I was trying to figure that out too. It looks like that is what we were supposed to get from it but I don’t know how Foreman would know from that clue.
Oh, and how did he switch dental records? How did he know who the guy’s dentist was? Did he plot all of this out ahead of time? We don’t even know when the patient was released, how the two ended up there and if the other guy overdosed.
He had to get to that dentist’s office (via motorcycle?), break in & steal the records, go to his own dentist’s office, break in, drive back to the other dentist’s office and drop his off… Inconcievable!
Very sloppy writing, trying to cram too much story and too many guest stars into one hour. Better that they skipped that one-hour masturbation that preceded it and wrote a proper two hour ending.
“Didn’t anyone see Dead Poets Society?”
Maybe I think about these things too much but in addition to your complaints…
[spoiler]House found the address of the dead patient’s dentist’s office, then broke into both that office and his own dentist’s office and switched the records, all within the time the body was removed from the building and the coroner obtained the dental records. Is that at all plausible?
Even so I liked it. I thought that they might have the two of them go on the lam for what’s left of Wilson’s life, but I didn’t think about House faking his death.
Regarding your complaints, I don’t think House was even thinking ahead to what happens to him after Wilson is gone. His earlier use of the phrase “carpe diem” (seize the day) may have been a foreshadowing of the conclusion. He “seized the day” without thought of the future.
Not a wise choice, but how often did Gregory House make a wise choice or carefully consider the future consequences of his present actions?
Another really troubling thing is that neither he nor Wilson seem to have given any thought to the patient’s family. Maybe they’ve given up on him and don’t know where he is anyway because of his addiction, but is there life insurance? Can they support themselves? Surely at least Wilson (Mr. boy scout) would be concerned about that.[/spoiler]
So it wasn’t a Blake’s 7 ending?
In the last episode, all the main characters are killed off one by one, with one remaining. He is surrounded by guards. fade to black as we hear ray guns shoot
Brian
I don’t particularly feel like picking nits in this case. Was it the strongest episode ever? No. Did it profoundly suspend my disbelief? Somewhat. Was it a cheesy ending? Of course.
But I don’t think it could have ended any better.
House and Wilson ride off into the sunset. Perfect.
And the retrospective? Made of win. Particularly the paintballs. 
That was awesome.
Years ago, but I don’t remember it that well. Robin Williams, right?
Well, since he can’t be a doctor any more, we can always hope that he’ll show up again in a new series with his hot wife (now flush with his life insurance money), I’m thinking maybe as the proprietor of a fleabag English seaside hotel with a manic Spanish waiter named Manuel.
Also starring a young Robert Sean Leonard.
very good ending. not quite Blake’s 7 level (best show ending ever) but really good.
Oh Nunzio - I think House & Fawlty must be distant relations, don’t you?
and I loved the use of the Warren Zevon song. the enjoy it while you can song was good too.
and funny Poets Society ref
I thought that it was great unless you think about it. So don’t.
The Warren Zevon song about shredded me. And when I heard “Enjoy Yourself” I immediately thought “Amber’s song! Which makes total sense, because life is a Cutthroat Bitch.”
I must be PMSing or something, because I got misty at the retrospective, and actually sobbed like a baby at the episode ending. May the road rise up to meet you House. And Wilson. Preferably literally, because dying slow of cancer sucks, and there’s not much left for House in this life either. Carpe diem indeed.
Perfectly pitched finale! The only thing missing was Cuddy and I’m fine with that.
Damn, I’m going to miss this show.
I don’t think I interpreted the ending the quite same way everyone else did.
I thought House really is dead; Wilson’s now hallucinating House just like House was hallucinating Kutner et al. The confused looks among the mourners when Wilson was complaining about the cellphone ringing were because there was no phone ringing, House plan to start a new life is widely impractical & full of holes, and nobody else saw him. It’s all in Wilson’s head.
Ending worked great for me.
When the building blew up, here were my reactions in real time, as said to the spouse:
- Holy crap. They did it. I didn’t believe they’d kill him off.
- <About a ten second pause.>
- NO! WAIT! REICHENBACH FALLS!!! (I think I startled the cat, yelling that)
- <when Foreman said the coroner confirms it’s House>: No…it was so perfect…I was wrong?
- When the phone rang, before we knew whose phone it was: <fist pump> YES! I was right after all! I love being right!!
In retrospect, this was the way it had to end. Yeah, there were some plot holes, but if House is Holmes (and he is), then he has to fake his own death at some point. The only difference between this and Holmes was that he didn’t make Wilson wait to see him…but given that Wilson only had a few months to live, that’s understandable.
Wonder what House will do after Wilson’s dead…
HA! I said the exact same thing at that exact same moment! Especially since
that had just aired on US TV Sunday night so it was fresh in my mind!
I think that
House made a will leaving everything to Wilson, and Wilson took the money and that plus his own money is what they are going on the lam with. And House can just go hang out in some strange country with no extradition treaty with his passport and copy of his medical license, and pop up alive where the US can’t touch him, he can practice medicine and hang out in a bar on a beach or something.
What was the significance of Foreman finding House’s badge and the look on his face right afterwards?
FFS people are you seriously spoiling things. The show is over. There’s nothing left to give away. If anyone that hasn’t seen the show pops into this thread and ruins something for themself, it’s their own fault.
The badge, it was to let Foreman know that House was still alive. He came in, after the funeral, and got the table to stop wobbling. Foreman knows he’s still alive and just played a big joke on everyone.
Regarding the dental records thing, I hadn’t given it a second thought until you guys started stalking about it here. I know I’ve seen it used in this capacity in other movies/TV shows before. I supposed it they wanted to make it a bit more realistic, instead of House noticing a something around his belly button be could have noticed something around his jaw or an abscess in a tooth when he talked (or bad breath) and decided it was related to something or other and taking a panoramic scan of his head. Then the hospital would have had his dental records in their files and he would have just needed to take his own pano and switch it then. OTOH, maybe when he fractured his eye socket, he was taken to PPH and they did do that and they did have a scull x-ray on file and that is what he did.
I’m confused about this? Why would House and Wilson talk to his family and what does his life insurance have to do with anything?
ETA, wait, you mean before releasing him from the hospital? Well, to be fair, they did skip around in the story quite a bit. They compressed the POTW to about a quarter of what it would be so we lost a lot of that interaction.