A patient arrives with symptoms of smallpox.
Wow, an actual Sealed Evil in a Can! Well, a bottle anyway.
I would think House speaks some Dutch; his grandparents (or at least grandmother) was Dutch. Still, why lose an opportunity to submit an expense report for a live sex chat? That was golden. Glad to see more Wilson but don’t like all the nesting business, unless it leads to snark with House.
Is it really possible for such things to survive in a sealed jar that was underwater for so long?
I was glad to see the writers follow up on the lab lie from a previous ep.
Well, theoretically, but…<click>
Heh. I loved that beat - a bit of a nudge toward the fourth wall. This is, after all, probably very much the conversation one of their writers had with their medical consultant. Hopefully without the hanging-up midsentence, though - that’s just rude.
I thought this was a very strong episode overall. I am so glad that none of the characters made an obvious “how tragic that the father didn’t have to die” comment.
Cuddy’s inability to compartmentalize and separate “employee House” from “boyfriend House” is kind of annoying, but realistic for that character.
I love that Wilson’s girlfriend found a way to bond with the little girl without suddenly becoming great with kids.
Amber Tamblyn’s character’s honesty thing is getting old already…I hope they do something interesting with that soon.
Oh, and I second loving the “well, theoretically” part. 
My grandparents were Italian (2nd generation) and I neither speak nor read that language. Neither does their daughter.
This was the first episode I’ve caught in quite a while, and I found it fairly weak. I know House has the biggest ego in the world, but he’s not an epidemiologist like the guys from the CDC would be. I don’t think they would have to fight with a local doctor - I would think the local doctors would be more than happy to turn a potential smallpox case over to the experts.
I had to agree with Wilson’s girlfriend about Cuddy, too; she knows who she’s dating.
What was the pox that it turned out to be?
Catscratch Fever.
No, rickettsial pox.
Note: I haven’t seen the episode, but I remember that House was board-certified in nephrology and infectious disease. Because of the latter, I could totally see him considering himself able to handle the situation.
It’s not that he has such a huge ego, but he’s addicted to solving puzzles. Even if CDC guys can rapid-fire diagnosis and treatment, if they’re not getting it right then House still has a chance to “win”.
From Wikipedia
Well that’s disappointing.
I was thinking about that, and I guess an argument could be made that his specialty is ALL branches of medicine, which has lead to his unique position at the hospital. Still, risking your life that your diagnosis is better than the expert’s…he usually risks the patient’s life, not his own.
I thought getting tortured in a cold tub by his Oma was just some bullshit he made up to satisfy that girls demand to ‘tell her something’.
By the way, worst House episode of all time.
This episode didn’t work for me at all.
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The solution didn’t work medically.
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House taking that chance with his own life didn’t make sense to me.
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I can’t stand to watch stuff with kids who have cancer. That might just be me though.
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The jokes didn’t really work.
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I didn’t care about the family.
I think the writers need to watch season 2 again. Especially the two-part episode where Foreman was infected. The stakes where similar, but the season 2 episode was so much more intense.
He admitted at the end of the episode that it was his dad that had done that to him.
If the father and the daughter both had rickettsialpox why is it that he had rash on his soles and palms and she didn’t? They didn’t seem to give a clear answer for this.
Was it because his kidney cancer was suppressing his immune system?
Was it because he had both vaccinia and rickettsiapox?
This is one of the oldest tropes in the book, except that it is usually applied to cop shows. Whenever the Feds come to town wanting to take over a case, the local dudes NEVER let them take it away without a fight.
I didn’t really get the whole resolution. If the father had Rickettsialpox, which is not fatal, then why did he die? Or did he *actually *have smallpox after all from the vaccine?