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.