Ah. Thanks; I was not aware of that. I just didn’t think memories could be targeted so specifically.
I still had a problem with it. He’d retain the ability to tie his shoes, a learned skill, but lose his fire fighter training? Seems a bit implausible at best.
Not like that. Most patients have memory loss for the time immediately before (as in days or at most weeks) the ECT. Wiping out your whole childhood and forgetting your brother? Not going to happen. Losing more than bits and pieces is rare, and certainly not predictable. What is more common is that ECT patients have a hard time forming new memories for a few weeks, but that is, as far as I know, almost invariably temporary.
I am not advocating it by any means, but House got it wrong. I was disappointed.
I’m so relieved to be rid of Tritter, at least for a while, that I forgive almost everything else about this episode. I’m disappointed that the show took a potentially interesting viewpoint (“I’m being treated by a doctor addicted to drugs? Is that safe, no matter how much he may need them?”) and cheapened it by putting it in the mouth of a generic “guy with a vendetta because something happened in his past.”
Why does Cuddy think she now owns House because she perjured herself to save him? Doesn’t that strategy rely on his having a conscience? After all, it’s not like she can go back to the judge and say “Guess what? I lied before. Now that House has pissed me off again, I’m going to tell you the truth because Iwant you to toss him in jail.” If anything, she’s given House leverage agains
The key piece of evidence that the prosecution had now become “House used a dead man’s prescription to pick up drugs that didn’t do anything.” In other words, the hospital is shown to have taken care of the situation (by denying House a real prescription) and House ended up fraudulently using a prescription to get something that wasn’t illegal. The case went from being something big “Doctor fraudulently obtaining addictive drugs” to “Doctor in rehab was caught by his employers and denied illegal drugs.”
The prosecution would have to come up with a lot more evidence to convince a judge that the case was worth pursuing.
This is easily my favorite show. House’s character is solid and very compelling. And though I’ve seen him in shows like Black Adder, in watching House it’s hard to wrap my mind around the fact that he’s really British. The accent is flawless.
About this episode: I find it hard to believe anyone would give credence to the idea that Cuddy lied about perjuring herself and that the pills *really were * placebos. It was quite clear that House was doped up and OD’d on the Oxy. He knows they were real. However Cuddy doesn’t have as much leverage as she suggests. She did perjure herself and can’t threaten House with revealing the truth. She would go to jail too. House knows that and will be his same charming self despite her beliefs.
As far as charges being dropped, House was in trouble for fraudently obtaining a controlled substance. If the pills were placebo (which they weren’t, and the judge suspected but couldn’t prove) then he DIDN’T actually handle/receive the controlled substance. He signed for “tylenol” or whatever. In her eyes House may have tried to commit a crime, but didn’t actually succeed. Not a big enough deal to continue with for the judge in light of how much the hospital obviously depends on and is loyal to House.
BobT beat me to the punch on the dropped charges.
“Yeah… what he said.”
She still has the leverage. It’s not that she’s going to run to the judge. But she stuck her neck out for House, very very far. She could have potentially lost her job, her medical license, and gone to jail if they could prove her lie. And, that is a huge limb to go out on for anyone but especially someone who is surly, insubordinate, cranky, a drug addict, and has mostly brought trouble in his wake - no matter how good a doctor (or how hot 
) he is. Under that facade House is human he knows what she did for him. He should do what she asks out of gratitute and friendship. And it’s not like she threatened to make him clean the john with his toothbrush, she’s threatening to make him do his job. She could be a lot more unreasonable and demanding under the circumstances.
I’m not a specialist in ECT, but I am a psychologist and Brynda’s correct: some minor loss of memory and difficulty forming new ones (temporarily), yes. Total memory wipe? No. They may have been able to achieve that with a lobotomy, but I think even Cuddy would have a problem with that. Yeah, between this and the Broken Heart Syndrome (wtf?!), this episode was unspeakably silly from a medical standpoint.
I’m of mixed feelings here. On the one hand, I’m so thrilled to be rid of Tritter that I was near the point of hoping that the entire storyline would be resolved with the ultimate cop-out–House waking up after surgery on his leg. “Oh, it was all a horrible dream…”
On the other hand, having suffered through this miserable Tritter storyline, I feel a bit cheated to see that we’ve basically hit the reset button and everything’s back to square one, with no changes at all. I ought to get something for faithfully watching the first half of this season, and weathering the frequent temptations I felt to go do something else (as, in fact, I frequently did while Tritter was onscreen). Maybe Tritter can go in for the electroshock therapy next? That’d be a nice start. 
Incidentally–is it just me, or does David Morse look a lot like he just stepped out of one of Bill Plympton’s cartoons?
Maybe a metaphor. The War on Drugs is, in fact, unspeakably silly.
But there is such a thing as Broken Heart Syndrome.
See, I don’t. I think he does a crappy job in the Clinic, and the suggestion that he help her woo donors is laughable. Let him do the job he’s best at and keep him from pissing all over the rest of the hospital.
But Wilson had also stuck his neck way out there for House, and yet House didn’t show any signs of gratitude to him. Why would he act any differently for Cuddy?
I think House respects Cuddy more than anyone. He still pushes her to the limit but she’s the only person who can truly keep up with him intellectually and I also wonder if he doesn’t carry a bit of a torch for her. (I missed the first season of the show so I may essentially be full of shite.)
Punditlisa - The three lackeys aren’t newbies. They’re established doctors and could practice on their own, they chose to work under and learn from House. While I am never a supporter of ESP, they were qualified to administer it.
As for this episode, the quick and neat wrap up left me unsatisfied. I wanted a shouting match in court between Tritter and House. I wanted more conflict for the resolution. Oh well.
– IG
Speaking of the Houselings. They each got a three year fellowship. We are coming up on the end of the third season. How do you think they are going to handle this on the show?
I guess all the nicotine gum Tritter was chewing was just a red herring. Or maybe a way of showing he’s just a big an addict as House is.
I don’t know. He is shown as head and shoulders above everyone else. She always has to cave and call him when she is befuddled by a case she is trying to cover.
I disagree. You screw around with the brain, you should be a neurologist. Of course, they show them performing brain surgery, heart surgery, foot surgery, angioplasties, even running lab tests that can miraculously be performed in 3 hours despite the fact that cultures take 24 hours to grow anything, so I shouldn’t be so bothered by this one. But doctors specialize for a reason. And the fact that they did ESP based on a false diagnosis would open the door for a malpractice lawsuit.
Foreman is a neurologist. (and Cameron is an immunologist and Chase is an intensivist).