I was impresssed and touched by this episode, IMHO one of the best yet. The writers get in some really funny lines along with the intense plot. Now, House is having moments where he appears almost human. 
Well written, well acted and most enjoyable.
I was only watching on and off last night so I have a few questions.
The kid was pretty much dying at the end, wasn’t he? They had said something about bone marrow transplant. Did that not work, or was it just too late?
What happened to the kid’s mom? Dad lied, but I didn’t hear what the real story was.
You didn’t see the kid die, but it was very strongly implied that he did. The real story about the accident was just that there was no drunk driver involved. The mom just lost control of the car for reasons unknown. At the end the kid forgave the dad for the lie.
Can someone give me the whole story on this episode? I got as far as the kid getting to the hospital and then I fell asleep.
About the kid. It was basically a matter of time before he succumbed. His immune system was so depleted that he was bound to die sooner rather than later. The bone marrow transplant was too late, IIRC. Even if they did it, he’d be gone… I believe this is the first time where the show ended on a down note like that. Yes, there was an earlier show where the woman died, but her baby continued living. There was no ‘up’ like that in this one
An interesting episode. Most of the time the show focuses on how patients always lie and that interferes with treatment. Now we get a much more complex view of lies. The father lies about his job, interfering with treatment but probably not changing the outcome. The father’s lie about the mother’s accident keeps the kid from drinking and driving. And House hates his father because he won’t ever lie. Nice to see them playing with their central premise a little.
Too much to include all details. Let’s just say that we meet House’s parents, and his dad is R. Lee Ermey. House hates his father.
House gets a phone call during his meeting (while trying to figure out what’s wrong with the patient…more on this later), and finds out that his parents are going to Europe, and have a layover nearby, and would like to see him. He tries desperately to get out of it, including volunteering for more clinic duty. No go.
The patient is a kid who just graduated from college (Ivy League, too), who collapses at a graduation party. His body is sending out electric shocks.
I’m going to avoid all of the “try to figure out what’s wrong with him” stuff. Suffice to say that he had a PET scan, and a CAT scan and an MRI, and a QWERTY scan, and an IHIUG <TKTU>H scan.
The kid, Cornell, while in the hospital, has his father tell him the truth about his mother’s death. Cornell had always been told that Mom had died from a drunk driver hitting her car. In fact, she fell asleep behind the wheel. Dad spun the story to scare Cornell away from drinking and driving.
Cornell admits that, during Spring Break, he told his dad he had to write two papers. Actually, he went to Jamaica with some schoolmates (the family’s inability to tell each other the truth was a plot point).
Cameron does a search for the friends who went to Jamaica with Cornell, to see if any of them have any illnesses. One does.
Turns out that
Dad owns a salvage yard, and he’d found an old plumb that he gave to Cornell as a gift, like a keychain. The metal was radioactive, and the damage that had been done to Cornell’s system was too great for him to produce white blood cells, making him vulnerable to any infection. They had to remove a tumor from inside his spinal cord (which was causing the shocks), but his body was too badly damaged by radiation sickness for Cornell to recover. He doesn’t die in the episode, but Wilson and Chase strongly hint that there’s nothing that can be done at that point to save his life. So his father, in giving him a gift, killed him.
I loved the line to Cameron:
“Um…doctor…perhaps you’d leave a card on your way out.”
Basically, it was the usual “What’s going on here?”: House and crew kept trying to find a cause for the symptoms. It was all very mysterious, until two things happened:
[spoiler]They found out the kid had gone to Jamaica for spring break; the kid had lied about that to his father. They checked out the roommate, who had a rash on his inner thigh*, but refused to come to the hospital. But he took sick and mentioned to House that the father owned a junkyard.
That was the clue (the father had lied about that): the kid had a “good luck” charm that was some spent radioactive material and was suffering from radiation poisoning. Ultimately, it was too late to save him.
House’s parents showed up; he had been trying to avoid him. Turned out they were perfectly nice people, but House was uncomfortable around them because his father would not lie or accept a lie.
*One of the more amusing moments had Cameron crouching down the check the rash closely while visiting the patient at his office and have someone come in on them.[/spoiler]
Another point is that the father lies to the son at the end, as a kindness.
Mrs. Chuck found it unsatisfying, but I think it was pretty clear that the kid was not going to make it. There’s little you can do for someone in his circumstances.
Meh. I just wasn’t feeling it this episode, for some reason. House’s parents seemed so miscast, maybe that’s part of it - I mean, the dad was okay, and there was even a sort of resemblance there, but the mom just did not look old enough to have a son House’s age. And I thought there was supposed to be conflict… it was basically, “So what’s new?” “Not much.” “You never tell us anything!” “There’s nothing to tell” “You’re not a cripple, so don’t act like it!” sulk pout
On the other hand, House seems to have pulled back a little - there have been a few episodes this season where he’s completely slipped into “unfunny asshole” instead of “cute 'n snarky”. And lots of Wilson is always yummy, especially with the line about “lying in increasing increments, ever since I told you you look good with stubble last year”. Plus, the writing for Cameron’s character seems to be getting a little better, though her wardrobe certainly isn’t. And why did House have to borrow money to get a motorcycyle? And what happened to the sexy mobster car?
All in all, it wasn’t a bad episode, but not my favourite. Too many anvils for me.
I was a little underwhelmed by the action with the Father and Son, that was more than slightly as a result of the casting of the son as the annoying Son from 24. God that kid irritates me. Anyways, the whole thing wasn’t bad, just not the most compelling of plots.
The part I really loved was the deal with House lying to Wilson about borrowing money and his begging to get invited to dinner to avoid his parents. It had me cracking up and it just got better when they threw the twist with Cameron trying to horn in on the dinner for amusement. That kind of stuff is the best.
Yep, a big juxtaposion with House saying his father suffers from Cameron’s moral principle to never lie… then we see how the father of the kid lies to his son to put the kid at ease. We can imagine House’s dad (R. Lee Emery, KICK ASS!) in the same situation telling the kid he was going to die.
He didn’t. He was testing Wilson to see how far he’d go in lending House money.
I never figured out if this actually happened:
Did the kid get the rash from having sex with Cornell? Or was House just being a jackass? Did he get it from just being around the keychain or something else?
Heh. Actually, in real life, Diane Baker is about 21 years older than Hugh Laurie, while R. Lee Ermey is only 15 years older. I wondered about the relative ages, too, so I looked it up.
One of my favorite lines was Wilson’s “Two-wheeled vehicles that go 150 miles an hour don’t go well with crippled, irresponsible drug addicts.”
I kind of missed it, but apparently on the plane to Jamaica, the other kid had Cornell’s backpack on his lap. I don’t know why that would be, but I guess that would explain it.
It was from the keychain, I thought. Symptom of the radiation sickness. After all, he DID hold the backpack in his lap on the plane (I think they said - or hinted at - that).
Not bad, but not one of my favorites. They spent too much time fleshing out the father/son relationship, and to be honest I don’t care much about those people because I will never see them again. I only care about them in relation to how the show’s main characters react to them and learn from them. Oh well, at least radiation poisoning was a new malady.
I was not impressed with the portrayal of House’s parents. Like Cameron, I guess I was expecting to get more insight about House from them. Like his father’s hangup about the truth - why couldn’t we have picked that up through interaction between House and his father, instead of from exposition during House’s later conversation with Cameron?
Because Cameron’s reaction to it may be interesting (in future episodes). I think it’s part of House’s attempt to break Cameron down to make her, in his eyes, a good doctor. Part of that involves lying to get what you need (at least for House).
Because I believe, once again, House is full of shit. He is a chronic liar when it comes to direct questions to him. Perhaps his folks are just boring everyday people and House is just the way he is with or without them.
His Father probably just doesn’t believe House is as bad off as House says he is and that being called out by his dad is a slap in Gregory’s face.
House probably lied about the $5000 as well. I think everytime he is called on a lie he just ups the Ante and makes the lie bigger.
I’m guessing that we’re going to see more from the parents in the future, and that this will be fleshed out.
That said, I DID like House’s dad talking to Cameron:
“He told us all about you.”