House is in jail…as an employee? Or a prisoner?
I want to know as well how they are going to explain Cuddy’s departure.
I don’t follow House much these days but I really liked this episode with him in a prison setting and out of a traditional hospital.
For the next episode preview
I am disappointed that it looks like he will be back in a proper hospital setting.
Why’d he take all those pills from the blister pack then flush the rest? That just made it necessary to steal more from the infirmary.
I don’t know about anybody else, but if I wasn’t fully aware that this was the season premiere I’d be thinking I’d missed the first episode. I felt really lost with all prison side stories. What was with the top bunk guy (I’ll call him Chief) and the guy with the Nazi tattoo (we can call him Darby). I’m just assuming they were trying to thrust us into the story without spending a whole lot of time on it because he’s just about to get out and they were more concerned with the novelty of a prison style POTW and a doctor with no tools, no equipment and no team (though he did basically have a big black Masters)
I didn’t catch what House said about flushing away some of the pills.
There was a female guard in the infirmary. Could she really serve in a men’s prison?
Can prisoners request protective custody at any time?
Did they think we would believe it was lupus? House wouldn’t believe it was lupus. It’s never lupus.
Yes, there are female guards in men’s prisons. One was recently murdered on the job in Washington State.
At that point he didn’t plan to steal more; he immediately asked to be taken into protective custody.
He said, “Saving us both from contraband charges.” Then after asking for protective custody, he had one of his patented flashes of insight when he saw someone drinking coffee.
I’d agree the episode was written in the “middle of the story” as relates House’s prison term. I don’t recall if they said how long it’s been, but they did mention at some point he didn’t have a lawyer and took the first plea they offered him. So we’re apparently going back to the earlier, crankier, bitter, cynical character of the first few years (which should be a good thing).
Will be interesting to see how they explain Cuddy’s absence, and the whole dynamic with House being an actual ex-con with specific restrictions even when back at Plainsboro could be good for the show’s dynamics.
Next week: House is back at the hospital. Foreman is lording it over him. House’s office looks like a desk in a walk in closet, and House’s team looks like a 20 year old medical student. (Nelson Muntz: Ha-Ha!)
I loved the part when the “psychotic killer roommate” started beating up the guys who were going to shank House.
ETA: I just realized that House was the only regular cast member in this episode. It was nice to see the big black doctor dude again.
I’m thinking they’ll just say she gave them a ‘him or me’ ultimatum and the hospital chose him which would be odd. He may be the best doctor in the state, but I think the hospital and even Wilson would chose Cuddy over House for a coworker.
Either that or it’ll be explained that she decided that she just can’t deal with his crap any more and found that the best way to get deal with it was to pack up and move to another state.
Would anyone else like to see sexy female prison doctor become a regular, replacing Cuddy?
I don’t think she’s quite the administrator type…team member maybe. It was rather convenient of her to get fired wasn’t it. Not just fired but soooo fired.
I meant replacing Cuddy as the sexy female (and maybe House love interest) doctor, not as the administrator. Yeah, it was so convenient I wonder if that’s where the show is heading.
Sounds like the typical setup for a new doctor. One time though House’s infatuation led him to hire Dr. Sexy, and then fire her shortly after.
I work at a men’s prison; my sweetie was a guard at the same one for a number of years before taking medical retirement due to incapacitation during a riot. I don’t work behind the fence, so I was asking MrTao about what was possible or not in the episode, since I was curious. 
There are LOTS of female guards at our prison, many of them older, out of shape, or with attitudes that make you wonder how on earth they could be a guard. But they are, so…<shrug> (I can’t qualify, as my eyes are bad. Go figure) It also seems weird to me that female guards are put on desk duty when they become visibly pregnant, but female office workers or medical workers are allowed behind the fence even if too pregnant to move. It’s a little weird to me, as they are also within prisoner reach, but I suppose it’s the difference between dealing with low-level inmates <least risk> and having to extract a combatant murderer from his cell three times a night.
Anyway, the one thing that struck both my sweetie and myself was that House seemed to NOT be a level 1 inmate. To me, not having been behind the fence to work, it seemed a pretty open place. Sweetie claims they seem to be level 2-3 at least, which is a lot more restrictive. (Still seems pretty open to me!) So, we have to wonder how House got put in with more obviously violent guys, when his first real felony was pretty damn minor in the scheme of things. Sweetie also says calling for protective custody doesn’t work like that, though he didn’t elaborate, so…<shrug>
Interesting episode, and yeah, I am thinking they’ll keep the prison doc around for a while in the House universe. WAY too big a set-up not to.
Edited to correct CAT TYPOS. STOP TRYING TO HELP, CATS!
I’m a huge House fan, but I didn’t really like this episode too much. I’m getting increasingly tired of the “House does the most self-destructive thing possible” track they seem to be going down. I know it wouldn’t have been very good television to have him simply collect the 20 Vicodin and hand them over, but when you’re in prison and a bunch of neo-Nazi guys with ties outside are threatening to do you in if you don’t hand 'em over…most sane people would just hand 'em over and worry about the philosophical ramifications later when they’re outside.
Yeah, I know, House isn’t all that sane. But I definitely liked him better in the earlier seasons when he was still sarcastic but a lot more “grounded” than he seems to be now. The incessant self-destructiveness is getting really old.
I choose to believe that she opted to leave for her own sanity, so she would not, every day, be faced with the dilemma of beating House to death with his own cane (more enjoyable) and shooting him in the face (more efficient).
Ye gods, why do you hate the woman?
Btw…anyone else laugh at the ‘It’s lupus!’ statement?
The guy in his cell was I think intended to be a foil for House, someone who clearly belonged there and was unintelligent and did things for unexplainable reasons, relying on his physical intimidation rather than his cunning to get his way. He also had a sense of jailhouse honor where House helped him with his cricket so he helped him when he was about to get shanked.
As for the Nazi guy, what I gathered was the he was shaking down House for Vicodin as protection. Someone like House is going to need an ally in a prison. He managed to outsmart the big guy wanting his radio, but eventually he’d run into a point where a guy will just kick the crap out of him.
They said he’d served 8 months of a 12 month sentence. They also said he had fled the country for 3 months. So it should be roughly 11 months after the crash.
I do think it was accurate though when the doctor said he took the first plea because he was punishing himself. He doesn’t really seem any more cynical to me though, other than the adjustments he’s obviously had to make to pull through on the inside. He does clearly care most about his puzzles, as demonstrated by backing out of protective custody and starting the riot in both cases to get to the infirmary.
I expect that she voluntarily moved. Even if PPH wouldn’t bring House back, she still probably felt like he was obsessive and didn’t want to have any sort of risk of him interfering.
I’m under the impression that she’s more of a replacement for 13, in much the same way that Masters was last season.