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

Re: a lot of nothing

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Willow reference was in my recap, not in the show itself. Jennifer Morrison's delivery of the "Oh, 'almost'?" had a cute Willowy tone to it.

I'm all with them using fic tropes, provided that the use the good ones and that they use them well.

Right on. They've been responsible about them so far and I'm not too worried about it. Have other things to be concerned about, like the constant psychoanalyzing, dropping of critical storylines, and abuse of characters as foils and friends to House instead of people in their own right.

You meant "Foreman" and not "Wilson," right? :3

Gah, yes! Thanks, fixed now.

Not all episodes can be Histories? [...] I rather liked the variation of the theme-- Foreman defends them, gets burned (the male patient accused him of racism), and eventually gets closer to the patient than he was before. I felt like Foreman showed growth here.

True, and I wouldn't want them to copy previous episodes (another quibble with the show is its penchant for revisiting past concepts without the benefit of growth or a different angle). I just thought that "Histories" accomplished better what they seemed to be trying to do last night. But you've got a good point about the difference here -- that Foreman wasn't entirely antagonistic to start off with, that actually in the middle it turned out to be the opposite of what happened with what's-her-name. And the ending *was* moving.

they took it to heart that House really WAS asking him out.

One of the reasons I try to stay away from spoilers, including information on the Fox website (having been burned by their two-line episode summary before "Clueless"), is that little tidbits of information, whether it's a plot thread leaked on a message board or a video clip on the website or in the TV preview, can be totally misleading, whether in context or in emphasis. While it's fun to know hints of what's coming so you can cook up theories, it's also fun to be completely surprised by what the episode throws at you. ...All by way of saying I'm glad I avoided that clip and that most people were considerate enough to put the squee behind cuts.

re: Tritter and sexual subtext: It was all over the place, man. There was little in his interactions with House that didn't have some kind of double-entendre behind it. I'll write most about that in my post.

Oh, GRAND. Sometimes I'm so deep into my own sexually-charged episode interpretations that I can't judge things like this, that I wonder whether I'm making up what feel to me like blatant threatening sexual tensions while everyone else (well, the non-fandomers, or at least the non-slashers) sees a plain old bully. Looking forward to your post, as always.

Re: a lot of nothing

[bell]

Well, if you take Cameron's "I'm hitting that" to be proof that she's a lesbian we can take that as a Willow reference within the episode itself. ^_~

and abuse of characters as foils and friends to House instead of people in their own right.

WORDITY.

On the spoilers, *rolls eyes*. This last week I was itching fierce for House discussion and TWoP was delivering, so-- things were fine, since the boards have a strict "blacking out" of quotes policy, but then the HoYay thread EXPLODED over the clip. And I was feeling down over my OTP, so I gave in.

Watching unspoiled is always vastly better. VASTEDLY better.

There is NO way you can't read the slash behind the Tritter scenes, and I say that as someone who is always self-conscious about the veracity of her readings. And my initial skirmings of boards/posts/reactions confirms that a lot of people picked up on it.

PS: How's the fic coming along?

Re: a lot of nothing

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Being an introvert, or perhaps just being egotistical, some of the fun of being in fandom is learning more about myself. In this case, I'm learning it is not so unusual after all to see sexual tension between characters who would never in Hollywood tradition act on it, including m/m and hostage/captor. (Speaking of which... I wonder if that was a deliberate parallel between the coughing guy and the soon-to-be-patient during the diner robbery and Tritter and House during the arrest, with the threat of rape.)

Fic went on hiatus while I suffered through a cold last week and then went away for the weekend. Smut kind of has to be written when you're in a particular mood or else it doesn't work. I hope to get back to it soon. Meanwhile I'm working on the six-prompt stuff.

Re: a lot of nothing

[bell]

I thought that the coughing-guy was a return of the "introduction red herring!" from s2, but you may be right. I was more tuned in to the "legal" aspect of the beginning-- the episode begins and ends with the law.

Aww, but I know what you mean. Things have to be written under the right mood. And the six-prompts are good too. :D

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, I'm not trying to boil down the introductory scene to just the overtones of sexual aggression; that guy was clearly our red herring as well as our catalyst. But looking back, I do see additional connections, like the creepy/lechy overpowering of another person, and like the law-breaking as you've pointed out. (Also that guy ended up in custody and it looks as if House will too.)

[bironic.livejournal.com]

After staring at firestorm717's new House/Tritter animated icon, it occurs to me that that wasn't even just skin-baring at the end, it was belly-baring, emphasizing vulnerability.

[bell]

I think Tritter wins the "vulnurable" look when House sticks the thermometer up this ass, but, yeah, it *was* his tummy, which is simultaneously vulnurable and sexy. (Note also how Tritter pulls the jacket *up* and then roots through the pockets, which is more suggestiveness right there.)

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Remind me, because you've probably seen it more than I have (once) -- did he pull up the jacket to check if House was packing, or to gain access to his jeans pockets, or did it look accidental-on-purpose, or...?

[bell]

Oh, you don't have a copy of the episode? I can upload it if you like.

*checks the episode* The pulling of the jacket seems almost gratuitous-- he pulls it up, stops, goes "hmm!", then reaches into the jacket's pocket. In it is a lot of crap (that spills to the floor) including the Vicodin bottle. There was definite *intent* on finding narcotics on House's body but it's done so-- how many times will I use this word today?-- suggestively that in combination with all the other Tritter bits....

[bironic.livejournal.com]

It's the first time you've said "suggestively" here, I think, if it makes you feel any better. And yes, that's what I remembered -- that the shirt-pulling didn't seem to have a purpose as far as the arrest went, that it was more of an opportunity for Tritter to get in another touch of humiliation.

(I watched it once last night; now I'm at work, therefore can't check. But thanks for the offer.)

[bell]

It's the first time I used "suggestively" *here.* But I was tempted to use it all over my description of the Tritter scenes and it's not a word that stands to being overused, you know? :D

I don't think it was an intentional "BE HUMILIATED!" move, since he ultimate goal was to find the narcotics-- THERE lay the true objective (what's more humiliating than landing in prison?). Strip-searching him was just an added bonus.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Unless he thought the pills were tucked under House's waistband, the jacket-lifting seems like an indulgence along the way. Surely further viewing will help.

(Want desperately to read your reaction and reply, but must get some work done first. :( )

[bell]

Surely further viewing will help.

I am sure this will be a great ordeal for you. :D

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Yes. Sigh. The things I put myself through for fandom.