Unwritten: Life Imitating Art in the Land of House

First, I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to my new blog capitalizing on one of my favorite pastimes…..House. Intrigued by the intricacies woven into each episode by the creative team of writers and a burning desire to write again, I decided to create a blog discussing some of the topics brought forth within each episode. I will attempt to diagnosis and dissect how these issues pertain to the character of Dr. Gregory House as well as discuss how they may have an impact on our lives. Consider it like my own personal diary of observations that I'm sharing with you. I will have you keep in mind that I am not a professional blogger….just a regular fan who has an affinity for House. Therefore, you may want to lower your expectations now. So, I'll give you a minute to do that. Okay, now that you've done that, enjoy my first entry.

This week's episode entitled "Unwritten" not only displayed some interesting parallels for me in terms of the character of House, but also made me wonder if House is indeed correct when he says that long-term relationships are based on compatibility.

To begin, I will take a look at the deeper parallels that I thought were inherent in this particular episode. As I watched, I wondered if it was coincidental that Alice's real name was Helen and that her housekeeper's name was Christina. Why you wonder? Well, here we have Alice Tanner (real name Helen) who is a woman plagued by pain both physically and mentally as the result of past accident. As we discover later in the episode, she blames herself for giving her son the keys to the car on a rainy night when he only had his learner's permit. Immediately, I wondered why this scenario sounded familiar. Then, I took a trip back in time. Like Alice/Helen, House metaphorically handed the keys by way of his cane to Wilson's girlfriend Amber at the end of season four. As a result, she got on the bus with him and dies as a result of her injuries while House survived. For this reason, House carried that guilt with him even though he wouldn't admit it to anyone. Alice carried her guilt with her as well, since she survived and her son perished. Just as House took to his Vicodin and drinking as an escape from the pain, Alice took to writing as an escape from hers. Both individuals carried their addictions with them to get them though their pain. Even though Alice's visions of her son were not of the hallucinatory nature, she was similar to House in that she envisioned her son and used him as the key to unlocking her literary mind. House used Amber as the key to unlocking his diagnostic mind. Yet, it's those very visions that caused self-destructive tendencies in both House and Alice. Alice wanted to take her life due to her building depressive state of mind in the eyes of tragedy, while House sacrificed the very essence of his livelihood when his mind lost site of reality as a result of distress over his inability to survive the deaths of Amber, his father and his fellow Lawrence Kutner. Both Helen and House were ticking time bombs ready to go off as they carried the weight of their worlds on their shoulders and with heavy hearts. I also questioned whether or not Alice's resentment over her ex-husband's betrayal mimics the hurt House may have felt when Cuddy failed to tell him about Lucas after he left Mayfield or even the hurt and resentment he experienced when he felt Stacy betrayed him after his infarction. I'll let you all ponder that one too.

Then, we have Alice's housekeeper Christina. She is a woman who cares deeply for her boss whom she may even consider a friend. She was worried for Alice's well-being and noticed that something was going wrong with her. Out of concern, she helped House and Cuddy investigate Alice's problems by telling them about Alice's behavior. Once Alice discovered what Christina had done, she fired her and was incredibly bitter towards her for meddling. When thinking of House, which relationship does this remind you of? Isn't it ironic that Cuddy was in that room at that time during that exchange between Alice/Helen and Christina? Hum….Helen…Christina…..House…..Cuddy. A part of me is saying that I'm delusional but another part of me wonders if it really was just a coincidence or intentional. Cuddy has always worried about House's well-being and his emotional state of mind. Constantly, she reached out to him only to be pushed away or given very little information about what is distracting him. Although there had been times when he treated her badly as a result of great pain, she was persistent and still cared and worried about him.

In the end, House really did indentify with Helen and became her savior, albeit in a false way by telling her that her son died of a brain aneurysm and not as the result of injuries suffered in the accident. As a result, House was able to ease her restless mind and allowed her to be able to move forward in her life while lifting her hardened personality in the process. House had been plagued by the tragedies in his life and suffered that same hardened persona as Alice. And just as Cuddy was there for him in the end, House was there for Alice. What's interesting to note as well is the fact that Alice and her housekeeper Christina also made amends with each other, allowing Christina to assume her role as care taker and friend. This seems to parallel House's relationship with Cuddy as she is now his lover and in a sense there to take care of him on a personal level as a partner. Regardless of whatever parallels there may have been, one thing was clear. Both House and Alice were given that option of hope and an opportunity to embark on new chapters in their lives. Their past was put to rest, burdens lifted and a door to a new adventure opened for them in the process.

Now onto House's issue of compatibility and it's factor in a long-term relationship.

House's relationship with Cuddy has been a loving and essentially complicated one. In this episode, House questions the outward happiness that he and Cuddy are experiencing and is obsessively wondering when their "honeymoon" period will fade for it is then when House feels there will be problems. Because he feels that he and Cuddy have nothing in common other than work and their sexual escapades, he thinks that the relationship will eventually crumble. His reasoning is based on the idea that long-term relationships are based on compatibility. If you have something in common with your partner, your relationship is more likely to succeed. But is House right about this? Is it important to have something in common with your mate right out of the gate or perhaps can you discover something you have in common with your mate after spending more time with him or her? Or perhaps you don't need to have anything in common with your partner in order to have a long-term relationship. I can say from my own past experience that having something in common with someone is not the premiere aspect in relationship compatibility. I dated someone who had many similar interests as I. However, his personality was not as dynamic as mine and I was not happy. I was bored. What I found fascinating is that several sites I perused listed things in common as important but not as important as things such as communication and compromise. As a matter of fact, it seems that trying different things with your mate can lead to the discovery of things that couples can enjoy doing together. After reading a few things, it seems that House and Cuddy are on target in terms of their relationship with communication bring one of the important issues needing fixing at the moment. Cuddy seems to be fine with expressing what's going on in her mind in terms of their relationship, but House seems more hesitant or afraid to relate to her what's on his. The very fact that Cuddy eased his mind by urging him to talk to her about problems he may be processing with their relationship was an important step in building a dialog with him. It opened the door again for him, since he seems to be tripping over things and going to Wilson instead of Cuddy in the past two episodes. There are far more important factors to consider in terms of maintaining a long-term relationship. The question is whether or not both are committed to the task. The very fact that House has apologized to Cuddy for things that have happened in the past few episodes is huge on his part, because I really think he is determined to make things work. His problem is that he needs to get out of his own way and stop looking at statistics or what science says about relationships in terms of going the distance and just allow things to happen naturally.

Like Alice did with her last story, she left the ending to her audience with the thought being how many definitive answers does one achieve in life? Everyone is in charge of their story and their ending. Even then, the story doesn't end until the day we meet our demise. Everything depends on what ending House wants for himself. No matter what he believes, as Cuddy pointed out to him in the premiere, he cannot possibly predict the future. Each day he experiences with Cuddy is a new page, a new chapter and a new adventure. He holds the key to his story. The ending is unpredictable because, as Natasha Bedingfield says in her song, "the rest is still unwritten."

I thank you all for taking the time to read. I hope this entry made you think about more questions and possibilities as it did for me.

Massage Therapy: Relaxing the Relationship Knots

For me this episode was about the bigger hidden issues in relationships and the means by which people avoid them due to unforeseen ramifications.

Let me start with the patient of the week and her husband. Here we have Jenny aka Margaret. She is a woman who is hiding her underlying condition by piling lie upon lie in order to protect her husband from the truth…the fact that she is schizophrenic. She lies about her real name not only to her doctors but to her husband as well. She lies about past injuries citing that they were the result of injuries sustained in a biking accident. Then, to make excuses for those lies, she explains that she went to Trenton to a support group for abused victims. Additionally, the team thinks that she might be sick because she told them and her husband that her ex broke in and poisoned her dog. What’s the result? Her current husband tracks down who he believes to be her ex-husband and confronts him only to get beaten to a pulp. He tries to play the strong good guy. Yet in the end, thanks to a little push from House, Jenny tells her husband the truth which is that she is schizophrenic. All of the ailments that brought her to PPTH were adverse reactions from her psych meds. All of a sudden the husband’s bravado is reduced to a pile of fear, as he feels he doesn’t think he can handle this newfound information about his wife. He tells House that it’s too hard and that she isn’t the same woman he married. What was interesting was the way House essentially told him that she is the same woman. The only thing that has changed is that now he’s aware that she has a serious mental health problem. Other than that she is fundamentally the same person.

Why does something that she’s had for some time, but kept under control, suddenly change things for this husband? Jenny wanted to keep him in the dark. Would he have been better off not knowing? Suddenly, this husband’s view of his relationship has changed only because something new was added to his comfortable marital equation. Sure, it’s easy to live to through the small relationships issues and skirt around them. But dealing with the bigger issues, well then all of a sudden some people become cowards because they are afraid of confronting the issue in the first place. As a result, a person gives up and runs away from the bigger issues because it’s easier than facing them. Call it avoidance or holding back or whatever you wish. The fact remains that relationships take work and aren’t always a walk in the park. That’s what a partnership is meant to be….work. Interestingly enough, the husband’s reaction led to House’s own epiphany concerning his relationship with Cuddy. But I’ll get to that later.

Jenny and her husband aren’t the only ones holding back. We have our new playboy want to be, Chase, who hires a new female fellow, but avoids the fact that she is leagues below the team, with the reason being that he only wants to sleep with her. As Foreman puts it, Chase was seeing in her resume what he wanted to see. He was avoiding the fact that she didn’t meet the standards of the team, because then it would be easy to bed her. When it becomes clearer that she doesn’t have the smarts for the job, Chase lies too or at least makes her lie for the sake of keeping her on the team and for his pleasure. He helps her out to avoid the bigger issue which is the idea that she cannot pull her weight in this job. And that if he fires her, then he probably won’t be able to have a relationship with her. Instead, he tries to protect his dignity and hers as well. However, this is House’s world. Therefore, protecting either person’s dignity simply isn’t possible without some taunting and ridicule from the master House. What’s interesting is that Dr. Kelly Benedict already feels she doesn’t meet the standards of House’s team after being tested by House. She lets that fact be known to Chase. However, Chase is unwilling to give up. Why? Why can’t Chase just have come out and said he did make a mistake by hiring her. Is he holding back the fact that he was wrong in hiring her, because his personal interest got in the way or Is there a bigger issue here…one that he is holding back? Who knows? Maybe Chase’s issue lies in that he cannot balance his personal and professional life without mixing the two. Thus, he’s choosing the easy route by trying to hire someone that can fill both voids. Maybe there is even a shadow of fear left over from his break up with Cameron. Maybe he is using the job as an excuse to break things off with a woman to avoid delving into the territory of a real relationship again. Not having that card in his pocket, may make cutting ties harder. Who knows? But it seems Chase will be playing more than soul searching for awhile to avoid the bigger issues plaguing his life.

How does all of this tie into Dr. Gregory House? Well, House and Cuddy have their own issues. It starts out as a simply problem of House hiring a scantily clad hooker he used to sleep with to give him some massage therapy for his leg. As you can imagine, this doesn’t sit well with Cuddy and it shouldn’t. The woman isn’t a licensed professional in the area of therapy and House used to sleep with her. Should Cuddy trust House? Sure. However, past experience may lead Cuddy to still question House’s juvenile actions. It’s a small issue that I think was hiding a much bigger issue. Cuddy still hasn’t been allowing House to stay over at her place or letting him interact with her daughter Rachel. I can’t completely blame Cuddy for this one. After being involved with Lucas for so long, introducing a new man into Rachel’s life has the potential to be confusing. In the same breath, introducing House as a friend to Rachel could easily justify his presence in Cuddy’s life as perhaps Wilson may have been introduced. How can Rachel ever be comfortable with House if Cuddy is keeping her hidden? And as House points out, how can they ever become a serious couple if Cuddy doesn’t let House stay over? Essentially, you’re damned if you and damned if you don’t. Even if something were to go wrong in House and Cuddy’s relationship, it might still be nice to have another male figure around for Rachel even as a friend.

Both House and Cuddy are holding back their bigger issues from each other. House is having a hard time compromising some quirks of his old lifestyle in favor of this blossoming relationship with Cuddy and Cuddy is having a hard time giving in to her protection of Rachel’s innocence. Could both fear the relationship crumbling to a point where each cannot get their life back? It’s possible. Could some of Cuddy’s fears be the result of letting Lucas into Rachel’s life too quickly before realizing things were not truly going to work? I think Cuddy is being more cautious this time, perhaps because she doesn’t know what the future holds with House. For Cuddy giving into her fears of losing House and having to explain House’s absence in her life to Rachel might be a very big burden to bear. The fact that House got her to admit those fears is essential and opened up yet another communication window. For House, I believe his fear is that of the concept of fatherhood. Given his lousy childhood, he may have reservations as to whether or not he can become a good role model for Rachel. The fact that he is open to trying is huge in regards to his relationship with Cuddy. Whether or not he succeeds is another story.

In the end, all three examples had some movement in the relationship. Jenny’s husband put his fears aside and decided to stay with his wife in spite of the difficult task he and his wife have ahead of them. He chose to take the difficult road. Dr. Kelly Benedict decides to quit, because she realizes that she is not the right fit for the team. It actually turns out better for Chase, because Kelly is not keen on dating co-workers anyway. Although Kelly took the initiative, it appears that Chase’s issues may still not be solved. As for House and Cuddy, they reached an understanding. House decided to compromise. He decided to stop using Brandi and start using a real Physical Therapist that Cuddy suggested. In return, Cuddy invited House to stay at her place that night with the idea that he can interact and spend time with Rachel. House and Cuddy were willing to put their fears aside for the sake of their relationship. House and Cuddy too decided to take the difficult road.

Here we come to the thought of the week and the idea that relationships take work and compromise if we wish them to succeed. The question is whether or not we are willing to take that step. If we don’t, then do we go for the easy way out? If one is invested in the relationship, then the answer is easy even if the means to getting there is difficult. What exactly drives us to continue the journey? Is it love and love alone or is it the concept of the challenge itself? We won’t get to see the end to Jenny and her husband’s story. Like last week, we are encouraged to imagine our own end. However, we will continue to see how Chase’s and House and Cuddy’s story continues. Until then we are left to wonder, will Chase be able to balance his personal relationships and work? Will Cuddy continue to put her fear aside and allow Rachel and House to bond? Will House be able to accept his new role in Rachel’s life and be a positive influence in it?

Even though we may not know the complete answers to these questions as of yet, one thing is certain. Each is willing to massage the knots of their relationships in order to smooth out the core of the tension. That is…..until the next knot appears.

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned next week for another installment of Diagnosing House.

Unplanned Parenthood: Personal Lessons from the Unexpected

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.

Diagnosing with the Stars: House Season 7 At Its Finest!

While millions of Americans are turning their heads towards the celebrity dancing competition, Dancing with the Stars, they are truly missing out on some compelling television in the form of FOX’s House. It’s a shame really that society has conformed to cheap tactics to pull viewership into their orbit, as I feel many reality programs do. As a result, quality writing and true exhibitions of talent are being overlooked. Why are we watching “cheap” celebrities like Bristol Pailin and The Situation dancing horribly when we could be watching five-time Emmy nominee, Golden Globe and SAG award winner and disgustingly talented Laurie giving his all week after week? Granted, DWTS is probably good for a laugh or two and some artificial drama. However, House is having one of its best seasons in awhile and too many viewers are missing it. In all honesty, if I want to see “celebrities” with cheap backgrounds, I’ll pick up the latest tabloid. But enough about low quality programming, since this blog is intended to turn the viewership eyes towards some seriously compelling television. Let me take a look at House and what I feel is its return to the glory days…..basically why the heck you should be watching it.

As has been the case for six seasons, House has been a character study into the journey of the complicated life of its main character, Dr. Gregory House. We’ve seen his story unfold before our eyes and witnessed how he became a cripple, the driving forces behind his genius medical mind, his dysfunctional family life, his loves, his losses, his addictions, and his dissent into depression and serious Vicodin addiction which culminated into his committal into a mental health facility. As we ended season six, we began to see all the work that House invested in himself to become a better, sober person, after his stint in Mayfield, almost come crumbling down when he lost a patient who resembled his own personality. He also began to come to terms with losing the woman he loved, Dr. Lisa Cuddy, that night as she revealed she was set to marry another and announced that she was “done” with him. At one of his lowest points, we found him on his bathroom floor clutching a bottle of drugs ready to give up on what he felt were failed attempts at doing the right things in his life and at the accident scene. What really did he have left? He was alone, since his best friend Wilson moved on as well. Just then in a simple twist of fate, when House had pretty much thrown in the towel, he received the most unexpected glimmer of hope as his lady-love Cuddy cut ties with her fiancée to be with him. This is how our sixth season opened….with House and Cuddy exploring this newfound relationship journey and discussing all the complications that go with it….and there was a lot of lovin’ going on too. Yes, the opener turned many of the general fans off, while the “Huddy” community was rejoicing. However, it was something that needed to be done. Hell, five years of sexual tension. What would you do? This lead to a great first full team second episode and one in which House and Cuddy had to deal with their first major issue…..how in God’s name do we have a relationship and function at work? What I thought was nice was the balance found in this episode. The patient of the week and her family faced a very tense medical dilemma in which a decision had to be made to take the lung of her sick brother and some marrow in order to save her life. Yes, the brother’s life-span would probably be cut down to half, but it would ultimately save the life of the daughter since her body rejected a donor lung. This dilemma made for an incredibly tense moment between House and Cuddy at the end and went to the classic House story of tackling an ethical dilemma. Plus, in this episode we had a return of clinic patients, which were always a pleasant diversion from the seriousness. They were a father and son elderly pair who wanted House to lie, so they wouldn’t have to live with each other anymore. In the end, after taking money from both the father and son, House really solves the father’s simple health issue, hands both of them back their money and suggests counseling. As for House and Cuddy’s work issue, it was resolved for the moment. But again this part of their relationship needed to be addressed early on because it is a major issue with Cuddy being his boss. But I don’t think it will be the last serious work issue we’ll see this season. It basically continued the question brought up in the premiere between them. Therefore, it made sense to address it in the second episode. However, it didn’t overwhelm it which I think made all fans content.

The third installment of the series introduced us to Alice Tanner, a writer of a teen novel series about a boy named Jack Cannon. There was some fine acting in this one as Amy Irving played the patient of the week. She was plagued by a past that mirrored House’s in many ways. Her distress overwhelmed her to a point where she just wanted to die. What was classic about this wasn’t the illness of Alice, but how much her struggles were a parallel to House’s own personal struggles. This is a tactic the writers use well even if it isn’t intentional. It’s always something that gets the fans talking and discussing. We find out that House’s personality hasn’t changed. He’s still an ass who takes pleasure in mocking his team, patients and performs the usual breaking and entering. Yet, he has an unlikely companion in his illegal pursuit in the form of Cuddy. Okay, she didn’t know what he was up to at the time, but she went along nonetheless. And as obsessive as House is at solving puzzles, we discover that he is just as obsessive about his relationship, citing that he thinks Cuddy will get bored with him since they have nothing in common but sex. It’s both funny and I admit cute to see House so nervous about the future of his love-life. But it also showed how House doesn’t just live in the moment. He’s always thinking a thousand steps ahead. Alas, that is the nature of our star diagnostician, the man who always has to analyze everything and see the negative right out of the gate. After probably one of the most entertaining scenes in the form of a double date go-cart race, we do find out at the end that Cuddy is happy with House and enjoys their relationship because it is uncommon. We also find that in some ways each makes the other better. For example, at the end of this particular episode, House loses the nerve to take back his lie about Alice’s son (He told Alice her son died of an aneurysm and not because she let him drive in the rain.) Alice had been feeling responsible for the incident which found her still alive and her son dead. The truth was that Alice’s actions did cause her son’s death, but House was trying to give her hope. In a moment where House was going to recant his story as a result of Alice telling him she was going to leave her story open-ended, he happened to see Cuddy there and decided against it. Cuddy did make him a better person in that moment as much as he didn’t want to admit it.

The fourth installment didn’t have the most compelling patient of the week story, I admit. But through the POTW story, the issue of relationships in general came into play and how hard they are or can be. This was one of those episodes where the POTW served as a vehicle to give House something to think about in terms of his own life, which is usually what the POTW stories are tailor made to do. It’s part of the fabric that the House writers like to weave in regards to the stories they tell from time to time. As much as we think House may be reluctant to spend time with Cuddy’s daughter Rachel, we find that this is an underlying issue for him. For Cuddy House possibly wanting to keep her at arm’s length in an effort to avoid the next serious step by wanting to keep his hooker massage therapist is an issue for her. We also have Chase playing a playboy bachelor after his breakup from Cameron. He’s out to have some fun and is given the task of hiring a new female team member. However, he seems to find that business and pleasure don’t make us the keenest of observers when it comes to job qualifications. As usual, House takes the utmost pleasure in stepping over Foreman’s toes in the process by selecting Chase to do the interviewing. Again, House messing with his team and mocking them in the process is another classic House quality that has returned. Why would anyone want to miss that? The results of this House episode had Chase’s pretty hire quitting but hooking up with him and House and Cuddy resolving their issues. House took the number of the Physical therapist Cuddy suggested and Cuddy let House stay over at her place to familiarize Rachel with him and signal that they were indeed a couple.

The last installment before the two week hiatus had House facing his biggest challenge…..babysitting Rachel. Anyone who loves the brotherhood of House and Wilson, took pleasure in this gem of a hilarious episode. Not only did it provide the best laughs of the season so far but it also provided the viewer with clever ideas in the area of parenthood in its many forms. Thanks to House’s “parenting”, Foreman and Taub learned valuable lessons about their personalities in the most Housian ways. Foreman learned through House how his ego could be deflated in the course of a second and Taub learned how his paranoia and child-like attitude does not appeal to those who are smarter than he is. House and Wilson also learned a few valuable lessons….never leave coins out for a kid to swallow and make sure a kid doesn’t know your name so she doesn’t tell on you when you hide things from mommy. Okay, well maybe those weren’t the most important things House learned. House did learn what it takes to be a responsible parent and even showed that he could handle the job. It was one of his fears that might have been put just s little more at ease.

So what does the future hold for House? Well, word on the information highway says that the next few episodes are intense and brilliant. Plus, we are introduced to temporary new fellow Martha Masters, played by Amber Tamblyn from Joan of Arcadia fame. The cases are said to bring up several issues at hand that cause all sorts of legal and ethical issues. Plus, I hear the acting is superb. It’s definitely something I wouldn’t want to miss if I were you. Additionally, sometime in January we finally get to met Cuddy’s elusive mom played by five-time Emmy winner Candice Bergen of Murphy Brown and Boston Legal fame. Ms. Bergen is an ace at balancing the comedy and drama in her acting, and I can only imagine some terrific moments between her and House. Plus, I’m sure Lisa Edelstein will get some stellar opportunities to spar with her TV mom as well. As for the Thirteen fans out there, she is set to return but I believe it won’t be until a little later in 2011.

What’s happening on House right now is nothing short of refreshing. So many doors have opened in which the writers can really play this year and play they have. As much as I am a House/Cuddy fan, I must say that I am enjoying ALL areas of the writing this year not just the proverbial “shipper” moments. The balance of romance and medical has been excellent and well handled. The stories are back to being interesting, intense and dealing with the facets of life and the issues surrounding all aspects of it. I’ve read many a fan who claimed that House has simply become a “soap opera”. Unfortunately, they aren’t looking at what’s happening this season, because a soap opera House is not. There is no melodrama here, just true to life issues and medical cases that have left viewers pondering….what exactly would I do in that situation? Can I ever get past a tragedy for which I may be responsible? Can I handle a situation for which I was not prepared? These are not soap issues but issues people face every day. Again, the show is a character study. Therefore, new layers of Gregory House are in line to be revealed as he trips in his relationship with Cuddy but makes great strides as well. The questions for him this season are can he succeed in continuing to battle his demons? Can he maintain what he worked on with Dr. Nolan in regards to other people’s feelings? Can he sustain that little bit of hope he has in love? Will he fail and succumb to Vicodin again? Will he continue to hide all that ails him from those around him? Will he survive a visit from someone who could be his toughest opponent yet…..Mrs. Cuddy? Basically, where do we see House going this season and will there be hints to his end?

Seven years this show has held its own, dared to be different by going against the natural flow of most shows, challenged itself each season, and has managed to stay fresh with new ideas. David Shore knows how to steer this ship so it doesn’t crash into an ice berg and sink, although it has and still may hit a few rocky storms along the way. That’s just my opinion though. Don’t hit me.

Even a bad House episode is still damn good thanks to some incredible acting by an amazing cast. I will take a bad episode of House over some bad dancing on Dancing with the Stars any day. Hugh Laurie is the master of his craft and if you really want to know something true about the arts, just take one look at him and you will see all you need to see. He knows how to quarterback his team and works hard at making each show and each moment a memorable experience for the viewer. It’s a shame that some people cannot appreciate the art of this amazing show. It is still different than anything on television thanks to a complicated character and talented cast and crew who put their blood, sweat and tears into something that is extraordinary.

In conclusion, take your remote on Monday night November, 8^th turn it to FOX and instead of watching a badly executed tango, check out what TV Guide has deemed the Princeton Plainsboro Tango and catch House at 8PM EST, because the glory days have returned.

Office Politics: A Dangerous Game We Play

Ah office politics….no matter where you work it is a game that is constantly played. However, sometimes the results aren’t always going to please everyone. Someone eventually has to pay some kind of price. In this week’s House episode, viewers found out just how costly a decision could be when House lied to Cuddy to save a patient and when a campaign manager was let go by a seedy politician. In these instances, one person didn’t mind the rejection while the other did. Can you guess which one? In case you were living under a rock, you discovered that Cuddy was the one taking the rejection the hardest. This leads to my House question and blog of the week. Should a professional lie be taken personally? Is a professional lie a direct representation of how one feels towards another on a personal level? What a conundrum, right?

Let’s first take a look at the patient of the week who came up with a controversial ad attacking his boss’s candidate. At first the senator wasn’t happy with the ad, since it was offensive to one of his core constituencies. Yet, when his campaign manager ended up in House’s care, suddenly his feelings changed and he leaked the ad on the internet, causing a bit of an uproar. The campaign manager never blinked an eye and considered it a great political move. He wasn’t offended in the least. He didn’t even care when the senator fired him in a press conference after the senator endured a backlash as a result of the ad campaign. To him, that’s the way the political ball rolls. He’s probably right. After the senator fired his campaign manager in a press conference, his popularity gained again and he won the election. In the world of office politics, it’s the results that matter, a sentiment expressed by the campaign manager early on in the episode. To him if someone has to take the fall for the greater good then so be it, even if he happened to be the scapegoat in this case. So, what happens to the campaign manager? Well, he moves on to help the next potential candidate, maybe even becoming the campaign manager for the senator’s next opponent. Why? Well, because that’s how the political game is played. Can the same be said for medicine? According to the patient of the week, yes it can. Again, the results become the important element. In House’s world, the sentiment is all too true. When House is engaged in his puzzles, he cares about the results in an effort to save a patient’s life. Like a politician, even if he has to lie and cheat to save a life, he will. Unfortunately, this time it may come at a cost to him personally.

In an attempt to cure his patient, House and new genius member Martha Masters confront Cuddy to request and experimental treatment. They want to inject the patient with hepatitis A, because it has proven effective in 15% of the patients. Yes, that leaves an 85% chance that the patient could die, but again the risk is all they have at that point. If they don’t try, the campaign manager definitely dies. If they try, then there is a chance he survives albeit a small one. Yet, this is a chance House and his team must take, because there are no other options. However, due to circumstances out of House’s control, he cannot prove that his patient has hepatitis C. But in order to treat his patient experimentally, Cuddy insists he prove that his patient is infected with hepatitis C. It is then that she will risk a lawsuit and give him permission to administer this experimental treatment. She has confidence that House and his team can come up with something. Well, she was sort of right. House did come up with an alternative thanks I think to an offhanded comment by Chase, but one that will probably cost House Cuddy’s trust. Struggling with a decision to fake a blood test using the senator’s hepatitis C infected blood, since he was using the same straw as House’s patient to do lines of cocaine, House turns to Wilson for advice. It’s not an easy decision for him to make. It’s either lie to Cuddy and save the patient or tell the truth and risk the medical consequences. In the end, House chooses to lie to Cuddy but not after a long night of lying on his floor struggling with the decision. He presents the false evidence to Cuddy who feels that he respects her now, since in the past he wouldn’t have bothered to even give her proof. He would have just gone ahead and ignored her request. Cuddy is oblivious to the lie and House is a craftsman at presenting his ruse to her. What’s interesting to note is how he doesn’t even look her in the eye as he’s handing her the senator’s blood test as opposed to his patient’s. It’s obvious that he’s feeling guilty about deceiving her, but should he? I mean….House is House and he isn’t going to relinquish his devious personality when it comes to patient care. This is something he made known to Cuddy in “Now What?” and she understood that. The question becomes then…what’s the big deal then that he lied to her? It’s rather complicated. When Cuddy discovers that House deceived her, she’s appears very hurt. In my opinion, she wasn’t hurt as a result of his actions. She was hurt because he wasn’t brutally honest with her and led her to believe that he was being truthful. This wouldn’t make a difference except that House did have an opportunity to tell her the truth in the privacy of his office after all was said and done, but he kept the truth from her instead. This is in contrast to “Selfish” where he went against Cuddy’s wishes and told the family of his patient their options for the treatment of their daughter. When Cuddy gave him her blessing after the fact, he confessed his lie and apologized for it. In that regard, she wasn’t angry with him because he was honest in the end with her and apologized to her. That didn’t happen this time around. No honesty and no apology and that’s why Cuddy was hurt.

It’s been argued that Cuddy had unrealistic expectations and that she thought she had changed him. As a result, that’s why his lie hurt. I don’t agree with that assessment. I believe that Cuddy was sincere when she said she didn’t want House to change. She understands who he is and House even warned her that he isn’t going to change. Cuddy knew what she was getting herself into. The hurt I think came from the fact that he didn’t tell her the truth, when he had the opportunity to do so after the fact. House created for her this false vision of sincerity. She had to find out for herself instead of being told by him. One can argue that House was doing what he always has done for her…..protecting her from the truth. If she was unaware of his actions, then she wouldn’t have to face any consequences that may present themselves. He would take that blame alone.

Do I think Cuddy should take what House did personally? I don’t know. Looking at it from Cuddy’s point of view, if House could easily lie to her about this, could he lie to her on a personal level when a big issue arises? I’m not talking about swallowed dimes here or situations that can be controlled without her presence at the hospital. I’m talking about House’s feelings on issues, because as Cuddy pointed out, if he has a problem with their relationship then he needs to talk to her. What if he tries to create this illusion of himself for her? That’s not going to help anyone and then there will be regret and animosity. What about House? Should he feel guilty about lying to her? Yes and no. He shouldn’t feel guilty about doing what he did to save his patient’s life and lying about that. He should feel guilty that he didn’t confess to her what he did, why he did it and how hard of a decision it was for him to make. If he explained like an adult, that he knew this would have an impact on their relationship personally and that’s why he struggled with the decision, then maybe Cuddy would have given him some credit. He needed to tell her that he does love and respect her and understood her position, but that she needed to understand his. In turn, Cuddy could have then discussed how his decision hurt her and why. Plus, she could have then reiterated her position on the situation and how it impacts her as his boss. I think they need to sit down, talk through what happened and create boundaries about what constitutes a personal lie and a professional lie and how they should deal with it.

What I appreciated in this episode is that House is still House but now he does feel remorse for his actions. He knows they have consequences and is aware of what those consequences could be. Yet, he doesn’t compromise his principles for them. On a personal level, the display of guilt on House’s face after Cuddy leaves his office and the hours he spent agonizing over his decision told me two things. One of those things is that our boy has indeed come along way and two…that he really does love Cuddy. Why else would he feel remorse and why else would he hurt too? And even though it was fabricated, why would he present her with what she requested…..proof? Why didn’t he just do what was customary to him and ignore her request? The answer is simple…..he does respect her. He lied because it mattered and not because he didn’t respect her ethical code.

In this episode, Masters served as House’s Cuddy I think. Masters understands the moral and ethical obligations that doctors have towards their patients. But was she completely right in saying that respect, honesty and integrity matter? Were these the values that the writers wanted to illustrate in that scene where House lies to Cuddy? Are these the values Cuddy holds dear both professionally and personally? I think so. Why else would she be hurt over House’s deception?

Office politics, what a dangerous game we play indeed. Now, we are left to wonder what the outcome is next week when House and Cuddy face each other. Can they get over this hiccup or will this begin the crumbling of their relationship?

Until next week, this has been another edition of Diagnosing House. Please feel free to leave a comment as I ask you…Do you think professional lies should be held personally? Do you think it’s okay to lie when it matters? What are your thoughts on House and Cuddy’s situation?

Comment away as I look forward to reading your thoughts.

A Pox on Our House: Can the Scar of Lies Fade?

Relationships are hard enough. But when the pair in question happen to be co-workers, it seems difficult to differentiate between the working relationship and the personal one. Although, I think the better question is….should we? How is a work related lie to a co-worker, with whom you are having a relationship, any different than the lie being a personal one? I mean, you are still lying to the same person regardless. This is the very question that arises between House and Cuddy in this week’s episode of “A Pox on Our House.”

Let’s begin by summarizing the situation, shall we?

House begins to realize that Cuddy has uncovered his lie, based on his intuitive nature regarding their relationship. He comes to this realization when Cuddy relieves him of clinic duty to work on his case. Based on their relationship, this is puzzling to him since she’s always making him do clinic duty no matter what is going on with a case. Bothered by the curious shift in their relationship, House feels that Cuddy may know about his lie. Thus, he turns to Wilson who pretty much thinks he’s just being paranoid and stupid for even lying to her in the first place. What Wilson doesn’t realize is that House and Cuddy know each other all too well and that House is not imagining things.

When House goes to Cuddy, he wonders why she never said anything to him if she knew of his deception. To her, she shouldn’t have had to go to him. He should have come to her to apologize for what he did. House argues that his lie wasn’t personal, because he would never lie to her on a personal level. He argued that it was “business” and just a lie to save a patient. Yet to Cuddy, the lie was just that…a lie…to her…and that’s not okay. When House suggests that she should practice “compartmentalizing” their work and personal relationship, Cuddy is clearly irritated and suggests he leaves. From the look on House’s face, he knew that he just said something insensitive. (Love how Hugh Laurie can capture a feeling or thought with just a look. He is a master at that.)

Later on House, not surprisingly, breaks the rules and rushes in to the give the patient of the week an injection because he thinks that the man does not have smallpox. The act itself was a dangerous and risky move, but that’s how House operates. When House ends up quarantined, Cuddy chastises him for his lack of respect for authority and for lack of respect in general. House feels she is still mad about the lie, but at this point Cuddy could care less about that and more about him staying alive. On that idea, House wonders that if he survives does he then win both arguments. In a scene later on, when House could be on his way to contracting smallpox, he makes her think about how silly it will be to remain mad at him if he is basically on death’s door. She does smile and tell him to “shut up.” At this point to Cuddy, last week’s situation is not as important as the possibility that House could contract smallpox and meet his demise.

At the end of the episode, the disease isn’t smallpox and House is going to live another day of driving people insane. When he stops by Cuddy’s office, he thinks all is well with them and begins to lighten the mood. However, he is taken aback when Cuddy clearly remains angry with him and pretty much brushes him off very coldly. He doesn’t understand why, since clearly when he was “dying” his lie meant nothing. Cuddy agrees that this is true, but that was when he was dying. The previous argument still exists and she has separated his smallpox incident from the lie. She exits the office leaving a very confused and dumbfounded House in her wake…not unlike he indirectly did to her last week. In other words, House won the argument regarding his rebel nature when he went into the isolation room without protective gear, undermining Broda’s wishes to keep away from the patients. However, that incident is over and last week’s still looms heavy. So, I guess House didn’t win both arguments as he may have suspected he would.

Now that the situation has been set for this week’s blog, it’s time to get down to business. Who’s right in this situation? Are they both right or are they just plain wrong? According to House, there is always a right and a wrong. What’s interesting is that the theme of the episode I think didn’t come from the POTW, but from a cancer girl Wilson was treating and the way Wilson’s girlfriend/ex-wife Sam dealt with her. Due to the smallpox lockdown, the young cancer girl’s mother gets locked out of the building and the girl is without her mom and her precious “Lamby.” The girl refuses her treatment without either of them. Sam is a bit insensitive to the situation and tells the girl rather abruptly that sometimes people have to do things they don’t want to do. Sam then becomes a terrible liar after she picks up another lamb by telling the girl they gave the false one a bath. The girl becomes angry and loses trust in Wilson and Sam.

Previously, Sam told Wilson she was taking House’s side in his conflict with Cuddy, citing that if Cuddy is expecting House not to lie and using the relationship as a rationale then she’s wrong. This makes Wilson wonder if Sam thinks it’s okay for them to lie to each other. She tells him no because their relationship is different and better than House and Cuddy’s, whose relationship to her is based on lies. I thought that assessment was a bit harsh, but I had to agree that it did hold some truth. As season five’s “Both Sides Now” proved, House’s failure to disclose his mental state to Cuddy caused her to be blind-sided when he basically collapsed in front of her. He never told her what was happening to him which may have been personal but it also had an impact on him professionally. In a sense, he lied to her by hiding his state of being from her. However, I disagree with Sam that all of House and Cuddy’s relationship is based on lies. The truth usually presents itself. And when it does, House and Cuddy are both there for one another. By the way, did Sam completely forget that this is her second go around with Wilson? At least this is House and Cuddy’s first official time around. I’d say they were already ahead of Sam and Wilson, because at least they are addressing their issues. Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t Sam and Wilson hide theirs the first time around?

Now, let’s get back to how the cancer girl/Sam’s situation ties into the House and Cuddy situation.

When the little girl refuses to talk to Sam because she and Wilson lied, Sam understands and notes that the girl has every right to be angry. Sam’s reasoning for the lie to the girl was that they were trying to get her to do the right thing by engaging in the wrong one. In retrospect, this is what happened with House and Cuddy. House had to lie to Cuddy to get her to do the right thing and give his patient a fighting chance, but it came at a cost and Cuddy got angry. Of course, the same thing can be said of Cuddy at the end of this episode. As much as she may have been pained to be so cold to House after his smallpox scare, it’s her method of getting him to do the right thing and apologize to her and get him to understand that truth and respect are important elements to her in their relationship…so much so that she is not going to allow him to be flippant about it. It may not mean anything to him, but she wants him to recognize that it means something to her. Keep in mind that I don’t believe it was the very act of the lie that bothered Cuddy. I think she completely understands why he did it and that part was fine with her. I think she is looking for him to apologize for keeping it from her after the fact.

Basically I think this is how the House/Cuddy conversation should go.

House: “.I’m sorry that I had to lie to you to save my patient, but it was necessary under the circumstances. I’m not sorry for what I did, but how I failed to acknowledge the position in which this would put our relationship. Understand that I gave it a lot of thought before I did it, because of that reason and it wasn’t an easy decision. I understand why you would take this personally because boss or not, it’s still you I am dealing with. However, I warned you that I was going to hurt you again, because I haven’t changed.”

Cuddy: “I appreciate your apology and I do understand that this is how you operate in terms of your job. I don’t expect you to change how you do things, because that would be unrealistic. However, I wish you would respect me personally enough to come to me if you are having trouble with something. If I can’t help and you do end up lying, then I would hope to not be blind-sided later, making me look like a total idiot. I want you to own up to it and give me a heads up. Maybe then I can handle what lawsuits may arise later as a result, because it is still my job to be responsible for your insanity. If something bothers me and I think it’s important, then I would hope you would talk it out with me rather than brush it off as nothing. I would want you to do the same with me. I’m sorry I had to be so cold about this, but it was the only way I knew how to get you to do the right thing for me.”

As you all know, House has his way of manipulating himself out of a situation. I have to say that I understand Cuddy’s position. I know I may be in the minority here, but I don’t think I could ever compartmentalize a lie. House thought it was okay to have a massage therapist, who was a hooker he used to sleep with, continue as his therapist after Cuddy thought the idea was insane. He tried to brush it off by hiring a male hooker massage therapist for her. Then, she felt that he was maybe trying to sabotage the relationship. She may feel that he’s doing the same thing again by not feeling this is an important issue. To me, House’s isn’t exactly sending her the right signals. He’s frustrating her. Plus, add the fact that he was covering up Rachel swallowing the dime and where does that leave Cuddy? Not to mention, it seems that House is putting his patients always first. That’s fine when it comes to not risking his life. But now he has Cuddy to consider as well. I think that even weighs in on her thoughts. When does she become important to him? House risked his life in this episode and Cuddy was left looking through the glass watching the drama unfold. When does she take precedence over a patient on a personal level? This is definitely something hard to balance considering how much she means to him.

I’m not saying that House is wrong either. He holds the argument that lying is part of the way he operates, but he only does it when it is absolutely necessary. In this case it was necessary to him in order to save his patient. He loves Cuddy and tells her that he would never lie to her about something personal. I really believe that he’s speaking the truth there. Maybe he would have lied to her on a personal level in the past, but the situation is different now. He feels that she shouldn’t take it personally, because he didn’t intend it to be. Is Cuddy overreacting? Maybe, but we don’t know about Cuddy’s past. Since she feels very strongly about being lied to on all accounts, it makes me wonder if something in her past has contributed to her sense of insecurity on this issue. Perhaps we’ll find that out this year. In House’s mind he was just disrespecting her as boss and not as a person. Of course….is there really a difference?

Does House feel strongly about trying not to screw up the relationship so much so that he’s making bigger messes for himself? It’s definitely possible. Is he finding it difficult to own up to his mistakes when it comes to Cuddy? I think so. I don’t think it has anything to do with House trying to change but trying to grow into the relationship like a pair of new shoes. Once they give a little, things will be more comfortable.

Do I think both are being stubborn? Absolutely! But this is House and Cuddy….stubborn is why their relationship is so fun to watch and why fans love them! It’ll be interesting to see who wins this battle. My money is on Cuddy. You have to love House playing the Mars vs. Venus game in these episodes. Guess we’ll see next week if this argument finally comes to a resolution. Until then, I guess both beds will continue to feel chilly.

I would love to hear what you all think, since this situation has been hotly debated. Who do you think is right or are they both wrong? Who do you think will win the argument and why? Also, is Sam right that her relationship with Wilson is better than House and Cuddy’s? And is House and Cuddy’s relationship based on lies?

Please leave your diagnosis in the comment section. As always, I will make it a point to respond to them.

Thanks for reading! See you next week!

Small Sacrifices: Are Faith, Hope, and Love Part of the Foundation

Small sacrifices…the little things we engage in on a daily basis. Depending upon the sacrifice we make, the result can either be favorable or a disaster. For example, you've been offered tickets to a concert you've been dying to see only to realize that this is your parents 25^th Anniversary dinner and your entire family will be there. For some the sacrifice is simple…you turn down the concert tickets since your parents have only one 25^th Anniversary. Yet, you may get those who chose the concert over the dinner. I assure you, the latter choice will not yield very good results. How about the in-law you can't stand, but sacrifice any confrontations because your sibling is happy with that person? Yes, sacrifices…they happen everyday and cannot be avoided.

In House's eighth offering of the season, it wasn't just about the act of small sacrifices, but the very ideals of faith, hope and love. These very examples were displayed through the POTW, Taub and his wife Rachel, Wilson and Sam and House and Cuddy. I find it incredibly interesting just how much religion played a part in this episode from the POTW to the wedding the staff attended. Let me give you a few quick verses of the bible from the Corinthians, Chapter 13, verses 2, 4,5,6,7, 11, and 13.

"If I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, [love]is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek it's own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child: when I became a man, I put aside childish things. So faith, hope and love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love."

So, how does this all tie into the episode? Let's explore by situation, shall we?

In the situation involving Taub and his wife, you have a case of emotional infidelity. Although Rachel is truthful about seeking solace from a man she met via an online support group for philandering spouses, she refuses to make the small sacrifice of ending the online chats. This is much to the surprising dismay of Taub who understands he's done terrible things to her but finds her actions hurtful. According to his assessment on the situation, he apparently took for granted the fact that she forgave him for everything, when apparently all the hurt feelings never dissipated. Rachel's reluctance to make that small sacrifice for Taub not only increases the tension between them now, but also illustrates how the trust they may have once shared is fading. It exemplifies how they've lost faith in each other, since neither seems to trust the other again. As a result, the hope that once may have been apparent when Taub ceased his philandering ways is all but lost due to Rachel's lack of faith in communicating her feelings to Taub. She seems to pour her heart to a man online in a different state. Therefore, love cannot sustain if Rachel and Taub have lost all faith and hope in each other. Makes the sentiment from the Corinthians about love not seeking its own interests and enduring everything interesting, doesn't it? Right now Taub and his wife need to take stock in the relationship and quit being selfish. Either they need to finally end things, go into counseling or agree to make some sacrifices, because sometimes offering the superficial just isn't enough. Contrary to popular belief, two wrongs don't make a right. It just makes for a bigger mess. In my opinion, an affair is an affair whether it is a physical one or an emotional one. Love is not based on revenge but communication and work. These aspect are seriously lacking in the Taub marriage.

Sam and Wilson have a different kind of situation that in a sense also involves trust issues. Sam enlists Wilson help to look over some files of hers for her boss who's doing a clinical review on her. When both Wilson and House discover that Sam's facts don't seem to be adding up, they question each other about her motives. Wilson tells House that Sam told him nothing was wrong about what she put down in her files after he questioned her. Wilson and House think that she just made a moral decision and exceeded dosing protocols as a last ditch effort to save five of her terminal patients. As House said, it would be something Wilson himself would do. This angelic ideal Wilson has of Sam now fuels his ambition even more to propose to Sam at the wedding the staff is attending, since he is now taken with her sense of morality. At the wedding, Wilson proposes to Sam saying he came to realize what made him love her even more. Puzzled by this, Sam wonders what exactly it is that made him suddenly realize he loved her even more. Rather than just making some romantic thing up, Wilson brings up her sense of morality and the five cases. (That's pretty much when I slapped my forehead, going Wilson you babbling idiot.) The good part about it was that Wilson was being truthful to himself. He believed that she didn't really do anything wrong morally. And in a sense, Sam is being truthful by believing that her facts were not altered in any way. (Okay, so I admit….either Sam is really a horrible doctor and an idiot, modest, has lied so long about fudging the facts that even she believes it or is just a plain liar. Not all of these things can be true. If she wasn't lying to do a moral thing, then she's a horrible doctor.) How did sacrifice come into play here? Wilson sacrificed the art of lying to Sam in favor of what he believed to be the truth. Yet, had he not extended it to a point that made it look as if he didn't trust her, perhaps the outcome would have been better. Sam sacrificed the relationship in the end. It may have seemed bigger than a small sacrifice but not to Sam. Rather than sacrifice her beliefs that she isn't a liar or cheat, she put her principles first before the relationship. For Wilson and Sam faith in each other was lost when Wilson didn't quite believe Sam and when Sam felt she lost Wilson's trust. Since both had been down this road previously, the idea of hope in a second chance at love was diminished. However, Sam gave up too easily. Her action is in contrast to the biblical theory that love endures all, is patient and rejoices with truth, since none of these happened in the end. Sam wasn't patient and did not rejoice in the beauty of Wilson's truth of her moral character. The only thing she saw was the negative. With that love can never survive.

Before I get to House and Cuddy, I think it's important to mention the POTW first as I think he ties into House and Cuddy's situation and its resolution. As a bargain to God, the POTW sacrificed himself via crucifixion for each year his daughter remained cancer free. Unlike House's belief that faith is "communicable" and has "killed a lot of people," the patient views faith not as a disease but as something inherent and essential to the way in which he lives his life. By not accepting treatment for his condition, the patient feels that he wouldn't be insulting God. To the POTW, his act of being crucified has nothing to do with showing God his physical pain, but just how deeply his faith runs and how much he is willing to go through for his daughter even if it means sacrificing his life for her. The atheistic House knows that the patient is refusing treatment, because a cure means costing the patient his faith. As a result, House argues that the patient will be like the rest of us "alone and afraid." To the patient, this is not a valid argument because hope isn't something one can prescribe. Therefore, the POTW was staying true to his beliefs disregarding the consequences.

In that very conversation, we secretly get a view of House's life. House has faith in science and medicine. As a result of these beliefs and his conviction to save lives, he is willing to face the consequences of his actions no matter what they may be. Any diversion of his belief he may view as an insult to his profession and possibly his character. In a way, House's convictions aren't for show, but a display of what he is willing to go through for his patients. For House, giving up this part of himself leads to a fear that maybe he will be alone and afraid because he will be stripped of his perceived identity. Before Cuddy came into his life on a personal level, the one belief he could always count on was his success at the art of medicine. He stayed true to his one sure thing by lying to Cuddy in order to save the patient. He stood by his convictions, because the only hope he could count on was the survival of his patient. On a personal level, House may still be uncertain about his own future with Cuddy, because hope was never tangible to him on a personal level previously. Yet, this is only part of what I felt contributed to House's decision regarding his situation with Cuddy.

Later on, Masters brings in the patient's daughter in an effort to bring forth honesty in his relationship with her. Masters wants him to tell her why he's dying…because he doesn't want to take the medicine they want to prescribe him. The patient tells her a lie in that he is not afraid to die for her when he really is. His reasoning to Masters about lying to his daughter is that our beliefs define who we are and that dying and going to heaven are part of his beliefs. He tells her that beliefs help us to see the right thing to do when we're "blinded by doubt and fear." If those beliefs are lost, then we question who we are.

This is in parallel to House I think in that House is blinded by doubt and fear as to whether his relationship with Cuddy can last. Thus, he defaults to his medical beliefs because they are what define him. House still hasn't found what has defined him personally, because those things which did are no longer present in his life such as the Vicodin, booze, his father, his misanthropic nature, his lack of remorse… House's fear may be the personal layers that Cuddy can reveal about him through their relationship and House's fear that he may not live up to what he believes her expectations of him could be. Perhaps there is a fear of disappointing her. Maybe who he really is won't be what she wants. This leads to what I think is the third phase of House possibly processing his situation through the POTW.

House lies to the patient telling him he ran a PET scan on his daughter and that she still has cancer. Adding basically that the patients sacrificial efforts were all for naught and God broke His part of the deal. Angry with House for his self-righteousness, the patient gives in to the treatment. Later, House confesses his lie which angers the patient as he feels that he will be punished for falling under House's temptation. Yet, House shows the patient that he's getting better and his daughter has no cancer. To House this only proves that there is no God. But to the patient, this only proves that there is a merciful and loving God. The very thought has House rolling his eyes, because how can there be punishment then no punishment. House jokes that it's an "ingenious argument" to justify the presence of God. However, House is made to think a minute when the patient informs him that faith isn't an argument. This leads to what I think was a very Housian apology. Yes, part of it was a lie but I also think it held more truth than we realize.

"I've been an idiot. I got this argument stuck in my head…if everybody lies, then trust is not only unfounded and pointless, it's fictional. But trust is not an argument that can be won or lost. Maybe I just have to suspend my cynicism and believe. Maybe it's time I took a leap of faith. I'm sorry. I won't lie to you again."

I believe that House took Wilson's advice in that he still believes that he didn't lie to Cuddy on a personal level but a professional one. Therefore, he's not sorry for lying to her in that way. (Note how he doesn't look her in the eye when he says he's sorry.) But I do believe that he saw her position in this too, and decided that this was not a battle to be won but one in which he needed to make a small sacrifice. What led to this sacrifice? It's in House's own words and in the patient's actions. For House he did find faith, but not in the spiritual sense. His faith lies in Cuddy who in a sense has been both merciful and forgiving towards all he's done in his life. She's never completely lost her faith in him and has been as open and as honest with him as she can. Look at them in their situation. Instead of breaking up with House because he lied, she just got angry with him and made her feelings clear which eventually led him to do the right thing and apologize to her. It was a different kind of faith and belief that got House to this point, I think. As far as trust goes, as was evidenced in "Under My Skin," Cuddy is the person whom House trusts the most in his life. She knows him well. When it comes to her lying to him, we know as viewers that she simply cannot lie to him personally. Even if she does, such was the case with Lucas and even this discovered marriage, there are reasons. Whether it's to prove a point or prevent him from getting hurt, she normally has his best interests in mind. I think he knows that. And given the skeletons in the closet of his past, I think he understands why she would keep a secret from him. Sometimes there are events in your life you simply don't want to acknowledge because of the distress they may have caused. Cuddy doesn't know about House's past either. But if there was anyone who he could trust with it, Cuddy would be it. The same I think goes for her.

In the end of House and Cuddy's situation, House found and put his faith in Cuddy. He decided to put a possible fear of revealing his personality identity aside for the hope that Cuddy will continue to believe in him and really accepts his screwed up personality and whatever truth she reveals in the layers of it hidden beneath. As a result, love will endure. For in this case, love was patient since Cuddy didn't give up on House. Love rejoiced with the truth, since House did find his faith in Cuddy and possibly embraced the value that honesty can bring. As a result of House's love for Cuddy, he bared his belief that he shouldn't be so cynical about trusting other people. House suspended his nature of thinking and being right in favor of faith, hope and love. For these reasons and the small sacrifices that can be made, House and Cuddy's relationship has the potential to endure. House will lie to her again, but I think he'll apologize after the fact. I say this because when House told her he would never lie to her again, he looked her square in the eyes. The last thing he wants to do is hurt the person deeply for whom he has the most faith and for whom returns the faith. Maybe for House he realized that without love, he does essentially have nothing but his intellect and medical skills. Being with Cuddy, I think he realized just how valuable and rewarding love and trust in another human being can be. Maybe the Corinthians are right after all.

Yes, small sacrifices….the very tunnels through which we can find solitude and perhaps peace of mind. They also serve as the means to a relationship that can be balanced. Compromise is essential to the success of a relationship as well as trust. House is correct in that everybody does indeed lie. However, sometimes those lies are part of the sacrifices we make based upon our beliefs. Basically, to keep the peace as it were. Yet, House has also said that truth is based in lies. Makes his apology that much more interesting doesn't it?

Take a step back and ask yourself what's more important….making that small sacrifice out of love or maintaining you convictions which can lead to negative consequences?

As always, thanks for reading and please share your thoughts on this episode in the comments section. What did you think of the situations of our three couples? Do you think House was completely lying in his apology to Cuddy or do you think there was some truth in it? How did you feel about the sacrifices of the POTW?

Over the holidays, I'm going to attempt to write about House and Cuddy's relationship and its history as well as any other fun goodies I think of to get us through the eight week hiatus. Until then, this has been another installment of Diagnosing House. Thanks for reading!

Larger Then Life: The Mask We Wear

In our daily life we come across individuals whose personalities are “larger than life.” Oftentimes, these individuals hide behind this personality mask because they are hiding the flaws within. I thought this week’s House title illustrated this idea through the Patient of the Week, House, Taub and even Arlene Cuddy. It’s also interesting to note just how similar House was in personality to the Patient of the week. The writers never cease to amaze me in how they can parallel House to the situation at hand. This installment by Sara Hess was no exception. So, let me tell you my thoughts on this week’s episode and whether or not the characters in play were truly hiding behind personalities that were “larger than life.”

One day, an ordinary man in a band with a family saves the life of a woman on the subway tracks who was suffering a seizure. Suddenly, this ordinary man becomes a hero overnight. But it is not without consequence as he then becomes a victim of illness and is brought to House. Of course this man is headline news and draws the attention of hospital staff. His personality then becomes amplified and he is no longer ordinary. He becomes somewhat of a celebrity. However, his wife doesn’t see it that way immediately. She sees a man who risks his life without regard to the consequences or his family. Interestingly, that isn’t unlike someone else we know. How many times have we seen House risk his life to save another without regard to consequences or to the people who love him? We saw evidence of this action most recently in “A Pox on Our House.” Yet, the parallel doesn’t end there. It seems that the POTW has a passion and love for his band, much like House does for medicine. And like House, the POTW hides behind his passion for fear of screwing up his personal life. In that regard both House and the POTW, seem to hid behind their “larger than life” personalities to mask their fears of personal failures or the prospect of them. Just as the POTW is hiding behind his heroism, the patient is quick to point out that House hides behind his sick patients.

To me the wife also illustrated two parts of this story as well. She seemed in some ways to illustrate Cuddy. She conveyed how she let herself believe that her husband could change and be this other guy. Although she loves her husband, she mentions how there’s nothing worse than loving someone who’s “never going to stop disappointing you.” As much as I am a fan of the House and Cuddy relationship this season, I had to think of the reality that maybe this is foreshadowing. Is something going to happen in the relationship that will completely disappoint Cuddy to the point of ending things? I would be foolish not to bring up this possible point. On the other hand, the wife of the patient also seemed to illustrate Taub’s situation.

In a stroke of luck, Taub becomes the face of Princeton Plainsboro because marketing feels he has a “trustworthy” face. This is pretty ironic since he’s a philanderer. Trustworthy isn’t exactly in his vocabulary. Yet, this whole campaign has made his personality become “larger than life.” His professional face becomes the mask for his personal faults. The POTW’s wife seeks Taub’s expertise, since she believes the hospital picked him for the billboard because he’s a good doctor. This is something we all know is not true. But just as the POTW basked in the newfound attention, Taub does as well but at an interesting cost. It seems his wife Rachel is enjoying his celebrity so much that she is seeking him night and day for romps in the bedroom. However, we come to realize that her good mood in due to her conversations with her online “friend” Phil and not really because of Taub. Her overplayed actions with Taub seem to hide the fact that she is acting out her affair with Phil but with Taub. Confusing, I know. Yet, it’s her way of having an affair without having one. Just because she’s love to her husband doesn’t make her happy to be with him as we soon discover. When the masks come off and Taub and Rachel return to reality, Taub himself realizes that he’s never going to stop disappointing Rachel. Thus, the words of the POTW’s wife coming ringing in both their ears and they realize that divorce seems the best answer. In that regard both can stop disappointing the other. Rachel doesn’t have to worry about Taub’s cheating habits and he doesn’t have to wonder anymore about playing second fiddle to her online contact. As Masters pointed out, Taub was being selfish. His fear of not knowing how to love anyone else and his indecisiveness concerning whether or not he’d cheat again weren’t going to yield any happy outcomes for anyone. Sometimes in life you have to let go. As a result, Taub finally did and offered up the idea of divorce. Is he heroic for finally giving in and letting Rachel go? As hard as that was to do, in a sense he was. He couldn’t live the lies anymore and did the best thing he knew he could do. He offered Rachel the prospect of happiness.

Finally, we have Arlene Cuddy. Her overbearing, harsh personality is much to be desired. She is judgmental of her daughter Lisa to the point of insinuating Lisa is a slut. What is Arlene hiding? Why is her personality so “larger than life?” Is it the fact that she was a gentile who converted to Judaism? Therefore, she’s overdoing it? Maybe it’s something deeper. One wonders what she was like before her husband died. Is she hiding her failures as a mother or her grief? Well, we do have another episode with Candice Bergen coming. So, maybe we’ll find out what more she could be hiding behind her personality.

What was interesting to me was how House taught the patient a lesson in the end and how the patient taught House a lesson as well. Rather than dealing with Arlene right after the dinner incident, House hid in the patient’s room. In House’s world, this isn’t anything new. House hides from people all the time in patient rooms. Yet, this was different. House basically mocked his patient telling him that the next week he’ll go back to being the same guy he always had been. Basically, he’d be yesterday’s news. Then, the patient mocked House’s heroic nature by “hiding behind a sick guy.” This got House to stop being a coward and face Cuddy’s mom. In turn, House taught the patient a lesson too. After solving the case and saving his life, House cites that his actions in solving the case don’t make him a hero. Basically House I think was saying that he saves lives each day as part of his job. It’s his obligation to his profession.

Why does one act of saving a life trump that of someone who does it every day? It’s an interesting question. What really defines a hero? Was House more heroic for holding his tongue at dinner out of love for Cuddy? Was House heroic by sedating Cuddy’s mom to keep her from degrading her daughter anymore? Was Taub heroic for setting Rachel free? Is the POTW’s wife heroic for raising their daughter while he goes gigging?

As always the House writers leave fans asking themselves interesting questions concerning life and our actions.

Well, that’s it for this week. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the subject. So, please feel free to make a comment in the comments section.

I apologize to my readers for being so late with this, but real life has been very hectic on my end. Hopefully, the next installment will be sooner….of course, better late than never.

See you next week for another edition of Diagnosing House. Thanks for reading!