House: Whatever It Takes
By fred | November 8, 2007
(S04E06) There’s something that became obvious to me while I was watching this episode. In fact, quite early in the episode I came to the realization that, if the strike was to last for a while (and sadly it seems heading that way), this show is the one I’ll miss the most. Not that others aren’t good or that I don’t enjoy them, but not as much.
Actually, to be complete, I realize it’s those kind of shows that will be the most, the ones with such a great writing. There’s no question that it doesn’t do everything, or that Laurie’s performance isn’t fantastic, but it all comes down to the writing, every time, and the most irritating thing about this strike is that writers are pretty much only asking to be paid for their work, which doesn’t seem that extraordinary to me!
Anyways, I really love this show and I was really happy to get to enjoy another episode.
This is obviously a pretty special episode, because House was on his own helping the CIA while the new interns were left with Foreman to solve the mystery of the week. So we got to follow those two plots at the same time, not just because that’s the way it usually goes but also because there were some similarities with the two — such as the first idea was the right one, both times, even though it got rejected for a reason or another.
House may have been separated from his follow interns but that doesn’t mean he was to behave any different than usual. If anything, he just got to use more one-liner than the usual. This episode was filled was great lines all around, and they were not all coming for House himself.
Before the CIA got involved, I was a little angry at myself because, while I didn’t like the fact that Foreman was here because that’s still something I’m not too fond of, I couldn’t deny that I liked the interaction between the two of them. That said, once House left to go on his secret mission for the CIA, and left Foreman in charge, I got really pissed.
I did, because I still have it right there in my throat, the fact that of all of the original team members, he was the one wanting to leave, and the one who should not hae come back, and yet he became the one who’s back “the most”. I mean we don’t get to see that much or Cameron, even less Chase, and I do really like that - I mean the way it’s done, because that simply makes sense - but Foreman on the other hand is back working with House, is much more around, and now he even got to play the boss.
That’s not something that got me pretty happy, so of course when all the interns started to go at him, and when the other guy was stabbing him good and twisting the knife, yeah I kinda liked that.
“If there is anything you learn today, it’s gotta be that you can be wrong.”
That experience was quite hard on Foreman, but it also showed something : the guy can in no way able to have a team of his own. Plenty of reasons for this : he can’t get respect from the interns and get them to listen to him, he is highly pretentious and always thinks he’s right, quite like the other guy this time, and while House does that too he’s also capable of questioning himself and listening to others, up to a point, something Foreman seems unable to do, also Foreman is still trying to prove he’s not (like) House and that’s not helping anyone.
In the end Foreman got a great vote of confidence from House, “Who the hell did I leave in charge ? - Foreman - There’s a reason for that. Next time listen to him!” which House had (probably) planned from the start. Partly for Foreman, to help him gain his confidence back, and partly for the interns, to remind them they’re still new and need to listen. But what I take out of this is that Foreman can not be in charge, and I sure as Hell don’t want to see him in charge.
