Let me begin this blog with a lyric from one of my favorite songs, because I think it fits appropriately with the theme to this week’s House.
“What do you say to taking chances? What do you say to jumping off the edge? Never knowing if there’s solid ground below or a hand to hold or hell to pay?
~Celine Dion, from the album Taking Chances~
Isn’t taking a chance or a gamble what everyone did in this episode at some point, maybe not in this particular episode but in general? Don’t we do that in some way every day in some capacity? Is13 correct in saying that our level of happiness is built into our DNA? I must admit that there wasn’t a lot in this episode to play with but there was enough to pull together the concept for me. Without further adieu, let’s get diagnosing shall we?
Our smallest example of a gamble was in the form of a bet between Chase and Foreman. Chase feels Foreman represses his anger. When he appears upset and angered during a DDX or in general, he holds those emotions in rather than let them go. Foreman thinks Chase cannot swear off his sexual exploits indefinitely. House thinks these aspects are a part of their personalities and that they should just embrace them. Chase hooks Foreman up to a blood pressure machine. Unfortunately, Chase messes with it. Therefore, the results aren’t true. However, it does turn out that Chase is correct and Foreman represses his anger. On the other hand, Foreman was right as well. Although Chase was able to ward off Foreman’s attempt to fix the bet, in the end we see Chase in bed with a woman. Chase really hasn’t sworn off sex indefinitely as he proclaimed to Foreman. Chase may have appeared to have won the bet. However, he lost because he ended up lying to himself. The gamble was taking a bet at trying to change their inbred personalities. The reality is that you cannot change what defines you. Question is…were Foreman and Chase always this way or did circumstances guide them to begin acting this way?
Our patient of the week, Cy, took a chance on the lottery winning big at forty-two million dollars. But his biggest gamble was searching high and low for his long lost love, Jennifer…a woman he spent a weekend with at the Jersey Shore. However, his quest is much to the chagrin of his cousin Phil who Cy has handsomely paid for chauffeuring him around on his quest. Phil feels that Cy is wasting money chasing a dream, since he could be spending his money buying one. But to Cy the quest is much more than chasing a dream. It’s about fulfilling his heart with the happiness he knows is out there somewhere in the guise of the only woman he ever truly cared for in his life. Money can’t buy happiness, but it can buy the means to finding it in Cy’s case.
As Cy is admitted into the hospital, his long lost love Jennifer appears and seems to be sincere to the truth of her identity. She asks for nothing and serves as a support system for Cy in his time of medical distress. Thirteen is skeptical and pessimistic during Cy’s entire stay at the hospital, feeling that this woman will never live up to the memories Cy has of her. Thus, the thrill will wear off and dreams of being happy will be quashed. Cy calls her on her pessimistic attitude citing that she thinks she’s protecting him but in reality she can’t stand to see somebody happy. Interestingly, Thirteen was the one taking House’s usual default position which interested House. As House kept pointing out, “It’s like there’s two of me. What struck me was Cy telling thirteen that he thought she was “sad.” I believe the implication to her was his lack of belief that she can’t seem to find anything to be hopeful or happy for, since she surrounds herself in the negativity of life. I think his message to her was happiness and hope are out there, but you’re the one who has to find and seize it It’s not going to come to you. Pessimism is what will hold you back from ever obtaining it.
Not surprisingly, this seems to go along with House and his life as well. House and Cuddy took a gamble at beginning a relationship. But rather than be absorbed in the happiness and hope of it all, House was always obsessing about the negative. House felt from day one that the relationship was doomed to fail, because he couldn’t change. House never was able to envision a happy ending for himself in this relationship, because for him happiness is an unobtainable ideal and always has been one. This mindset stayed despite Cuddy’s protests to the contrary.
Cuddy took a gamble on House when she broke off her engagement to Lucas in favor of returning to the person she truly loved. She had hope, but began to lose that hope when House began to be absent in the times she needed him to be there for her. We all know what happened in the end, which leads us to Arlene’s gamble.
Knowing this could be her daughter’s last chance for true happiness in her life, Arlene takes a huge risk and plays the lawsuit lottery. Her plan was to make herself the common enemy of her daughter and House in the hopes of reconciling the two. Arlene knew things were bad between her daughter and House when Cuddy insisted Arlene stay with her to recover from the new hip replacement she and House helped her get. In that moment, Arlene knew House and Cuddy seemed destined to not reunite. Therefore, she orchestrates a lawsuit noting pain, suffering and damages caused by her daughter and House as a result of their “mistreatment” of her. To Arlene, this was the only radical way of getting them back together.
The incident itself caused great squabbling and mind games between House and Cuddy, much to the chagrin of Wilson who felt both were behaving badly. You see Cuddy, knowing how House is, plotted to make it seem like she really wanted him at the meeting she was going to have with her mother, when she really didn’t want him there at all. She played him in order to win her lottery. It takes a conversation with Wilson for House to figure out what Cuddy was really planning. Rather than give her the satisfaction, he plays the game too and shows up at the meeting basically to denounce her trickery.
Interestingly, Wilson figures out that the hostile interaction House is engaging in with Cuddy is because House still loves her. Rather than let her go completely and have no interaction with her, House is clinging to the only interaction he thinks is possible at this point. To House, this kind of communication is better than nothing according to Wilson. Wilson warns House though that if he continues in this manner that House is going to ruin any kind of relationship he could have with Cuddy ever again.
Ultimately, House also figures out Arlene’s true intentions telling her that he and Cuddy aren’t getting back together. That was the point at which I think House let go. Surprisingly, Cuddy never figured Arlene’s plan until House explained it. Cuddy was under the impression that her mother never really cared about her happiness. But in one moment as Arlene stood there watching Cuddy and House get lost in their world, Arlene was quick to point out that “who else was going to put up with either of them?,” telling Cuddy in a quiet way that she did care. Arlene’s gamble may not have paid off, but she took the chance anyway of trying to get her daughter to see what she’s passing over in her life, because perfection is impossible.
Hindering House’s vision of hope and happiness and the prospect of changing his future is his inability to think past the negative points in his life. Hindering Cuddy’s journey of the same goal are her “impossible standards.” If neither of them can take a gamble and get over their personality humps, neither of them will ever be happy and all hope is lost when it comes to the future.
And what about Cy? Well, turns out his cousin arranged a scam to get Cy’s cash. The girl Cy believed to be Jennifer was a fraud. Although Cy recovered, he felt unlucky, dejected broken and played for a fool. He claimed the woman he loved was a fraud. Yet, in a very humble way House pointed out to him that the woman he loved wasn’t a fraud at all, because she wasn’t the woman he loved in the first place. Cy just happened to fall for a fraud. Thus, yes, he may be miserable but it’s not because of the long lost love that wasn’t. It would be because of something else entirely. I think House was right. I think it’s much simpler. Cy was miserable because he was played and his cousin, whom he trusted, put a road block into Cy’s pursuit of finding the real Jennifer now. The situation was what made Cy miserable and angry.
In the end, the real Jennifer appeared. It made me wonder. House found thirteen’s old boyfriend. Could House have secretly found the real Jennifer to give Cy his hope back even though House may think it will end horribly?
I think the conversation between Thirteen and House at the end seemed almost to be a mirror of how House felt when he untied with his love, Cuddy. House surmises that it will “end horribly.” Remember this was House’s position when he started a relationship with Cuddy. He couldn’t get out of his own way of thinking. Since that is his default position, I think he assumes that it’s everyone’s. As much as he was telling Thirteen that “fatalism is her defense mechanism” I think it’s his. But I also think House is hopeful. Maybe not happy, but hopeful. House had a taste of happiness and it felt good to him. Thirteen wasn’t around for that time in his life. So while her feelings on “we are who we are” and “lotteries are stupid” may be true for her right now, they aren’t true for the people willing to take a chance at them. All it takes is one ticket, one dream, one hope and one moment to actually see what the prospect of one’s future can be. I’m not talking about a material ticket but a metaphorical one.
What do I think the title of this episode was telling us? It’s not about changing who you are. It’s about changing your attitude. If you are prone to live in a world of negativity, then you’re never going to find the bright side of the tunnel. If Foreman doesn’t change his attitude in terms of allowing his emotions to make themselves known, he’s going to die of a heart attack one day. If Chase can’t allow himself to be open to a serious relationship again, he’ll end up getting bored, unfulfilled, and alone. If Cuddy continues to hold to her impossible standards, she’ll never find a man qualified to meet her expectations. She needs to lower those standards. If House can’t get rid of this cloud of negativity and overall lack of hope, he’s never going to be able to sustain a relationship or be open to anyone.
Reflecting for a moment, each of these tied into House. House represses his emotions, sleeps with hookers to fill a void, and probably sees himself as never being able to meet anyone’s expectations. I think House has no confidence in himself which makes his own standards impossible. In other words House may view himself as never being able to live up to his own expectations let alone someone else’s…if that makes any sense. If House continues down this path, he will end up bored and alone. What happens then?
All in all, the episode to me had great idea but lacked a little cohesiveness in its execution. That’s why I had a little trouble connecting the dots in my diagnosis this week.
I never usually do this in my blog, but I just have to mention the scene with Wilson, Cuddy and House going to Arlene’s house to present the check. What a well-played scene by all actors involved. Robert Sean Leonard’s dry delivery of “B+” to Lisa Edelstein’s delivery “Well, I guess I’ll have to kill you tonight then” to Hugh’s delivery of “I’m sorry….we saved your life…..in the way that we did” to Candice Bergen’s delivery of insulting dialogue dealing with Cuddy taking everything….the scene was my favorite. I’ve been laughing all week. I sincerely hope that Robert and Lisa can be in all the episodes and not have to take away six episodes of their presence due to these contract negotiations between UMS and FOX. I also would hate to see their salaries get cut after seven years of offering their priceless talent. In my opinion, Lisa and Robert have dimension and range and it would be a shame to lose six episodes of that.
I hope we do get a season eight and that all parties can come to reasonable terms that benefit all involved.
In the meantime, sound off in the comments section about this episode. Do you think Thirteen is right and that a certain level of happiness is built into our DNA? What did you think about Arlene’s scheme of trying to reconcile Cuddy and House? Was it brilliant, insane or over-the-top? Do you think House took Wilson’s advice and finally let go of Cuddy when he proclaimed to Arlene they weren’t getting back together?
As always I’d love to read your thoughts! Thanks for taking the time to read this edition of Diagnosing House! We’ll see you next week as we are coming down to the wire for this season. This has been another edition of Diagnosing House. Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there!
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