House 3x03: "Informed Consent"

[bironic]

Screw it, all I want to talk about is that last scene. I felt moderately bad for Cameron when the camera cut to her crying, but no more so than any other time she's been upset over a patient. [ETA: Because I am a moron and didn't realize she was crying because she'd administered the lethal dose of morphine. Now it makes all kinds of sense. /ETA] But then when House put his hand on her shoulder—and when he stroked with his thumb—oh, that was lovely. It was the comfort he's denied all his fellows in the past as far as we've been shown, the kind of sympathy I'd have liked to have seen him share with Chase after losing the baby in "Forever," although at that point he needed Chase to buck up and help save the mother's life; so that may have demonstrated the difference in House's treatment of his staff during the stress of trying to puzzle out a patient's ailment(s) versus in the calm of post-diagnosis, like we saw tonight when House went from snapping at Cameron to make up her mind and do something to his uncharacteristic and delightful softening in the chapel. He'd been harping on her all episode, harder than usual, doubtless trying in his tough-love teacherly way to push her in one direction or the other so she'd stop waffling and being useless, until she did snap and take action, and then House gifted her with that caress and one simple, powerful line—"I'm proud of you." Perhaps the highest praise a person could hope for from him. And, sadly, it came at a time when it probably couldn't make her feel any better about what had happened.

I have such a weakness for older man/younger woman relationships in fiction with that sort of fond paternal attitude and a hint of sexual tension. That scene brought tears to my eyes. Feel free to argue, but for me it was hands-down the most powerful House/Cameron interaction we've had. Heh. In the sense of being powerful in the first place.

The final montage song playing throughout was "Into Dust" by Mazzy Star, if you were wondering. So pretty. It's funny—I only knew it because I got it off one of those eclectic music-share posts on someone's LJ a year or so ago. Thus fandoms come full circle, or something. Here it is for anyone who wants.

…Okay, I lied. One Wilson bit. The lab scene. (1) So apparently last week's lack of blow-up at the revelation of Wilson and Cuddy's lie did signify that, as House once famously said, they're okay. The reinstatement of their usual rapport tonight suggests that House expected as much from his deceitful friend and has moved on, and/or that we made a bigger deal out of the deception than was warranted, and/or that the writers tricked us into making a big deal out of it by giving it so much screen time and then deciding it was no longer relevant and dropping it altogether. Beyond this we start getting into whether we're watching the show in the way the writers want us to, so I'll stop there and move on. (2) Loved, loved, loved Wilson's hands of blue blue-gloved "gimme" motion (same as his "don't steal my patient's joint" gesture) and the way House automatically slid the bottle down the table to him. Quick and subtle and coordinated, and implies many hours spent in the lab together in the past.

…Okay, and some other random stuff:

- Another well-filmed teaser. I especially liked the Bach (that piece always makes me think of House, for some reason) and then the lab rat peering over the counter as if concerned for its collapsed keeper, and then dropping down to sniff and nibble at him. Probably that made a lot of viewers cringe.

- Peppy!House with moments of pain gets a thumbs-up. Highlights included pushing the clinic door open with his back, his highly animated face towards the beginning, the deep breaths he tried to hide during the initial differential in the Diagnostics office, and the way his eye twitched as if in sympathy with Ezra during one of the brooding sessions. He also looked super-attractive tonight in that dark outfit and with whatever the makeup and lighting departments did for him.

- Ezra's begging to die came very early, I thought, before we had a chance to understand the extent of his suffering. At first I thought that would be relevant to his character—that, based on the swiftness with which he dismissed his entire experiment upon seeing the tumor in one rat in the lab in the beginning and with which he gave up on the stress tests at the hospital, House would confront him about giving up on his life too early—but the subject never came up. Also, I'm trying to figure out whether the side-plot of his infant irradiation experiments was necessary, or rather, whether it would have been better to choose something less extreme OR give it more screen time. It smacked uncomfortably of concentration camp doctors, and reminded me of an episode of Star Trek: Voyager called "Nothing Human" that dealt with that idea of how to deal with doctors who have ignored accepted medical ethics to achieve breakthroughs in the field; only here they only touched on it, using it to propel Cameron in her ultimate decision to support House instead of Ezra, whereas on Voyager most of the crew debated those dilemmas for a good portion of the episode. Of course, they're very different shows, and I'm not saying House should or shouldn't have handled it differently. Like I said, still trying to figure it out.

- I know some people don't care for Chase because they find him sycophantic, but I like his repeated displays of loyalty toward House. Huh—I almost phrased that "faith in House," and that's actually quite appropriate, isn't it? That the fellow who quit the seminary would find this unlikely man to believe in.

- So House has performed euthanasia "plenty of times" in the past. Does that surprise anyone? (Especially once Wilson qualified that he only does it after he's sure those patients are terminal?) It really shouldn't, whether you agree with the practice or not, considering all the times it's been made clear on the show that House cares about his patients and respects their wishes to die when they can't be treated (and even sometimes when they can, e.g. "Forever"). Very cool that Cuddy didn't give him a hard time about it, that Chase assisted until the twist, and that Chase later called Foreman out on his lack of spine re: not getting an authority figure to stop House despite vehemently disagreeing with his decision.

- It's not a proper episode until Wilson drops by to give a speech about House's state of mind. I'm resigned to it at this point. So, once again he has inside information from Cameron (as he did in "Sleeping Dogs Lie" when he divulged that he'd read the article she'd been bitching about all episode); seems that she, too, has reconciled whatever issues she had with him last week and is once more seeking him out behind the scenes to talk about her problems.

- Kind of have to say something about the almost-legal clinic stalker, I guess. I think she was funny, as were House's patronizingly flattered faces and Cameron's sneaking jealousy. The thong would have been too much if it hadn't led to The Epiphany. Not looking forward to where they're taking this plot line next week, but if they wrap it up then, it might not be too bad. Maybe the girl will function as the catalyst the writers feel they need to push House and Cameron together, especially now that they had this quiet little bonding moment in the chapel. Oh! and the Fresno calendar! firestorm717, you don't have anything to worry about, yours is way better. Although it was a shame that they not only used someone else's calendar on the show, it also came from a total House fangirl. Woe.

* * *

ETA: Commentaries - firestorm717, Sam's Three Things (esp. early comments), thewlisian_afer, Diane Kristine, nightdog_barks, cryptictac, usomitai, renoir_girl (f-locked), researchgrrrl (in comments).

Post-ep fic: "The Necessary Angel" by pwcorgigirl

Comments

[stephantom.livejournal.com]

I can't remember when exactly - I'll try to find the quotes - but I am almost positive House has in fact said told Chase and Foreman that they were good doctors. One of them at least. I think it might be "DNR" that he tells Foreman. And I know in "The Mistake" he tells Stacy that Chase is more than just a "decent" doctor - and he says so again in "No Reason" but that's not to Chase either. Still, though, I think he might have said something like that to him at one point also. He's always said stuff like that to them though, while he was sort of angry at them, or - not angry, but... pushing them. And said it quickly and kept saying other stuff to and immediately send them on their way, so it couldn't really sink in right away, certainly not while he was still in their presence. So in that respect, there is a big difference in the way he told Cameron.

And I definitely agree with you on the Wilson thing. Wilson is a fantastic character, and RSL is a fantastic actor, but the writers are not using that to their advantage at all. I'm sick of Wilson's only purpose being to give an annoying little explanation of House's ulterior motives, which are half-true but ultimately reductive, and break the "show, don't tell" rule way too much. Wilson's always done that to a certain extent, even in season 1 - but it's gotten way worse. Started getting really bad about halfway through season 2, and so far, this season's had waaay to much of it.

And yeah... I kinda think Jenniffer Morrison's deliver is annoying too... A lot of it is the writers, but Morrison doens't often help that much. Just my opinion.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Amen to your second paragraph.