So, we’re still in the fifth season but we’re already on episode 16. We just found out, after a shocking cardiac arrest with House, that he’s on methadone and actually doesn’t need Vicodin anymore since his leg doesn’t hurt anymore.
Episode 9, “Last Resort,” is now behind us, and I mention this episode on purpose because it’s one of those that ranks relatively low for me. Yes, I can understand the dude with the gun quite well, but just shooting around isn’t a solution, even if there are countries in this world where people live who have a different opinion. Besides, Thirteen suffers too much here. Yes, it bothers me because I simply like Olivia Wilde and her role, but it’s also annoying because she already suffers enough due to her illness. Strangely, this is often observed in series, that there’s always a character who gets a lot of suffering. In Star Trek: Voyager, for example, it’s Harry Kim, or in CSI: New York, it’s Danny Messer. If I think about it more closely, I’m sure I can come up with more examples. In House, it’s only occasional and not spread throughout the entire series, since Thirteen isn’t there for the whole series, but it’s still noticeable.
Episode 12, “Painless,” I also found interesting because we have a kind of mirror image of House. Only in the basics, but still interesting enough to see where House might end up if things continue like this for a few more years. Sure, both characters are fundamentally different in character, please don’t get me wrong, but here you can deduce a lot of things that we will encounter in the following seasons. Maybe one could even go so far as to say that this episode is a key experience for much of what follows, which brings us back to the episode mentioned at the beginning. Because precisely because they are so different, and House maybe doesn’t want to end up at this point, he does all the things that are still to come after this episode.
Let’s come to the episode mentioned at the beginning, “The Softer Side.” House has a cardiac arrest right in the office, while it seems like he’s taking a nap. Everyone is worried, and the immediate assumption is that he’s taking heroin. After dinner with Wilson and House’s subsequent confession, it becomes clear that it’s even worse because he’s taking methadone. After throwing away his cane, he just walks away.
What immediately strikes me here is the fact that although he’s pain-free, as he says, he’s still limping. Which makes sense, because the muscle in his leg is completely destroyed. But the strange thing is the limping, because a few seasons ago we had a similar case where House was pain-free and he could walk normally, even though nothing has actually changed about his leg between these two incidents.
Cuddy must then confront House with a cruel choice, but House chooses painlessness, even though it’s much more risky.
What is also addressed in this episode should not be ignored! It’s about a baby being born with both male and female genitalia and being forced by the parents to grow up as a boy. The episode is from 2009, so it’s still quite early for such a topic, kudos for that! However, you shouldn’t listen too closely to the parents of the baby because it’s repeatedly shown here that the child itself has completely different wishes and needs than the parents dictate, hence my statement about coercion! I also think that Thirteen acted completely correctly here, not regarding the suicide story, but definitely regarding the “vitamins”! It’s even the second time this topic comes up. We already had a “teenage supermodel” (female) who suffered from hermaphroditism, resulting in an unusual form of testicular cancer being detected too late.
Yes, there’s also the relationship between Foreman and Thirteen, and you could talk about that for a lot of words, but I find the whole thing actually relatively uninteresting. Even when they wanted to outsmart House! Where did Foreman work in the past few years? Outsmarting House? On the way to not becoming like House, he becomes more and more like House, which can also be seen in altering the medication for Thirteen. What happened to the study actually?
We mustn’t forget about Cuddy, of course, as she now has her daughter named Rachel. On one hand, I’m happy for her, but on the other hand, I can also understand the patients who have been driven nearly insane by the baby’s crying. Yes, I understand why this was done here, to trigger symptoms and lead House onto the right track. Nonetheless, I find Cuddy’s behavior simply unacceptable, because to call in the middle of an operation with a crying child in her arms and not hang up is outrageous. Yes, children often cry, and that’s just part of it, but I find it simply unacceptable behavior, and I really took it against her that she didn’t hang up after Rachel cried so intensely!
Since I’m watching on Prime, I can see directly which episode is coming next, and there we have the patient who always tells the truth due to a condition and practically has no filter between thoughts and speech. Also very interesting, because you often wonder what absolute honesty and openness could look like. Here we get a taste, and personally, I think it tastes quite bitter sometimes. Sure, you shouldn’t lie or gossip and talk about others, but that’s something completely different!