All right I have to admit, like many out there it seemed like this week’s House episode was missing something. In my case, a theme to tie the episode together was the missing link. At first I wondered what I could discuss with you all besides the House and Wilson babysitting debacle, which by the way my father said was just as comical as watching the Yankees bat last night. It was a funny situation to behold, but there had to be something there. So, I took a second look. Growing disappointed at first, I suddenly began to see some cracks forming as the episode continued. Then, I finally had my ‘eureka’ moment. Plus, I did find some small parallels to past episodes. Tell me if any of the following makes sense to you as I embark on my third installment of, Diagnosing House.
Usually titles hold a clue to a House episode. I don’t believe that this one was any different. We had instances of situations that simply weren’t planned as the title suggested, and yes in some way they were all related to the idea of parenting and the nature of true personalities revealing themselves.
How the heck does the team dynamic fit into the idea of unplanned parenthood? Consider House in this case as the father of the team with a goal of teaching each member valuable lessons in regards to their personalities. House’s first move was to give Chase the responsibility of finding a new female team member, while going over Foreman’s head. (Which had me laughing at the fact that it was suggested Cuddy made House apologize for this or no sex.) Anyway, Chase picks the hot, less than intelligent girl because he wants to bed her. What did House teach him? He basically taught him to stop thinking down below and start thinking with his head. Mainly because nothing good ever comes from it. Unlike House and his relationship with Cuddy, Chase just isn’t mentally ready to balance his hormones and his intelligence. Next, we have Foreman’s lesson. Basking in his ego over the fact that House now asks him to select a new female fellow, Foreman points out to House that he’s already been searching and narrows down his candidates to two. House then fires his choice right out of the gate to teach him the lesson that he has to earn his bravado, because contrary to popular belief House can still say “no.” Also, it’s not nice to go behind the boss’s back without his direction first. Finally, Taub is handed the task of selecting a female fellow. Taub’s problem is that he over thinks the situation. He finds a candidate who is actually worthy of the position for all the right reasons. However, he thinks House has ulterior motives like he did with the others. The point I think Taub missed is that his choice of fellow was going to be the most logical. Why you wonder? Well, a hot chick would only result in House mocking him for another affair choice, so Taub would have to be careful there. He also needed to find someone that House couldn’t mock or make fun of, because that would be asking for immediate danger. Logistically, Taub would find the most qualified choice for the right reasons if one does the math. Yet, when House gives him the final say, Taub plays games with Dr. Chang. He doesn’t decide to hire her until the last possible minute. What he didn’t count on is that Dr. Chang is a processor like House. As Dr. Chang points out to Taub, “House is an ass but at least he owns it.” Taub couldn’t be a man and make an adult decision on his own. He acts like a child. Not surprisingly, he seems to be like that in his marriage. He can’t be a man and own up to his infidelities and is an ass when everyone else around him his happy. Thus, he acts like a child. What lesson did House teach him as a result of this exercise? Be a man. Parenting by means of House is such a beautiful thing. Isn’t it? It seems each outcome was unplanned by each team member. Chase didn’t’ count on his candidate being a terrible fit for the team. Foreman didn’t plan on House firing his choice immediately to deflate his ego. And Taub didn’t think his candidate would decline the job because of him and not the team. Lessons learned indeed.
Let’s take a look now at the patient of the week, who is a mom both old and new that unexpectedly experiences her newborn suffering from an unexplained illness. Why else would she be on House? But we also meet her older daughter who is jealous of the attention her mom is giving to this newborn. According to the daughter, her mom was never as loving and attentive as she is with this newborn baby girl. It seems to be suggested that the mom was a working mom who never put family first and was now seeking some sort of redemption or a ‘do over’ as it were. Why else would she want to be a “special mom?” what caught my attention about the attitude of the mom and daughter was how much it seemed to suggest House and Cuddy. Even the small story hints in the mom’s telling of her life seem to give me that impression. From the idea of hiring a private investigator to search for suitable sperm donors to the suggested idea of the patient being a single mom. Add to that the jealousy of the daughter and the fact that there were difficult choices that the mom had to make and you have a combination of “Who’s Your Daddy?” (S2) and “Joy” (S5). There we had House acting like a PI searching for sperm donors for Cuddy and the jealousy when Cuddy finally became a mom. Oh, and I did I mention that the daughter at one point suggested her mom wasn’t a good mother. Then, she recanted by saying she was the best mother. Sound familiar?
In any case, in the end the daughter faced something completely unexpected. Due to her mom’s refusal to have surgery right away, the mother suffered a pulmonary embolism and died. Now, the daughter is placed in the role of parent to her sister. And as much as she was reluctant to accept her new sister, she seemed to have had a change of heart in her newfound role. In times of tragedy or distress, people seem to find a part of themselves that maybe they never thought was there or were capable of displaying. The daughter appears to be a working woman who may have had selfish tendencies, but may now garner an appreciation for how hard things were for her mom. Come to think of it, this is kind of how Cuddy gained her daughter…..through the tragic death of Rachel’s biological mom. I guess we have another parallel there too. Although she wasn’t prepared to be her sister’s caregiver, she is taking the role out love for the sacrifice her mom made in order to keep her alive. In the same regard, we got to see something a little different in House’s personality when something unplanned happens to Rachel.
House is asked by Cuddy to babysit Rachel. Thanks to Cuddy, House was under the impression that Rachel would be sleeping all while she was out. He didn’t plan on her waking up and he definitely didn’t plan on her swallowing a dime. It’s interesting to read how some didn’t think House really bonded with Rachel. What the viewer may not have planned on was the Housian way he might have actually bonded with her. Okay, I know what you’re thinking. Doc, what the heck are you smoking? He wasn’t bonding with her. He was trying to avoid her. My answer to you is that it depends on how you define bonding in House’s world. When we first see him, he’s sitting on the couch with his popcorn. But he does have the monitor on, so he’s not irresponsible in that regard. Funny that he was watching cartoons too. I loved that. Anyway, when Rachel gets up later (don’t know how she escaped the crib by the way), he’s parental with her. He refuses her request for juice and sternly tells her to go back to bed. I have nieces and nephews and from my experience, kids do like to test those close to them. In this case, this was House’s first time babysitting. I believe Rachel was testing his limits to see just how much she could get away with. Yes folks, kids are smarter than you think. As a friend of mine said, House could easily have given in if he didn’t care but he did care. Cuddy apparently gave him instructions and he enforced them. For Rachel, that’s a bond because she has to now consider him a type of parental figure. Then, we have House on the couch with her. He could have put her back in that crib. But he didn’t do that. Instead, he did keep her up until Wilson got there. While he waited, he talked with his team in a child-like voice to appease Rachel. Again, did he have to do that? Nope. He could have talked to them normally. In his own way, he bonded with her by indirectly sharing his world with her by doing a differential like a story. Let me say that kids love stories, especially when you use voices like House did. He also bonded with her by being his doctor self and taking care of her when she swallowed the dime. For as much as he believed he didn’t have a conscience, he does. He couldn’t leave her alone knowing that she might have swallowed that dime. Yes, it was so Cuddy wouldn’t find out. But he also could have completely assumed it was nothing and let it go. He cared. You have to have some sort of care inside you to be that concerned. And if he didn’t bond with Rachel, would she really have told on him at the end? As much as one might answer that she didn’t bond with him, the very mention of his name tells me that she did. Plus, how the heck did House know she didn’t like the moose outside her window?
House was thrown into an unplanned situation, but he really did have responsible parent-like qualities in their own Houseian way. I can tell you from observations of my own family that House is your typical dad-figure. Not immediately concerned when a kid does something completely ridiculous and not wanting to be bothered when he’s engaged in other things. For House it was watching TV and not wanting to get up. For a dad…..well let me just say football on Sundays.
This episode does bode well for the Huddy relationship as House now does seem to be more willing to take on parenting responsibilities and help Cuddy as a good partner would. It’s a long way from where he was years ago. Like the daughter of the POTW, he seems to have put his jealousy aside and wants to take a role in Rachel’s life even if this wasn’t how he envisioned it. He is more accepting and less juvenile when push comes to shove…even if it does mean bargaining for sex with Cuddy.
Unplanned, unexpected and a lesson on people’s personalities and what circumstances bring out those personalities. Plus, we got a glimpse at how Wilson would make a good neurotic parent. He was definitely a mom.
Oh…..and one last lesson…..don’t leave coins on the table or in a bag of Chinese food for a toddler to eat.
Hope you enjoyed this week’s installment. Share your thoughts in the comment section. I would love to read them.
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