House (Season 3 Premiere)

Cafe Society
1

OK, what THE hell was that? Is it just me or did they totally leave the thread from last years season finale hanging? What the hell was that, did Elias Koteas ask for too much money to come back for the premiere?

So House totally hallucinates that entire episode, including the coma-leg treatment thing and his punching out Wilson, but here we are 8 weeks later and his leg is healed along with the gun shots.

Wasn’t he in dire peril as the last episode ended? They just leave it hanging and let us assume he’s patched up fine? All that so we can get to an episode where Cutty and Wilson put House back into line?

What the fuck was that? So disappointed.

2

I don’t think they left it hanging at all. At the very end of the season 2 finale, he finally comes out of his hallucination and says he wants the treatment for his leg that he had hallucinated about. The gunshots themselves were not in vital areas, so having them removed and healed is not unreasonable, especially after the 8 weeks we know has passed. The issue this episode is that the treatment that has miraculously fixed House’s leg (or so it seems) have brought personality changes.

The writers of this show think like House does: his gunshots were diagnostically boring, so there was no need to show them fixing that. I thought this episode was fantastic. We’re finally seeing some real character growth on House’s part, albeit chemically induced.

3

I think the changes are like House said in Forever (the episode where Foreman comes back after his near death): “Nearly dieing changes everything…for two months”. In this episode, he’s trying to connect with everything that he “should” feel, now that he’s “healthy”.

I liked Cameron having a backbone. I liked her hair.

I actually liked the actions and motivations behind what needed to be done in the episode, but it isn’t one of my favorite eps. Of course, a lot of times season premieres suffer, especially when they are the resolution of a cliffhanger; expository dialogue, away!

Susan

4

Ah, but the thing is, it didn’t. House still didn’t feel anything for the patients; he was in it for the game, for the “high” he got, either via the drugs or figuring out the puzzle. He’s beginning to realize that unlike what he told Foreman, almost dying didn’t change him, and he’s trying to figure out what that means for him.

And they tied it up just fine- they dialogued about the police never finding the shooter, about Cuddy giving him the Special K induced coma therapy, about the requisite 8 weeks rehab for “getting shot in the neck and stomach,” and even that scar we saw on the side of his neck was in about the right healing stage.

I liked it, even though I was genuinely afraid of what a physically healed House would be like. It’s nice to see he’s still pretty fucked up.

5

Slow starter, but I’m glad that they are deviating from the House Formula at least a little bit.

Good line about the length of the rehab he took…“But then I would only be able to run six miles and I wouldn’t be here”.

I liked the stealing of the vicodin perscription from Wilson at the end too. Think that he’s going to get it filled?

6

Can’t wait for next week! It looked like something out of X-Files.

7

I didn’t like the ending with Wilson telling Cuddy not to tell House his cure worked because “he needs to learn to hear the word no.” WTF? Why? Is Wilson the Supernanny now?

8

I think I may start actually watching the show again. It wasn’t bad at all.

9

No kidding, what was that? The guy miraculously cures a hopeless case, much like he’s always done, and this time they feel the need to keep it from him as they attribute it to “luck”. The entire show is about him having this kind of “luck” over and over again.

I for one am not looking forward to a break from the formula. The formula and the character of House is what I like, don’t go screwing with it. If you need to change something to avoid stagnation don’t change your bread and butter. It’s like Star Trek deciding they need to have Captain Kirk explore life away from Star Fleet by becoming a florist.

10

Then I would argue that his personality has changed – an increased willingness for self-reflection.

11

I hated Cameron’s new hair.

Actually, while this episode had its moments (of course) I found the whole thing rather dull. Most of the good parts of the episode involved Lisa Edelstein - particularly the line about a pancreas exploding because the brain was on fire.

12

Up until the end of the episode, I kept thinking we were still in House’s mind, but that he had gone on to the next step in his healing… no way after 8 weeks (or was it 3 months and 8 weeks of PT) would he be that agile… from no running to running 8 miles? don’t think so.

I did like the resolution, I can believe that the shot had a ‘temporary affect’ in that it masked whatever was causing the actual issue… a diagnoses tool like he did to the biker…

I did not like Cuddy and Wilson deciding to hide the truth from House… as a recovering addict (functional or not) he needed to know that he could get the high he wanted from patients/diagnoses and that he did not need the vicodine… their little ruse sent him right back for the fall… and this time without the pain from the leg to offset the real affects of his addiction…

Loved the episode, can’t wait to see what happens next week… and after… and after.

13

I also don’t think it’s a good idea for Wilson and Cuddy to keep the truth from House, but it did give Wilson the chance to use the excellent closing line, “Everybody lies.”

14

I’d never seen it before and heard such good things about it, and of course I love Hugh Laurie . . . But I just couldn’t get into it and turned it off after a half-hour or so. I guess it’s one of those shows you have to watch from the beginning; come in during season three and you’re lost.

15

Yes…and No. The show is pretty easy to get into when it stays to formula. Only small components of each plot reflects any past episodes, however this episode broke form drastically. Part of that’s likely because it’s a season premiere and networks insist on something “special” there and because they had to do so much exposition to catch everyone up. As you may have noticed this episode was a major diversion (to it’s detriment) from what makes the show so enjoyable.

In short, you picked the wrong episode to pop your cherry with.

16

I sort of feel that his “assholeness” could be more easily excused due to the constant leg pain he had to overcome to function.

It was part and parcel of his whole persona, and now this health kick, running, skateboarding, etc just does not fit the image I have of House.

Will have to see what happens. Didn’t he, at one point, rub his leg as though he felt the pain coming back? Anybody think it may return?

17

Nope. Because I heard that the cane was giving Hugh Laurie problems with his leg or something. So my assumption is that it’s probably gone for good.

18

She had what was hands-down the best line of the episode (if not the entire series):

“You come bursting in here 24 times a year…”

(there are 24 episodes in a season)

19

Major spoiler warning, so don’t read if you don’t want to know what’s coming up:

Yes, it will return–and not very long from now, either. I believe by episode 3 it will be back, and the cane will be back soon as well. That’s part of this season’s story arc, and there will be some very interesting developments regarding House’s Vicodin addiction and David Morse guest-starring in several episodes as a cop who’s almost as cranky as House himself.

20

Yep.

He also talked to Wilson about it and asked for a Vicodin scrip. It was a fairly major part of the episode. Wilson told him it was due to his over exerting himself.