Well this was an interesting one! Oh, and I did watch the clock and there was only 15 minutes worth of commercials - yay! My THEORY is that House is less expensive to film than Heroes, but who knows!
Show starts with a 20 year old funeral home cosmetician named Irene. Irene speaks with an accent (I think it’s polish) and is cutting someone’s hair. She suddenly sees a dead guy behind her who starts to strangle her. Her boss walks in and sees her on the floor convulsing.
The team is in the lecture hall when the phone on the desk starts to ring. It gets answered and the intern puts it on speakphone.
House: Good morning Angels.
House informs them that they have a new patient - but there’s no file. His “Bosley”, who was supposed to delivery the file, is “ridiculously old guy”, also named Henry. Henry arrives and gives the symptoms of the new patient. House sends the “minority crew” to check the funeral home and her house while “all the white guys” are sent to give the patient some tests.
Cameron is in House’s office - she’s the one who gave him the patient. She asks him to lay off Cole and he refuses. She says that Cole’s gonna kick his ass - House pulls 100 bucks out and bets her that he won’t.
The white crew sets Irene up for a CAT scan. Her mother is there with her, soothing her through the procedure. The results of the CAT scan are clean and the crew that visited her home found nothing but organic food. Henry says that he’d found something interesting in the records - that there was a patient who died from symptoms of mad cow disease a few years ago, and that mad cow disease can be transmitted through brain matter. House tells them to go and get a brain sample from the dead guy.
Cole: I can’t. I have to be home by 6.
Turns out that Cole is a single dad! Taub asks where the mother is and Cole says that he doesn’t know.
Foreman is at a hospital for a job interview. Things seem promising, until the interviewer asks Foreman if he was wrong with the patient he was fired over, and Foreman doesn’t answer.
Interviewer: Looks like you didn’t get away from house soon enough.
Amber high-tails it to the ER where she asks Cuddy if she can do extra clinic duty (someone’s trying to get out of going to the cemetary). Cuddy tells Amber to do whatever House asks her to do, and that she doesn’t want to KNOW what House wants her to do.
The crew is at the cemetary digging - Taub hasn’t done any work at all. Amber shows up with coffee and doughnuts and the crew gets their brain tissue. Cuddy finds House and says that there’s dirt all over the floor in the doctors lounge.
Dr. Cuddy: The doctor’s lounge is covered in mud.
House: Thirteen and Cut-Throat Bitch were having a disagreement, and the cafeteria was out of jell-o.
House heads to the lab and discovers that there is no Mad Cow disease and we’re back to square 1. They go to give her more tests and she says that she wants to go home. Her mother is there and tells her not to drive, but Irene says that her mother can drive her. At this point the doctors notice that she’s talking to someone that DOESN’T EXIST.
More tests occur during which Irene refuses to admit that her mother died when she was 4. The doctors believe that it might be a hereditary problem.
Cuddy meets Foreman at a restaurant and offers him a job “controlling House” - he refuses.
Back to the patient - Henry suggests that they ask the mother why she’s dead, and House finds it an intriguing idea. He goes into the room with 13 and Irene says that there is a guy standing behind House. She calls him “Walter” and House leaves looking shocked. He walks into Wilson’s office and lies down on the couch. He explains that he didn’t have a “Grampa Walt” and that he’s trying to make the patient think that he believes her so that he can talk with the “dead mother”. He gets the symptoms from the dead mother (which include falling down, being tired and shivering) and tells his crew that it’s Parkinsons.
Cameron tells Cole that he has to stand up to House if he wants his job. Meanwhile House has been trying to irritate him the entire episode.
House: Big Love, have I irritated you in the last half hour?
Cole: No.
House: Check your e-mail.
Foreman is up for another job, but once again gets tossed over - this time because the interviewer has no balls.
Taub and Henry start arguing again and 13 and Amber take Irene into the eye lab to test for ocular problems. During which she starts throwing up blood. Chase takes her into surgery and they discover that her spleen is shot and her liver is dying. They take her for more tests and Cole notices that she’s got a cross on. He starts to whisper words from the bible to her and she tries to cop a feel, and not of Cole’s stethascope! They tell House that they weren’t able to get the test done because of what happened.
House: And you couldn’t let her get to second base to finish the test?
Kutner: Actually I think that’s third.
House starts going after Cole again and Cole slugs him! WOAH! Amber suddenly stands up and says that she knows what Irene has! Ergot poisioning - it’s when untreated rye ferments, it causes a hallucinogenic and explains all the symptoms. They tell Irene and she starts to get sad, realizing that she won’t see her mother again.
House arrives in the lecture hall with flowers (i.e. the Bachelor) and chooses everyone except - HENRY!
House: We’ve had some giggles
Henry says that he knows he’s gone because he thinks like House.
Henry: And you don’t need someone that thinks just like you.
House: That’s exactly what I was thinking.
Foreman walks into Cuddy’s office and asks for a raise and a personal assistant to come back.
Cuddy: That’s very reasonable. But I’m not going to give it to you. You’re not here because you rethought things, you’re here because you’re blackballed. You’re House Lite now. The only administrator that will touch you is the one that hired the original.
She agrees to hire him back at his original salary and he says he can start Monday.
OH NO!! Henry’s gone!! I’m so sad!
What did you think of the episode and the illness?
House, Season 4
