Cold open: A painter (Breckin Meyer), displeases a woman’s husband with a distorted portrait of his wife. A bit bland, but the lack of fainting/hallucination/mysterious bleeding grabbed my attention.
A brief scene with House and Lucas in the cafeteria sees Lucas hitting on Cuddy. Let’s see how this plays out.
The team examines Brandon’s paintings, noting there’s no distorted perspective in any of his previous work. House reveals that he’s had everyone under investigation by Lucas lately, and reveals his findings. Apparently, House is having some serious trouble entertaining himself. He’s more intrusive than usual. He claims to have nothing on Taub, but Taub’s wife is another matter…
In a rather lackluster breaking and entering scene, Kutner & Taub scour Brandon’s studio, finding it clean.
House deduces that Brandon must be on drugs, since he has casually refused every diagnostic test so far, implying that he’s withholding information. He confesses to being a guinea pig, earning money through drug trials because he hasn’t sold a painting in over three years. House tells him he’s been symptom-free and so the drugs have likely left his system by now. And then comes the obligatory “patient is definitely not alright scene,” Brandon suddenly begins seizing.
House reveals to Taub that his bank account is unusually busy. Taub lies that he’s spending it all on furniture. Examining the three drugs Brandon was a guinea pig for, House orders dialysis to rapidly clean the drugs from his system. Hadley/Thirteen approaches Taub about his wife, he maintains that she’s not cheating on him and that he’s perfectly happy.
House and Lucas have a fun little conversation via hidden ear bud microphones about his tendency to push people away.
“I take it none of you saw Trainspotting.”
Brandon is intubated. An apparent allergic reaction has is face so swollen it’s pushed his tearducts shut.
House proposes withdrawal as the new symptoms began after they took him off of the drugs. The team puts him back on each drug to find which it is.
Lucas is caught going through Cuddy’s things, after which he asks her on a date and hands her a bouquet of flowers. “I’m not a creep, I just thought you seemed interesting.” Cuddy is seriously flattered. Hmm….
A dinner scene between Taub and his wife. Taub tells her that he’s found over $80000 stocked away in hidden bank statements. The tension is lifted when she tells him that she’s bought him a car with her secret savings. A touching scene especially after all of the sad foreshadowing of an affair.
Back to Brandon, he’s been successfully detoxed, but suddenly tries to kiss Thirteen, resulting in a bloody nose in addition to racing hormones. Wilson has yet to make an appearance in this episode. I’m wondering if the writers are trying to imply that even without Wilson, House finds ways to enable his own conniving, intrusive personality. Contrary to what Wilson said in the season opener, House is the same no matter who he keeps company with.
The clinical drugs are ruled out at this point. Taub wants House to admit he was wrong about his wife’s affair , but House asserts that his wife was only handing him a huge gift he doesn’t really deserve to throw him off. Taub is right back to being paranoid.
House finds Lucas in his apartment, trying to dig up dirt on him to keep Cuddy interested.
There are some really great conversations between House and Taub this episode. Witty banter and the medicine really make this show for me. It’s good to see Taub and his marriage centerstage this episode. Seemed underused before. It’s also good to see Thirteen referred to as Dr. Hadley consistently throughout the episode…
During a procedure, Brandon goes into cardiac arrest. When defibrilating the patient, House notices that Brandon’s roots are red. Suddenly, genetic mutations are on the table as a possible cause.
Brandon needs a cardiac sympathectomy to correct his arrhythmia. Lucas and Cuddy have dinner at a diner and he shows Cuddy what he’s found on House. He reveals a college photograph of House as a male cheerleader, Cuddy pretends to be interested. The two appear to be playing games with one another, as she admits to knowing that the photo was faked, which keeps Lucas interested.
Brandon’s vision has become distorted again and sees two strangers instead of Hadley and Taub. They’re back to square one. Taub believes that the oil on Brandon’s old paintings are causing the symptoms, and asks him about the paintings he never sold. Brandon is forced to come clean to his girlfriend about not selling any paintings (only two in the last couple of years) and making money from drug trials instead of art.
Taub goes to the loft’s basement in a race against a surgery to find the paintings that Brandon had “sold” and finds that all of the portraits are in the same distorted perspective as the one in the introduction. His paintings are normal except for the last few months, and Taub finds that the drugs are actually the culprits as the symptoms appear to be spastic in nature. House deduces that all of the drugs he’s been taking in the last few years have somehow played a part in his bizarre illness.
Chase is again involved in the surgery. House calls just before the previously planned procedure and orders abdominal surgery to remove a beezor–a hairball-like buildup in the digestive tract. It has been absorbing the medications he’s been taking, periodically releasing all of his drugs at once, causing his sporadic symptoms.
“And that is why Cameron won’t let me buy a cat.”
Taub’s wife reveals her surprise purchase to him. He sees things House’s way, and responds by saying that they need to talk.
House goes home to find Lucas playing his piano. House silently admits that the “photoshopped” photo of him as a cheerleader is real. Lucas wonders why Cuddy thought that the photo wasn’t real, and why House knew that she wouldn’t believe it was true in the first place?
The episode ends with a really great scene in which Lucas and House jam out.
This episode played pretty it pretty low-key. I really enjoyed the banter between House and Taub, Taub and Hadley, etc. The new team of doctors are finally coming into their own. Also, Lucas has become a character to look forward to seeing on screen. Michael Weston is a breath of fresh air in a cast that had become a bit stiff in the last part of season four.
The bizarre diagnosis deserves a nod this episode. I got the feeling from the uneventful cold open that this wouldn’t result in another surprise destructive pregnancy/cancer/skin condition. A hairball? Really strange, really interesting, and actually plausible medically. It may have taken three episodes to get back into the swing of things, but the characters are more fleshed out, the mystery diagnosis and drama are becoming better balanced, and it was just a whole lot more fun this time around. Felt like an old school season one episode to me.
I’m looking forward to Wilson’s appearance next week. He was missed this time around. It looks like House and Wilson are at serious odds with one another, among other issues.
Mike Trevino is a rabid fan of House and The Office and blogs out of San Antonio, TX.
