Personally. . .I took it as a nod towards Cuddy. Because, in the first episode, it’s House and Cuddy who had that exchange. And then he wakes up, and Cuddy’s there. She sleeps in the chair by his bed.
He might lose Wilson. He still has Cuddy. And I think that’s what brought him back. Of course. . .I’m a 'shipper, so. . .
I really like the music they add to the show.
Angel–I’m sure that’s a part of it, as well. That is one thing I really like about House (and Six Feet Under–never saw Sopranos): they are like very long novels that unfold in front of us. Sometimes the depth is there and delved into, sometimes it is just there. Can’t wait for next season.
Great episode. Although the decision to wake Amber up prompted my wife and I to agree to NEVER do that if the situation comes up. The only reason either one of us would wake the other is if we’d had some huge argument right before the whatever happened. In that case we decided we’d wake the other so that our last words to each other wouldn’t have been something hateful.
Still, damn good writing and acting.
It certainly would have been more effective; M2 inhibitors like amantidine are not recommended for influenza prophylaxis or treatment due to high levels of resistance (>90%). Amber would have known this and therefore would have been taking a neuraminidase inhibitor instead.
But as has already been said many times in this thread, the medicine in this episode (as usual on TV) was crap. That’s not why we watch House.
I’m afraid I have to agree. My girlfriend and I were watching, and we both balked atBringing Amber back to say "You’re dying. 'Bye now."We were appalled at how needlessly cruel and selfish that was. So we found the last bit entirely contrived as a tear-jerker.
And a genuine question:Did Amber have any other family or friends? There was the maudlin parade of staff coming to say goodbye, but no weeping mom or dad or anything.
Sure, but I think the use of amantidine puts the Big Ball of Fault back in Amber’s court. Sure her kidney’s wouldn’t have been damaged if she hadn’t gone to pick up House but she wouldn’t have had amantidine poisoning if she hadn’t self-medicated with a potentially dangerous and not as effective antiviral. For that matter, she didn’t seem all that sick so why not just take some OTC cold medicine?
IMO the nose and it’s “drainage” was a red herring. I can’t think of one critical disease (likely to cause acute death) that can be diagnosed upon the basis of one noseblow (perhaps if she had blown out gray matter). In the words of one of the characters: sputum is snot (paraphrased). That’s all it is, for purposes such as the one Amber found herself in. Even a bloody nose isn’t assumed to be a brain bleed/tumor/stroke at first.
I ignored the amantidine, just as I ignored the lack of dressing/scar/incision/bruising to her leg that was impaled (when they shoot from above, Amber’s legs are not in bad shape at all). I was in it for the story. Next week I will watch the first half of the show, which I missed.
I think she took the amantidine because she was concerned about flu–ordinary cold meds don’t work to abate flu. (I’m not sure that amantidine does, either, but I’m not about to go look it up).
Was I the only one that got the feeling that one of the scenes at the end was inspired by Harry Potter’s Book Seven?
The scene between House and Amber seemed directly inspired by the scene between Harry and Dumbledore at the end of Deathly Hallows. Both between someone who’s in between life and death (who goes on to live, but must first ask confirmation on their “status”, so to speak) and someone who’s decidedly dead, both with emotional clarification, and both transport-inspired (trains, busses)
Am I reading too much into it?
Not sure when this actual episode will be replayed, but the whole season re-run starts on June 2nd.
Wilson would be mad at House because Amber came to pick him up, and House went on the bus anyways. Had he gone with her, neither of them would have been on the bus.
Only that I doubt that the writers use HP as inspiration for the scripts. Neither of them should have been on the bus–House got his keys taken away, and Amber came to pick him up in lieu of Wilson. Even then, she didn’t need to get on the bus, she gave House his cane. He didn’t ask her to come with or anything.
The “limbo” between life and death is often portrayed as a mode of transport or an all white backdrop, white floor etc. Six Feet Under used both, IMS. I’m sure other shows/films have, too. Rowling was not covering new ground with that bit.
I agree that I doubt it was inspired by HP, but I immediately thought of the same scene while watching House. The two seemed very reminiscent of each other to me.
Is there a reason to have episode review threads that aren’t open spoiler? People who haven’t seen the episodes who try to read these threads will gain little to nothing from it because they have no context, and they aren’t reading half the content.
I’m all for boxing legitimate spoilers, but to conduct an episode discussion thread in spoiler tags seems pointless.
A friend of mine always called that “ass-smelling face.”
As to the waking up thing, I guess if I were in the situation I’d want to be woken, so I could say my goodbyes for one thing. To me, a bit more life is better, even if it means you have to come to terms with your death.
And am I the only one who thought, “Adamantine? Quick, get some other molecules in her and change it to adamantium! Wolverine CTB!”
SwallowedMyCellphone pointed this out too (in spoilers?!) but I want to say it…
Don’t people on TV have mommies or daddies or roommates or anything? Everyone who comes through their hospital has one visitor and that’s about it. Amber had no one. Wilson was all in love with her and didn’t call her folks? The last people she saw other than her boyfriend were a handful of doctors she competed with for a job a few months ago. WTF?
I call this the Ritchie Petrie Syndrome. Remember Ritchie (of Dick van Dyke fame?) He was only there when the script needed him. (sometimes I wish my kids were Ritchie). If Amber’s family had been needed for the plot, they would have been front and center. There have been complete families on before (usually parents of teens or young kids, but there have been kids with step-parents vying for loyalty at the deathbed).
We know a little about Wilson’s family (he has a homeless brother he hasn’t seen in years), and a bit about House’s (dad an ex-Marine who was a tad severe in the punishment department). But really, the non-pertinent family members are not there because there is no time to develop them. No doubt the writers thought that having Amber’s parents show up, having never seen them ever on the show before, would just confuse the audience. Of course, they could have had her mention a few weeks back that her family was all killed years ago in a freak mongoose attack or something, but they didn’t.
There’s not an original idea in any of the Harry Potter books, so the idea of something being inspired by them is a little odd. Conversations – imaginary, magical, or otherwise – with dead people have been a staple of fiction for thousands of years.
I looked up amantadine in Wikipedia; guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that there’s already a paragraph added about this episode of “House”. Given the other information there, it does seem stupid that a doctor would self-medicate with such a potentially dangerous drug without a good reason (and if she already had the flu, as indicated by her back rash, I guess it didn’t work as a prophylactic).
Flu does not cause back rash. I cannot remember what the backrash was caused by, but if they said 'flu, then we have really entered the world of medical fantasy. Blood pooling in her lower back due to her trauma and then causing a huge hematoma (bruise), I can see resembling a rash, sort of (not if you have 20/20 vision), but flu = rash on back? No.
I didn’t realize how long the thread was and didn’t realize how much had already been spoiled. I figured that a parade of people would be a Big Clue.
I really do think that shows should bring in a few extras to play parents at the very least. If the only people who come to your bedside when you are morally ill are a few co-workers, it just looks like something was socially wrong with you.
When Dr. Green died on ER, I’m pretty sure they had a few former cast members come back just to be shot standing around at the funeral. I thought that wa pretty classy.
I too, had looked up amantidine and thought I had seen rash as a side effect. I could be wrong, I’ve had a headache for a few days now. Don’t tell House, he’ll dx my sinusitis as a brain tumor.