Here is an article about the ketamine coma, which it says is not approved in the US. House taking liberties with allowable practices? Never! 
Will he really be a different guy without his chronic pain??
Does anybody know if the robot arm thingy is based on a real medical device? If so, what would the purpose of such a contraption be?
Well, he was a jerk before the pain. So I’m guessing “No”.
Keeping all that goop off your fingers? AIDS-proofing?
(I do know of a real-life experience a friend had after he got a little shard of metal in his eye. It was right over the pupil. The eye-doctor used a dentist’s drill to extract it, but my friend had to keep his eye open and look directly at the drill without moving so much as a hair’s breadth. After the successful extraction and paying the doctor, he walked out onto the street and collapsed in a dead faint. True story – or at least related to me as such and I believe it.)
Got that beat Tostitoes. In my bowl was a mix of salsa and cheeze…Half and half but by that point it was mixing rather sloppily.
I still took a bite afterwards… But I couldn’t look in the bowl asain
Great episode… enjoyed the gore and use of the robot to undress and fondle the hot doctor chick!
I think House said that the point of the robot was that it could make very precise and small incisions.
Although, that probably doesn’t apply when a whackjob is using it. When he was undressing Cameron may have been the point I decided the whole thing was a hallucination, although I was suspecting the possibility before that.
Pudding? Salsa? Bah! I got you both beat, I was eating eyeballs and I just couldn’t eat anymore after that scene.
[sub]I just threw up a little in my mouth when I typed that.[/sub] 
HOLY SHIT. Please God let me never have to do that.
Yeah, I didn’t understand how the robots were so miraculous if a person was still controlling them. Now, program them and let em fly, OK.
Just a guess, but as we work stuff from our real life into our dreams, so should we in halucinations. Right? The eyeballs could represent “seeing” the way to correct his pain. The balls having to do with Cuddy and her need of a donor?
I think it will be more interesting to see if they try the ketamine and next season find out it hasn’t worked. Hugh Laurie may be tired of limping, but the cane and pill-popping are so much a part of the character of House that I can’t see them doing away with it completely. And to have him live with the disappointment of it not working would be more interesting than having it work.
StG
Wow. What an episode. I just finished watching it on Tivo and I’m trying to come to terms with it. I am not a person of gore, and the gore in this one pushed me over the edge. I looked away from all necessary parts, so I didn’t see any of the special effects.
Since my dad watches tv with captions on I caught something which has gone undiscussed this far. The shooter was named as Moriarty when he spoke off camera. I paused and explained to mom just why that was awesome.
I knew something was up with he began seducing Cameron with the robot. However hot robot driven sex may be, it’s a little creepy.
I guess overall I give it two thumbs up as a season finale, a bit heavy handed on gore - but compelling none-the-less.
Wow, this one had me going. I had to look away when that eyeball popped out!
I finally (I’m slow) figured things were off when House didn’t look so bad during the recovery and more so when he was sitting on a car chowing down instead of being in bed. Sure.
There is no way they can take away his pain, his limp, his Vicodin and his cane. They are what makes House who he is. I wouldn’t want him to change too much, goodness knows.
Best line: “People suck.” That’s pretty much his take on everything.
I didn’t like the initial reset option but thinking back over the episode there were enough clues that I should have caught what was going on. The whole ketamine thing - he would do an experimental option in order to cure a patient. Cutty would never have done that behind a patient’s back. She even talked about “allowing the brain to reboot” in that scene.
I loved the robot scene. Looking at the robot controls suddenly makes me want to buy a Nintendo Wii. And yes, “Moriarity” was an awesome choice on all fronts.
I’ve always enjoyed Hugh Laurie but he absolutely blew me away last night. I had no idea he had skills like that.
But I thought House asking for Ketamin at the end was his way of saying, “Yes, let’s try this. And see if it cures my leg.”
Did anyone else see it this way?
Ha! I’ve been saying that for years. My wife actually nudged me when House said that.
I thought that was the most meaningful sentence in the entire episode. He’s willing to be rid of the ailment that he, on some level, rather enjoys having because it supplies him with a reason to be cranky and irritable.
I’m not so sure that he needs a reason, but it is a tool he uses to “get away with it” with a number of people… and maybe he’s outgrowing it.
The really twisted thing is, amputees can have horrendous pain in the limb that’s not there anymore. So perhaps he thinks the risks of the coma are less than the drawbacks of the whole surgery-no-leg-possible-phantom-limb-problems package?
“Moriarty” - that is awesome.
I figured out that the shooter was a hallucination, but didn’t twig to the whole episode being one till House did.
But the shooter wasn’t a hallucination, that’s what wigs me out. He really got shot. His hallucinations began after that, so we don’t really know why he got shot. And we have to wait until next season to find out! Argh!
Presumably the shooter was the guy we saw in the pretitle sequence since House’s team was bringing him in and describing his wounds.
Why the shooter didn’t go after any of them is puzzling as crazed wannabe murderer types usually aren’t that specific.
We will like see House’s team working on him next year even though none of them are trained to work in a trauma unit presumably. They’ll probably end up searching House’s apartment to find evidence instead.