Can one of you explain in a little more detail about the amantadine?
CTB has cold or flu symptoms and took it. Was that bad thing?
I understand the part about kidney failure not allowing for filtration but I don’t understand why she took it in the first place.
Never been a fan of CTB - the character or the actress - but she was just perfect in this episode.
I missed part of the conversation House and 13 had in the bathroom stall (hooray for living close to an airport.) How did it come up that 13 felt she needed to test herself for Huntington’s? Did she mention one of her parents had it? And if so, how did they go from talking about Amber to that?
The Huntington’s didn’t really come up in this episode – it had come up earlier in the season. Thirteen knew that she could have inherited it and took the test, then changed her mind and decided that she didn’t want to know the results. House knew, but we didn’t. It is presumed that seeing another young female doctor close to death gave her the impetus to test herself again to learn what kind of time she might have left.
Apparently it’s fine to take amantadine (an anti-viral drug) if you have the flu, although the Polite Dissent doc says that two pills was an overdose. The amantadine is filtered out of your body by your kidneys. But CTB took the pills and then the bus crash immediately destroyed her kidneys, so the amatadine stayed in her system and destroyed her organs.
House figured out a few episodes ago that 13 was at risk for Huntington’s (her mother died of it). When he confronted her about, she told him that she never got tested because if she had it, there was nothing she could do about it, so what’s the point in knowing.
In this episode, 13 has problems dealing with trying to diagnose Amber. In the bathroom stall, House tells her that the reason she’s having the problem is because she’s been in denial about maybe having Huntington’s, and seeing a young woman dying for no good reason is forcing her to deal with possibly having a disease that will mean she’ll die at a young age for no good reason. So, she should just get over herself and treat her patient.
AnneDudek is 6’ and I have a thing for tall ruthless women, so Amber is just the kinda woman I’d fall for. That aside, I think her acting in this episode was top notch, mostly because its subtlety.
Also, maybe my own fear of getting the annual test results back three years after having (succesfully) removed a kidney due to a malignant tumor, but the agony of 13 resonated with me. The medicine might be bullshit, but the emotions are real.
Which is why I love the show.
What exactly is Huntington’s Disease?
When Wilson turned and grabbed Cuddy as he started sobbing, realizing that he was going to have to wake Amber up to say goodbye…I lost it. Excellent episode.
My take: There wasn’t a symptom. In the previous episode, he just knew someone was dying and assumed he must have seen a symptom and went about trying to piece together what it would have been. Instead, it was Amber in the bus crash. This episode was about Amber’s further complications and happened to tie in with House noticing the amantadine before the crash.
Huntington’s Disease, also known as Huntington’s chorea, is a genetic neurological disorder, which causes physical and cognitive problems which, while not themselves fatal, usually result in a shortened lifespan and decreased quality of life.
That being quite the understatement…
There is no cure.
I kinda liked the different arrangement of “Teardrop,” the show’s theme song, that was played around the middle of the episode.
I picked up on something on that scene on the bus during House’s coma. He says something like he doesn’t want to go back, because it hurts. Amber says “We don’t always get what we want.” I took that to mean that she didn’t want to die, but she did.
I predict Wilson will be furious at House for awhile, but he’ll get over it. He has to blame something/someone, and House is the closest fit.
Oh, and Amber got on the bus to give House his cane, which he’d left in the bar.
This site is by a doctor who loves House, but he also grades based on the medical aspect. According to him, Amber did take too much amantadine (why do I keep thinking it’s the stuff they injected into Wolverine?) (on preview, I see Eleanor beat me to it. By quite a bit.) :o
I think that since Amber (apparently) wasn’t brain damaged, it was the right thing to do to wake her up. If nothing else, it would give her the chance to say her good byes to Wilson and anyone else she needed to…
Yah - can you even be conscious on a heart bypass machine?
Agreed. The look of absolute, oh-damn-I-can’t-wake-up horror on her face is utterly chilling.
By the way, you start spoiler boxes by typing the word “SPOILER” in between brackets, and “/SPOILER” in brackets when you’re done with the text you want in the box.
I am wondering if she would have been in trouble with the overdose even if she hadn’t been in the accident and if they intend for that to come out later or if her taking 2 pills was just an oversight on the writer’s part.
Also, wouldn’t oseltamivir have been much safer for the flu?
I had just finished watching Season one of House on DVD before I saw this episode (as I’m catching up on the show, i discovered it halfway through this season, so i know the ending and now the first season but thats about it).
But that line from the Rolling Stone’s song is how they ended the First season, and how the started the pilot episodes as well. That line came up aLOT during Season one, and i thought it was a nice tie in to end this season with it there as well… Tis a great song.
Can’t you go to the FOX website and see it?
I remember asking myself as that happened: “is that the first nice thing he’s done for Wilson?”
I disagree and I think essentially the premise of the episode is illogical. House realized that pre-crash, he saw symptoms in someone that indicated they would die. Amber had no pre-crash symptoms. It only logically works if he can somehow diagnose kidney failure from the crash in the few moments he has with her - but given there’s no obvious trauma to the area, and he was probably focusing on the bar through the leg, that seems unlikely.
He may have known about Jane Doe #2’s renal failure, but he was convinced he needed to find the person whose symptoms he saw well before he saw her chart. The premise is essentially that House is searching for information that he can’t remember, but it’s information he didn’t have.
I’m not sure. I think there’s value in being able to say anything you’ve meant to say… I mean, I guess she would’ve never known if they hadn’t woken her up, but it gives her the chance to get her affairs in order… and to make religious peace, which has sort of a Pascal’s wager value to it.
Tough call to make. Wilson did it for selfish reasons, though, not for her benefit.
I never did open heart unit, and there may well be a level of awareness while on it, but not to the extent that you’re able to talk to your BF and say your goodbyes.
The most recent episode is shown online 8 days after initial airing, just FYI.
SenorBeef–but Wilson’s doing so for that reason is no less noble or important-selfish, perhaps, but necessary for both of them. He is the ultimate enabler, the doormat, the person who wants to make you happy, so becomes invisible. To assert his need to such an extent demonstrates remarkable growth, all due to his relationship with Amber. It’s that and the whole bit about Amber being mad that Wilson got the bed he thought she wanted that made me finally accept Amber. And I think what House might be more afraid of is not Wilson’s grief (afterall, House knows a thing or two about loss), but that Wilson is no longer Wilson the “I’ll put up with anything” friend. The balance of power has shifted, ever so slightly, and not in House’s favor.
I think Amber was ok with being awoken, but that’s dramatic license. Certainly the actress made the most of her death scene–one of the best I’ve seen.
“You can’t always get what you want.” said by Amber… I took it as a jibe at House (but also a wry reference to her own situation); a call to stop trying to have his cake and eat it to, that he isn’t the most important person in the room always and that he now needs to face some unpleasant music. To his credit, I think he’s aware of that and that’s why he hung back. I think he doesn’t really know what to do next and that it will be up to Wilson to make the next move–a very uncomfortable position for House.