House 6x1

[bironic]

My favorite quote from the newspapers this weekend came from an article in USA Today about the flu season. CDC director Thomas Frieden said: "What will happen in the coming weeks and months will only become clear in the weeks and months ahead."

I'm pretty sure I get what he meant -- we can't predict how the season will go -- but wow.

*

So, House. The first thing I want to say, for usomitai and others wary of emotional spoilers, is that I don't think you can judge an episode by whether I'm posting about it. Whether I write up a commentary is going to depend more on how much time I have and how tired I feel than on the nature or intensity of my emotional reaction to the episode.

Not sure what to make of the premiere. It wasn't awesome, but it wasn't as awful as I'd braced myself for. I'm still not convinced the show isn't going to go all "No Reason" (or end-of-season-five) again, flicker and fade and whoops that episode/arc/season was a hallucination, and it'll turn out in the last episode that the whole series was a fever dream as House lay in the hospital bed pulling through from the infarction with Stacy beside him, and now he knows how his life could have gone and won't.

So. There's that. I'm also nervous that there'll be yet another push of the magical reset button (see also: Vogler, ketamine, Tritter), and House will be back to normal in a few weeks. The "therapy" last night went so fast and was tested so insufficiently that it's not at all clear whether House truly has a new, effective coping strategy or whether he'll turn right back to Vicodin the minute he has problems -- and of course he'll have problems -- in the real world. You can't teach a misanthrope to trust people in a few days by sending him to a cocktail party (see also deelaundry's post on the problems with using a cocktail party for therapy in the first place) and speechifying on a couch and in a parking lot. I suppose that uncertainty is intentional on the writers' part, though: waiting to see whether House will improve.

The first few minutes were kind of frightening. Not because they were artsy blue filtered and montage-y, but because it's terrifying to think about being at other people's mercy when you're sick, and to not be trusted, and to become effectively a prisoner, especially when, as House pointed out, you were voluntarily committed. To go from normal to lost without escape in days. An LJ acquaintance just went through something eerily similar, and just... *shiver*

On the other hand, I am throwing up my hands on understanding House's medical issues. Is he or isn't he in chronic pain? Does the leg function normally except for the pain? The show seems to consistently say yes on the second, despite suggestions in earlier seasons that he couldn't even stand on it (e.g. trying to walk at the end of "Honeymoon" or whichever episode it was). And now it seems to be saying no on the first, which boggles the mind since the show has argued from day one that he's a chronic pain sufferer. If he's in pain, detoxing from the Vicodin shouldn't solve everything. The Tritter arc told us that he can't be off painkillers and nothing works as well as Vicodin. But he's off all meds now and says the pain is manageable. ??

I'm also not sure what to make of the Lessons of the night. Point: House acknowledges that he's miserable. Point: House decides he wants to get better. Point: House decides one way to do that is to take anti-depressants. (Which start working within days? What?) All of which had been said and done on the show before, so again, time will tell if this is different. But for five seasons, there's been this running theme of normal versus extraordinary-with-handicap, whether the handicap is physical, mental, social or a problem of societal perception. Alvie got to personify the dilemma. I really don't know what to do with the fact that he decided to take medication at the end.

Especially when the question was never resolved of whether drugs hinder the creativity that makes the person want to be alive. Not that it has an easy answer, but: House diagnoses. Alvie raps. They're at the top of their game. (Well, House is, and clearly they're meant to be compared, from the time they're put in the room together through the performance duet [which was, *squirm*, embarrassing to watch!] to the end of their parallel journeys from unmedicated to tentatively medicated.) Without their "one thing" (see also: "DNR"), they're not themselves. Point: House now wants to be normal? Or is willing to risk being normal for the sake of being happy? Hasn't he been driven his entire life by a fear of being normal or average? Or at least of not always being right, which is comparable.

Well, the episode has me thinking about all these things, so that's in its favor.

It also had me idly parsing what each patient in the ward stood for as facets of House. His paranoid side, his superhuman delusions, his depression, his cheerfulness, his manic bouts and creativity and wordplay, his traumatized silence, his love of music, his self-hatred and drug-seeking/self-medicating behavior, even his occasional suicidal tendencies. (Another reason to suspect the episode was a hallucination.) Would need to see it again to do it properly. Was the order in which they graduated related to House's own personal journey? Etc. The writers must have had a great time sketching out so many new people to play with. Was too bad several of the characters lacked a lot of dimension or had to partake in such a super-sentimental and questionably realistic ending.

The outing with Wonder Boy or whatever his name was was excellent: House's desire to do something nice for someone all mixed up with his need to be right and help himself and stick it to The Man, and his satisfaction on all those levels when the kid started to feel better, and House's grin when they "flew," and his horror holding that bloody shirt in the hospital hallway. So well done. As was House's anger over the doctor's approach to snapping the kid out of his delusions, and the kid's subsequent maybe-drugged catatonia. (See also: terror of being stuck in an institution.) Am pretending the magical music box awakening maybe didn't happen.

Interactions with the psych felt more scattered, emotionally and therapeutically.

Liked seeing Wilson (duh) and particularly seeing Wilson stand up for himself. Interesting tension between not wanting House to be trapped somewhere where he's feeling tortured, and wanting him to get better. Good thing the psych didn't turn out to be evil, because then Wilson hanging up on House could have precipitated a nightmare.

I liked Lydia (Kiss Lola Kiss!), and bought that she and House were attracted to each other. In an episode where absolutely everyone was specifically like or unlike House, it didn't matter that she played the piano and psychoanalyzed him almost as much as the psychologist (who parroted so many lines from earlier in the series, I didn't know what to do with him). She was also very much like Wilson in some of her phrasing and attitudes. I'd go back and cite lines or conversations but I don't have a recording.

Okay, leftover overall thoughts: Pacing was good. Ending was awkward. Not at all confident that House will change. Not sure why this time would do it when other times hadn't, unless it was that after so many years of increasing speed and pressure and pain, and a trigger in the form of Kutner (and again I ask, why did that trigger him? still not explained/shown/set up enough for me), following Amber (which I did understand, so why wait a season for the fallout?), he needed to break down and have this enforced quiet reflection to try to stabilize himself again. Though more time in the institution might have helped, rather than sending him out where he can so easily fall back into old patterns. Also, too many gay jokes. Each gay joke this show makes actually defuses the sexual tension between characters.

And would have liked to have seen Wilson or Cuddy come to pick him up. Yes, he's Mary Tyler Moore making it on his own. But I thought the point the psych was trying to make was that House has to trust people and can trust people. Reaching out to them for this first step, this tiny bit of help, would have been poignant. He's been relying on himself -- insisting on only relying on himself -- all this time, and look where that's brought him.

(The bus did say McCay, though. Next to the *facepalm*y self-help ad, that is. Nice follow-up to the cocktail party, which looked like the setup to Dee's first SGA/House OT4 fic. If the guy House approached at the hors d'oeurves table had been Sheppard, it would have been perfect.)

Comments

[kassrachel.livejournal.com]

I just watched this tonight too, as will become obvious when you reload your friendspage. *g*

My primary concern is that they are going to hit the giant reset button again, which would piss me off. I liked Nolan a lot -- I thought he was an interesting foil for House, also maybe an interesting parallel in some ways, and I would love to see that relationship continue.

I agree with you that the scene where House takes Wonder Boy to the fair, and everything goes from candy-colored to horrific in a heartbeat, is really well-done.

I hadn't thought of the extent to which everyone in the asylum could be read as mirrors for some aspect of House's personality; that's an intriguing possibility.

Basically, I thought the ep did some interesting things (also many implausible ones, but whatever, I can handwave that) and I will be annoyed if next week we are back to normal.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Mmnrf. If we are back to normal NEXT WEEK things will not be okay! I am bracing myself for a few episodes of stuttering progress followed by regression. But will be very happy if that does not pan out, and progress is followed by more progress, even the two steps forward/one step back kind of progress.

I think I stopped counting implausibilites after "No Reason." (Wow, that episode really was the turning point for me.) Just sometimes they jump up and scream at you, eh?

I hadn't thought of the extent to which everyone in the asylum could be read as mirrors for some aspect of House's personality

But everyone and everything is all about House, always! *g*

[theonlymeyouget.livejournal.com]

Well thought out and nicely written.

I agree with you on several points. The main plot hole bothering me was the lack of swallowing the meds. I worked in clinical research for a while, and we would do a very thorough mouth and hand check after dosing to make sure the dose was taken. I'm absolutely SURE a psych institution would do that and more. Also, when he was pounding the crap out of Alvie, I sincerely doubt they'd have given House PILLS. 1) You can't swallow effectively lying down, much less aggitated and lying down and 2) They wouldn't work fast enough.

By all means not an episode-ruiner, but kind of a "duh". Even laymen know that sort of stuff, and it's hard to suspend one's disbelief THAT much.

On the topic of chronic pain/function, here's my take on it. I am a pain patient, and opiates absolutely do trick your body into thinking you're in more pain than you're in, especially as you become more tolerant to medications, so it is possible that House's leg really didn't hurt as badly as he thought. Also, he did mention to Wilson that he was taking a non-narcotic pain medication, so obviously he does have chronic pain to some degree.

As I posted on my journal, I saw a lot of parallels between the people House met in Mayfield and people in his life with which he had unresolved issues. For example, I think Lydia symbolized Stacy to him. The scene on her porch where he says he doesn't want her to leave is almost identical to one of his scenes with Stacy. Maybe he's learned how to grieve and move on from heartbreak rather than wallow in it. I also think Freedom Master represented Amber. I could see House saying those exact words to Amber and having them fit.

The love scene was wonderfully done and made the point it needed to make without overblowing it, although it felt rather rushed. I was worried about that part of the episode, even though I don't really ship anybody, I was just concerned it would turn into a "thing". It didn't, and I'm glad they're not pursuing that arc further (as far as I know). It just wouldn't fit at all, to have House trying to get his license back and everything else he'll be facing and be pining over a different random woman he can't have.

I thought it interesting that House was concerned about the SSRIs, saying he "didn't want to change who he is". He admits he doesn't want to be miserable, but I've always seen him as accepting and even embracing his misery as part of who he is and even a part of his gift. I also know several people (myself included) who have described feelings of numbness, emptiness, apathy, indifference and listlessness while on meds and quit taking them because the trade off wasn't worth it. I'll be interested to see if they address that with House.

I also don't think we're necessarily SUPPOSED to be confident that House can change. I don't think House is. Right now he is, but that's because he's come out of Mayfield all shiny and new and hasn't had to actually put his newly learned skills into practice. It's easy to know what a healthy behavior is, it's entirely another to execute it when the time comes and not fall back into old habits.

Personally, the "perfect" ending to me would have been to have Wilson waiting for him right where he was at the end of BSN, and to give House his stuff back. Although maybe House wasn't comfortable calling Wilson after their exchange on the phone.

Overall, I really enjoyed the episode, and I thought it was a lot better than I expected.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

we would do a very thorough mouth and hand check after dosing to make sure the dose was taken. [...] I sincerely doubt they'd have given House PILLS.

These are excellent points and are on the list of Things The Ep Did That Make It Hard To Tell Whether It's Supposed To Be Real. We know that medical realism comes second to drama/narrative, but as always, there are probably more accurate ways to serve the same purpose, or at least compromises.

opiates absolutely do trick your body into thinking you're in more pain than you're in, especially as you become more tolerant to medications, so it is possible that House's leg really didn't hurt as badly as he thought.

Yes, absolutely. Just that he seems to have detoxed or attempted to detox at least three times since the infarction, and none of them worked, for various reasons. I'm rememberng in particular the episode during the Tritter arc when House was talking to Wilson about how he'd tried other kinds of medication and nothing worked. That implied that he has pain that needs to be killed, even beneath what the Vicodin is exacerbating, and that it was bad enough to require medicating.

Also, he did mention to Wilson that he was taking a non-narcotic pain medication, so obviously he does have chronic pain to some degree.

Oh, I must have missed that line. I heard at various points that he's not on any meds.

For example, I think Lydia symbolized Stacy to him.

I saw some Stacy, some Cuddy and some Wilson, and some House, all in one. Well packaged, writing team! :)

I also think Freedom Master represented Amber. I could see House saying those exact words to Amber and having them fit.

Interesting point. I was stuck on the group therapy nurse being Amberlike simply because she looked so much like her.

I thought it interesting that House was concerned about the SSRIs, saying he "didn't want to change who he is".

Yes -- another point that wasn't fully explored and that I hope will be as the season goes on. No one knows how these kinds of drugs affect people, and why. All those books and articles about Prozac etc. on the one hand quote people who say SSRIs have saved their lives and on the other quote people who say they're afraid to stop taking them even though they don't even know if the meds are doing anything. They don't know who they are anymore, which self is real.

I also don't think we're necessarily SUPPOSED to be confident that House can change.

I agree. It's just endlessly frustrating to watch a show for six seasons where the characters barely progress. I'd like to see him struggle to improve, and slowly do so, with setbacks, rather than this constant circular motion with occasional nudges forward.

Personally, the "perfect" ending to me would have been to have Wilson waiting for him right where he was at the end of BSN, and to give House his stuff back.

Yes, see, that's the kind of circular I support! Full circle with resolution, instead of this static stuff.

[daasgrrl.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, I am throwing up my hands on understanding House's medical issues.

They are... whatever the show's writers want them to be? Not an acceptable answer, okay ;)

Very thinky of you - I think maybe House is willing to give 'happy' a chance, but if it doesn't work out he can go off the meds again and be no worse off. And if it does work but he loses his 'specialness', he'll be too busy being happy to notice. And the show will end!

Yeah, the gay thing was kind of unnecessary. But Wilson was lovely. I also thought he must have had a huge amount of faith in the psych (or else just be completely desperate at that point for someone else to handle House).

ETA: Er, huge. But 'hugs' would be good, too...

[bironic.livejournal.com]

:)

if it doesn't work out he can go off the meds again and be no worse off.

Dee pointed that out too. It is a good point to be pointed. Would be nice to have a slow buildup to success rather than a sudden attempt and slow backslide, though, don't you think? Or maybe I don't have enough faith in the show.

[synn.livejournal.com]

I had similar feelings on the episode as far as it being okay, but not great.

Thought the bus was a nod to the bus accident, and the fact that he can get on one w/o seeing whats-her-face / we've come full circle since then.

That said, I had some issues with the episode, as my mother did. First, they put house on anti-depressants right away? Meds are generally a last resort-- after therapy and time to determine that those methods aren't entirely effective (yes, he's in a ward, but he hasn't actually been in therapy long enough for them to make that kind of decision).
Second, he should have been in there much, much longer. Like, they should have had the whole season be him in the ward. At least.

Also found the episode highly predictable, but I've come to expect that with house.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

First, they put house on anti-depressants right away?

Yeah. Well, seems to depend on the therapist. I went to the psych dept at MIT once, after filling out a uni-wide survey, and after speaking with me for 5 minutes the woman suggested meds. WTF.

[no-detective.livejournal.com]

We had a similar reaction to this ep - uh, except mine was considerably more negative. I didn't even bother to think about the "medicine" given how nonsensical it was less than 15 minutes in. Over the course of 5 seasons, I believe there was exactly one mention of addiction vs. dependency on this show - Cuddy's line in "Detox" - and I was just SHOCKED that nobody brought it up in this context. And... things just went downhill from there, alas.

Though I appreciated House hooking up with a foreign chick named Lydia. That was pretty damn satisfying. *g*

[bironic.livejournal.com]

When I saw your review I was happy to see that someone else wasn't over the moon about the ep. Then I didn't say anything because I had to go to work. :) But: mostly yes to everything.

addiction vs. dependency

Yeah, it seems not to matter on the show? Insofar as either way, he's unable to stop taking Vicodin, and the Vicodin is causing him interpersonal and medical problems?

And LOL on Lydia... which I keep misspelling.

p.s. Have you ever seen Trekkies II? I caught the last few minutes before, and they were interviewing people at the first Star Trek con in Serbia. I did a double-take because one of the shots looked just like one of the photos you showed me last year. Anyway, one of the guys said it was unbelievable that the con was even held, that all these people could come together to share their love of the show, because "every Trekkie in Serbia thinks he's the only one."

[no-detective.livejournal.com]

OMG - no, I've actually never seen the Trekkies movies! For some reason, I was always afraid they'd poke fun of the fans, and I can be... sensitive about my feelings of infantuation. ;) But oh, thank you for telling me about the Serbian con thing - I HAD NO IDEA!!! That quote is clearly very, very accurate. *adds to Netflix queue*

[chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com]

didn't they say something about him being on some other kind of painkiller that was a lot less addictive than Vikies?
LOVED LOVED LOVED the amusement park scene.
apparently I'm the only person who thought Lydia resembled Chase.

[topaz-eyes.livejournal.com]

I could probably write a whole post discussing your post. :-)

I'm also nervous that there'll be yet another push of the magical reset button (see also: Vogler, ketamine, Tritter), and House will be back to normal in a few weeks.

I don't think the show reset after Tritter as much as everyone says it did. On the surface, sure, but I thought the second half of 3rd season--especially eps like "One Day One Room" and "Half-Wit"-- showed House trying to look at himself differently. And, for a man who never liked change, he certainly changed around his whole team by the end of 3rd season.

The "therapy" last night went so fast and was tested so insufficiently that it's not at all clear whether House truly has a new, effective coping strategy or whether he'll turn right back to Vicodin the minute he has problems -- and of course he'll have problems -- in the real world.

I don't think it was meant to be clear. Cognitive therapies work, but the patient has to want to use them, and that's hard to do because it requires complete self-honesty and willingness to look at things long-term. (Plus, constant self-confrontation hurts.) OTOH House is a master at self-delusion and prefers the quick fix. I am expecting House to go back on Vicodin simply because it's more comforting and familiar than having to face himself and his flawed way of thinking. It's still distorted, it's never completely gone away--even when Nolan tells him about writing the letter at the end there, I saw how House still missed the point why. The trick is first learning how to convert the distorted thoughts into something more realistic, and then putting it into practice. Which, with House--yeah.

House decides one way to do that is to take anti-depressants. (Which start working within days? What?)

Depending on the anti-depressant, yes, some do start working within a week (Cymbalta comes to mind, also lamotrigine, but that's more bipolar, so...), though it takes 4-6 weeks to reach full effect.

And would have liked to have seen Wilson or Cuddy come to pick him up.

I think it was the symbolism here, the bus taking him back to life as it were, just as a bus took him on his journey to personal hell.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

(Pardon in advance if this sounds flat - state of mind thing, not personal.)

I guess I wanted the other symbolism, where he reaches out for support. But I like what you say about returning from the downward trip that began when Amber followed him onto another bus.

some do start working within a week

I didn't know that. Interesting. Was leaning more heavily towards the caveat that many patients may not notice any effects for six weeks, so it seemed strange that people were sure he'd be helped so quickly.

I don't think it was meant to be clear.

Yeah, you're right. I'd just like to have seen him in therapy and on the meds longer, so he could have settled into these new patterns and so it would feel a little more like he has a chance of not immediately relapsing.

I don't think the show reset after Tritter as much as everyone says it did.

Still not sure what to make of all this. If there's been change, it's been subtle. A slow, torturous journey to self-knowledge, and not yet there. Which, okay, a lot like life. And the fact that when he replaced his team, it was with people who were like the old team, means something about how he felt about the old team (as Wilson pointed out). Just, at some point a few seasons back, I stopped having fun analyzing what was going on to figure it all out. Which makes me sad. See sad face --> :(

[roga.livejournal.com]

So happy -- like always -- to read your analysis. I agree with a lot of your points. I have no idea what's up with House and his meds -- I actually think that now that I haven't written House fic for a while, it's a lot easier for me to let details like that slide without making sense of them, but I'm glad you pointed it out and hope it gets answered.

I really wanted Wilson to pick him up, but at the same time, maybe this means we'll get to see their first meeting when he's back in the next episode, which would be cool. The last scene on the bus really creeped me out actually, because he was sitting in the back and the camera was slowly zooming out and suddenly my sister said: "OMG what if Amber's there?" and OH MY GOD that's creepy. Buuuut anyway :-)

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Creepy! I like it.

[bell]

Just cruising by my complete reading filter before heading off to bed, so I haven't read anything but a paragraph of this post-- but I wanted to comment that as far as spoilers go, you needn't worry about me (anymore)! I filter everyone who might watch House, then catch up after the episode. As a system, it works well for me. :D

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

Excellent review that tossed around a few points I myself had been grappling with - thank you!

And dude, that episode tag with Sheppard: if you wanted to write it, I'm all for it. ;)

[bironic.livejournal.com]

:) I don't have to, because deelaundry already did: http://deelaundry.livejournal.com/52145.html (with a Big Bang sequel, no less).

And I'm glad you enjoyed the review!

[thirdblindmouse.livejournal.com]

and it'll turn out in the last episode that the whole series was a fever dream as House lay in the hospital bed pulling through from the infarction with Stacy beside him, and now he knows how his life could have gone and won't.

Bwahaha! That would be hilarious! ...Says the girl no longer watching House. So there's a patient in the mental institute who believes they're superhuman? This calls for Smallville crossovers! As irritating as "it was all a dream" is, I really like "it was all delusions overlaying reality" episodes. (The difference being that in one, it's just a twist ending, in the other, it's been clear throughout that there are two versions of reality involved.)