Reality doesn’t make for good TV.
Would you watch a show about a genius diagnostician who lost just as many patients as he saved? Kind of invalidates the “genius” part, don’t ya think?
I would. Especially House. After the first season, it was rarely about the patient anyway.
Perry Mason only lost one trial. It gets painfully boring when you know that with two outs in the last inning, the last batter is always going to hit a four-run homer.
Yeah, it’s a given that this last episode is going to be picked apart and analyzed EVERYWHERE, by EVERYONE. It’s just a sign that, despite some of the absurdities of the show, that it got people that…interested. 'cause if it ain’t interesting, then…well…you know the rest of the story.
Not really: just because someone’s a whiz at diagnosing medical conditions doesn’t necessarily mean they’re equally good at curing them, and of course many conditions aren’t curable anyway.
Three, actually, but that’s a commonly-held belief.
1.38, “The Case of the Terrified Typist” - the one most people think of: the big case of the episode ends in Burger’s favor. Too bad they were trying an imposter, invalidating the entire thing.
6.28, “The Case of the Witless Witness” - this is the easiest to forget, because it’s not the main case of the episode, but one which he loses at the beginning.
7.04, “The Case of the Deadly Verdict” - another where the episode starts with Perry losing, this time because his client lied to him. He spends the rest of the episode setting things right.
Like X-Files and any Star Trek, we nitpick. But, that’s part of being a fan, imho.
A lot of my issues with this episode were mentioned upthread, but I think these weren’t.
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Wilson and Foreman: all the other times they’ve given tough love to House, told him he had crossed some imaginary line, gone too far, etc. were forgotten. “It’s never worked, but hey, let’s try it again!” seemed to be the plan. And for what? A stupid prank? House was petulant about it, but he was right. Yes, it was stupid of him, but it was more reckless than malicious. Of all the things House has done, THIS needed yet another “No more, House!” treatment? It was making me roll my eyes a lot. Yes, it was their last chance before Wilson kicks it (or so they thought), but it struck me as just out of character for Wilson and Foreman. And not even for House’s sake, but for Wilson. Wilson shouldn’t have his best friend over something that on the House-scale would be like 1, maybe 2? He crashed a car into his girlfriend’s house. He shot a cadaver in the head. He covered up a murder. He did drugs at work. Visits prostitutes. Anally violated a cop. Took a bribe from a mafia guy. Got Wilson’s girlfriend killed and broke up most of his other relationships. Committed perjury. Recklessly took that superman-patient out of the mental hospital whereupon he jumped off the roof. He stole Cuddy’s house. He insults people regularly. Possibly drove one team member to suicide. But flush some paper down the toilet? Hold up there, Greg. It’s time you learn your lesson while your best friend kicks off without you.
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The idea of Wilson and House riding off together on motorcycles is a great concept. That actual part was done well and a fitting end: it answers some things, leaves some things open. The problem is HOW it got to that point. The whole thing was a convoluted mess. While House would have been a fugitive if he had just taken off with Wilson, it’s not like he would have been Whitey Bulger. He wouldn’t have made America’s Most Wanted. A parole violation is a serious matter, but the non-violent violation wouldn’t cause a manhunt and roadblocks. Faking his own death will incur so much more trouble than it’s worth. And it also contradicts my first point: clogging the toilets bad, very very very bad, but faking your death, leaving the family of the true victim in the dark, plus ignoring any culpability for that death, well, hell, let’s reward that with a motorcycle and a presumably epic road trip. Foreman chuckles to himself, Wilson drives off with him. What happened to “you need to grow up” from just 30 minutes earlier?
And that’s before I get too caught up in the “how could someone with his leg injury incur another injury and yet get out the backdoor and be fine?” type of problems. The inconsistencies in the characters bothered me a lot.
Overall I didn’t hate the episode, but it bugs the crap out of me. The ending was fine, but getting them on the bikes didn’t have to be so convoluted.
Just found this article that has aninterview with David Shore. It addresses several of the comments in this thread.
- Nope, don’t like this at all.
- Why does it matter? He just has to lay low.
- As already pointed out House took care of all this before the patient checked out. And he didn’t have to take care of the switch himself.
- Really don’t care.
- What are you talking about? Were you asleep when Masters spoke at the funeral?
Some great quotes from this episode:
Foreman: “I think Stupid is our best case scenario.”
Druggie POTW: “It’s reality that sucks!”
House: “Pascal’s wager is facile.”
House to POTW: “You’re a better person dying than you ever were living.”
And, not a quote but a personal observation, this episode REALLY reminded me of Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol,” with all of the ghosts visiting the main character, trying to change his world view.
Regarding the opinion that House never paid for all his sins: Sure, he did some pretty horrible things. But he also saved many, many lives. This, of course, wasn’t his motivation; he didn’t give a crap about those lives, only about solving difficult puzzles. But there are many other ways in life to spend your time solving puzzles, yet he chose a career in which his problem solving skills also had a tremendous positive impact on people. I think, on balance, that counts for far more than the negatives.
And kudos to House for standing his ground, when Stacy (his ex) tried to talk him into a “death-bed conversion.”
And I don’t doubt his ability to escape the exploding building, fake his own death, switch the dental records, etc. He’s demonstrated his skills at that sort of thing many times in the past.
Just curious bc he had to be within earshot to time the text perfectly, unless it was sent, timed perfectly out of sheer coincidence.
OK, so wait. Now the death of the POTW is really bugging me. Shark Sandwich is right, the tree branch saved him. So unless House was shooting up with him, this was murder. And even so House knew how to save him if he’d truly OD’d.
It’s been said that he’s misrable (and acts the way he does) because of the constant pain that he’s in, but could it be argued that (on some cosmic level) his pain is actual his payment for all the mean things he does. Maybe if he was a better person in life, some of the pain he’s in would be alleviated? Symbolism and all that.
Or he had a bug in the room. He slipped a phone into Wilson’s pocket, it’s perfectly possible that it had an app on it that was listening in on the conversation.
I wish this season had replaced the House-Cuddy season. Before everyone was tired of making the show. Then we would have had an opportunity to see what House would do next. I’d would have liked to have seen him as a member of the Geek Squad down at the local Best Buy. He’d be good at that. All your files would be trashed, but he’d track down why you were unable to play the kitty video. The climax of every show would be the part where he discovered the customer’s porn stash.
By the nature of the show, it appeals to people who like to pick things apart. IOW, it’s not you, it’s all of us. 
Maybe, but wasn’t he a miserable ass even before the pain in his leg from the infarction started? According to Stacy, his ex-fiancé, anyway. And I think Cuddy, who also knew him then, made mention of it, too.
Wouldn’t that support the argument?
I have always liked the fact that two guys could be so close, yet so different, they could be best friends.
I also liked the two songs at the end. I had never heard the Zevon one nor the one by whoever the scat singer was.
Thanks
Q
Based on the look House gave POTW, I assumed House shot up with him. POTW was describing the effects of heroin and House looked like a dog watching someone eat a steak. He had this hopeful, desiring look on his face, as if he couldn’t imaging a life without pain. He finds himself a junkie who believes he has nothing left to lose, so the junkie hooks him up and as far as we know, volunteered for the job. In fact, I’d guessed he did volunteer for the job because he’d offered to take the fall for House.