house thoughts

For the smart thoughts and dicussion, go to like, anyone but me.

tzikeh chats here.

shrift is wise here.

And clannadlvr is thinking here.



Okay, after a lot of reading and thought, I take the story as correct in essentials, metaphoric or symbolic in details. Cuddy didn't work on him personally (in retrospect, their interactions were too stranger-type for her to have hired him and then worked on him, though damn, I *really* like the idea that she did), and the timeline is weird, and right now, I'm really willing to believe the writers are getting their own timeline right, since so far, they're doing such a fantastic job. I'm still debating the junkie before/junkie after thing--either way, it's interesting as hell. Either he *was* a junkie and it's kind of mirroring of Foreman and the Homeless Chick, or he *wasn't* and they assumed by his actions that he was. I mean, the result was the same either way. Right now, I'd give actual teeth to have taped this to see if he ever *said* the man was a junkie, or simply said that everyone assumed it and left it up as an assumption without ever contradicting it.

I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but I *trust* this show and these writers to know what they're doing, at least until they prove me wrong. So. If I trust them, and think they know what they're doing, I'm going to wonder, why didn't Wilson ever appear?

He got the five (six!) minute break time fantasy with House, discussing Stacy. After that--everyone else played. His little merry band of doctors. Cuddy. But through all three woven stories, not even a cameo. Now, tzikeh pointed out, and rightly, that the story was Stacy/House, and focused at that, so no, we won't see friends wandering in--this was about him and Stacy and assumptions and risks. But still, all the regular cast showed up somewhere *except* Wilson, which is--I don't know. It probably doesn't mean anything, except I noticed it as the obvious omission. Even for the tumor girl, where he could have been the oncologist that removed the tumor from her leg. Hmm.

Things I Love

That mug. Him wrinkling his nose, taking a drink, and you *know* that instantly, he knew why Professor Someone was getting sick at work. That just killed me.

Cameron taking the life history and geneaology. That was *so perfect*. I mean, an exaggeration, but so perfectly *her*.

Chase, Foreman, and the dog. So. Damn. Good.

House, diagnosing himself before he has a heart attack. That was just--wow. I mean, cool does not describe it. Writhing in pain, still sarcastic but softer, somehow. Less sharply bitter, less anger. God, what he must have been *like* back then. All that brilliance and not as likely to tear himself to pieces every few seconds just for the masochistic fun of it.

And that entire Sophie's Choice thing going on. It's rare that I can see myself understanding perfectly both sides. If I'd been Stacy, I'd have been there with a tourniquet, a chainsaw, and some heavy duty restraints, just ready to *get that thing off*, and if I'd been House, waking up to a great deal less leg than I'd expected to see when I got up--new *universes* of pissed. Even stoned out of his head, I get some seriously freaky visions of his initial reaction to seeing that. We've seen House angry, but I'll bet he set a whole new standard on epic tantrums.

I like Stacy. I do. I see why he loves her and I see why they broke up, and I see why he hasn't quite ever let her go even after he did. And I can see why he wouldn't want anyone after--right action or no on her part, he lost the full use of his leg and his trust in her, and in this case, there isn't a way to get it back as unfractured as it was, or maybe at all. In his head, he's a *doctor*, and it's his body, for that matter, and it's got to grate beyond words that she both took his choice away *and* didn't believe in his choice of treatment of himself.

God, I love this show. I love it. I love everything about it, everyone in it. I *forgot* how *good* it is to watch a show this incredibly sharp and fun and *powerful* and rich. Bliss. This show gets my cookie icon for happy.

Comments

[ubixtiz.livejournal.com]

But through all three woven stories, not even a cameo.

I think I saw a cameo. I'm going to rewatch and look out for it and will confirm later, but...I think I remember seeing him in one of ther other two stories. His exclusion from most of it, and especially from House's story, is...hmm. Much thought must be had upon it.

[ubixtiz.livejournal.com]

Back! Wilson was there when Cameron was scanning the volleyball player's neck. Cameron says her line, and Wilson looks at the displays and nods. He doesn't even speak. So basically I agree with what isagel says below. :)

[serrico.livejournal.com]

Right now, I'd give actual teeth to have taped this to see if he ever *said* the man was a junkie, or simply said that everyone assumed it and left it up as an assumption without ever contradicting it.

Having watched closely for this on my rewatch, I'm pretty confident in saying that House never actually says or confirms that the man was a junkie. He says, in his breakdown of what happened to the three leg pain patients after the class made its first round of diagnoses, that the minigolfer was tossed from the hospital for drug-seeking--not that he *was* drug-seeking, just that that was how his first visit to the hospital ended. And that's what plants the assumption in the students' minds that the guy *was* drug-seeking. After that, it's either the students who base their treatments of the guy on the *assumption* that he's an addict, or House referring to him as an addict/drug-seeker, but not saying he *is* one. Even the part of the story that convinces the students that the guy was drug-seeking--when he rips the syringe out of House's hand and slams it into his leg, then gets all blissy and thankful--can be read as a guy who knows what he's doing--a doctor--forcefully administering his own pain meds because he really cannot wait a second longer.

Personally, I don't think House was addicted to anything before the infarction. But then, a large portion of this ep falls under the "Beware of the Unreliable Narrator" category, so...

...God, I love this show. LOVE.

[fyrdrakken]

Loving the icon. (And several weeks behind on getting around to making the two I want to make.)

[serrico.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :)

[isagel.livejournal.com]

Wilson appeared for about five seconds in the volleyball player's story, looking into a microscope and telling Cameron something or other wasn't cancer. (I think that's what he said, anyway - the impact of House's own tale was getting too distracting by then for me to keep my focus on the medical details of the other stories.) But he was alone with Cameron in that scene, which is rather odd, because it's rare that Wilson comes in to consult on the main case without it being a group scene, or him alone with *House*. And he was only there for the barest minimum of time, just long enough to give his medical opinion before they cut to another scene.

If I were to ascribe any meaning to Wilson's absence from the stories - and I'd like to, because I think the narrative was strong enough for a detail like that to be significant - I'd say that Wilson was away when the infarction happened, maybe out of town for some reason or other, perhaps on a honeymoon, and that House on some level blames him for not being there. Because if he had been there, there would have been someone else he trusted to influence Stacy's thinking while he was in the coma, and perhaps things would have been different. Or perhaps Wilson was there, but still didn't speak up on House's behalf, leaving the decision up to Stacy, which would result in the same feeling of abandonment. I think the latter alternative is less likely, though, since the friendship is still intact while the relationship with Stacy is not.

And no, I don't think they meant to say that House was an addict before the infarction, only that his behaviour made the doctors think that he was, while in fact it should have told them that his pain needed to be taken seriously.

[fyrdrakken]

Referring back to seperis' thoughts about whether Cuddy really worked on House when he had his infarction or whether she'd hired him later, it occurs to me that if we're going for the symbolic interpretation of Cuddy's "casting" as the doctor tending to House at the time, then it could well be that House was in fact at a completely different hospital at the time and so perhaps hadn't even met Wilson yet. (Then again, I seem to recall hearing in an early ep that he'd been hired eight years ago, and I get the idea that the leg thing happened more recently, so maybe Cuddy did work on House -- or at least take over his treatment after he presumably told all the docs who'd misdiagnosed him to fuck off -- and Wilson was indeed either absent from the hospital at the time or else never came up in the story which was after all a straight account of the symptoms, diagnoses and treatment decisions.)

[tylergrrls.livejournal.com]

The look on her face when he was telling it and she walked in... it seemed to me to be deeper than just "I know this is about you"... it seemed personal. Very personal.

Since by that point, Stacy was "playing" Stacy and House was "playing" House, I don't think it's impossible that Cuddy really did work on him.

Also, if she had, it would explain something a little more about how much shit she puts up with from him. Guilt is a marvelous thing--and it adds a little bit of layer to the constant refrain of "You're just that good"... ;)

-Bree

[fyrdrakken]

After having posted the above comment, I read the discussions linked above and one of them was pretty good about A) pointing out the reasons to believe that House's infarction happened before he was hired and B) noting that since House was playing himself by that point in the story it was very likely that it was indeed Cuddy who took over his case after the initial misdiagnosis and that this was in fact how they met. Plus, I was thinking while watching the ep last night (meaning, well before I ran across the online speculation that Cuddy may have been meant to be a symbolic stand-in for a different doctor) that it had to have been one hell of a recommendation for House's diagnostic abilities that he was thinking better than the doctors handling his case even while in agony.

[suzvoy.livejournal.com]

God, this was good. SO so so good.