(S04E10) "Who's that from?" -- Kutner

"Santa, of course. Don't you know that I worship him? Oh wait, that's Satan. Sorry, I get them confused." -- House

Well, maybe it was the fact that I haven't seen an episode of House in nearly two months, but dear ol' Greggie seemed more cynical than his normal cynical self. Most likely it was due to the holidays. You know, the holidays that came and went over a month ago. I know that FOX is trying to save as many episodes of its hit shows as possible, but it would have been nice if they aired the House Christmas episode around, you know, Christmas.

Gallery: House: It's a Wonderful Lie

Especially since it was the first episode featuring the crotchety doctor's new team of Thirteen, Kutner and Taub. I mean, we barely got to know they were going to be the new team before the show went into a long spate of reruns and noruns. Now, with two months off, we have to get to know them again and see why they were chosen. After this week's episode I'm pretty sure why two of them were chosen, but not exactly sure why the third was.

Let's talk about the newest members of House's team, shall we? First is Thirteen. From what I saw this week and in past episodes, Thirteen is going to be the anti-House. Where House is just brutally honest about the failings of people in society, Thirteen actually sees good in people. Or, at least she wants to see the good in people. That's what she was trying to do this time around with the patient of the week. She was nothing but adamant about how honest Maggie and Jane were while House was going around saying that the most honest are the ones who are actually the most dishonest.

Next is Taub. Taub is there to do his job, give House the assistance he needs, and that's that. He will also be the embellisher for the team, as was shown this week when he and Foreman got one of Maggie's one-night-stands to admit he gave her some 'E' (Ecstasy, for those of you not aware of drug vernacular). Despite his no-nonsense tactics and ability to push the truth where necessary, House feels the need to break him a bit more. Out of all the three, I could see Taub dealing with Foreman better than House.

Finally, there's Kutner. Out of the three he's the one I wonder about. I know House chose him initially because of his daring tactics concerning patient treatment. But, after this week's episode, all that he seems to be is someone who wants nothing other than to impress his boss. Just the way he was looking doey-eyed at House when he suggested the Secret Santa, or when he was trying to convince everyone to up the gift amount, sort of turned me off to the character. I understand that he's young and all, but he was practically childish this time around.

That's the group as individuals. What I'm sure you would like to know is how they act as a team. To be honest, I can't give you that answer right now. Even though House said at the very beginning of the episode that the 'game' was over, I still had the feeling that Thirteen, Taub and Kutner were still playing a bit more. There was still that feeling that they were trying to be the first to get the right diagnosis at various intervals. Of course, that doesn't make for a good team. I'll be curious to see if they remain that way or begin to coalesce into something different.

House certainly was playing the game with the Secret Santa and his goals of manipulation amongst the team members. He really thought that he had them figured, didn't he? That's what pissed me off about Greg this week: he gets a brand-spanking new team and he's already trying to break it down. I know that this is his M.O., but can't he let the team gel a bit before he starts messing with their minds? They showed him, though, by not playing his games..well, at least at the end they didn't.

I think how they really got at House was by getting chummy with the doctor's old team of Chase, Cameron (who was barely in the show this week) and Foreman. I think Greg really wanted to see some animosity between the two teams, and he just wasn't getting it. And, why should that anger exist between the two teams? The First Three (as they shall be known, henceforth) did their time with House and moved on (well, technically, Foreman didn't move on, just up). Now it's time for a new generation to take House's abuse.

By the way, since we mentioned the lack of Cameron this week, I also want to mention the nearly total lack of Cuddy in this week's episode. She had one scene with House which contained maybe a paragraph's worth of lines. This is House's foil and I think she could have been used in a better way for a holiday-themed episode. While we're here let's talk about Foreman as well. Why was Omar Epps brought back to the show? Other than the one episode where House left the hospital, what has he done other than wear suits and spout additional medical mumbo-jumbo to House and the team? This man needs a meatier role!

Now that we've delved into the hospital staff let's take a look at this week's patient -- a woman whose hands suddenly became paralyzed. It's been too long since I have seen Janel Moloney on a network television show and I was glad to see her here. And, she was a pretty convincing patient, particularly when she went blind. I think one of the hallmarks of good acting is to be blind when you can obviously see what's going on.

Her daughter Jane, played by Liana Liberato, was even better than Moloney. She had that aura of innocence/adult awareness that you see more commonly in tweens these days. I felt quite bad for her when House began asking her all of those questions about her mother's favorite sexual position and if her mother lied or not. Her finest moment came towards the end of the episode when, after finding out there was no apparent cure for what was happening to her mother, Jane told Maggie, in no uncertain terms, that she was dying and everything was not going to be okay. Wow, harsh!

I didn't really know where the medical mystery was going this week, but I did know why Maggie wasn't interested in having Jane give a bone marrow sample: her daughter was adopted. It didn't take a professor of human characteristics like House to tell me exactly why Maggie was defending her daughter's privacy on the matter.

House's other patient this week really threw me for a loop. I was sure that she was a prostitute the way that she and House were talking. I especially thought that when she developed that contact rash from, ahem, interacting with a donkey (or a mule, she didn't know herself). Who knew that she was part of a live nativity scene at a local church. For a moment there I had thought that House was going to say a prayer for helping solve Maggie's medical mystery.

Missed these long-winded rants, didn't you? Well, don't worry, because there are two more right around the corner. On Sunday Jen is going to take you through the post-Super Bowl episode of House, while I be back next Tuesday to talk about what will probably be the last episode of this shortened season.