House: Adverse Events
By fred | October 1, 2008
(S05E03) Another episode of the House, medical drama that isn’t really ever about anything medical. We all know this show is about people, it’s a character-driven show, the medical mysteries at the center of each episodes are just there to give some kind of reason or excuse for all those people to be involved with another another. And because this show is all about House being who he is, there’s one thing that you can pretty much bet will never happen : House changing.
He can’t change, he needs to be that way we’ve known him from years now, no matter what, because that’s the cranky doctor we all know and love, and tune in each week to find back. But that doesn’t mean the writers of the show won’t do their best to shake things up and never let the show fall into the same boring repetitive situations week after week.
The latest addition to that effect is Lucas, the P.I. House hired, but not so much to get info on the patients, for that he’s got other doctors, instead Lucas is there to spy on Wilson, Cuddy, or previously mentioned other doctors from his team. This week, it was all about one of them : Taub.
He’s not really been a favorite of mine, but he’s always been around and I don’t think I ever disliked him. Taub is like anybody else, he’s got secrets, and this week it seems that what Lucas found out, and what House used to mess with Taub, wasn’t really anything new. Of course, his wife having a secret account was new to both of them, despite Taub’s claim of the contrary.
But the underlying secret here that Taub wanted to talk to his wife at the end, was it just that he thinks that’s an incredible gift she’s giving him and it might be because she feels guilty for something she did, or is it that Taub himself feels guilty over his affair he got fired for before getting a job for House, the affair House already knows about as they’ve gone through it last season already ?
Was House trying to push Taub to reveal to his wife his past fault, or trying to get him to be suspicious over his wife ? Was he really trying to break the marriage apart because he thought that would result in Taub more committed to the job ?
The main flaw of this story though, was how conveniently it mirrored the situation the patient of the week was in, about lying or not, whether or not someone is happier being lied to, or knowing the truth. I also found the whole thing to be quite odd, because while him not recognizing Taub & Thirteen sounded to me like something that could happen, that his painting were completely deformed without him being able to tell the difference was quite odd, wasn’t it?
I also wonder how rapidly this thing was kicking in and out, because it had been going on for months now, so I assume he somehow never ever looked at one of his deformed painting during a time he was not affected by it, otherwise he would have noticed something, obviously, right?
Side note: no one should mess with Thirteen, because she will punch you in the face !
Anyways, this wasn’t the weakest part of the episode though, because while I will say that I think Lucas is growing on me, I didn’t really buy any of this whole new love triangle : House/Cuddy/Lucas. Seriously, him being interested in Cuddy, sure, and we all know House might be as well, but the whole scene with Lucas and Cuddy at the restaurant didn’t sound right to me, felt too forced. House needs a new friend and Lucas seems to have replaced Wilson already, expect there’s one major difference in the use House makes of those two friends, besides the fact that Wilson came free of charge.
The difference is that Lucas is here to help House play his games, spy on everyone, undercover secrets and use them to mess people up, be House. Be Wilson had a much more important use : he helped trigger House’s brain, allowed him to go places he wouldn’t usually go on his own, and helped him see the light and solve the mystery. Lucas doesn’t do that, he’s probably way too similar to House in the way they both see the world.
Sure, Lucas is lighter, he knows it’s part of his job whereas for House it’s part of who he is, how he deals with people and the world. House has a constant pain and he really doesn’t like or trust people, Lucas is more open. But if their similar ways of thinking make for fun exchange, they’re too close to get House the kick he needs to be the genius he has to be.
As a matter of fact, and this was a real shock to me, although I can be wrong and this might not be the first time ever this has happened, probably not, but it sure doesn’t happen every day : House did not solve the mystery this week. More than that, House was wrong ! Yes, it sounds amazing, but House was wrong, the procedure he had asked for wouldn’t have helped, this week it was no other than Taub who get it right, it was indeed the mix of experimental drugs that were responsible. Taub was right, he figured it out, this week he is the one was solved the mystery and saved the patient, House was only the messenger looking at the files !
I don’t know if this is a sign of things to come, but I would love to see House being wrong more often, I would love for other members of his team to get to solve the mystery of the week every once in a while, I would also love for them not to be able to save the patient from time to time, but I doubt that’ll ever happen sadly.
Anyways, another great episode. What’s your opinion ? Were you surprised to see that House didn’t solve this week’s mystery ? Do you like Lucas ? Or prefer Wilson ?
House did actually get the diagnosis, helped by Taub’s confirmation that the drugs had to be the culprit. House was the one who realised the only way the drugs could still hang around is in the–hairball thingie, forget the name. That was the core of the mystery–they’d had the drugs diagnosis from early on. I really liked this one, and I bought the PI-Cuddy scenes with no problem. However, I think Cuddy not only saw through House’s game with the PI, she’s using him as a gamepiece herself. I think she recognised House was obliquely asking her to play.
Well, okay, so maybe House did solve the mystery, in a way, but he was still wrong. House had an idea/theory, and Taub had another one.
House ordered a surgery, while Taub went to look at the old paintings. Which then confirmed he (Taub) was right, so he called House. Granted, Taub didn’t know how to explain it, House did - but he was looking at the files. ;)
Still, House was wrong this time, the key to solve the mystery, the right diagnosis, it was coming from Taub, and then some team work with House. It wasn’t a brilliant idea from House that nobody else saw, unlike it usually is.