Poor, poor Dr. Greg House … being FORCED against his WILL to go out on a date with a hot babe like Dr. Cameron. Am I the only person who can FEEL his SUFFERING? Oh, the HUMANITY!
Not a bad episode. Not the best, but not bad. Watching House’s pointed attempts to aggravate and belittle Dr. Chase as payback for becoming Vogler’s ally amused be greatly.
House is clearly terrified of actually (as Wilson said) “giving a damn about” Cameron, because that would ruin the misanthropic persona he projects. So the story arc is going to be about him dealing with the wall he’s built up around himself, a wall that will be further tested when Sela Ward’s character shows up. Whether or not the wall comes down remains to be seen. Is it me, or is the age gap between Cameron and House a little too big?
And as for the Patient of the Week, shouldn’t they have noticed straight off from the girl’s bloodwork, or urine, or something, that she was pregnant? Or did the TTP obscure the usual signs?
What was with the warnings of strong sexual content? By the end of the show, I was half expecting Cameron to jump House at her apartment. (Whew…glad they didn’t do that!) So, it must have been the fact that a 12-year old was pregnant. Struck me as overcompensating for the oversensitive just a tad…
I have to agree with Spatial Rift 47 about House and Cameron. I wonder how they’re going to play it out…you know there’s gonna be issues of favoritism. Coupled with how House is treating Chase (which I found also highly entertaining), I sense the possibility of dissension in the ranks…
I’m with you Digital Stimulus, I was waiting for the boobies all episode! At each break I’d ask my wife when the sex was coming. You would think that the PotW would have been discovered pregnant pretty early on, maybe they weren’t running non-essential tests because of the epidemic…
I loved how House is giving it to Chase, I wonder how long it will last.
re: strong sexual content
They showed a 12 year old girl who had gotten pregnant by means of mutually consensual sex. She was informed of her options by her doctor and made an informed choice to have an abortion. She did this without notifying her parents. This would be horrifyingly scandalous to some people, and more disturbing than if they showed House & Cameron going at it on the treadmill.
House also harassed Cuddy for showing off her funbags and also referred to them as such.
Turnabout being fair play, House is now the victim of harassment from Cameron.
Aside from that, not much.
Oh, I forgot about the funbags line. Had me giggling. Somehow, I don’t think it justified the warnings, nor did the parental consent. (As I say, overcompensation for the oversensitive. There’s worse on just about any other drama, much less the news.)
Y’know, my wife brought this up. Can there be harassment from someone of a lower position of power? I mean, doesn’t the fact that House has a choice of hiring her back say that there’s no harassment? It seems like an odd way of looking at it to me, although I’m happy to be corrected.
Her employment is contingent on going out on a date. Somebody is getting harrassed.
Also, re: funbags: Cuddy showed no more cleavage than Cameron did on any day of the week.
Actually, she made no choice to have the abortion, she was informed it was necessary because of her condition. It was the “underlying cause” and if it was not removed she would not get better.
I gathered that they did not do any pregnancy tests since it’s not a normal test for a 12 year old. I was expecting it to turn out that the coach was sexually abusing her but I guess they didn’t have enough time to pursue that. Besides I think the point was to show that she thought she was more mature than she really was.
I like how we get little hints that House is really a good guy, but I really felt sorry for him with Cameron, he looked like a deer in the headlights. And my goodness are his eyes blue! I need to sit closer to the TV from now on so I can see these things better.
But that’s what I’m questioning. Yes, she won’t come back if she doesn’t get a date with House. But House doesn’t have to hire her. If she demanded an exorbinant wage, would that be harassment? I think not. Is it the fact that there’s the possibility of sex, or something else?
I suppose that perhaps one might qualify harassment as requiring a person to person request. That is, something outside the responsibilities of the institution itself. Money, perks, etc. are granted by the institution, not by any single person in it. Something like “Chase has to wash my car every weekend for me to come back” might be harassment (of Chase). Obviously not sexual, but harassment nonetheless, as it requires a non-work related action on Chase’s part to benefit Cameron. But then there’s the issue of power – the assumption is that House would exert his power to fire Chase if he didn’t agree. Somehow, it seems odd to me for an “underling” to be able to harass their boss. Again, “odd” only means that I’m questioning, it does not mean I’m taking a position.
I thought it was odd that House didn’t even bring up the possibility of sexual abuse with the patient. Even though she was just 12, he seemed to assume, the way he confronted her with the ultrasound, that it was consensual. I guess he’s lucky it turned out to be.
Oh, come on…like there was any chance that he would make an incorrect assumption.
:: flashes back to the “either your husband is a cross-dresser, or your daughter is wearing your clothes” woman ::
Errr…never mind.
Apart from referring to the guy who impregnated her as a felon, you mean?
I’m thinking it’s not harrassment. Look at it this way: House wants Cameron to work for him, but it is not a significant professional hardship if she doesn’t - there are a number of replacements whose abilities are equal to hers. It could be considered harrassment if Cameron were the only or significantly better option for filling that position, but that does not appear to be the case.
Likewise, there can’t be personal harrassment if the person being harrassed (in this case, House) is the one who keeps initiating contact between them.
I can’t help but be reminded of the pilot episode, when House reveals that he knows all about Dr. Foreman’s juvenile criminal record, Foreman gets irritated with him, and House points out, “I’m pretty sure you can’t sue someone for wrongful hiring.”
Anyone mind providing a little backstory on Cameron’s departure and her “relationship” with House? I’m only an intermittent watcher and haven’t seen the episodes related to this subplot. Thanks. 
It all started when this guy Vogler showed up with $100 million dollars for the hospital, contingent on him becoming chairman of the board of trustees. So, he became chairman, and he soon grew to hate House’s shoot-from-the-hip cowboy medicine. He started making House jump through hoops, because he wanted to know that House would do anything Vogler asked of him.
To that end, Vogler gave House a choice: give a speech about the new product from Vogler’s pharmaceutical, or fire one of the three. When House blew that chance, he had to fire Chase, Foreman or Cameron. He reluctantly chose Chase, but Vogler told him that he had to keep Chase (because Chase was Vogler’s mole) and fire one of the other two. Under that pressure, Cameron quit, because it was “the only way [she] could keep control of the situation.”
But that apparently wasn’t good enough for Vogler, who then set about getting House himself fired. Since House has tenure, this required a unanimous vote of the board, on which sit Wilson and Cuddy. Wilson voted to keep house, Cuddy didn’t. So Wilson was shoved off the board, and resigned. Then House, by doing his job, convinced Cuddy that Vogler shouldn’t win, so Cuddy voted to keep House, and when Vogler called for a vote to eliminate Cuddy, she made an impassioned speech that convinced four other members to keep her, and House, so Vogler left (and took his $100 million with him) and Wilson was reinstated.
Whew. Politics.
There was a bit more to it than that, I think. Cameron had implied that she was becoming romantically attached to House (remember the “Do you like me?” query) and that she couldn’t take the unrequited feelings. Either House had to show interest, or she was gonna leave.
The bathroom scene cracked me up. Actually, a lot of the stuff that House says makes me laugh because it’s so incredibly rude and in-your-face.
I like the mystery aspect of the show as well.
Another funny line was when he told the parents, not wanting to break his promise about telling of the pregnancy, that she “had an abdominal growth.”
From what I remember, he had figured that out prior to the ultrasound (that just confirmed the diagnosis), that it was likely one of the “boys” on the traveling team. He deduced this by the idea that the “boys” were avoiding a visit.
It had to be hell not telling the parents, I’m not sure how I would have explained the need for a procedure, which I couldn’t tell them about.
It looks like at the end of the episode, the 12yo told her parents in the end anyway.