House: You Don’t Want To Know
By fred | November 21, 2007
I never had anything against Big Love, and like House said Amber was the logical choice to oppose his betrayed friend. Those two are the ones I said last week should leave, cause if there must only be three I want Thirteen and Kutner to stay - by the way I was pleased to see the two of them working together - and I think we’ve established last week that Taub would stay.
So loosing Big Love was only a logical move, and I would imagine Amber to be next. Or I really hope so, because if she stays that Kutner goes and I really like him. He’s got one thing going on for him, though : Cuddy wants him out. That’s probably reason enough to have House keeping him on the team.
It is now time to talk about Thirteen. This episode was all about her, and we got to finally learn a little more about her. It’s funny how I used to think that so far this season, House was behaving much more “friendly” towards those around him, starting with his friends. We’ve seen him being quite hard on Wilson, or Cuddy, in the past, but this season he had cooled down.
Is it the reduced amount of pills he’s taking, and the excitement from having a new bunch of people to play with and figure out, either way he was different. But this week, we got a glimpse at the good old House, manipulative and mean on occasion, and Thirteen was the target.
When she accidentally dropped some chart and overreacted about it, House began to suspect she might be hiding something, maybe a disease. After some research he finds out about her mother who died quite young, and decides to drug her in order to mess with her and have her to confess. Too bad if on the way she happens to think she was dying and slowly loosing control over her body.
And to get us to like her even more, she then got back at him by returning the favor, introducing a new side of hers : “slight bitch”. I’ve said before that Thirteen was very much like Cameron, and I do believe she is in some ways. But she’s not a clone of Cameron either, because she wants to do what’s best for the patient for she’s not diving into lost cause either. Plus, she’s not afraid of House.
There were throughout the episode connections and similarities between the different stories and characters, like for instance the answer both the magician and Thirteen gave when it comes to worrying, or actually not worrying about dying (though Thirteen was answering about being picked up for elimination). Both explained that they decided not to worry, because it wouldn’t change the outcome and would most definitely help them or improve their well-being, quite the opposite in fact.
This was very well made, and here’s to hoping Thirteen will therefore not die (soon), but the two of them weren’t completely similar though. Even when the magician was telling how he’ll be dead same time the next day, he actually really never seemed scared. Thirteen on the other hand, as House said or the mirroring patient revealed not so long ago, Thirteen is afraid. She’s terrified in fact.
Not knowing helps her to do things she wouldn’t do otherwise, it gives her courage to try what she may not have dared, like working for House, but deep down she is still terrified that she could be, sick. Of course, there are still things you don’t want to know, and as scared as she can be, the idea to actually know probably scares her even more.
The eventuality of the definite fact that she may be sick, is much scarier than her current state. Ignorance is bliss, as the saying goes. Besides, it would probably break her, while the uncertainty she’s facing now gives her strength. And it was interesting to see that House eventually did not open the results he had her take unwillingly, and decided to not know.
Couple more things I failed to mention so far :
- I liked the way they used blood types to characterized House and Wilson, with House taking from everybody, being an universal recipient, type AB, while Wilson was the universal donor, type O, giving to everyone.
- If you thought it was weird Lupus was never thrown in the basket of potential diagnosis, there might have been a reason for it : “I finally had a case of Lupus!” Not exactly sure if he was actually referring to a case of Lupus, or just making an analogy, but either way that recurring joke is much appreciated.
- Is it me, or besides Lupus there are other names that comes in frequently ? I feel like I’ve heard Amyloidosis almost every episode this season… no? At least this time it was it. Not the first time either they got it right way sooner than they think, but got distracted along the way…
- Did you noticed that there was no Cameron or Chase ? Cause I didn’t until it was over, absolutely not missed them.
- Awesome episode, fantastic show, this is without a doubt the greatest hour of television of the whole week.
