(S04E03) Do your sex organs dangle, cutthroat bitch? -- House, speaking to Amber

Geez, Jen got the easy reviewcap last week. I think there were 32 different subplots in this week's episode of House. It was almost like watching an episode of Lost. Well, might as well sit down and get comfortable, because here we go.

We were graced with two different patients this week. The main one, and the one that the remaining candidates worked on, was a young man who had a degenerative muscular condition who suddenly fainted in the middle of a busy intersection. The second patient, the one that was treated by House alone, had recently been in an auto accident and was seemingly suicidal.

House decides to split the remaining ten candidates into two teams -- men vs. women (or danglers vs. non-danglers) -- to diagnose this case. Amber, known for the rest of this post as C.B. (short for cutthroat bitch), requests to side with the men, which doesn't make any of them jump for joy. They know that she is quite manipulative (Mr. BYU saw this first hand last episode) and they think they can do a better job. However, they really aren't doing well without her.

It seems that C.B. knows about House's former team members. First, she goes to Cameron down in the ER to try and persuade her to help the cause. Cameron gives her a treatment, and C.B. uses it to keep herself on the men's team. Turns out that the treatment, something about bugs being used to detect infection, doesn't really work. Or, it isn't given a chance to work since the patient's throat closes up.

Over on the women's side Thirteen takes command of the team and tries to determine the cause of the fainting. Together they come up with a virus he caught while in Thailand. All she does is prescribe a few pills to clear everything up. Since this is an hour show that really doesn't do the trick. Yet, she is heartened when House rules for their team. The men's team, on the other hand, gets placed in the penalty box due to the lack of time management on their end.

That doesn't stop their team from trying to determine what the diagnosis is for Stark. As they are trying to determine the next course of action Kutner (Kal Penn) discovers that House is recording their moves via a webcam. What they are doing is a no-no. When this is noticed C.B. suddenly makes her way out of House's office (where they were holed up). It doesn't matter, though, since he fires the men's team at the Tribal Council. His final (or so we think) remarks to that team are 'You make me want to stop dangling'.

C.B. is not down yet. She speaks to Chase to try and convince him that additional labs should be performed on the patient. She gets him to reluctantly agree after she mentions that this would be a good opportunity to get back at his former leader. When she takes a blood sample what comes into the vial is not red, but green. Which means, according to House, that he's either a Vulcan or something worse is happening.

We'll get back to Stark in a bit. I want to talk about House's second patient because, eventually, these two tie together. The second patient, when greeted by House, immediately sticks a knife blade into a live electrical socket, knocking him out instantly. House is utterly curious why this patient did something this idiotic. The patient explains that he seems to have had an out-of-body experience after an auto accident earlier in the week and he wanted to get the same feeling again. House chalks it all up to chemicals and science, but the patient disagrees.

Meanwhile, back at the first patient . . . It's no longer a competition for the candidates as they need to determine why Stark's kidneys are failing. After some further diagnosis House determines that it's cancer, which began in his eye socket. So, he wants to remove the eye. Stark isn't too happy about that and decides he just wants to die, House, being the religious zealot that he is, scoffs at Stark's feelings about the afterlife, then gets into a row with Wilson about giving the patient some form of peace in his final moments.

This is where the two patient storylines combine. See, House is getting a little tired hearing about what's out there when you collapse dead here. So, he tries to learn for himself by sticking a knife into a live electrical socket. Sure, his heart stops for a minute, but give the man credit for trying. Before he nearly kills himself, though, he pages C.B., who happens to stop by House's office just before he experiments.

Turns out that, if House had just waited a bit longer, he would've heard from both Thirteen and C.B. (who seem to be the leading candidates for his new team) that Stark didn't have cancer. Further tests performed by Wilson and the candidates, while House was still unconscious, determined that Stark had a form a pneumonia, which was treatable.

Yet, Stark dies anyway. Shortly after his guide dog dies as well. The pills Stark was given were never taken and somehow ended up near a sofa where his dog lay. The dog ate the pills. As Thirteen was the lead physician administering the medication she was solely at fault and was sure she was going to be fired. Yet, in a rare show of compassion, House kept Thirteen on.

And, as Thirteen leaves the morgue feeling a bit better about herself, House turns to the now-dead Stark and mutters 'As for you, well, I told you so'. Of course this means that House saw nothing in the brief moments that the was dead. Or, maybe it doesn't.

Whew! All right, let's review (ooh, a rhyme). I didn't like this episode. There was just too much going on at one time to really follow. With ten extra cast members to work with the whole episode seemed very cluttered. I know, you're probably thinking that if I felt this week was cluttered what about last week when there were 40 or so cast members. True, but at least the entire episode was focused pretty much on them. This week it was just harder to follow all of them with the other stuff going on.

What I really didn't enjoy about this episode were the Foreman sequences. To me, it felt like the producers just threw him in haphazardly to show the viewers how he will end up being part of House's universe once again. It could have been done better. In fact, I wouldn't have minded it they devoted an entire episode showing him in action and how he seemingly was the anti-House. Yes, the results could have been the same -- Foreman realizes that what House taught him about taking chances was the way to go -- but at least it would have been more satisfying to watch.

There were a few good things about the episode. I liked the focus on C.B. and Thirteen. Last week, C.B. was shown to be extremely manipulative. This episode that side of her was diminished and we saw the physician that she really is. Also of interest were Chase's comments to House after he confronted his former student about the labs C.B. performed. I liked the 'if you want to vent, leave a message' part the best. I think House is beginning to realize that he can't pick on those guys anymore.

Finally, this was another episode where Greg didn't seem to take any pain killers. He was prescribed them after his accident (to which House replied to Wilson 'I love you') and they were prominently displayed on the bed tray, but we never saw him pop any. Could the producers be setting us up for an episode about the end to House's addiction?

Gosh, you read all of that? Good for you! Take a week off and come back on October 23rd for another exciting episode of House.