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House: Merry Little Christmas
(S03E10) For weeks now we've been hearing that the Detective Tritter storyline might be coming to a close, and people have been exclaiming in the comments here, and elsewhere, that they were kind of sick of it. Part of the issue with the whole issue he's brought to light is that it has a longer-term bearing on the whole picture, as opposed to some of the other mid-season plotlines (Stacy, for instance), so I'm seeing more and more why it's become more integral to what's going on, rather than just something that goes by the wayside. After a two-week wait for a new episode, I was not only happy to see some solid story progress, but for a pretty cool case to solve as well.This time around, House is looking for his small dose of Vicodin that Cuddy is slowly dosing him with, when he walks in on his boss diagnosing a patient in the clinic. The 15-year old girl, who is quite small in stature, is with her mother, who is a dwarf. Aside from the fact that House seemed to take a curious liking to the woman, I most certainly wasn't surprised to see him start making height-challenged jokes at the two of them. Also, for as much as House harassed this woman and her daughter throughout, she seemed to see the value of him being at the hospital, which is something that doesn't come through from week to week, even when he does swoop in and save the day.
As for the main plot line, House is offered three days to choose to take two months in rehab to get rid of his drug habit, as part of the "deal" that Wilson has conjured up with Detective Tritter. Of course, the pair are rebuffed, and told to get out of House's office, as he's not interested in taking a deal. But that's not all he isn't interested in. He could care less that his colleagues are, or at least Cameron is, looking out for his best interests. At the same time, no one likes a rat, and while Chase got away with Tritter's attempt to make him look bad in the last episode, everyone knows that Wilson went to Tritter with the details on House's drug use and the prescriptions that got them all into this in the first place.
Unfortunately for House, getting cut off by Cuddy leads him to a very, very bad place. Not only does he look terrible, but he's trying to fight his way through. Aside from trying to be creative and steal a dead man's Oxycontin, which Wilson foils him on, he's looking pretty good at sticking to the detox. That doesn't mean he's looking very good on a personal level, but at least he seems to be surviving. As for that bad place I was mentioning, he really puts himself there by signing for the next Oxycontin prescription at the hospital pharmacy, a move that was blatant foreshadowing, but could have just been a teaser, sort of like his visit to a local health clinic, where he's called out for trying to get a hold of opiates, and leaves before security can nail him.
As the show progressed, some part of me thought that Cameron's visit to House's apartment and the others taking his advice, including Foreman breaking into Cuddy's desk to try and steal some drugs for part of House's opinion, would lead to the team's petition for some sort of leniency as far as Tritter and the law went. While that didn't happen, it doesn't mean that they didn't see their colleague's true value. Wilson, even at the show's end, realized what had happened and what he was a part of, especially after being called out by Cameron as it appeared that he had only ratted on his longtime friend to get his car and bank accounts back.
Every so often, we're also treated to that "other side" of House, this time with him calling home to his family to check on how they're doing at Christmas, only to be greeted with a voicemail message. You could almost see the smile on his face as he left a message. Unfortunately, that almost smile was quickly replaced by a bunch of scotch and way too much medication, even for this pill-popper of a doctor. Wilson's entrance into House's apartment had me thinking that the good doctor had somehow survived and left, but as Wilson finds him on the floor looking bloated and with vomit stuck to his face, it was clear that there was a sea change about to happen as far as this show's overall plot.
When House went to Tritter to ask about going to rehab, it might have seemed like the cliff-hanger that would have a typical show's fans on their feet, but with this show we know there will be a way around it. At the same time, I can definitely see this whole drug situation as an out for the show's creators, should they ever want to go out while on top. Not that I think we're in dire straits like that for this season, but you never know. What I do know is that we can't have seen the last of Tritter, even with previews of House going to court to defend himself on the drug charges. Will Tritter's "vendetta" against House help out the doctor's case, and will his team and Cuddy come to the rescue, and will Wilson see some trouble when he's either forced to testify or lose his license, or has his original testimony brought up in court and he gets jail time anyway? Lots of good questions to be asked, and surely some curious cases to be solved.
What is clear is that Cuddy, as heavy handed as she is with House most of the time, realizes that he is the best doctor she has, and now that she truly is faced with not having him at the hospital, she's probably going to work her posterior off to make sure he's back in some way, shape or form. The fact that she was even willing to give up the life of this one young girl so that many more would be helped out after House rehabbed or detoxed himself proved that.
All that matters is that while there isn't some surefire resolution to the court and Tritter situation, there's enough progress that it's not making me feel like the show has bedbugs or a crab trying to bite its feet as it stumbles along. In some ways, maybe that's how the Tritter storyline is written - to tick us all off in a way just to keep us buzzing.
Thoughts? Predictions?
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