A special needs teacher coughs up blood and collapses during class.
Cameron is left in charge of “babysitting” House, as Cuddy has taken more time at home to spend time with Joy. The team is amused by this.
House exposes Thirteen and Foreman’s relationship, distracting him from lending any credibility to their diagnoses.
The new patient–Sarah–is found to be inherently kind and childish in her rapport.
“If you ever meet our boss, just yes and no answers, okay?”
Wilson visits Cuddy at home. Cuddy breaks down that she’s does not feel any emotional connection with Joy. She spends the rest of her day at Princeton-Plainsboro. House tells Cuddy to give Joy back to the state if she feels trapped, and she expresses to Wilson that she is seriously considering it.
House uses the patient’s treatment as a ploy to test Cameron’s limits. Contrary to Cuddy’s standard denial, Cameron allows House to commence with a premature dousing of radiation on Sarah despite an unconfirmed diagnosis. Thirteen and Taub place the patient into a radiation chamber, but do not perform the procedure. She collapses.
Foreman’s relationship with Thirteen interferes with his Huntington’s drug trial when he decides to put her on an actual trial drug instead of a placebo. Despite being warned of the placebo effect, Thirteen is confident that she was given the actual drug.
Regarding a second drastic treatment, Cameron gives House a yellow light, forcing him to confirm his diagnosis before performing another test on his patient.
House attends the ice bath procedure, is visibly annoyed at Sarah’s optimism, but finds her kindness and newly revealed personal history as a teacher to be symptoms of possible brain damage.
House suggests a brain biopsy to confirm multiple sclerosis. Cameron shortens House’s leash even more when she again forces him to confirm the diagnosis with multiple brain scans beforehand.
After negative scans of Sarah’s brain, House prematurely cancels the biopsy. The patient’s condition continues to deteriorate exactly as House predicted despite the wrong diagnosis. House wants to conduct a nerve conduction study directly on patient’s brain to confirm equine encephalitis, which involves cutting open her skull. Cameron denies permission.
Foreman consults House regarding changing Thirteen’s placebo dose into the actual trial drug. House advises to stay the course unless the drug will cure her Huntington’s. Surprisingly, however, he tells Foreman that love can make people do stupid things.
Both Kutner and House’s proposed diagnoses lack real evidence, but Cameron gives House permission to remove the top portion of his patient’s skull anyway. Cuddy enters the procedure via phone to attack House and Cameron’s judgement. The sound of Joy’s crying seems to aggravate the patient, giving House another symptom to work with.
Cuddy goes to House’s office to express the bond she’s developed with Joy, leading to House’s epiphany. A simple sonogram of Sarah’s heart reveals that stress is causing blood to rush to different parts of patient’s brain, which leads to her higher tolerance of special needs children.
Cameron resigns her temporary position as dean because of her compromised judgement after working under House for so long.
The final montage sees House overlooking Sarah’s recovery, Foreman switching patient names on a dose of the trial drug, and Cuddy leaving Joy in a babysitter’s care as she heads back to work.
