(S04E07) All right, back in the saddle! Thanks to the wonderful and beautiful Jen Creer for taking over the last two weeks. I will be guiding you through the world that is House this week and next. Then, who knows? If the gods of television are listening everyone will come to their senses and the Writer's strike will be over before Christmas.

If not, well then you'll see reviews of Marcus Welby, M.D. every Tuesday at this time. Let's pray that the strike is over soon.

Gallery: House: Ugly

It was the Taub and House show this week, starring our favorite cranky doctor and our slightly oily plastic surgeon. Guest starring the rest of the candidates, with special guest star Dr. Samira Terzi as the gorgeous, set slightly stupid, new hire. By the way, for this one episode the worlds of House and ER merged as two former County General docs appeared on screen at the same time. Michael Michele was Cleo Finch for about two seasons on ER while Omar Epps was Dr. Dennis Grant during season three of the NBC show.

Anyhoo, back to Taub and House. For the most part it seems like Taub has been in agreement with his boss through most of the cases. However, for some reason he took some ball-growing medicine and was pretty much right in Greg's face for the entire episode. Whenever House would come up with a diagnosis of the patient (Kenny), Taub would refute it. And, not just face-to-face, but in front of the rest of the candidates, in front of Cuddy, and in front of the camera.

I think the camera that was recording Kenny's facial surgery helped Taub gain the courage that he needed to tell House that his diagnoses were wrong. Whenever he looked in the camera you could see him steel himself for combat. The pivotal moment came when he told House he would give Kenny a steroid treatment for an apparent case of JRS (Junior Rheumatoid Arthritis) and then told the boy's father that House was full of crap.

Being House he didn't take this too lightly. So, with a visit to Taub's stomping grounds we were able to get some of the backstory as to why he left his practice, and plastic surgery all together, to become a candidate for House's team. I was glad that we finally got to know a bit more about one of the candidates, even if it was done in a devious manner. We've been getting drips and drabs of information about the rest of the candidates for weeks now, and getting a full dose of background info was refreshing.

Turns out that Taub has a problem with fidelity. Since he never listen to people that told him to not have an affair with a co-worker, he got in trouble with his old practice. In exchange for keeping their mouths shut he agreed to leave and sign a no compete clause, meaning that his days as a plastic surgeon were pretty much over. Hence, the reason why he ended up at Princeton-Plainsboro.

Now, I was pretty damn sure that Taub was going to be fired this week. He pissed off House and ticked off Cuddy -- two strikes against him. However, House decided that he found the mini-stud interesting and decided to keep him. I'm glad about this. For some reason I like Taub. Maybe because he's not pretty like the rest of them. He's just an everyday schlub who's a pretty decent doctor.

That doesn't mean he didn't fire someone. He really had no choice but to get rid of Dr. Terzi, who he hired just last week. Once again, House's issues with women blinded him to what type of doctor Samira really was...which seems to be not a very good one. Gosh, I could even see that her proposals as to what was wrong with Kenny were way off base, and the closest I come to medical skills is typing ailments into the search window of WebMD. So, the question here is why the producers decided to get Michele for this two episode arc? Just so they could have a subplot to examine House's issues with women?

I think we all already knew the issues Greg had. As Wilson put it, he hires the women, has them slave over him to do his bidding, then fire them just so he can ask them out for dates. Heck, I'm surprised he hasn't fired Thirteen yet just to get a pizza with her! This brings up the interesting conversation that Wilson and House had about dating either Thirteen or Amber, who was called 'Bitch' several times between the two doctors. I think House definitely has the hots for Thirteen only because she is an enigma wrapped in a mystery.

Speaking about relationships Cameron had a little slip of the tongue this week. During her on-camera interview the reporter asked Allison if she hated House. In response she said that she loved House, then tried to retract that by say she loved 'working with' House. Uh-huh. That's not cutting it, sister! When she told Foreman last week that she just couldn't get away from the whole scene that is House and his team I really wonder if she couldn't get away from House himself. What does that guy have anyway that makes the girls go wild?

Over to this week's medical drama. I really didn't want to go into detail about it because things were flying so fast with Kenny that I really couldn't keep it straight. Plus, when Thirteen (the new Cameron, from the way she was haunting Chase in the OR just before Kenny's operation) let House know it was Lyme Disease and that the target rash was on Kenny's head I had to pause. If I'm not mistaken they had the same medical mystery on the season premiere of Scrubs. There the rash and tick bite were found on the top of the patient's head. Don't the writers of all these medical shows get together in one big room to talk just so these things don't happen?

Some other items of note:

• I thought the camera crew was going to be more intrusive, but they only played a medium part in the show. What it did do is show some of the false sides of people, like Kutner wearing a tie. The only person it didn't seem to phase was House.
• Amber's constant complaining about hiring Dr. Terzi and why she was hired by House, Man, she can be a bitch sometimes. She doesn't have to worry now since Terzi is gone.
• House and Wilson breaking into the editing room to watch film of Dr. Terzi. Wilson can be just as vulgar as House is sometimes. No wonder they get along so well.
• Greg's guilt about actually hiring Terzi because he liked her. In several scenes House was shown with actual guilt and remorse. I've never really seen him like that before.
• The final film that Cuddy and House watch together. Greg's reactions to the sound bites of his that they added to the documentary were quite funny to watch.

Next week -- The mystery surrounding Thirteen continues