Chase and Taub are back, House wants to see if Taub is really the father of his baby twins, and a patient’s confessions may compromise his care. Jamie Bamber is the guest star.
Good ep. I was delighted to see Dr. Taub back. After House himself, he is my favorite character in the entire run of the series. Subtle, humorous, and nuanced. I give credit to both the writers and the actor.
Fun episode.
Wilson in the cafeteria (“I was going to give the money to charity”) was great. But did anyone else notice that Taub’s babies didn’t even have names? Even if he’s comfortable being uncertain as to their paternity, surely he’s not comfortable calling them “Daughter1” and “Daughter2.”
The movable wall at the end stretched credibility, even for this show. Were we supposed to buy that Wilson wouldn’t have noticed the construction necessary to accomplish it?
Why did it take everyone so long to realize the confessions were a symptom? I realized that the moment he told everyone off.
Also, if House had DNA from both the daughters, he didn’t need Taub’s to prove he wasn’t the father. They had different mothers. If they had any DNA in common, then Taub was father to both of them (It’s unlikely in the extreme that both women were sleeping with the same man other than Taub). If they had no DNA in common, then he wasn’t the father of least one.
I didn’t get the point of the moving wall at the end. Why bother to be able to watch Wilson?
I was thinking, as he told everyone off, that this was going to show that he’s such a super guy. That he was purposefully lying because he didn’t want to burden his friends by having one of them be laid up for 3 months.
Agreed about the wall. Another issue, unless that office is on the top floor, you’d think the people above him might notice a big wall moving up through the floor.
That said, as long as they keep House entertaining I’m willing to go with some level of stupidity.
I thought House said something to his team at one point about the construction crew working at night, which might marginally explain how Wilson didn’t notice. Even so, though, you’d think he’d still notice the construction even if nobody was actively working on it.
It’s funny that the biggest problem I had with it is that I always assumed Wilson’s office was way off in some other part of the hospital. 
I know! I never had the feeling that Wilson’s office was next door. I wouldn’t be surprised if the prior established geography of the hospital was changed to accommodate this gag.
The other thing I didn’t get was, House was messing with Foreman by not going home. When Chase tells Foreman this, Foreman apparently decides to go home. But it’s not like House can’t be stirring up mischief, just because all he’s doing, as Chase says, is hanging around drinking martini’s.
We’ve seen in some early episodes where House goes out on his patio, and can get into Wilson’s office from his patio. But, yes, sometimes it does seem like Wilson’s office is elsewhere.
I didn’t like the moving wall thing, either. Seemed pointless to me.
I assumed House wanted DNA samples from all three to know which one was Taub’s kid, in case one wasn’t. It’s easy enough to figure out if the babies have DNA in common, but if one wasn’t his kid, House wanted to know which one was his kid.
i remember a few episodes here and there that showed the two offices were adjacent, but the front doors were around separate corners. they share a balcony space - well, if 1st floors had balconies. that open space where the babies were.
I just want to know why the shredder didn’t make gawd-awful noises when the metal clip of that folder went through it. I’ve done that. It wasn’t quiet.
I’m glad someone else thought of this!
Charlyne Yi’s acting is really starting to unsuspend my disbelief.
No, it’s right down the hall. I always thought it was a bit further down, but then, until this season with the ortho guys, I never really considered how long his office is. It’s probably at least 35 feet (if you include both House’s personal office and the team’s area). I think we got a good feel for how close the two offices were back when there was some sort of competition between them that involved hiding some chickens or something. I remember them shuffling them back and forth a few times.
As for someone upstairs noticing a big wall moving around, I can only assume it goes between two other walls that he had covertly moved outward a bit to accommodate this. Though you’d think they’d still hear it.
My question is, what was with the two (three?) hydraulic pistons on the bottom of the door? Was that just for looks? Unless that door is going to do something, I can’t see any use for them.
Here ya go
Masters is standing in front of the Diagnostics office and Wilson comes running out of his office right in the first few seconds of the clip.
Also, here’s the wall. You can see the pistons. From what I can tell, two of them have rams on them and the middle one just appears to be a reservoir. I assume all it does is lock the wall into place when it’s raised (or when it’s lowered if it’s not actually resting on something). I guess that makes sense. But I’m sure it’s for looks since something electromechanical would be simpler, quieter and involve a whole lot less maintenance then that system.
ETA, I suppose it could just be pneumatic instead of hydraulic. That would make a lot more sense.
The patient confessed truthfull re: the affair, but how many of the other confessions were false?
Did he? Was he finally truthful in saying that he hadn’t really had an affair? Or was he finally capable of lying about it to save his marriage? :dubious:
Well, according to his wife, the mayor checked the books and disproved his “confession” about embezzling $10,000 from the scholarship fund.
Yeah, that smacked me, too. Even if done at night, it took two or three days. Surely stopping in the middle, they didn’t put the wall back in place. 
Yes, he would have to make some sort of wall reservoir on the upper floor to accommodate the wall sliding up. Would have made better sense to have the wall slide sideways, so it pocketed into the rest of the wall. He could conceivably have yielded up a couple inches of his interior space to accommodate that without it being observable. But no, the wall has to slide up.
As mentioned, their offices share a patio/balcony. He’s exited his patio door and entered Wilson’s office through that at least a couple times, though not in a while.
Yeah, why shred the folder? Even when I’m throwing out old files, I try to save the folders, binder clips, paper clips, etc.
That was my question. His original confession to the affair was true. We saw him in flagrante delicto. The theft of money from the fund was false, we’re told the mayor checked. So that leaves all the confessions about the car repairs/cheating, and the confessions about murder. Now since he confessed to the murders after the theft, that seems reasonable he was lying then, especially since he wasn’t sure how many murders and that is how Chase suspected the confessions were diagnostic. Since the car repair confessions occurred at the same time as the theft, I think we’re to believe he was displaying the symptoms then so they are lies, too.
I’m a little confused how he can go from confessing a true thing to confessing lies. What made him think he must have stolen the money, cheated his neighbors, and murdered people? Maybe he wanted to do those things?
another note about the timing… they said that he got the illness from the rub burns, that happened while he was cheating. Then at the end, his Wife seemed to think the cheating was a symptom (lack of impulse control due to the aneurism). But if he got infected while cheating, that doesn’t make sense. But I can see nobody wanting to correct the wife, he’d already lost most of his credibility/friends! Also, he should make sure to get a note from the docs that he can hang on his office wall (or publish in the local paper) letting everyone know that he wasn’t telling the truth about his confessions…