House: Mirror Mirror
By fred | November 1, 2007
(S04E05) So here we go with another episode, where House is still figuring out which ones of the remaining doctors will be fired and which ones will become his new team, all that of course while treating patients. And this week, we got a pretty unusual and quite interesting case. To be fair, at some point I started questioning whether or not it was good, or just a “cheap” way to get some inside views of our aspiring team members.
But even if the case was good and there was also things to say about all of House’s staffers, ex or future, of course that’s not the main plot development of the week, no this week was also the “reintroduction” of Foreman to the show. So let’s start by talking about that.
I’ve said many times that, while having no personal grudge for either the actor or the character, I thought they should have had let Epps go, because if there was one that should not have been written back this year, it was Foreman.
I’ll be honest, the way it was all done was - as one may expect from the great writers working on this show - a really good one. But still, I didn’t like it. It’s not that I didn’t like the way it was done, but the very simple fact that it was done. Because the guy quit, he left House, the hospital, the town, he ran away. He did not want to stay any longer, he did not want to “become” House, or like him.
And while House himself addressed all those issues, in his very own style - “Get a raise ? Cause, then you’re a whore. Or didn’t you?, cause then you’re a stupid whore!” - and Foreman explained himself, that he couldn’t find a job anywhere else, let’s not forget that the reason for this wasn’t his time with House, but the decision he made during his first week on his next job, decisions that - yes - showed he’d been “corrupted”.
As shown when he met with our patient of the week, Foreman is now like House, because he knows what should be done, what has to be done for the patient, and that’s all that matters. Maybe that’s not protocol, maybe that’s not the way you’re supposed to act, but it is what needs to be done, so he must find a way to get it done. Sure, House loves not only to do that, but enjoys to make a show out of it, and manipulate or make fun of people along the way as well, whereas Foreman might be more low key.
Still in the end, they are very much alike. Because despite his apparent disinterest for the patient and focus on the case, in the end House is trying to solve the mystery, and the first (indirect) consequence of a mystery solved is, most of the times, the recovery of the patient.
And I know they’ve shown that in the end, while miserable, he liked working here, and maybe even actually wanted to stay. Doesn’t change the fact that he’s a stupid whore, if you ask me. Again, it was well made though. And to keep on the main theme of the case of the week, on a few occasions we were hinted that in fact Foreman actually became like House, the two of them were quite similar. Just like when House mirrored him while standing in front of the candidates. Sure, he was mocking him. But it was also sign that they were pretty much alike.
As I’ve said, it’s not the how it was done that bothered me, just that it happened. But the truth is, there’s also something I’m not sure I liked either in the way it was done. This week, and it’s understandable, we saw a lot of Foreman. Because he was back into House’s team, as a member. Well, no not really, he wasn’t just a regular member, because he was - allegedly - the boss. He was the eyes and ears of Cuddy. First off, that sounds vaguely familiar to me…
Then, while for the week I could see why, it also seemed like this was going to be new new dynamic for a while here, with Foreman that involved in the case. As a result, we might expect to see a lot of him, maybe almost as much as we did the previous years. What I don’t like in this, is that we would get a lot of him, but still very less of Chase & Cameron.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not really asking for more of those two, not really. I actually liked, as I’ve explained before, that we didn’t get much of them. Unlike miserable stupid whore here, the two of them might not have moved away, but they left House, and they’re pretty happy with it. Bringing them back to House somehow would probably feel even more forced than it did with Foreman.
Yet, Chase was pretty much a supporting supporting character while Cameron barely had any screen time. I know I just said I didn’t want them more involved, and I sure as Hell don’t them separate stories about them only either, but it still feels weird that the one character who really wanted to leave and run away gets to be the one who’s actually “fully” back, as a “real” regular.
