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House: Under My Skin
by Hemal Jhaveri, posted May 5th 2009 12:45PM
(S05E23): Aside from whatever people think about the House/Cuddy relationship, and no, I'm not going to give it a cute nickname like Chuddy, or Huddy or whatever people on the Internet forums are going by, can we agree that Hugh Laurie is indeed awesome? While this wasn't the most brilliant episode of House, Hugh Laurie really shines when it comes to depicting House's inner turmoil, and he had plenty of material to work with last night.
The cold open of the show focused on a dying ballerina, but the real patient of the week is House himself. While the team tries to find out why Penelope the ballerina's skin is falling off in gross, bloody chunks, House tries to diagnose himself, and figure out what's causing his Amber-vision.
So, Amber is still around and making a pest of herself, causing House to lose the one thing he values most, his ability to think rationally. And we all know how much House values rational thinking. For him to lose that part of his mind, and not practice medicine, which is his entire life, would be devastating. Like the pretty ballerina who doesn't want to live if she's not able to dance, House doesn't want to live without his ability to practice medicine. His worst fear isn't death or loneliness, it's not being able to practice medicine.
Finally enlisting the help of Wilson, House runs through every diagnoses from MS to Schizophrenia, trying to find the least scary option. It's Wilson who comes up with the most reasonable and rational, but equally devastating conclusion: House's hallucination isn't caused by some underlying neurological disorder, but rather, is a result of the outrageous amounts of Vicodin in his system. His only choice to rid himself of Amber is a painful detox.
The scene where House realizes he needs more help than he initially thought, the one where he's 'celebrating' at the bar after going into insulin shock, with Amber's creepy voice drifting over him, is tremendous. You can see the sheer terror in his face as calls Wilson and asks for a ride home. In a flash he goes from smug bastard to utterly pathetic drunk. It's brilliant.
And Wilson again plays the long-suffering but dutiful friend. He knows House is in pain and tries his best to help. I really liked the scene between House and Wilson early in the episode, with House and Wilson arguing, and Amber being is annoying subconscious. It showed just how hard House has to fight himself sometimes, despite having good intentions.
Regardless of how good a friend Wilson is, House knows he'll be able to easily manipulate him and the rehab center into scoring Vicodin. Knowing this about himself, House turns to Cuddy. Now, I'm not really sure I buy the premise that Cuddy is really the only one who can stand up to House and therefore get him through this. They've down a pretty good job of showing that Cuddy generally backs down from House when push comes to shove, so I just don't get why it would be different this time around. But, I guess it is. If anything, it should have been her and Wilson together that get House to detox, but whatever.
To get rid of Amber, House goes through a pretty painful detox where we see just how desperate he's become. It's gut wrenching to watch him crawl across the bathroom floor for that one pill. Now, the detox scene only lasts one harrowing night. I find that hard to believe. Do people really come down off a serious drug addiction after only one night? Wilson's rehab idea sounded like it would be a few weeks at least. I'm all for the idea of House detoxing off of Vicodin and us being able to see what he's like without the drug, but that happened way to fast.
At the end of their long dark night, Cuddy and House kiss. Now, I'm all for this relationship, but it feels like the entire Amber plot line, and House's detox, was just leading up to this. It's good to see House finally acknowledge that he has feelings for Cuddy, and we see him in a rare, vulnerable state, even if it's only temporary.
Honestly, I'm a little glad my DVR (once again) cut off slightly early. House and Cuddy going at it like a couple of teenagers made me want to cover my eyes. It's like catching your parents making out. No one wants to see that. I am fan of the House/Cuddy relationship, as long as all parties remain fully clothed.
Also, please just end the Cameron & Chase story line. It annoys me that Cameron said, in response to saving her husband's sperm, "I didn't plan on him dying..", Um, yes you did. Didn't Cameron marry the guy knowing full well he had terminal cancer? That's either Cameron being emotionally manipulative, or bad writing. Either way, it doesn't look good. Poor Chase. As vapid as he can be sometime, I admire his resolve in finally walking away from Cameron.
So, has House made any real changes? Do you think that they will be lasting and significant? And where is the House/Cuddy relationship going?
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