In a season that started out with a Survivor twist, and struggled to find its footing with three new additions to the already packed seven member cast, “House’s Head” and “Wilson’s Heart” were two of the most emotional and innovative episodes of the series yet. The Twin Peaks-ish “House’s Head” examined the events of the bus accident from several perspectives all within House’s mind. “Wilson’s Heart” put a heavy emotional cap on what was before that point a very fun two-parter. Hugh Laurie and Robert Sean Leonard put in some wonderful performances in the season four finale.
Where will it go from there? How does House reconcile with being somewhat responsible for Amber’s death? Does he regress to his familiar flippant attitude? Or will he step it up to salvage his relationship with Wilson?
Two months later…
The cold open is misleading as usual. The annoying character who appears sick is actually not. Her assistant, however, hallucinates ants crawling all over her body and, screaming, rips off her clothes to swipe the ants away in the middle of a meeting.
The all too familiar scene of House amusing himself in a coma patient’s room. Cuddy tries to talk to him about Wilson, but House evades. Foreman enters with the latest case.
Cuddy attempts to deny House the case so that he can talk to Wilson, but no dice. Theories (B-12 deficiency is the initial suspect) are thrown about as the team attempts to coax House into seeing Wilson. House coldly reveals Thirteen’s diagnosis of Huntington’s Chorea to deflect his problems onto her. It works apparently, as the team starts to show more concern for Thirteen than House.
Wilson reveals that he has decided to resign. House berates his decision, accusing him of milking his bereavement. Wilson doesn’t budge and leaves House alone in his office to hand his own cases over to his replacement.
House begins to neglect his patient’s condition in favor of his issues with Wilson. An endoscopy and colonoscopy reveal that the patient’s rectal bleed is from…nowhere. Interesting. Kutner poses that the patient may actually be pregnant. An ultrasound reveals that she isn’t. “Positive pregnancy test, no pregnancy.”
“You’re being an idiot.” House exits a brainstorming session to try to get Wilson to stay in his usual style. House runs another ultrasound on the patient, noting her unusual youthful appearance for a 37 year old, and finds the fetus in an abnormal position. He coldly orders an abortion, ignoring the opportunity of a fetal transplant.
Wilson has a presence in every scene that House is in this episode. Acting much more cold than usual to his colleagues, he accuses Thirteen of projecting her knowledge of her condition as sympathy. It’s very obvious that House is guilty, in pain, and distraught at the thought of losing his best friend.
Thirteen enters the patient’s room and apologizes that there is no choice but to remove the fetus. The patient is curiously calm about the abortion.
A scene with Cameron! Of course, House talks to her to indirectly about Wilson. House relates her experience with a significant other’s death, to which she replies that after her husband died, she moved away and found a good job.
Chase has a very brief scene, involved in the abortion. He’s missed in this episode.
House finally goes to Cuddy, admitting his apparent defeat in getting Wilson to stay. The issue is addressed head-on. House asserts that he is not responsible at all for Amber’s death. Cuddy tells House that if he “wants to keep him, he needs to let [Wilson] know he’s not alone.” House doesn’t flinch when Cuddy asks if he’s feeling one ounce of guilt for Amber’s death.
House jeopardizes a patient to keep Wilson. He threatens to leave the hospital until Wilson agrees to stay.
“I’ve gotta do what’s right for me, you’ve gotta do what’s right for you.”
“Yeah, but it comes easier for me.”
The patient is in cardiac arrest as House leaves the hospital, his patient, and his cell phone.
Cuddy takes over. The team is clueless. The patient’s new heart problem leads Thirteen to propose multiple sclerosis as the diagnosis. The patient is started on the treatment.
Cuddy confronts House about his childish way of handling the situation, which he responds to with a swift door in the face.
“You’re doing the same thing he is. You’re running away. At least he’s not killing anyone in the process.”
A fever throws off the diagnosis of MS. Cuddy cuts off House’s cable to draw him back to the hospital and 911 pages Wilson into her office.
“Welcome to couples’ counseling.”
An abnormal growth is found as the team replays the patient’s surgery. Wilson and House sitting next to each other, facing away from each other, is priceless. Both House and Wilson are deflecting Cuddy’s attempts to heal their friendship. She fails.
“Do you think Amber would’ve wanted you to walk away?”
“Nobody at this hospital even liked Amber.”
It’s interesting to see Wilson match House’s stubbornness in this episode. It makes House seem much more vulnerable and, for once, Wilson appears to be emotionally stronger. House’s cold deflections are childish in the face of Wilson’s assertiveness and unwillingness to resolve his issues.
Another scene with Chase involving Foreman trying to get him to perform a second surgery on the patient to remove the recently discovered abnormal growth. House’s absence makes him reluctant to perform it without a proper reason. Kutner, as usual, comes forward with an interesting idea as to how to get around performing the actual surgery.
Thirteen has a touching conversation with the patient about being a “flunkie” to someone else.
Foreman, Kutner, and Thirteen find and remove the growth.
A scene with Cameron and Wilson. Cameron warns Wilson that he’s being irrational and that the pain of loss will follow him wherever he moves.
“I have to do something.”
“Then do it. But don’t think it’s the right choice, because there isn’t one.”
Wilson proposes a possible lymphoma. Foreman tells Wilson that he should follow through on his decision to leave. Whether it’s because he wants or needs to, he should do what he feels is best.
The patient responds to the chemotherapy. Thirteen confronts her Huntington’s by opening up to the patient. She wants “something to be different because of her.” She wants to accomplish something great, something significant before she dies within the next decade. Thirteen finds encouragement in the patient’s decision to apply for a management position after recently being fired.
Cuddy tells House that he is “afraid to know” why House is leaving. Suddenly, House has an epiphany, enters the patient’s room, and diagnoses her with a kind of leprosy. This accounts for her immune deficiencies, etc. She’s treated with standard antibiotics. Thirteen reveals that the pregnancy triggered all of her symptoms, including the youthful look that House noted. The patient suddenly reveals that she’s been asked to take back her old position as an assistant.
Her decision ties in to the episode’s overall theme of acceptance, even if it feels a bit rushed. This happened literally five minutes after she was boasting her possibly management position. It works in theory, but it felt sloppy.
“Almost dying changes nothing. Dying changes everything.”
House enters Wilson’s office again, apologizes, but finds Wilson unable to blame House for anything. Wilson reveals that Amber is not the reason he is leaving. House is. He’s realized that he’s only enabled House’s destructive behavior. He says that they’re no longer friends and he’s not sure if they ever were. His speech and exit are really quite heartbreaking.
The season kicked off adequately. The case was full of the usual twists, but the patient’s personal arc felt rushed and a bit unnecessary. The “epiphany scene,” which usually has a basis in the “soap opera” aspect of the episode felt very forced as well. Even though the relationship (or lack thereof) between House and Wilson makes for an interesting arc, this first episode felt like an overly long introduction. I have high hopes for next week’s House.
Mike Trevino is a rabid fan of House and The Office and blogs out of San Antonio, TX.
