I got the impression that Cuddy was the one pulling the pranks. When Lucas found out, he took the blame and blackmailed House and Wilson into not retaliating or else he’d tell Cuddy they bought the condo because they were supposedly friends with her and what kind of friends would do that? And then he goes back to Cuddy (who already knows they outbid her, hence her pranks) and says something along similar lines about what kind of a friend she was to be pulling such extreme pranks but that they wouldn’t retaliate. In essence, Lucas was trying to stabilize/save the friendships between House, Cuddy, and Wilson. I was very sleepy though, so I may have just imagined this whole thing at the end.
To me House looked both surprised and shocked when he saw the soldier’s amputated foot. So I figured that the soldier either told House he would go with the new course of antibiotics and then didn’t, or managed to get another doctor to keep him on the old course of antibiotics. I can’t see any doctor agreeing to amputate a perfectly healthy foot, so somehow he had to have let the infection spread far enough to require total foot amputation.
This. This is pretty much what I saw in the pranking, though I didn’t see Lucas as saving the friendships so much as ensuring that the pranks stop with Cuddy as the victor and Wilson and House unable to retaliate.
House told him that the only way his foot was going to get worse was if he didn’t take his medicine, and if he did that, he’d lose more than just his toe. Since he’d done exactly what House told him not to do before, the best guess would be that he did it again. He didn’t take his medicine.
Ah. I didn’t think he’d be allowed to leave the hospital at that point, so I didn’t think he’d have the option of not taking the medicine.
Of course, I’ve never shot myself in the foot…literally.
I’ll admit that I did have a bit of trouble with the soldier story, because I have some personal experience with a similar situation. My wife was diabetic and developed an infection on her foot (not from trying to shoot her toe off, of course);she was admitted to the hospital and they put her on antibiotics but after two days they had to amputate four toes. The infection continued to spread and they ended up taking off half of her foot. Based on this, I can only assume that the soldier was never actually admitted to the hospital. Most likely House had given him a prescription for different antibiotics which he not only didn’t take, but deliberately waited until the infection had spread enough that it was necessary to amputate his whole foot. Which was a damn stupid thing to do, because there was a real risk that the infection could have gotten into his blood and spread further into his body.
Can’t be Cuddy because Lucas knew about the sprinklers, and Cuddy only first mentions the pranks to him after he mentions the sprinklers to House and Wilson.
What happens is that Cuddy and Lucas somehow both find out about the condo. Cuddy tells Lucas not to retaliate but Lucas retaliates anyway. He lies to Wilson and House about Cuddy’s knowledge of their condo coup in order to stop House and Wilson from retaliating. Lucas then lies to Cuddy about being the one who is setting the pranks.
I don’t get the soldier though. If House didn’t help him, then what was the point of him being in this episode?
I also don’t see Cuddy sneaking into someone’s apartment with a live opossom and a screwdriver. Lucas, though, probably does things like that every day.
Remember, Cuddy loves him largely because he’s a less-misanthropic version of House.
I’m pretty sure Cuddy knew Lucas was the prankster and Lucas knew she knew. His denial was more of the “wink-wink, nudge-nudge” variety - plausible deniability and all that.
I’m probably the only one who not only didn’t find the pranks funny, but thought that if I was in that situation I would be extremely pissed off and want to beat the s**t out of Lucas.
First, the “pranks” cost House and Wilson thousands of dollars, and second, the prank with loosening House’s hand rail could of caused him to knock himself out and drown (it seems like a possibility to me anyway).
Actually, I’d risk losing a friendship to send a guy like that to jail.
Ah that explains it. I’m a Southerner!
other than the possum, i didn’t find the pranks especially inspired either. loosening the handrail wouldn’t have been as good as just stealing the handrail alltogether. the sprinklers going off was just lazy writing of a prank that would reveal that wilson was not the prankster.
i was expecting some more lighthearted, if trite/cliche pranks like ordering 100 pizzas to wilson, messing with Wilson’s laundery, etc. things are cliche for a reason - they work.
PS, ZERO chance that cuddy was the prankster. breaking and entering? possum catching? lucas coming out and flat out tripping House? how transparent does the writing have to be to have flashing neon lights point to lucas?
I think it would have been great if House had hired Foreman’s brother for the sole purpose of pulling pranks on Wilson. Of course, that could still happen.
I liked the sprinkler prank only because of the way Wilson was trying to wipe the flat screen. 
That was simply beautiful.
You are absolutely not the only one. There’s a difference between pranks and vandalism.
I’m generally the LAST person who would ever want to get the police involved in something, but what else could you do in this case? Tell everyone that the sprinklers went off because you burned some food? Cover for someone who just destroyed your stuff and damaged your beautiful new home? If you have insurance, would you commit insurance fraud by lying about the cause?
I’m sure in the House universe they’ll have no problem committing insurance fraud.
It’s kind of funny, my interest in the show waxes and wanes, and to be honest, about the only reason I watch it at all is that my wife loves it. Everybody complains about 13 but she’s never bothered me. I haven’t really cared for Lucas that much, but after this episode I really can’t wait for him to go. I hope it’s soon.
Did anyone else who’s familiar with the NFL draft think that they kind of overstated the “I’ve gotta get into that game or my career is over” aspect last night?
I know they said that the kid was I-AA, but at the beginning he was supposed to be dominating the practices leading up to the game. So, from there, he’s not going to be drafted because he wasn’t able to play in the game itself? (If anything, the concern would be that he collapsed in practice after an off-the-ball incident and was later diagnosed with “cancer”.)
Seriously, someone would have spent a late rounder on him or at least invited him as a free agent!
totally. it wasn’t even a bowl game - it was the senior bowl (evidenced by the different helmets worn at the practice). true that he might not have been a lock like Oher and others who have the luxury of skipping the senior bowl, but he can definitely climb the draft board at the combine and with individual workouts. If he’s really as good as advertised, and if melanoma is the real cause of his illnesses, he should be golden.
seriously, melanoma compared to shoulder/knee injuries, tendinitis, etc? this kid is almost certain to be getting an NFL paycheck.
How is the pizza order “lighthearted”? Wouldn’t someone have to pay for a thousand dollars worth of wasted pizza?
Any pizzeria that doesn’t call back to confirm an order that size deserves what it gets.
Exactly. There’s no way he “wouldn’t be drafted”.