How many times in our lives have we been given a “thank you” or words of appreciation for doing something for someone? How many of those things have been things of a grand nature? How many have been small? Which was more meaningful? From my own personal experience, I tend to appreciate the little things more than the big ones. For instance, my mom just had knee replacement surgery. Therefore, she was unable to do many of her daily tasks. In order to assist her, my dad and I split the tasks and worked together to get things accomplished. My mom wanted to buy me gifts as a thank you. However, her words of appreciation and gratitude meant more to me. It told me that she was grateful for doing the small things for her. She observed what I was doing and was appreciative of it. She knew I cared enough to forego my weekends and some nights to do the simple tasks of the day/week. Unfortunately in this week’s episode, House almost missed that point. But thanks to two young students, who observe the world in simple terms, House was able to see things through a new lens. As always, let me give you a brief overview of the situation.
Because House seems to have been only thinking of himself, he gets Cuddy angry to a point where she wants to end their relationship and look for someone whom she feels actually cares about her and about what she thinks. In order to prevent this crisis in his life, House tries to find something big to make things up to her, because he needs her in his life. Thus, after breaking into her personal computer and reading her journal, he discovers that Brye Park was Cuddy’s first choice pre-school. House then approaches hospital board Chairman Sandford Wells to try and pull some strings to get Rachel into the pre-school. Wells agrees but only if House does him the favor of speaking at the school’s Career Day. The task seemed simple enough until, on his way to the school, House rear ends the car of another speaker and lies to him about his name to avoid paying for damages. At one point, House is caught in the lie and a fight between him and the other speaker, Dryden, ensures in the classroom of fifth graders to whom he’s supposed to be speaking. House finds himself in the principal’s office with two young students who were caught attempting to kiss behind the school. From there we find out each of their stories and how both stories relate to each other.
Unlike most House episodes, the patient of the week was not the focus. In my eyes, the patient of the week was nothing more than a giant House deflection of his real problem….making amends with Cuddy. This was his puzzle to solve this week and the two young students served as his team. As a result, he was the patient. The two young loves guided House to his epiphany and saved his relationship with Cuddy at least for the time being.
Like House and Cuddy, this young boy and girl have their differences but they really like each other. So much so that the boy rigs a jump roping bet to get the girl to kiss him. Funny thing is….he made the bet because he knew she wanted to kiss him. In the boy’s mind by rigging the contest, her loss of the bet would justify the act rather than make her look like a tease to her friends. In essence, this gesture sounds like something our very own House would do. The boy thought ahead and did everything he could to make her feel comfortable kissing him. To him, this plan was proof that he knew her thought process and that he knew she didn’t hate him. The boy also tends to not treat her with kid gloves but more like an equal despite their gender difference.
At first the girl denies that the boy really knew her thought process. She felt she never thought she’d lose the bet. And although it seemed that she did hate him two days prior, she really didn’t. The girl tells House that the boy isn’t always a jerk, even though he did accidentally hit her with a hockey puck in the face. She knows he isn’t a jerk, because he apologized for hitting her in the face with a hockey puck and for tricking her in the bet. He also lets her know that he likes her and doesn’t want to play anymore games with her. When she’s ready to kiss him, he said then she can let him know. For this reason, the girl knows he’d never bolt when faced with a problem. All of this leads back to the beginning of the story, when the girl tells him she’s ready. He wonders why all of a sudden her mind is changed. She lets him know that he’s the one that changed it.
The story of these two young students is just a smaller version of the life of Cuddy and House. Even in the opening scene when the girl decides that she now wants to kiss the boy, I saw visions of “Help Me” and “Now What?” What changed Cuddy’s mind so much that she wanted to pursue a relationship with House? He did through his care and compassion of Hannah. Yet, it may also have been his refusal to play games with her anymore and his honesty in regards to how he felt about her. House has done innumerable things to make Cuddy angry, but he’s also done things to make her proud. When the girl points out to House that he only listens to Cuddy just to tell her how wrong she is, we see why House feels he needs to do it. He points out to the girl that Cuddy is the boss. Therefore, she’s faced with people who are either afraid of her, want to kiss up to her, or kiss her. (Of course his real insinuation was that they want to sleep with her.) House basically tells the girl that because he respects Cuddy, he doesn’t coddle her like everyone else. He deems all the others “morons” and even through his words suggests they are fakes. Fans know House is brutally honest, but it tends to be a quality Cuddy and others respect.
However, there is a quality that seems to be House’s downfall and one that got him in trouble with Cuddy. By his own admission, House can be selfish, maybe not all of the time but most of the time. Additionally, his ability to always be right hides the caring side that he does have. His troubles in this episode began when Cuddy asked him to take her garbage out and he made an excuse that his leg tended to hurt worse in the morning. Forget the fact that two seconds before her request, he was suggesting that they take one more roll in the hay before he left. Then, Cuddy goes into her bathroom to find that House has used….well according to her gnawed….her toothbrush after she had warned him to not do that and to use the brush she bought him. The very fact that he ignored both requests, made her feel that he didn’t care about her or what she thought.
Many people felt Cuddy blew the situation out of proportion. I, on the other hand, don’t think so. Even the boy suggested to House that there had to be more to it and I think there was. Notice in the scene when House is leaving Cuddy’s how he slams the door. Cuddy had a few minutes of peace to try and do her yoga before Rachel woke up. But House ignoring that fact, slams the door and Rachel wakes up. If you look at Cuddy’s face after he slams the door, you can see her discontent. As a mom, she knows that was not a smart thing for him to do. He didn’t care enough to give her that quiet time. She got angry with him. And through her words to him, she understands his viewpoint that she may be unreasonable in this situation and that he’s probably right. But that wasn’t the principle here. She asked him to do some simple things and he wasn’t listening. To her they were important, especially since he is technically still a guest in her house. These small things show her that he respects her wishes and cares enough to honor her requests. Plus, it also shows her that he listens to her and cares about what she thinks and how she feels. If these things bother her, then House needed to be mindful of that. It wasn’t about being right or wrong, which from Cuddy’s viewpoint is all the matters to him. It was about not doing whatever he wants, disregarding the feelings of others. Their relationship is a partnership. If House disregards Cuddy’s feelings, then there is no partnership. House may get what he wants out of the relationship, but there is that feeling of emptiness and insignificance for Cuddy. She doesn’t get anything meaningful reciprocated. To her that hurts because she does love House and tries her best to be mindful of his feelings and show she cares for and about him.
I actually love Cuddy’s speech to him, because it really is true. She says, “You need me House. And you may even love me. But you don’t care about me.” It’s a very Hous-ian statement. The show has shown through many facets how House feels he needs Cuddy, most vividly in his season five hallucination. The show has shown how he loves her in very subtle and big ways. But how do we know he cares about her? Some might say…well by his big gifts like the desk, coffee maker, peace penguin, book, even trying to get Rachel into a pre-school Cuddy wants to get her into. But my question is…..why does he need to do big things? Because if he did the little things, then the material/big gifts wouldn’t always be needed, would they? Cuddy isn’t looking for extravagance. She’s just looking for him to listen to her and respect her feelings. How do these grand gifts not serve his intentions? By doing the small things, Cuddy gets what she wants….House showing he cares….and House gets what he needs….Cuddy? Guess those Rolling Stones were right after all.
House finally had his epiphany after talking to the kids and even in his conversation with the principal. He utters the most poignant statement about his relationship with Cuddy. He says, “I need her in my life. Do you know what it’s actually like to need someone?” Then, after listening to the words of the kids and the principal, House I think indeed realized that he needed to grow up and be a little more responsible and less selfish. How do I know? By his own words to Cuddy. He admits to being a moron. And, as I believe, he not only is sincere in telling her that he cares about her needs but he adds Rachel to that too. He lets her know that he does care about her and thinks about her. He knows he can do better for her and asks for another chance. There were no gifts exchanged; no sexual innuendos thrown about; just a raw moment of honesty and sincerity. House didn’t force her to make a decision right then and there. He just knew she was still upset, apologized to her, and proceeded to give her time alone.
In that moment of House being open, I think Cuddy was completely processing. I think she was even surprised when he said he was himself at the Career Day and not pretending to be someone else, as anyone might suspect he would do. Crazy thing is…if he didn’t get into that accident, he probably would have given the kids his name. He took himself out of his comfort zone, because he wanted to help Cuddy. I think Cuddy realized that too. That’s why in the end she invited him back into her life through a dinner invitation. He accepted. Then, he pulled a brand new toothbrush out of his pocket which made her smile. Maybe that was the gift.
Yes, the little things mean a lot. For House, this episode was just another chapter in his growth process. House is essentially the same person, but he’s growing. He hasn’t fundamentally changed. He’s still a smartass. He’s just experiencing love which is making him see life through a different lens…a more multi-dimensional lens rather than a one-dimensional one. People don’t change. They grow. This is a fact of life. It is possible to maintain the same personality while developing the muscles of parts of your personality you haven’t used in awhile. Do we lose our faults? Of course not, because we are programmed to keep these faults as part of our original personalities. Can we be more mindful of them in terms of how they impact others? Absolutely! We do it every day without realizing it, especially when we have jobs that require us to do it.
This is House’s journey, and we are finding out more about him on a personal level. This was just another layer of his character peeled away. We know he’s capable of great things professionally. Now, we get to see what he’s capable of when love from someone he respects comes his way. Someone who knows his personality and is trying to get him to show the better side of himself that she knows is there. Cuddy has always been good at giving House his reality check, much like he gives to her.
To me this wasn’t a superficial episode. This was a game-changer. House came to realize that the very act of showing someone you care through small gestures yields a much bigger return and reward personally. House is learning about keeping some of his bravado of being right second to the needs and feelings of others. He has to start paying as much attention to the needs of his personal contacts as he does his patients. Even though he may get his personal diagnosis wrong sometimes, he learns something new to get closer to what’s right to make himself better.
House was wrong. Cuddy does love him unconditionally. If she didn’t, she wouldn’t have taken him back. He just needs to remember to use his toothbrush, take out the garbage occasionally, and maybe put the toilet seat down every now and then.
I really could go on about this episode, because for me there was so much to digest. I know many were turned off by the sexual innuendo with the kids in the episode and some thought the episode lacked the cerebral quality of others. My opinion on those ideas is that House is not a family show, even though it airs during the family hour. Their timeslot is not their choice. It was a decision by FOX. Why should House have to water down the content? That was pretty mild compared to many shows I’ve seen. I also thought the reactions by the teacher and House were handled very realistically. The teacher censored House and House didn’t tell the boy why he needed to brush his teeth before dinner. Also, as a teacher, trust me. Kids that age know a lot more than one might think they do thanks to all the media that is available to them today. As for the cerebral quality, sometimes things don’t always have to be complex to make you think. This episode was a personal puzzle and offered some introspection on the part of the character of House.
Kids have a clear view of the world, because they aren’t hampered with the complexities of adult life. They have a tendency to see what we cannot. Why not use them to help us take a look at ourselves? They might just open a personal door we’ve kept locked for too long.
Well, that’s all for now. Because I know people had mixed feelings, I’m interested to read what you thought. Have I changed anyone’s thoughts for the good? Leave your thoughts in the comments section. I would love to read them.
Thanks again for reading! This has been another edition of Diagnosing House. See you all next week!
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