House 3x05, “Fools for Love”

[bironic]

In which no comparisons are made to the Buffy episode of almost the same name, but there is a reference to Willow.

Lots of Wilson, flirtatious glances, fanficcy meta stuff and the promise of trouble make me happy.

This ep had me from the first PPTH scene, when House got distracted from the differential because Wilson was chatting up the nurse. First of all, Wilson was in brown, which looks great on him. Second, House was definitely showing his possessive-jealous side, whether you interpret that as his desire to have Wilson for himself or to control his life or to save him from another disastrous relationship or all of the above. Fans sometimes complain when their book/show/whatever starts to read or watch like fanfic, but this was just great. Reminiscent of House breaking up Chase and the woman in “All In,” except that time he needed a clear-headed Chase to help treat a sick child and here he was just being nosy. Wendy or whatever her name was sure got in a good jab, whereas Chase’s date just left. And on second viewing it’s even funnier because you know that what she heard about House came from Foreman, not Wilson.

Cameron’s line about being the one who’s seeing the nurse made me giggle, as did Chase’s bug-eyed reaction. (Guess he still hasn’t learned to expect stuff like that to come out of her mouth.) She had some great lines later too, like her Willow-esque “Oh, ‘almost’?” to House’s, “Oh, 90%?” or the plaintive, “Does anyone care about the swelling?” Likewise, Chase was on tonight, chock full of smirks and glances and pats and folded hands and tosses and catches and brown-nosing as he sat back and watched in amusement the antics around him. synn was over (our first time watching together “live”; how is that possible?) so all the House/Chase-y moments stood out. And what was with the sudden focus on the House-Foreman-Chase dynamic?

While I found the final scene between Foreman and the patient moving, I felt it lacked the power of an episode like "Histories" where what begins as an antagonistic relationship between doctor and patient softens until the doctor eventually becomes sympathetic -- more specifically, Foreman looks beyond his assumptions and actually gets to know the person -- and then hurt, because of the patient's pain or death. I guess I shouldn't be complaining because we got to see one of Foreman's better sides. Maybe one day he'll learn not to make assumptions about people. Probably around the same time Chase stops being surprised at Cameron's dirty mouth, Cameron stops mooning over her boss, Wilson gets his act together and House counts his blessings.

Tied in first place for the most metalicious moments of the hour are the cop’s House-analysis in the clinic and Wilson’s speech about House having ruined his marriages. If I haven’t mentioned this lately, I am really, really sick of all the characters doing things like that, with the “You” this and the “You” that, especially when they’re guest stars who don’t even know him. And yet. This time it was almost okay because the cop’s a cop, or rather a detective, or whatever he is. It’s his job to read people in the way House does for fun. So at least with the cop -- as opposed to a patient’s wife -- such an accurate assessment is plausible. And as opposed to when it’s Wilson doing the smug analyzing, with the cop this might actually be useful. Still, not the best way to go about showing that this guy understands the way House works and doesn’t like him.

But! He tripped him! That was excellent, in a frightening way. House looked shaken and angry, without the hint of amusement we saw when Wilson filed through his cane (how kind of the writers to remind us of that a few minutes earlier). This guy (name, please, anyone? I didn’t catch it) is shaping up to be a fascinating nemesis. He’s sharp and mean and scary and perfectly willing to manhandle House and in a position to punish him for at least some of the crap he’s been pulling lately, like the faked prescription and the speeding. He got the swab he wanted in that clinic scene, but House just had to have the last word (or thermometer-stick), no doubt to get revenge for the humiliation of having stumbled. And then again with the one-upmanship in Cuddy’s office. Jeez, House doesn’t know when he’s pissing off the wrong person -- or rather, he can’t seem to help himself. *coughVogler* It was clear even before the cop revealed himself as a cop that he could do some serious damage to House, physically or litigiously. Maybe House really does think he’s immune to consequences. Guess next week will prove him wrong.

I love the cop’s intensity, the tension he has with House. Maybe it’s my overactive, sexed-up imagination talking, but there was something vaguely sexually threatening about his manner each time he showed up, with the belt buckle/pants lowering, the struggle for dominance and the skin-baring pat-down on the street. The show almost certainly won’t go in that direction, though I hope it plays with the idea more, but there’s fantastic potential for non-con or hurt/comfort fanfic in this arc. I think based on past conversation that firestorm717’s with me at least a little bit on this one.

ETA: Ha, firestorm717 who just created this icon and house_tritter.
ETA 2: Definitely not just me; usomitai begins to break the subtext down here.

Back to the meta bit: how brilliant was the scene in Wilson’s office? Wilson’s exasperation that House stole the nurse’s personnel file was cute, but what took the cake, of course, was when he started in on how House had contributed to his ruined relationships and didn’t want Wilson to have a healthy one now because then House wouldn’t be the center of his life anymore. It’s touching, if you think about it, implying that House is afraid Wilson will leave him if the right woman comes along. ’Course, House makes it hard to sympathize with him for long. But anyway, that was great. Also it looked like RSL was trying not to laugh as he delivered some of those lines, as if someone were making faces behind the camera; or maybe Wilson was just amused at his friend’s possessiveness.

As for the Poconos bit, it was your classic joke that’s at once slashy and slash-cancelling. Slashy because, um, Wilson thought House just suggested a romantic weekend getaway (and House did absolutely nothing to contradict him even after Wilson made it clear that he’d misinterpreted the intimation), and slash-cancelling because Wilson was taken aback and even a little frightened by the idea of it. While it was a hoot to have a character address the subtext again, on first viewing I got the impression from that little exchange that there is and was nothing romantic or sexual between them, even as my inner House/Wilson ’shipper started constructing ways to work with it.

And that is it for tonight because it’s far too late to be up. Happy Halloween!

ETA: Episode reactions - Pru, daasgrrl, Diane Kristine, usomitai, m_butterfly (on lack of empathy in fan reactions), stephantom, leiascully

Post-ep fic: "Humiliation" by baked_goldfish (House/Tritter dub-con, NC-17), "The Heart Must Pause to Breathe" by noydb666 (Wilson gen / H/W UST), "Safe as Houses" by kj_draft (House/Tritter non-con, NC-17), Untitled Bail Spec Fic by savemoony (Tritter POV, gen)

Comments

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Nice comparison of Foreman and Chase to House and Wilson. Depending on the episode, the fellows can be matched up with different senior "staff" -- there are certainly plenty of times Cameron has played Wilson's role, for instance -- but yeah, I definitely see that dynamic looking back at Chase's laid-back, amused attitude, parrying the cynical Foreman.

Agree with you on Cameron's spunkiness coming too late and without enough explanation to be fully enjoyed.

synn's objection to the cop was that he frightened her -- she said that if she were to meet him in real life she'd be terrified because he's creepy, as if something is wrong in his head. So I think she'd agree with you there. I'm looking at it from a purely fictional point of view. Otherwise I don't know where I'd stand because I would probably hate House if I knew him too, and then whose side would you take?

[thirdblindmouse.livejournal.com]

Cameron has always had some spunk, which is what kept her off my list of "truly despised characters" and just on the "reliably annoying" one. Her problem was never accute lack of spunk, it was those other facets of her character that failed to show up this episode. In this episode Cameron was consistently cheeky, didn't give out any of her usual obnoxious strange brand of ethics, and did no inappropriate hitting on coworkers or boss. It's almost entirely unprecedented.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Yes, good clarification. It wasn't that the spunkiness itself was unusual, it was the lack of mitigating factors that made it stand out. Most notably, the obsession she displayed in "Lines in the Sand" with deconstructing House's actions disappeared. It's similar to what happened with Wilson in the very early episodes this season (if you've seen them) -- he seemed to some people uncharacteristically antagonistic, rude and invasive, but in my opinion it was mostly the lack of House's usual scathing comebacks that made Wilson's behavior stand out.

"Acute lack of spunk." Heh.

[thirdblindmouse.livejournal.com]

Alas, I still have to catch up with missed episodes.

"Acute lack of spunk." Heh.

The beauty of the internet is that others can't hear the snickering that goes on as we type our posts...

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Unless you mean other people in the vicinity who are wondering what the hell we're doing, then yeah.

Maybe by the time you've caught up on the first three episodes I'll have replied to your other, longer comment. Eep.

[thirdblindmouse.livejournal.com]

*looks at workload* Would mid-December work for you?

It's terrible that real life should get in the way of internet life. :P