“Son of Coma Guy” continued.

[bironic]

Oh, this is fantastic! It’s dark and raining and windy out -- perfect setting for a second viewing of “Son of Coma Guy,” especially the part where thunder rumbles while House paces.

I was going to do this all in one post, but Tuesday’s bits and pieces have got 30-odd comments -- have I mentioned lately that I love you guys? -- and I’m afraid that adding this to it will push up the count until threads start getting collapsed, and that’s not cool when you want to get discussion going, so the first half will stay over here, and the rest is below.



Yes, aspects of this episode were preposterous or contrived, i.e.: How could that kid know what kind of sandwich House was eating at a glance from that distance? How could FVSG be so coherent and otherwise healthy on waking? Why does he only have a day? Awfully convenient, isn’t it, that he enjoys power over people so much that he wants to play 20 Questions with the main character? And so on. But you know what? While that sort of stuff annoyed me in “No Reason,” here I could forgive it because the rest was just so damn gripping. Hats off to H/W master (mistress?) Doris Egan and director Dan Attias (who also did "Histories").

This morning I realized that what I liked best about this episode is how much it came to resemble a play. Three characters in an enclosed space -- first a car, then a hotel room -- for an extended period of time, deconstructing each other, engaged in a self-imposed game that descends from amused power play to the consensual taking of a life. Secrets revealed, emotions laid bare, backstories fleshed out. Scene cuts while time passes and the characters rearrange themselves (Wilson against the wall, then against the entertainment center, then on the couch; House sitting, pacing, sitting again; FVSG draping himself over the couch or the chair or the other couch; the three of them sitting around the uneaten sandwich). Late night. Rumbling thunder. Recurring themes, symbols and actions, and running jokes. Double and triple meanings. Intentional and unintentional confessions. And of course, building tension, followed by a twist and a heart-wrenching conclusion. Maybe that’s why Wilson seemed radiant: RSL must have felt right at home in this theater atmosphere.



Some notes, and then bigger stuff:

- I’ve seen a few people laugh about House’s Hannibal Lecter impression, but I laughed at his little “I can outdraw you, mysterious stranger” quip in the PVS ward. *shrug*

- Note to self: Patient’s name is Steve Gabriel Wozniak. Sticking with FVSG, though, because it’s funnier. Oh, and for anyone who wants a quick differentiation between “coma” and “persistent vegetative state,” go here.

- No explanation of where Chase disappeared to last week. Weird also that he got more worked up over the overweight patient than the alcoholic patient, when his mother was an established alcoholic and we’ve had no information on why he’s insulted two obese patients.

- FVSG even talks like House, aside from the different in timbre. Look at the bare dialogue: “Your barber sucks.” “If I’ve got one day to live, I’m not gonna spend it in a hospital being grilled.” He’s got cool delivery, too, particularly in the line about Cuddy telling him he’ll have two days at most -- dragging out words in odd places.

- Wilson yelling, “Oh, the HELL he does!” Hee. I love his tendency to talk about people as if they’re not there when he’s with House. He did it in the clinic at the beginning of “Love Hurts,” too, with “Who is this guy?” as if “this guy” weren’t sitting two feet away on the same exam table.

In other news, too bad he said “I’m coming” in such a resigned voice, or else it’d be great for people to dub into their fanvids. I’m sure they’ll do it anyway.

- As they peel out of the parking lot, House says with some glee, “So let’s talk about toxic exposure.” Sure, it makes sense for the differential, but how lovely is it that it also refers to the fact that they’re now trapped with each other in an enclosed space for several hours, minimum?

- “Now the only power I have left? Is the power to annoy you.”

So FVSG says he likes power. As far as explanations/apologies go for the plot device of How To Get House To Spill Some Secrets, it isn’t bad. However, it is odd that he’s so comfortable talking about himself in the past tense. I know he had the vague feeling he’d been out for a long time, but he slips suspiciously easily into this “I used to,” “I liked” phrasing.

House’s little pleased smirk reminds me of the one he gave to Wilson’s back after the cane incident. Take that along with his rueful smile when FVSG later says, “Yeah. It didn’t help,” and you can add FVSG to the short list of people who’ve made House laugh.

- Foreman: “House is a junkie. Junkies do whatever they have to do to get what they need.”

Okay, we get that Foreman thinks House is an addict. We’ve gotten that since at least “Detox.” But what Foreman seems to be missing is that House has never had impulse control. The maybe-addiction is just one way in which House refuses to let anyone stop him in doing his job or dulling his pain.

- Heh, Wilson’s got the directions to Atlantic City memorized. I like how he pulls a Chase, munching and watching the two of them go back and forth in the front seat. He’s looking a little shiny, though, like an oiled animal ready for a show. Kind of disturbing.

Also, okay, I love Wilson in brown, but his tie is ugly in screen shots and kind of on the TV as well, but it’s a cream-colored shirt, and his hair’s ruffly in front, and he’s got brown pants and a dark coat. And he leans. And he gazes. And gazes.

- That story about the buraku seemed awfully perfect, but then when you consider that it’s House’s interpretation of what happened -- that he’s turned it into a story so he can tell his own story, to himself and to others -- it’s forgiveable.

- I didn't believe half of what came out of Kyle's mouth. Everything sounded suspicious or evasive: "Raised by a guardian," sees his father more than anyone, plenty of friends who wouldn't care he's in a hospital, last person he met was the pizza delivery guy, etc. But none of it went anywhere. Red herring, bad acting, unexplored proof that House's motto still flies strong, inconsequential character details...?




The abstract question of whether there’s such a thing as unconditional love did not interest me as much as the shift in House’s attitude toward Wilson’s love for him. And I do mean platonic love. See noydb666’s excellent post for a discussion on that subject.

House: The delusion that fathering a child installs a permanent geyser of unconditional love--
Wilson: Maybe your father’s feelings were conditional; not everyone has--
House: Yes, well, of course that would play into your romantic vision of human--
Wilson: Terms you would understand: We have an evolutionary incentive to sacrifice for our offspring, our tribe, our friends, keep them safe.
House: Except for all the people who don’t. Everything is conditional. Just can’t always anticipate the conditions.

Wilson Translation: You are my friend. I sacrifice to keep you safe. My love for you is unconditional, as proven by the number of times I have stuck by you and protected you to my own detriment despite you being a selfish jerk.

House Translation: Your (supposed) love for me is conditional. The only question is, what are the conditions under which you will leave or betray me?


They address the issue next in the car:

FVSG: You ever love anybody else?
House: No more questions.

There’s been discussion in comments in other people’s posts about whether FVSG intended to turn the discussion toward family or whether he meant Wilson. I suspect he wanted to weasel a confession from House that he cares about Wilson, especially since the man was right there listening. I thought they had cut right to Wilson there, but actually they (pointedly?) don’t cut back to Wilson until several back-and-forths later when the conversation has safely turned to mercury poisoning in the factory.


The next reference:

Wilson: Why steal my pad? [...] I associate with you through choice, and any relationship that involves choice you have to see how far you can push before it breaks. [...] And one day our friendship will break, and that’ll just prove your theory that relationships are conditional and you don’t need human connection or deserve it or whatever goes on in that rat maze of your brain.

Again, over at noydb666's we talked about the quiet tragedy of House and Wilson not believing they deserve love, how that influences their behavior with each other, and the different methods they employ to try to compensate.

Also notable, on a slightly different topic, is the bit of meta there with Wilson saying he associates with House by choice. RSL pointed that out in the cast Q&A at the Museum of whatever-it-was earlier this year, and he said it again in one of those Spanish TV interviews. I wonder if that line of dialogue was Doris Egan incorporating RSL's opinion of their friendship or if in that recent interview RSL was thinking of the script for the episode he'd already filmed.


The absolute kicker, of course, was House's "Maybe I don’t want to push this until it breaks," because in House-speak, that's a declaration of love, beyond the confession of caring in his quiet "They mattered" in "Babies & Bathwater."


Then:

Wilson: Alibi.
House: I figured.
*More sustained eye contact*

Wilson translation: This is me saving your ass again. Because I care about you and want to keep you safe. And this time you wanted to protect me too. So you do care. And this is the most we're ever going to talk about it.




Oh yes, the investigation.

Tritter & Cameron: Where? Somewhere with blinds. Both sitting. Tritter taller. Cameron’s hands folded in her lap.
Key statement: “It’s odd -- you defend him, and he won’t even tell you what’s happening in his life.”
(Reminiscent of Vogler to Chase in “Heavy,” trying to instill hurt and/or mistrust among the Fellows by implying that others are keeping information from them: “Foreman never said anything about talking to me? Interesting.”)

Tritter & Chase: The lab. Tritter standing, leaning on the shelves, stroking his ear, Chase swiveling in a chair; then Tritter pulls up a taller swivel chair.
Key statement: “I think you are stuck lying to the police to cover up something you didn’t wanna do.”
Tritter smirks a little, Chase loses his.
(Discussed this a little with usomitai over in the first post.)

Tritter & Foreman: The lab. Tritter sneaks in behind him, slinking past and standing at his shoulder, a little behind him, half a head taller.
Key statement: “Everybody lies.” He says it and he looks at Foreman until he sees that Foreman’s affected, then leaves to let him stew.




I said to someone this week -- nightdog_barks, maybe -- that I wanted to look at the questions that weren't answered, see who asked them and why the target didn’t answer and where it could have led. This is what I found:

Wilson to FVSG in the car: “Why would a man’s first instinct be to drive away from the only family he’s got?”

House interrupts with a whiny, “Nooo! This isn’t the time for you to do your thing.” (See also Doris Egan’s “House vs. God”: “Wilson! Need you to do your thing.”) Why cut him off? Perhaps because if they’d followed that line of questioning, they would have gotten to the heart of the matter too quickly for us to learn much about House in return, and also avoided the assisted suicide: kid caused the fire, how’d the kid cause the fire, link to maternal line’s genetic condition, bingo, kid’s heart’s still in good enough condition that FVSG doesn’t have to sacrifice himself.

There were two more fruitless attempts on the same topic, both by Wilson:

- “What could he have done that you won’t forgive after ten years when this is your last chance?”
- “So why did you leave?”

It’s not until 48 minutes into the hour that House finally asks, “What happened on the night of the fire?” and gets his clue.


The other big one -- and thank you, nightdog, for pointing out my omission -- was this:

Wilson: Why steal my pad? [...] Why my pad?

We never did get an answer; Wilson launched into that fabulous little monologue about association through choice and House's need to push and push until people leave him, and afterwards House dodged the issue with, "You ask the questions, you answer them, and you make tasty treats!" (quoted from memory)

Why steal Wilson's scrips? I think other people have answered this already: House was punishing Wilson for The Lie about House actually having cured Wheelchair Guy. (ETA: pun pointed out that House stole the pad before finding out Wilson lied to him, so that reasoning doesn't work.) Stealing from his underlings wouldn't have been as challenging or as perversely satisfying.

The next question would be, why have Wilson's question go unanswered in the episode? Does House's "I don't want to push this until it breaks" also work as an apology? Or does he still want Wilson to regret denying him his medication? Or both? Or something else?


The only other unanswered question I caught was from FVSG to House: “How often were you in my room?” I’d like to know the answer, since we’ve only seen House with “our” coma guy, but I don’t think the aborted line of questioning here was going to lead anywhere critical. And Wilson’s alternative certainly did turn out to be better, as he’d claimed.


Oh, and there was also this misdirection I wanted to bring up:

House: Deep down, Wilson believes that if he cares enough, he’ll never have to die.

The second half turns the first into a joke, and right afterwards House and Wilson bicker for a moment about "normal." But look at the first half and imagine where it could have gone if Wilson got more attention: "Deep down, Wilson believes that if he cares enough," then what? He'll be loved? Forgiven? Redeemed? Worth something?




Questions:

1. When he’s telling FVSG that he gets one big question after the next round of family history-taking, House concludes with an invitation to “Destroy my privacy. My dignity,” and shoots Wilson a significant long look. Why?


2. Why did Wilson make that sandwich?

House: You thought that this guy was emotionally confused and the hoagie was just a mask to hide his real feelings towards his son.
Wilson: It was.
House: And yet you moved Heaven and Earth to get him that mask with mustard and prosciutto. [...] You think that my addiction is out of hand -- your need to be needed is so strong that you’ll give people what they want, what they need, what you think they need...

Wilson has to keep everyone appeased. He gets on the phone again because the sandwich ingredients were brought up with white bread slices, not a hoagie roll. But there's more to it here -- something about FVSG in particular that had Wilson "moving Heaven and Earth" to get his mask.

FVSG: Why are you so concerned about me?

All the attention was supposed to be on how much House was like FVSG, but being a Wilson-watcher, I was fascinated by the ways in which Wilson saw himself in the man. Following that logic, Wilson was so determined to get the man his sandwich in part because he was helping himself keep that mask on.

I mean, did anyone hear Wilson’s “You’re a disappointment” without thinking that he was talking about himself? Wilson has said things before that indicate he views himself as a disappointment, such as (surprise!) in “House vs. God” when he says, “It is possible to believe in something and still fail to live up to it.” Conveniently, his next statement this week draws the attention away from himself and onto House, as he accuses FVSG, “You act as though you don’t need anybody.”

This comparison is strengthened when FVSG breaks down and says, “I failed to keep my family safe. I couldn’t stop the fire, I couldn’t save my wife. Now you want me to stick around watching while I fail to save my son.” Reimagine this as Wilson and you can see where he derives his sympathy from, whether consciously or not. Wilson failed to keep his brother safe. He couldn't save his marriages. Now he's failing to save his friend. He’s a disappointment to himself, and he may think he's a disappointment to his loved ones, whom he thinks he's let down. Again, the focus was on FVSG as a father and on House's relationship with his father, but I wish we'd had a glimpse of Wilson's relationship with his father and/or other family members.

And Wilson urging FVSG to meet with his son could echo Wilson's own regret that he didn't have a chance to say goodbye to his brother before he disappeared, trying to get this guy to reconcile with a family member in a way he didn't have a chance to or didn't take advantage of: “You might be able to have a few minutes with him before you lapse. [...] this is your last chance...” One might ask, what did Wilson's brother do that he hasn't forgiven him after ten years?



3. Why did Wilson come along? In the meta sense, that is, not the "oh my God an unstable license-less patient is taking my Volvo for a joyride with a reckless drug user as the only other passenger" sense. I keep coming back to that shot of the three of them sitting around the sandwich on the table. Why these three? Why not just FVSG and House or just House and Wilson?

- FVSG was a catalyst and kept House honest.

- Wilson was a witness to House's confessions, so that they meant something (as opposed to only going into the ear of a man who'd soon lapse into a persistent vegetative state – remember House's comment in the car earlier that it didn't matter that he'd revealed that Wilson had lied to the cops because there were no repercussions for this doomed one-man audience). And he secured the alibi.

- House needed to be pushed to that admission of love.



Okay, it's now Friday morning and I've got meetings to go to. Will come back.

(The usual list of commentaries & post-ep fic will continue to be updated at the bottom of the first half of the recap.)