thought they'd been preparing for this longer than two episodes. NO LONGER SO AT PEACE WITH KUTNER'S DEATH.

I wonder if each writer has their own idea of what Wilson and Cuddy's relationship is like, and hence the all-over-the-place aspect of their scenes. Or maybe David Shore likes keeping it ambiguous; sometimes they're friends, but there's always the knowledge that any closeness they share is because of their shared House-sitting duty.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

I think it does hinge on House, like everything else on the show. I thought Cuddy was friends with both of them, but lately -- or, as deelaundry is convincing me above, maybe it's always been that Cuddy's loyalties lie with House, and what seems like genuine friendship with Wilson dissolves when it conflicts at all with something relating to House.

I've only read the one interview, so maybe there are or will be others that have more uplifting quotes. Maybe. :(

[bell]

TBH, I never thought they were especially close; sure, they went on a few dates (when she considered asking him for sperm, and when he took her out to a play a season later), but their conversations were always so *awkward*, of the We've-Never-Really-Talked type. I was surprised, if glad, when Wilson was so supportive of Cuddy with Rachel, but I think that's falls under his Must Help Everyone In Need tendency.

I've never seen Cuddy do much for Wilson. She was kind in "Wilson's Heart," and...? ...? What sticks out more in my mind than her hugging him and telling him to say goodbye to his dying girlfriend is how she turned her back on him during the Tritter arc, when he really needed help and all she cared about was House.

They have issues to work out.

I've only read the one interview, so maybe there are or will be others that have more uplifting quotes. Maybe. :(

I doubt it. *makes faces*

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Yeah. It's crystallizing now in my head that Wilson has done more for Cuddy than Cuddy has done for Wilson -- he listened when she miscarried, too, and she was in tears. I like Cuddy, but it does seem like she uses him without giving much back. Oh, this makes me sad.

[mer-duff.livejournal.com]

It's probably mostly 20/20 hindsight trying to disguise itself as insight, but while I think Kutner had many moments of happiness, I don't think that necessarily means he was a happy person, just that he was trying to be a happy person - in the same way that Wilson tries to be nice. (Of course I tend to think that constant happiness and optimism is a sign of mental instability, so I'm probably not one to judge.) But in addition to the childhood trauma, I don't think people become a bully if they're happy with themselves. And I think sometimes his emotional reactions were inappropriate - as the patient in "The Social Contract" pointed out - which to me hints of a deeper pathology. But I'm just like House, looking for signs that were probably never there.

If this episode were to stand alone, I'd think it a waste of a character I was starting to really enjoy. But I'm going to reserve final judgment until I see the rest of the season. If Kutner had to leave - and I'm so pleased for Kal Penn! - I'd rather his departure be used in the way that TPTB are talking about than have him leave without repercussions (and I don't think quitting would have done that). I'm hoping the marvellous acting we're bound to see from HL will be the tribute to Kutner we didn't get (creepy memorial sites aside).

I actually didn't mind Wilson's lectures this time - though admittedly I have a very high tolerance for them. The first one I think was an emotional reaction to the situation - he seemed pretty freaked out by the blood-covered floor, which caused him to misinterpret House's intentions. But then he admitted that he was wrong and that he was terrified for House, which I think is a step forward for him. And I think it was an even bigger step for him to attempt to deal with his own emotions, to look after himself, instead of going to House - even if Cuddy sabotaged it.

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

... he seemed pretty freaked out by the blood-covered floor ...

My thought was that he was remembering finding House half-conscious in vomit in "Merry Little Christmas," and suddenly realizing how much worse it could have been if House had had a gun. The bare wooden floor in Kutner's bedroom seemed to echo that memory. Well, to me anyway. *g*

[mer-duff.livejournal.com]

I had a flash of that as well - and he may have been remembering the bloodstained carpet in the office as well. He definitely wasn't in a good place.

[elynittria.livejournal.com]

Frankly, I don't know what I think anymore about this episode and storyline, except that I'll definitely miss Kutner. Loved the scene w/ Taub breaking down. I felt so bad for him.

If the show just moves on from this point and doesn't ever address the issues raised again (*cough*Tritter arc*cough*), I'll be pissed.

[roga.livejournal.com]

YES TO EVERYTHING YOU SAID.

Kutner :-(((

[chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com]

this proves that the show is about unhappiness. I wish David Shore would just cop to it.