House 4.3, "97 Seconds"

[bironic]

Sponsor commercial after the preview: "House. Presented locally by HUMMER."
Everyone in the room: *bursts into giggles*

NO BUT SERIOUSLY. FIRST: SOMEONE GET ME A SCREEN SHOT OF WILSON IN THAT GREEN POLO, STAT. KTHNX. ETA: Yay.

I feel like I need to watch this episode again in order to discuss it. At the same time, I don't really want to watch it again. Guess we'll go with these notes for now.

- "Hold my metaphor." Meta in-jokes are all well and good, but they're best when they make sense within the show's context too. This one didn't. But it still made me laugh.

- Not happy with the gender assumptions so far. Competitive women are bitches, guys go for the "gang bang," "brute force" method. Girls are weak and non-aggressive, yet also clever—too clever for men. Also duplicitous, manipulative and back-stabbing. Argh. Evil!girl!fellow (can be counted on to do what it takes to earn/keep her job) and good!girl!fellow (cries at death, torments self with guilt) present both sides simultaneously, and both are returning for another shot at the slot(s).

- Theme of competition (male) vs. cooperation (female): fellowship candidates want the job; evil!girl!fellow flaunts the fact that she'll do whatever it takes to win; "if it weren't for competition, we'd all still be single-celled organisms," arguing that cooperation gets you nowhere; Foreman encourages cooperation rather than competition among his team, and they don't diagnose their patient (although neither did House's team) (Foreman trying the "female" approach and failing?) (and what happened to happy mediums? oh yes, this show doesn't comprehend them); eventually, competition poisons House's candidates' ability to participate in the diagnostic process, until they nearly grind to a halt. Cuddy: "You can't beat me in a foot race." House: "I thought we were dancing." Some see competition (Cuddy, candidates) where others see a complicated, productive, choreographed partnership (House)? That is to say, the candidates think they're fighting, but they're actually participating effectively in the diagnostic process House has orchestrated—one he repeatedly calls a game?

- So, no connection then between the ER patient who shoved a battery up his/her something-or-other and the clinic car accident guy who stuck a knife in a wall socket, despite House's comment about "voluntarily shoving" electrical objects where they do not belong.

- Oh hi there, Foreman's sad attempt to recreate the trio of fellows to which he recently belonged. Nothing like repetition within repetition. The Gospel According to Wilson dictates that House wants to replace the team he lost because he grew attached to them and wants them back; Foreman, who has for some reason been given his own department, probably followed the formula because (a) he doesn't know how to choose his own team because he's inexperienced, and/or (b) he's realizing that he needs the same thing House needed (although the resemblances appeared merely superficial, since nobody really argued with anyone else). Alas, poor Foreman. He tried not to be like House ("good job, guys"), and when that didn't work, he did what House would do, and then that got him fired, like what happens in real hospitals when doctors don't follow the rules. I liked that administrator; she did what Cuddy threatens and never follows through on. Of course, if she did do that, we wouldn't have a show. Unless we had a fun traveling season where House gets fired for a while and does stints in hospitals across the country/world because doctors keep calling him for help when they get desperate. But that's thinking too big; let's take it one step at a time—say, with a pretty new establishing shot of the Manhattan skyline, and then a bizarre backdrop of the Brooklyn Bridge. (Is there even a building of that height in that location?)

- Has Wilson ever had a male patient? Ever? Other than a married couple or two?

- Yes, that was House making a pocket knife spring up a few times while he talked with Wilson. /slash

- House to good!girl!fellow: "What's your secret? [...] Gay porn?"

- Patient: "I've been trapped in this useless body [...] it'd be nice to finally get out." Someone, please, do a count of the number of patients-of-the-week—and clinic patients, while we're at it—who embody or contrast with something about House. Or count the ones who don't; it'll go a lot faster.

- Wilson: "Why can't you let him have his fairy tale?" Like the hoagie in "Son of Coma Guy," like Grace believing in miracles, once again Wilson wants his patients to be able to hold on to hope, even if it's illogical or, perhaps, harmful (not the case tonight). Wants them to be able to die with dignity (though House established that there's no such thing in the pilot), or some modicum of happiness (which we all know House eschews on principle). And House just has to go burst their bubbles, and Wilson gets angry: on their behalf, or really on his own? He's the one with three busted marriages and a best friend who doesn't mind if he [the best friend] dies. He's the one who's been living in a hotel room for a year and a half. He's the one on antidepressants.

- Wilson when he answers House's invitation to enucleate the patient = cute!!!!!!! All young and mischievous-looking! The eyebrows! The dorky enthusiasm almost masked by sarcasm! And he has a matching expression and head-tilt with House!

- Cameron does not have an engagement ring.

- SAGE GREEN SHIRT OMG. I HAD NO IDEA WILSON COULD BE HOTTER, BUT THERE IT IS. WHERE IS THAT SCREEN CAP.

- Oh yeah, something about House electrocuting himself to see if there's a pretty white light when you die. It's a terrible thought that House would off himself in a minute if he knew there'd be peaceful consciousness on the other side, but seriously—enough already. As Wilson points out, he's been almost-dead twice. Or five times. But then, what has this show done that it hasn't done three times before? I keep coming back (ha) to elynittria's theory of House as a fugue, where the writers deliberately return to the same themes in order to build on them, and I try to think about what new angle we're being given; nevertheless, it would be a more enjoyable viewing experience if we got to go someplace new once in a while.

- "Just looking at you hurts." Oh, Wilson. Oh, House. Oh, Wilson sounds angry, and he really is pissed off at you for basically trying to kill yourself, again, but it's because he loves you (to quote John Sheppard, "in the way a friend loves another friend"). He loves you. I say again: Everything he does, is because he loves you: the lying, the enabling, the supporting, the joking around, the hanging out, the covering for you, the taking-over of your fellows and/or fellowship candidates when you're recovering from suicide and/or flying back from Singapore.... Oh, his voice and his posture and his rushed-to-the-hospital-because-my-best-friend-almost-died outfit when he steps in front of the room and tries to lead the diagnostic process in House's place, and it felt like it might have if House really had died....

- And so when House says, "I love you" (obligatory pause for all the slashers to cheer), it's cheesy and it's jokey, but like his apology last season in that jail cell, it's probably also an excuse to say something that's true. And it was a truly wonderful thing to hear. In the pilot, Wilson said he cares. In the ensuing three seasons and change, House has liked to pretend that he doesn't. But in moments like this, he lets himself admit that he does. (It could even be the equivalent of an apology for the stunt he just pulled, although he didn't seem sorry for it, only curious despite the significant risks, as always.)

- "Maybe you didn't want to die, but you didn't care if you lived." I also feel that we've covered this point on the show before, but it doesn't grate as much as the other stuff. House does truly seem to have a death wish, but it's a passive one, and it comes down to wanting the pain to end, not for his consciousness to end.

- Other highlights: Vulcan joke, Chase resisting the temptation to support someone who's sort of trying to do what he used to do when he worked for House, post-bandanna House hair, the confounded expectation when neither the patient nor his dog got hit by the car, and the deviation from the formula to have gotten the diagnosis right but not realize it because of the mistake, and then losing the patient. The impact of which was oddly muted since it got all mixed up with House post-maybe-epiphany and Wilson lecturing him so he didn't start crying.


That's about it. All in all, it felt as if we were watching two or three episodes instead of just one; hence feeling the need to watch again. Not going to get into the study of the remaining candidates, the depressed patient and his dog and how it was sad and how it related somewhat to House (and Wilson? taking him down with him?), how the title did in fact refer to how long someone [if not House] was dead, and, uh, the thing about how this show has taken a turn for the bizarre with its obsession with metaphysics/existentialism/the afterlife. I did not sign up for this.


ETA: house_wilson "I love you" discussion, kidsnurse, ; cryptictac screen shot of House & Wilson head-tilt

Comments

[silsbee329.livejournal.com]

No terribly thinky thoughts with this comment, just wanted to say a great big AMEN to this: what has this show done that it hasn't done three times before?

About half-way through the show I actually considered what it would be like to stop watching every week. The thought occurred to me that even a House/Cameron storyline would be more interesting than watching them rehash the same issues season after season. Give me something, writers!

[bironic.livejournal.com]

It is sad to see so little being done with new material (i.e. fellow upheaval). If I didn't still like the show enough to watch every week, yes, it'd be an interesting experiment to stop watching for a few months and then come back and see if anything has actually changed. Since the overriding philosophy of the producers is that the main character of a TV show doesn't change while everyone around him does, however, I wonder if we'll ever go anywhere.

(Oh -- and after you commented, I added a link up above to a theory that helps make sense of the series' constant repetition of themes.)

[barely-bean.livejournal.com]

And so when House says, "I love you" (obligatory pause for all the slashers to cheer), it's cheesy and it's jokey, but like his apology last season in that jail cell, it's probably also an excuse to say something that's true.

Yes. Yes. It's totally true and Wilson knows it too and honestly, I'm easy, but I can actually forget anything that annoys me about the episode after that.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Mm. Between that and the "just looking at you hurts," I am also a happy camper on the whole.

[elynittria.livejournal.com]

the thing about how this show has taken a turn for the bizarre with its obsession with metaphysics/existentialism/the afterlife

It's been that way from S1 ("Three Stories" and "Damned If You Do" come to mind). Nothing is new in the House-verse.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

It was more interesting in Season One, though, when they were first establishing House's atheism (at least, it was all right the first time through "No Reason," with the exception of the House Sees The Light part, and perhaps I should have been worried then); now it won't go away, and it's getting obnoxious and confusing instead of intriguing and character-building.

Heh -- just added a reference to your fugue theory -- hope you don't mind.

[elynittria.livejournal.com]

Not at all! :D

I agree that the repetition is getting a bit out of hand, though—as if the fugue has (temporarily?) gotten away from its composer and taken on a life of its own.

[jdr1184.livejournal.com]

I think I might have broke something screen-capping. Too much pretty.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Hnnnnnnn. Green.

[purridot.livejournal.com]

Yet even though, as you shrewdly point out, the ep was a bit uneven and repetitious... I liked it. I like the overall feeling of this season, so different from the dark twistedness of last season.

And Cameron wasn't at House's bedside! :D

ITA with your analysis of House's "I love you." Somehow the way HL blurted it out, it was both funny AND serious. *I* love the way the show messes with us. Don't stop, show! <3

Maybe Wilson in this lifetime is all the heaven there is ;-)

[bironic.livejournal.com]

That was also the second time House has mentioned the 72 virgins in the context of Wilson. Hmmmm. :)

I liked this ep on the whole, too, and I'm enjoying this season more than the beginning of last season (although last season did bring a lovely new color scheme with the greens and browns), though as usual, I'm hoping for more than they're delivering.

[purridot.livejournal.com]

though as usual, I'm hoping for more than they're delivering

I think I am so bruised by Season 3 that I am just frantically grateful for them NOT screwing up House and Wilson any more...

[recrudescence.livejournal.com]

Oh...you just said everything I was thinking and a few things I couldn't put my finger on. The theme of competition is really interesting, though that's not at all how I saw it when I was watching the ep, but your analysis makes total sense.

Wilson's dorky enthusiasm (and the fact that he popped up at the door almost before House finished calling him) and green shirt FTW.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

FTW, most definitely. I await screen caps with the utmost eagerness.

How did you see the competition theme while you were watching?

[ignazwisdom.livejournal.com]

I didn't sign up for this, either.

The "I love you" and "Just looking at you hurts" (with all its twisty interpretations!), though, I TOTALLY SIGNED UP FOR. I subscribe to its newsletter!

[bironic.livejournal.com]

If only!

[stephantom.livejournal.com]

uh, the thing about how this show has taken a turn for the bizarre with its obsession with metaphysics/existentialism/the afterlife. I did not sign up for this.

Haha. Funnily enough, I am actually very obsessed with that stuff too and always have been, but I often cringe a little bit when they do it on House. Because they just keep doing it and doing it and doing it, lol. And because it's also cheesy somehow the way they do it. No... what's the word..? Subtlety! lol (I kind of enjoy it at the same time though. Did you know, I even made a video compilation of existentialism-or-whatever as a theme on House (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb3GZ5DfaTY#GU5U2spHI_4)? lol) Too bad this episode hadn't come yet. Kind of.

Anyway. Good recap. And wow, awesome insight into how that foot race/dance line parallels the different approaches conflict going on this episode. (And I quite agree with the observation that this show does not comprehend happy mediums, lol.)

I enjoyed the scene with House waking up to Wilson. Because yep, Wilson is distressed and trying to cover it with lecturing and resignation, and House is ... erm, a little sympathetic at any rate, and does care about and appreciate Wilson but tries to cover it with flippancy. Also, I liked that House told that girl that he paged her because if he'd done that to Wilson, he'd never have heard the end of it. Yes, finding your friend nearly dead from an ambiguous suicide attempt once is enough, I'd hope.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Just goes to show that fascination with a subject in RL does not always translate to interest in it as depicted on a TV show. Like you said, I have also long been preoccupied with questions such as the meaning of life in a godless universe, but the way it's been addressed on the show makes me want to throw things at the screen. For instance, how the series seems to be fighting to undermine House's atheism -- but why? WHY WHY WHY?

Yes, finding your friend nearly dead from an ambiguous suicide attempt once is enough, I'd hope.

Yes, quite. He was flippant about the pooping himself thing (as if the vomit in "Merry Little Christmas" didn't compare), but I'd bet it did have something to do with not wanting Wilson to find him dead on the floor. It's not as if Wilson would have given up on reviving him any sooner than evil!girl!fellow.

[stephantom.livejournal.com]

For instance, how the series seems to be fighting to undermine House's atheism -- but why? WHY WHY WHY?

Gah. Yes, exactly. He's already decided that there's nothing -- he really, really doesn't need to kill himself (again) to know for sure. I'm glad at least that they tacked that "Hate to say it but I told you so" line onto the end. I like my House firmly nihilistic. lol

[fallen-arazil.livejournal.com]

how this show has taken a turn for the bizarre with its obsession with metaphysics/existentialism/the afterlife.

AMEN. (is that response slightly ironic? Anyway ...)

House is an atheist (or at least, some sort of Deist) and he is very unlikely to change. You'd think this would shut down most afterlife plotlines before they began, but here we have House, who is very hard to dissuade from anything apparently having enough internal doubt about the nature of what follows death to risk his own death to have a look at it. I mean, House engages in self-destructive behavior, but this went a bit beyond even that. The minute I saw the camera focus on the electrical socket, I said "don't you do it, TV, don't you DARE" but alas ...

And anyway, House is a doctor--couldn't he have found a better way to accomplish his near-death experience?

I am seriously starting to hate the cut-throat bitch. And seriously, when did Cuddy lose her big brass ovaries? I think I've said this before, but Cuddy has turned into some maternalistic, enabling, pussy-footed bitch. The only time in this show where I felt we were seeing a bit of a strong Cuddy was at the end, when she told House it was his fault. Even then ... Jesus, I love Cuddy, but I'm starting to think that she is just not good at her job.

Ah well, I'll save the rest of my anger for if I write a review of my own.

~Djinn

[bironic.livejournal.com]

*g* It's okay. I am sad to see Cuddy losing what occasional hold she had over House; at least she still had the power to make the patient's death hit home for him at the end of the episode. That it will make him behave any more responsibly in the future is doubtful, but... well, it's still something.

And anyway, House is a doctor--couldn't he have found a better way to accomplish his near-death experience?

YES, THANK YOU. If his theory was that the only sure way to repeat the clinic patient's experience was to induce the out-of-body experience in the same way, then the afterlife he's trying to experience must be a highly conditional one.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Let me say "experience" a few more times. Sleep? What's that?

[theninth.livejournal.com]

Has Wilson ever had a male patient? Ever? Other than a married couple or two?

I don't remember if he has or not - not that we've seen on-screen, but it is pretty likely that he'd have a higher number of female patients. Women are much more likely than men to see a doctor and more likely to follow through with advanced and occasionally semi-experimental treatments.

Also, as head of the department, Wilson gets to choose who he sees, and Wilson's got an eye for the ladies.

One big thing bothered me about the episode. They told the patient what the pills were for. Why didn't he tell someone that he didn't take them? I couldn't tell if it was supposed to be a "lesson" that all these doctors were only confusing the situation and making matters worse, or if the guy intentionally didn't take them because he wanted to die before his body deteriorated further.

Did the dog eat the pills accidentally? Did he command the dog to take them so the dog wouldn't have to be separated from him? Would they have taken that long to affect the dog?

Maybe this will be made clear in two weeks, with the patient that "sees dead people".

[bironic.livejournal.com]

the guy intentionally didn't take them because he wanted to die before his body deteriorated further

That was the impression I got. I also assumed he'd fed the dog the pills so they'd both go down together -- although the preview did suggest his "ghost" was upset that they'd killed his dog, so who knows. Maybe the patient had just heard about what happened from a nurse.

Good point about Wilson getting to choose which patients he sees. Still, it's striking that he's always talking to women. IIRC, the only male patients we've seen him talk to have been House's.

[theninth.livejournal.com]

I was just talking to a co-worker about the next episode's previews. They do like to throw red herrings at us (remember the "aliens"?). Our theory is that the woman's a fraud who uses things she's picked up from overhearing things or through intentional research (in the style of the detective on "Psych").

Further thought on Wilson and women patients.... Wilson feeds on need, remember. He needs to be needed. It's part of what sustains his relationship with House (only he needs House just as much as House needs him).

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Our theory is that the woman's a fraud

I hope so, or that there's any other explanation besides "sees dead people." Which I think there will be, since while the show might have an unfortunate preoccupation with the mystical, it has yet to argue that any of it is real.

Further thought on Wilson and women patients.... Wilson feeds on need

I'd like to think better of Wilson than that he chooses his patients because they're the neediest in the department, even if he does it unconsciously. Besides, men can be needy too.

Oh -- Larry Zebalusky! Duh. One male patient and counting.

[elynittria.livejournal.com]

One male patient and counting.

The kid in the bone marrow episode—the one in which his brother was supposed to be the donor but then became mysteriously ill. (I can't for the life of me remember either the episode title or the kid's name at the moment.)

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes! "Family" (I had to look it up). That makes two!

[(Anonymous)]

Sam Lee, the guy House kidnapped, makes two. Chase's dad consulted with him too.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Four, and counting. Does Hank Wiggen count from "Sports Medicine"? He seemed to be Wilson's patient first.

[pun.livejournal.com]

it's cheesy and it's jokey, but like his apology last season in that jail cell, it's probably also an excuse to say something that's true. And it was a truly wonderful thing to hear.

Yes. And yes to it being its own kind of apology for what he just put Wilson through. He at least was considerate enough not to make Wilson be the one to find him.

Wilson certainly did sound angry hear, but I was struck by the fact that he sounded wearier than he did angry. I think it's that he's relieved House is alive, and maybe he's been beaten down into accepting these types of stunts from House, and he's just glad that this wasn't the one that finally kills him for good.