House MD Recap Season 5 Episode 4

Birthmarks

As this episode of House MD opens, a woman is in China with an interpreter. She was adopted in a closed adoption and is trying to make contact wit her biological parents. They want nothing to do with her, and tell her that they have no daughter. She goes outside and sees a Buddha, and asks the interpreter how to pray. He says make a wish and lift the Buddha. Then make the wish again and if you can't lift the Buddha, the wish will come true.

As she struggles to lift the Buddha, she keels over and spits up blood.

House is informed that his father has died. They think the patient has SARS - Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, and are taking all sorts of precautions, because the pandemic of Sars has killed hundreds of people worldwide. Doesn't something need to kill more than a few hundred people to create mass hysteria? Apparently not. According to the World Health Organization, Sars has affected a whopping 27 people in the USA and has killed them at an alarming rate of NONE. It's just that contagious.

House is to give a eulogy at his father's funeral. The patient, who I think I will call China Girl in honor of David Bowie, goes into V-Tac and simultaneously House collapses. When House wakes up, he is in the car with Wilson. Wilson says he isn't driving House out of the goodness of his heart. I wonder if House is dreaming this, or if Wilson really is driving him to the funeral. I suspect it is a vision.

They say that China girl is in liver failure. Once again, cancer is suspected of being the problem. House did not have a good relationship with his father. Now House reveals to Wilson that his father is not his biological father. Wilson says House is full of crap. House replies by jamming his cane onto the gas pedal, forcing the car around a police cruiser at a high rate of speed. It yet another of House's tactics to avoid the funeral.

The cop tells Wilson to get out of the car and Handcuffs him. House is on the phone with the team, and he is instructed to get out of the car as well. The cop informs Wilson that there is a warrant for his arrest in Louisiana. For real, or mistaken identity, or just a weird twist in House's vision? I still don't know.

Wilson's warrant is for assault. He threw a bottle through a mirror. House bailed him out. In fact, that's how they met. Wilson and House are free to go, and the cop says, "stop acting like such an ingrate and go pay your respects to your father." Did the funeral get mentioned in conversation, or is this a tip that it is not really happening? Something could have been said and I missed it, but I think this is indicating that House is unconscious and dreaming this.

The patient has brown urine. They haven't focused much on the patient at all. House is consulting with the team about a cyst. Thirteen suggests injecting the cyst with bubbles to see where the bubbles go to see if the cyst is causing her problems. House asked Thirteen if Bubbles was her new stripper name.

House arrives at the funeral. His mother is happy to see him. House asks how she could delay the funeral. Probably another indicator that it is a vision and not real. Wilson is saying something about how House replaced his father in his own head with James Bond. It must be all inside House's head. That conversation made no sense in any other context. House starts describing his father and it sounds more like he is describing himself. He punished failure, he would not admit any point of view other than his own. he treated subordinates poorly. House breaks down momentarily, stops speaking, and kisses his father on the forehead, but he took something.

Wilson and House begin arguing about Amber. He tells Wilson he is afraid of death so he pushes away the one thing that matters to him most (meaning House). Wilson throws a bottle through the stained glass window enraged by House badgering him.

House calls to ask the team how the bubble test went. They tell him they think she has an Atrial Myxoma. House then calls the interpreter to ask about China Girl's parents. The itnerpreter tells House that he doesn't think they were really her parents. The father seemed shocked, and the mother seemed confused. She was born after China imposed the one child policy. Wilson thinks maybe she was an attempted abortion that survived. Maybe they gave her something toxic.

House is back in the hospital and tells them that her parents tried to kill her. House says if Taub turns on the MRI it will kill her. She has a pin in her brain.

When China Girl lifted teh Buddha a second time, a high power magnet turns on. That is what makes it so you can't lift the Buddha on the second wish. That moved the pin in her brain, which is what caused the problem. The pin has been pushing on her brain's addiction center.

House shows Wilson that he has a DNA test that proves that his father was not his biological father. Wilson is astounded that at the age of 12 House figured out his father was not biologically his father. Wilson tells House that he is coming back to the hospital, and that House was right. He says that the trip was the most fun he has had since Amber died.

I guess that wasn't a vision. It really happened. Interesting.

Next week, Thirteen is doing drugs and having sex with strangers. House tells her she's fired.

House MD Season 4 Episode 7 Recap Rerun

Ugly

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Why is House showing reruns already?

This was a pretty interesting episode of House MD, where they sort of spoofed the program by having a "reality show" being filmed during the episode. Some quips such as House saying that they are walking because it gives the illusion that the story is moving forward were really funny.

Again, I had the Girl Scouts arrangement that caused me to miss a significant portion of the show. The camera crew is there for a kid with a screwed up face, and Cuddy informs House that the show is funding the treatment of the kid. Throughout the episode, House continually attempts to ditch the camera crew. Such as when he takes the team into the MRI room. He tells Cuddy that in front of cameras, people act, and sometimes they just act weird.

House tells the kid, who looks like the elephant man that if he was in the wild, his parents would have eaten him, after saying, "wow1 You're really ugly." Elephant man says, "I have a deformity," and House replies, "I know. That's what makes you ugly." House says that having surgery "will only change your face, it won't change what your face made you."

Taub reveals that he had an affair with a nurse after House badgers him on camera, revealing a lot of potentially embarrassing information.

They think elephant man is going to be okay to get plastic surgery, but then House notices something and demands that they cancel the surgery. He says that something is wrong with his diagnosis. Elephant man's finger won't move.

Taub accuses House. He says "you're not normal, so you don't want other people to be normal either." They pull the wires out of elephant man, and nothing changes. He says he's fine. Elephant man and his dad seem very happy that he can have the surgery, but House seems to believe that there is still something wrong and the surgery should not still go forward.

Thirteen seems to agree that if House thinks something is wrong, then something will go wrong during the operation. Then Thirteen notices something about the pictures of elephant man. She asks how long ago they were taken, and Chase tells her they were taken 3 weeks ago. She bursts in on House and Wilson and tells him that it's Lyme disease. As they are shaving elephant man's head, you can see that there is a rash on his head, which seems to confirm to House that Thirteen was right.

House is deciding who he will keep on board and who he will fire. First is Taub. He keeps him "because he's interesting. Then he fires some attractive woman, who's name I missed. Then he asks her out. House and Cuddy review the tape of the reality show. It seems to depict Him as a brilliant doctor and savior. Elephant man thanks Dr. House, now that he is much more normal looking. House quips that he doesn't know if he can ever trust Michael Moore movies ever again. Lol.

Next week on House in an actual NEW episode, Wilson takes House on a road trip to go to his father's funeral.

House MD Season 5 Episode 3 Recap

Adverse Events

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I unfortunately missed a huge chunk of this week's episode of House MD due to picking my daughter up from Girl Scouts, and this may be a bi-weekly thing. Which is going to suck.

The episode starts with a painter that is painting a very attractive nude woman. Her husband is there too. The painter finishes and an argument ensues. The husband is demanding a refund of his money, and the painter insists his work is his best ever. The husband punches him out and says the check better be in the mail. The painter's wife or girlfriend comes down to see what is going on and looks at the portrait and asks WTF?



Finally, we get to see the picture and it looks like Salvadore Dali meets Pablo Picasso. The face is all distorted, but the painter doesn't even realize that it looks wrong, because something is wrong with him.



Meanwhile, Cuddy tells House the hospital is NOT paying for the PI he has hired. "Information saves lives and that saves money," he tells her. "No, it costs money and I'm trying to make sure some is left over."

PI tells Cuddy nice shoes. She pauses and says "Uh, thanks... I guess." He tells House it's less creepy to compliment the shoes, and House replies that it's far more gay too.

House quickly figures out that the painter has not been selling paintings so there must be some other way he is making money. He goes to tell him he has a huge tumor in his head and he's going to have to take Picasso's head off to remove the tumor. Picasso is not impressed, so House says that the lack of terror is a clear indicator that he knows what is wrong. He pries to find out that Picasso has been taking 3 different drug trials. The drugs are about out of his system and that's why it's getting better.

Of course, things get worse. And this is the chunk that I missed.

Skipping ahead, they're continuing to run tests on Picasso Dali. It's still not making sense, the drugs are out of his system, but he's reacting like they are in his system. Taub thinks it might be a toxin in the paint he has been using. Taub goes to see Picasso, and says he needs to know about the paintings he has sold, wink wink nudge nudge.

Picasso's girlfriend wonders why this needs to be a private discussion, and Picasso comes clean about not ever selling the paintings.

Ultimately, House figures out that one of the antacids Picasso was testing led to some materials forming a "hairball" in his stomach. Some pills he took got caught in it, and then got released later. So, massive amounts of drugs he has taken were suddenly flooding his system. They remove the "hairball" and everything is all better.

Tune in next week for a better recap of House MD.

House MD Season 5 Episode 2 Recap

Not Cancer

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The episode of House MD opens differently than most. We see one person after another collapses dead or dying. A tennis player, a construction worker, a kick boxer, and a tuba player. Then we see a math teacher instructing students. Thirteen busts in the classroom and declares that the lesson is over. She asks the teacher if she had a corneal transplant 5 years ago, and the teacher says yes.

Thirteen informs her that everyone who had that transplant is either dead or dying. However, each person died from a different organ failure. A pancreas, a heart, the tuba player's lungs. They all have one commonality and that is the corneal transplant, but what disease affects so many different organs?

House consults with his team, and suggests it's cancer. It's not cancer, the team tells him. Each disease the team suggests, House swats right down and continues to insist it is cancer. But cancer does not jump from one organ to another, and there are no signs of cancer, so what could it be?

Meanwhile, there is a dorky looking guy by the coffee machine. It turns out after a little back and forth that he is actually a private investigator hired by House to stalk Wilson. He also found out some information about the patients.

The team asks, does that mean that we don't have to break into people's houses anymore, to which House replies, Don't be silly. Why do you think you spent all those years in medical school? You don't think I would take that away from you, do you?

House just can't seem to put the puzzle together. Meanwhile, he's trying to find out the dirt on Wilson. He's had Cameron over, Cuddy over, Foreman over, but has never even mentioned House. The investigator says that is what happens when you either don't care about someone, or wish that you didn't. While this is happening, the PI is following an attractive woman, who keeps changing her direction on the sidewalk. She finally looks at him and says, are you following me. He fesses up, and House chastises him for his poor ability to lie. Then the PI says, "you're very pretty." And she says, "Even more uncomfortable."

House insists that the patient has cancer, and puts her on chemotherapy. Later, he walks in and she is throwing up. Foreman says that is from the chemo, and that she is getting better. House was right. It was cancer, but House replies, "I was wrong. It's not cancer." He needs to talk to Wilson to get his thinking process going.

He offers to pay Wilson $400 to consult with him. He tells Wilson he needs him to help him have an epiphany. Wilson tells him he is moving on with his life, and without House. He tells House, Next time you knock on my door, I'm not answering. House is talking with the PI again, and he says something about nothing is nothing, to which House responds that anything is anything. He finally has the answer.

He tells Cuddy that it is stem cells. Stem cells can become anything, and in one patient they became pancreas, in another, heart cells, and in the other lung cells, and in the math teacher, brain cells, but the cells in each case didn't do their job correctly. Thus they acted as obstructions, and when push came to shove, they failed.

He wants to open her brain and test it, but Cuddy says no, even placing security outside the patient's room to keep him out.He gets the PI to switch the chemo with saline, and she starts to crash. Chase is then performing brain surgery on her, and House is letting him know that the IV was swapped. Chase says they should stop the procedure, but House says, you already finished the incredibly risky portion of the procedure, put on the neural net. He tells the PI that the neural net will detect if something is blocking the brain function.

It turns out that something is wrong with her brain, and the doctors remove the bad portion of the brain. Post op House tells the patient that the world was not as ugly as she thought. Her brain didn't interpret the signals properly, but now they will. She's astonished by what she sees.

Meanwhile, House asks the PI if he can put him on retainer.

The PI is an interesting character. I like the addition to the cast. I wonder how long he will remain a part of the show.

House Season Premiere Fall 2008 Recap

Dying Changes Everything

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In the season 4 finale of House MD, Wilson's girlfriend Amber dies. She was in a bus accident, but it was actually a reaction to flu medicine that kills her, not the bus accident.

Amber's death is a strong theme in the premiere episode of season 5 of House MD. Wilson continues to grieve her loss, and he is resigning from the hospital. The relationship between Wilson and House has deteriorated. House thinks Wilson is an idiot for wanting to leave, and tries several times to persuade him to stay. He even tries to get Cuddy and some others to convince Wilson that leaving is not the right thing to do.

In fact, House goes to such an extreme to try and keep Wilson from resigning, that he actually tells Wilson that he is not going to attend to his patient until Wilson changes his mind. We see the patient this week freaking out, thinking that ants, or some sort of insect is crawling all over her body. The patient is not even the central focus of the episode that much, except to the extent she interacts with Olivia Wilde.

Thirteen debates with the patient over the role of women in the workplace. The patient is happy to play the role of subservient, and says, "the world needs lackeys. I'm okay with that." Thirteen is also struggling with accepting her Huntington's disease.

After running through the usual process of misdiagnoses, and life threatening situations, the team finally comes to the conclusion that the patient has cancer and puts her on chemotherapy. Thirteen is feeling pretty good about her ability to save a life without the help of House, only to have House walk in and tell them to stop the chemo. He diagnoses her with leprosy, and all is well, but Thirteen is a little unhappy to realize that she was wrong and House was right. And that the patient is returning to her job as a lackey.

Thirteen can't understand how she can go back to the job that almost killed her. Doesn't almost dying change anything? No. House says "Almost dying changes nothing. Dying changes everything."

House confronts Wilson one more time, and says he's sorry about Amber. He asks if he and Wilson are okay with each other, and Wilson says, no we're not okay. He tells House that he has enabled House to just stomp all over people for years, and he's not going to do it anymore. He finishes by saying that he and House are not friends anymore, and wonders if they ever really were.

Next week on House MD, House stalks Wilson.

House MD Season 4 on DVD

The fourth season of House MD will be released on August 19, 2008. Although it isn't quite out yet, it is still available to be preordered on Amazon. I got my copy reserved. Did you get yours?

Recap: Season 4 Episode 16

Wilson's Heart: Season Finale

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We had more dream sequences tonight. More of the wierdness that prevailed in the first half of the season finale.

The crux of the episode revolved around trying to find out what was wrong with Amber, Wilson's girlfriend. In the bus accident, she had some serious damage to her kidneys. Then she had heart problems, which resulted in her going in to V-tach.

Dr. House finally agreed to let them prod around in his brain to activate the hypothalmus, and help him remember everything that happened. We see him go back to the bar that Amber went to pick him up from. He orders himself a drink, and a Cosmopolitan for her, and orders her to drink. "Drink yours, or I'll drink them both," he demands.

He notes that she sneezed, and it seems like it is just a cold. Nothing serious, so at this point, it seems to be no help.

He tries to order another round, but Amber will have none of it. She prods him out the door, but she has to run back in, because good old Dr. House didn't pay the tab. He gets on the fateful bus. He thinks he ditched Amber, but she presents his cane to him and tells him that he forgot something.

She sits on the bus, and sneezes again. She asks for a tissue, and House mentions that he has a sleeve. Two of them, in fact. He finally notices she's taking some kind of pills, and he realizes that they were the source of the problem. She has some kind of poisoning, that I wasn't clear what the technical name was.

Wilson says they can just put her on dialysis and everything will be fine, but House points out that this poisoning binds with the proteins. She's doomed.

Wilson softly whispers to Amber what happened to her. She says, "the flu pills. I'm dead." Wilson says I love you and she loves him too.

Skip ahead to the end. Wilson is laying there in the hospital bed with Amber. She's ready to die. He wants a few minutes more, but she says, we will always want just a few minutes more. He asks why she isn't angry, and she says she doesn't want that to be the last thing she feels. Wilson kisses her, and turns off the machines. He's torn in anguish.

House is sitting on a bus with Amber. Amber is dead. He asks if he's dead too. She says no. They talk a bit. House says that there's no pain there. He doesn't want to go back. Too bad. It's not his time yet.

Cuddy is curled up on the chair next to House. She is asking him to blink if he understands her. She breathes a sigh of relief, and curls back up on the chair. Wilson pops in, sees that House is OK and heads home.

He sees a note on the empty bed that says, "sorry I'm not here. I went to pick up House." Wilson cries himself to sleep. Grieving.

Season 4 Episode 15

House's Head

I'm all for weird episodes, but this one is still a little hard to understand for me at this point. It's looking like Wilson's girlfriend was on the bus that Dr. House was on. And now Amber is dying.

The previews from next week show Wilson's girlfriend in the hospital bed, tubes and everything. Hmm. More later.

This was part one of the season 4 finale. I hate when they have the old "to be continued
crap. It's bad enough that television is 2/3 commercials, and only 1/3 program. Then they have to screw you and make you wait for the conclusion.

Anyway, the whole episode was inside House's head, where he was trying to figure out what happened in the bus accident. Overall, neat, but a little too Twilight Zone for House MD.

Old Template Lost

I don't know how it happened, but the old stylesheet is gone. Gone gone gone. What sucks the most is the loss of the old banner. It was kickass, and I don't think I have a copy on my hard drive, because it was uploaded by someone else. Is there a way to recover this? Even the wayback machine doesn't help. It's all just gone.