Watching House

We open with a couple eating dinner and the man being very opinionated. A couple at the other table is disagreeing with him and the first man confronts them. The disagreeing man swore that he didn’t throw a roll (he did) and that he wasn’t doing anything, even though he clearly was. The man who was disagreeing suddenly has blood coming from his eye and goes down.

House is in bed (yummy – oops – sorry – hormones overreacted there) and slowly waking up. He looks around as if to see someone but no one is there. In his robe he checks the apartment but no one is there either. There’s a red mark on his cheek and his lips from lipstick, and a tube of lipstick on the counter in the bathroom. Cuddy’s?

Taub’s consulting with Cameron in the ER and he doesn’t think the bloody tear patient is worthy of House. He asks Cameron about what he should wear to the wedding and she say that there’s been a “glitch” with the wedding, and that House will be interested in the case. He had surgery to help correct a seizure issue and now he’s having different problems.

Taub goes to the POtW and he tells Taub that he’ll go grocery shopping and wind up with all sorts of stuff in his cart that he didn’t put there – stuff that he hates. And that his left hand hates him, and as he says that his left arm tries to take off the blood pressure cuff.

Taub: Yeah, I think House will be interested.

House walks into the office humming and in a VERY good mood. Taub gives him the case.

Taub: Alien hand syndrome.
House: Set off by a stroke? Or was there a pony in the back yard?

They’re discussing the right and left brain and House is saying that the right brain is cheesy and the left brain is the important one – Taub and Foreman, however, disagree and say that it’s just as important as the left brain.

And in walks Cuddy! Hello Cuddy! House wants to say hello to Cuddy too.

House: Good morning sunshine. We’ve got a brand new toy – wanna play?

The rest beneath the cut!
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Well well well, this one looks like it’s going to be interesting, doesn’t it?! I can’t stop looking at the picture of Carl Reiner and thinking “My name is Lyman Zerga”.

House and the team are intrigued by Scott (Ashton Holmes), a man whose left brain and right brain operate independently, leaving him with two distinct personalities and no control over some of his actions. As the two sides of Scott’s brain struggle for dominance, his warring personalities make it increasingly difficult for the team to figure out what is causing the unique problem. The team is forced to use some unusual methods to get him to cooperate with their necessary testing. Meanwhile, when House refuses to make an appearance in the clinic, Cuddy takes an unconventional approach to force House to make up the time with a very particular patient (guest star Carl Reiner).

We start off with a teen who is wrestling and he’s deaf, as he’s talking with a female friend using sign language. His mother shows a shirt that says “deaf pride” and he signs “you’re not deaf” and she signs back “I’m proud of you – that’s close enough”. He starts wrestling and suddenly she screams and grabs his ears, walking away from the match and falling to his knees.

House wakes up in his bed to the voice of Amber. House says that he’s hallucinating because he’s got insomnia, while Amber wonders if she’s there because Kutner’s suicide made him remember how guilty he felt about Amber. House says that a decent nights sleep will cure her – and then the beeper goes off.

Amber: Guess I’ll be around a few more hours.

The ducklings approach House with the POtW and how he has started hearing banging noises. Meanwhile Amber shows up and makes a few suggestions, beginning to write on the white board. She realizes, however, that she can’t write on the board.

Amber: Damn imaginary pen.

House advises that they see if the POtW has a seizure, even though Amber reminds him that no one mentioned seeing any seizures during the meet.

House heads to Wilson’s office and asks for sleeping pills. Cameron is there with Wilson looking at a file. Amber, however, is also there and wonders why Wilson and Cameron closed the file and why Wilson is willing to give House the sleeping pills w/o bothering him.

House, however, manages to grab the file and finds a bunch of bachelor stuff in there. House’s best man doesn’t get there until the day before the wedding, so she asked Wilson to help plan the bachelor party. House, however, has other ideas.

House: There are two things I do well. Bachelor parties rank at the top.

The rest of the recap is below!
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There is so much good stuff on TV during this time of year! All of the great shows are gearing up for their season finales, and all of the new ones are teasing about what is going! There is lots of stuff happening over on the island of Lost, and we even had the final finale of ER. How about House?

Let’s see, we’ve got Foreman watching on while Thirteen kisses a girl (or it looks like they’re going to kiss, anyway), House drunk - this time at work, and Wilson doing shots off of a woman’s breasts?! What’s not to love?!

Screen shots and video preview below!

The case of a deaf 14 year old boy, Seth (Ryan Lane), who collapses in the middle of a wrestling match after ‘hearing’ explosions is brought to Princeton-Plainsboro, and the team faces an ethical dilemma when Seth’s mother (Clare Carey) decides to forego cochlear implants. Meanwhile, House suffers from lack of sleep, which starts to play tricks on his mind. However, House finds it is more of a help than a hindrance and Cuddy decides to pay him a visit.

There are five protesters who have chained themselves to the wheels of a huge machine. They’re protesting the coal miners digging out coal for man to use. Suddenly one of the women goes limp and the trooper tells the man that the woman has no pulse. He unchains her only to find out that she passed out because she was dehydrated. He says “we’ll be back”, but when he tries to get up he becomes disoriented and can’t stand up.

Cameron goes to see Chase and says that she has to postpone their trip so that she can pass off a case to House. She owed the doctor who has the case a favor and tells Chase that she’s got to make sure that House really takes the case and that he doesn’t throw it in the trash, but that once he’s on the case and she knows it for certain, they’ll head out on their trip.

House, however, remarks that she’s trying to step into Kutner’s shoes. She says that she’s not shoe shopping. Thirteen thinks that his illness has something to do with the fact that he’s a nutcase and always out protesting at toxic waist dumps.

Foreman: You think the guys a nutcase because he cares about the environment?
Taub: He’s a single guy in his twenties, he cares about getting his hybrid waxed by girls who care about the environment.
Foreman: See? Not a nutcase.

The rest of the recap can be found below!
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On Monday those fans of Cameron and House are going to be extremely happy, as it looks like our intrepid ER physician and our favorite cranky doc are going to be getting some great scenes together! The next episode is entitled Saviors.

Staff at Princeton-Plainsboro, particularly House and the team, try to deal with the recent tragedy while Cameron presents House with the case of an environmentalist who collapsed in the middle of a protest.

Everyone is wondering why Kutner died on House last night. Everyone knew that the show needed something drastic in order to bring the show to the attention of the world again, and we all knew that one of the main characters was going to die, but why was it Kutner?

I might have the answer to that, thanks to a little internet-digger of a best friend (thanks Danni!)

In an interview with the Huffington Post, it’s revealed that Kal Penn is leaves House so that he can work in the White House!

I understand it was your decision to leave House. True?

KAL PENN: Yes. I was incredibly honored a couple of months ago to get the opportunity to go work in the White House. I got to know the President and some of the staff during the campaign and had expressed interest in working there, so I’m going to be the associate director in the White House office of public liaison. They do outreach with the American public and with different organizations. They’re basically the front door of the White House. They take out all of the red tape that falls between the general public and the White House. It’s similar to what I was doing on the campaign.

Safe to say you’re taking a huge pay cut?

PENN: Oh, yeah. There’s not a lot of financial reward in these jobs. But, obviously, the opportunity to serve in a capacity like this is an incredible honor.

How long has this been in the works?

PENN: I’ve been thinking about [moving into politics] for a while. I love what I do as an actor. I couldn’t love it more. But probably from the time I was a kid, I really enjoyed that balance between the arts and public service. I went to a performing arts high school, but I still took a bunch of those dorky political science classes. It’s probably because of the value system my grandparents instilled in me. They marched with Gandhi in the Indian independence movement, and that was always in the back of my head. So the past couple of years I thought about it a little more. And in ‘06 I started this international studies program at Stanford, where they actually let you do most of the course work online. So it was something I could do while I was acting. And I thought this might be the right time to go off and do something else.

Here’s a video of Kal Penn campaigning for President Barack Obama:

Family is walking away from a man who looks like he’s dying (It’s Meatloaf – all of a sudden ‘I would do anything for love’ is ringing in my head.) He tells his wife that he was selfish and that he never gave her the trips and things that she wanted. He says that he’s ready and looks like he’s dying, but suddenly the wife can’t breathe and starts choking. He gathers the strength and yells for a nurse to help his wife.

House gets the chart and wonders where Kutner and 13 are – Taub tells him that Thirteen is busy with a patient and that Kutner’s dog is sick and that he’ll be in by lunch. House wonders if Taub is covering for Kutner. We find out that the POtW’s husband (herefore called Meatloaf) is dying of lung cancer. The patient wants to be released to go back to her husband, Eddie. Taub says that he has an idea.

He wheels Meatloaf into his wife’s room and tells the wife that now they can focus on making her better.

House is back on clinic duty! In front of him is a little girl who is dressed up in pageant wear. The mother is worried about the girl – she’s staring into space and isn’t paying attention.

House: Well I can cure her, but it’s going to cost you $3.25. Well I’m not going to give you my coffee for free. (he hands the cup to the little girl). Think if it as sober juice.
The Mother: She’s drunk?

The daughter had been sneaking into the bathroom and using her mother’s mouthwash.

House: Did you spit it out?
Little Girl: Mommy doesn’t. (HA!)

Foreman tells House that the patient’s treatment worked and that she can be released. House notices that Kutner still isn’t there and asks the crew to find out what or who he’s doing and to get him to work. As House leaves the crew gets beeped about their patient, Charlotte (POtW). She’s unable to breathe again. Taub goes into her room and Meatloaf is suddenly looking a heck of a lot stronger, sitting up on his own.

Foreman and Thirteen go to Kutner’s apartment and Thirteen has a key that she opens the door with. They start wandering around and Thirteen spies Kutner laying on the floor in his bedroom, a gun nearby! Foreman calls 911 and says that there is a gunshot wound to the left temple. A huge pool of blood is on the floor and the two start doing CPR (behind a wall – we can only see his legs). Thirteen sits back, blood on her face and all over her from the pool of blood.

Thirteen: He’s cold. Eric….

Oh My God! You think that’s something, you haven’t seen anything yet - the rest of the recap below!

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The show starts with us looking through another man’s eyes. We can hear other people talking, including someone who says “great heart for transplant”. House, however, stands up for the patient and says that it’s breaking ethical laws for the doctor to take the organs out of a guy who is still alive.

We don’t see House, but we do see his shirt and some blood. The doctor says that House is there because he crashed his motorcycle, not because he’d ordered a consult. House points out brain waves on the monitor but the doctors says that they’re minimal – even though the guy is screaming in his head that he’s okay.

As the doctor walks off, House bends over the patient.

“I also know about Locked In Syndrome. Blink if you can hear me.” The guy blinks (we see through his eyes still. “Oh this is gonna be fun.” House says.

House brings the doctor back and shows him what’s going on. The doctor says that the patient needs to accept what has happened, while House says that the accident (which apparently was caused when he rode his bike into a car door) may have been caused by his problem, which could be a fixable condition.

Unfortunately House isn’t a teaching doctor in the hospital so the doc doesn’t want to listen to him. So House calls his team in.

House: If you can’t bring Mohammed to the mountain, bring the mountain to Mohammed. Meet my team – hot, dark, and darker.

Thirteen thinks that maybe there is a brain tumor, and House tells them to go find it. Kutner finds MRI goggles which are supposed to “put you into a relaxing place” (like a virtual world). They put them on the POtW and he finds House sitting next to him on a beautiful beach. He says that he thinks that his wife was right (she visited him briefly at the hospital) and that House was sent there to make him get better. House replies “I think so”.

When he wakes up again House comes walking into his bedroom late at night and shows him an MRI with a strange spot in his brain. The “real” doc thinks that it’s an infection. House thinks that it’s cancer. So House wants the viral drugs that they’re giving him to “almost kill him” so that the doctor would let them do whatever he needs to do. Sure enough, he goes into a seizure.

When he comes to House is talking to the doctor and the wife and she asks the POtW if he wants House to treat him. He blinks once. House look at the other doc.

House: Can you send up a couple of bell boys?

The POtW is now at Princeton Plainsboro. Cuddy is worried about House and touches his scrapes. She asks House what he was doing so far north, and he replies.

House: Antiquing. I got you a lace Victorian corset. Come by later and I’ll tie you up.

The POtW says that if Cuddy turns back around after that conversation, she’s into him. She, of course, turns around.

Taub shows up and House tells him that he accepted his resignation, even though Taub now wants to be back. House looks at the POtW and says:

House: Save the cheerleader, save your world. (nice Heroes dig there, writers)

Wilson catches up with House and wonders exactly what Cuddy wondered. He says that House crashed 10 miles away from a pain clinic. House says that he was there to tell the ex-ex-ex wives that Wilson is getting extra money from the lecture circuit so that they can adjust their alimony.

Wilson: You wouldn’t do that.
House: Yeah, I wouldn’t do that (sarcastically).

Kutner and Taub are with the patient and Kutner says that they need to entertain him so that his brain doesn’t atrophy. Taub and Kutner notice something and rush off. House comes back and it’s decided that he needs to undergo an operation to check the lesion on his brainstem.

His wife and children come in for a few minutes – both adorable and heartbreaking – and Thirteen makes them leave because he was crying.

Chase counts down to put him to sleep for the surgery and he’s suddenly back on the beach with his children. And House. He asks House if he’s going to be all right still. House says that he doesn’t know.

He wakes up again and needs to answer some yes and no questions. He tries to answer some questions but by the third one can’t blink anymore.

Now we actually see the patient for the first time. He’s laying still, in a coma-like state, without blinking. House isn’t sure what caused the problem now, as he can’t tell why the patient is suddenly unable to see.

House isn’t sure what they can do when Taub has an idea. We see him in the patient’s room with a machine on the patient’s head – a brain interface machine. When he thinks “up” enough, the machine will move the computer arrow up. So Taub waits around for the arrow to go up.

Wilson goes into House’s office again and he admits that he was at a correctional facility where Foreman’s brother is being held.

We’re back with Taub again and he talks to the POtW about how he feels. Suddenly the arrow moves up. His wife comes back in and is crying, and asks if he’s in there. The arrow moves up.

House and the crew come to diagnose him and he’s able to answer up for yes and down for no. The wife says that he went to St. Louis, but he says “no”.

House is questioning the POtW and is trying to figure out if he was sleeping with someone else while he wasn’t in St. Louis. He keeps saying “no” about not sleeping around on his wife. He was within just a few miles of his house. Suddenly we see House and the POtW doing yes or no questions and they finally figure out that he was not in St. Louis but was within 2 miles away from their house at a friend’s house. They narrow it down to Dave, his friend’s, house.

Kutner and Taub check out the friend’s house and find that he’s been working on his resume and trying to find a new job. He owns his own business but it wasn’t going good and he was looking for more work. Kutner finds that he temped a few times as a janitor, so they check the factory, which is where they make rechargeable batteries. Taub thinks that heavy metal poisoning explains everything from the dirt found on the floor.

Taub explains that it’ll take about a day for the medicine to work. Now all of the doctors/wife are taking turns talking to him while he’s waiting for the meds to kick in. He keeps saying that his eyes are killing him.

Now we’re back to House. He’s in his office and Taub comes in and tells him that he wants to keep his job. Taub tells House that he realizes that what they do in House’s office terrifies him, but that overcoming that is the only way that it can matter. House says that Kutner found the factory and came up with the diagnosis, so maybe Taub doesn’t matter.

We’re back in the patient’s eyes and Dr. Hadley says that she’s going to shut his eyes to let him get some sleep. But she notices that there is a problem in his eye and puts some stingy drops in it. There is a problem in his eye which means that it’s not heavy metal poisoning.

Back to House and Cameron comes into his office to fix his dressing on his arm. She gives House some vicodin and asks him to take 2 now, 2 later (because she’s going to scrub road rash out of his arm) and he swallows all 4 at once. She suggests that he does an LP to try to solve the case.

House: Why did I fire you again?
Cameron: You didn’t. I quit.

Wilson corners House with proof that he wasn’t visiting Foreman’s brother. House says that the reason he was visiting upstate was because he was checking out the one who Wilson was dating – the woman who is taking care of Wilson’s brother. He somehow found out even though Wilson has only been dating her a few times.

Foreman is explaining the LP procedure when the patient goes into a cardiac arrest. He’s back on the beach with House and says that there is no God, because he doesn’t know what’s wrong with him.

POtW: Am I dead?
House: Not yet. But you’re about to be.

And his eyes close.

They shock him back into rhythm and he says inside that they should let him go. That he’s been there for three days and that he can’t do anything for his wife or kids. House notices that he’s trying to talk through the machine. They isolate that his right foot is itching, which House says means his liver is failing.

House believes that the liver was dying which caused the locked in syndrome. They are getting ready to do a test and the discussion about the bracelet Foreman bought Thirteen is brought up. He bought her a bracelet and hasn’t seen her wear it, so he assumes that she doesn’t like it. She says that she’d rather have it at home, save in the jewelry box, than getting peed on at work.

The POtW had peed on her accidentally while she was putting the catheter in and she’s got a rash where the bracelet was. Kutner believes that a rat had a disease that somehow got into the patient’s body. They find a paper cut on his finger and the rats in the basement tested positive for the disease.

Kutner treats the patient and asks him to move one finger. He does.

In the locker room Taub claims the credit for the rat pee situation, but House knows that Kutner is the one who solved the case. He also says that the simple fact that Taub lied about the treatment means that he cares enough for a job.

Wilson snags House again and says that he stole House’s phone and redialed the number on the phone, and it was a psychiatrist. He follows House into the patient’s room where House retrieves a recorder from under the patient’s pillow – he’s been spying on his crew!!

Wilson follows him out and says that he thinks House went to a psychiatrist because he wants to change so that he can be with Cuddy. House, however, says that he’s not going back to the psychiatrist because it doesn’t work.

We go back into the “locked in” camera mode, this time out of House’s eyes, and he’s looking at Wilson. Wilson says “You’re going to die alone.”

Apparently we’re due for a rerun next week. Yeah, this is me, sighing. While it’s a great episode (HUDDY KISS!), it’s still not a real, brand new episode.

The next episode, Locked In, will air on March 30th - here’s the preview:

This special episode of ‘House’ is filmed and told predominantly from the perspective of a patient, Lee (guest star Mos Def), a man who awakens in New York after a bicycle accident unable to move or communicate in any way. House, himself injured in a motorcycle mishap, occupies the hospital bed next to Lee and quickly annoys the doctors treating them both by insisting that Lee has Locked-in syndrome. After House gets Lee transferred to Princeton Plainsboro, the team is on the case to try to ΄unlock‘ him. Meanwhile, Wilson suspects House is hiding something when he refuses to divulge why he was in New York.

Okay, here’s the live blogging post! The live blogging will start about 10 minutes before the episode. Anyone who wants to comment directly only has to leave a comment and I’ll see it and allow them to become commenters/panelists.

I can’t wait! I hope you’ll join me live blogging The Softer Side tonight!!

Update: we’re live - if you want to join in on the conversation, just click “watch now” below!

A guy is cleaning up after what looks like was an AA meeting. A knock sounds on the door – it’s a man who looks to be homeless and is looking for food or a coat. The guy finds the man a coat and tells him good night (apparently it was a soup kitchen, not an AA meeting). He goes to his little apartment in the back of the hall and smokes and drinks. He takes off his shirt and we see that he’s a priest (priest, reverend, something with a clerical collar). There is another knock on the door and he answers it again. Everything goes black…dang tv station…it came back after a few seconds and it looks like a crucified man dressed as Jesus was hanging there…hmmm…

House rolls into work and Cuddy asks if he’s doing anything on Friday.

House: Taking a lovely young lady to the philharmonic.
Cuddy: Is that your way of saying you’re having sex with a hooker?
House: Two. Can’t create a harmonic with just one.

Cuddy’s asking because she wants House to go to Rachel’s Jewish baby-naming ceremony. House doesn’t say yes and doesn’t say no. Instead, he goes to the ER and starts browsing charts, where Cameron is working. He pulls a file and says that he’s his next patient.

Cameron: He’s a drunk priest who hallucinated Jesus.

House takes the case. The ducklings start diagnosing and believe that House either wants to screw with the team or with the hallucinating priest. He sends some ducklings to do tests and some to search the home.

He holds Foreman and Thirteen back and tells them that he’s not going to take a real case unless they separate.

Find the rest below the cut!
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We didn’t get an episode this Tuesday, but we will be getting one on Tuesday! This episode is called Unfaithful -

When a priest who runs a homeless shelter sees a bleeding Jesus hovering at his doorstep, he is admitted to the ER. House takes on the case as a distraction for the team while he confronts Foreman and Thirteen about their relationship. The team soon learns the priest had been involved in a molestation scandal that caused him to lose his faith. However, just as they are about to dismiss his case, the patient’s condition takes a drastic turn for the worse, and House grapples with his past and his belief in the “Unfaithful”.

We start with a bunch of people at a cooking lesson (or school – hard to tell which). The assistant suddenly has a hard time breathing and start coughing – her lips are turning blue and she’s diagnosing herself as she’s turning blue. She says that she’s a doctor and needs a doctor before she passes out.

Thirteen and Foreman are in bed together, just waking up. He tells her she drools. We then see Wilson (yay Wilson!) in a kitchen and a green mug that he looks at but doesn’t touch. House walks into the hospital and sees that the elevators are out of service for maintenance, so he takes the stairs, one slow step at a time. The ducklings are showing him the POtW and tell House that she’s got a penumothorax. Thirteen tells House that the elevator was fine when she came up from admitting. Kutner comes in a few minutes late and says that he took the elevators too. He sends Kutner and Thirteen to do an MRI on the patient.

She tells the two that she quit being a doctor (apparently she was trying to cure retinoblastoma) because she realized that she wasn’t truly happy and had never been, so she quit being a doctor to learn how to run a kitchen.

House goes into Cuddy’s office and finds Cuddy watching Rachel on her computer (apparently she’s got a video camera on Rachel). She admits that she’s the one who put the sign on the elevator because she’s not happy at having to be at work just to keep an eye on House.

Cuddy: Congratulations. You have officially dragged me down to your level.

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According to the demographics, the fans are liking the time and day that House moved to.

Fox’s “House” (15.6 million viewers, 5.9 preliminary adults 18-49 rating and 15 share) climbed to its biggest rating this season, followed by a slightly boosted “24” (12.1 million, 4.2/10).

There are, however, a number of fans who aren’t quite so happy. I had a conversation with my best friend, Danielle (the one who got me addicted to House) recently and she wasn’t too happy with the way the show has been going.

We’re getting…bored! What happened to the days of House clinic duty that totally made the show? How about the surgeries that House would crash without being sanitized or he would chime in over the loud speaker? Foreman switching 13s placebo to the real experimental drug at the end-so predictable. Cameron’s weakness to House and backing down-also predictable. Yawn. Wilson-he wants her. We get it because he has a need to want to be wanted and help a woman in need. We also think that Cuddy as long as she has that baby can’t possibly play a major role in the show going on the way she does so the baby has to go or Cuddy has too. Why? Because you can’t always get what you want but you get what you need. My favorite part? The part where Cuddy breakdown and her and the baby finally bond. Very touching but so awkward for her too. Come on! What’s up with the writers? Heads up ass syndrome? Gesh!

I have to agree with Danielle. First of all, I miss the clinic patients! Where are they?! I think he’s had one this entire season, and that just isn’t enough for me. Secondly, from what I’m reading online, very few people actually like Thirteen and Foreman, which means that the two of them together spells ratings disaster - they just don’t like them!

But I agree with Danielle - things are becoming too predictable. One of the things that I loved the most about House was that it was so unpredictable in so many ways, but lately it has been predictable, and this episode House seemed to calm the witty remarks down! Usually I’m having to pause and type constantly during an episode, and watching one takes more than an hour and a half, even with the DVR. This time it took me less than an hour to do the entire thing because the great comments just weren’t there.

What do you guys think? Do you think House is doing well this season, or do you think that it’s just not up to the same standards as every other season was? What could they do that would make it better?!