Review: House - Ignorance is Bliss

(S06E09) "There's no point in putting a band together if we're not going to play any gigs." - House
I'm torn over the best way to tackle this review of "Ignorance is Bliss." I have far more bad things to say about the episode than I do good things, yet I loved it. The outcome I (and presumably most other fans) want to see (House and Cuddy together) is hopefully going to be achieved. This just isn't my ideal path to get there.
When Lucas was brought back a few weeks ago, I argued that I was happy to have him back as long as there was a good reason for it. Lucas dating Cuddy isn't a good reason. The character we knew Lucas as (quirky detective) has been completely erased and save for that one brief scene last week when he did some digging into Chase's medical notes, there's been no indication that side of Lucas even exists anymore. He's a different character this time around and it's destroying everything I liked about him now. I'm not saying House doesn't need a foil in his quest to win Cuddy's heart, but with Lucas' history with House, he could be a much better foil right now.
Having said all that, it seems pretty obvious at this point that Lucas is just a bump in the road and if that's all he's going to be in this scenario, I'll be happy to see him go as quickly as he reappeared. Cuddy may have been enjoying Thanksgiving dinner with Lucas and his family but she felt guilty she sent House to her sister's place when they were in Hawaii. She knows House is changing and the defeated look on her face at the end of the hour when House offered those free carnival tickets said it all. She won't let him be nice because she knows what'll it do to her and how she feels about Greg. So again, I like where it's going but I'm just not the biggest fan of how we're getting there.
As for the rest of the episode, most of it was tedious to sit through, not because it wasn't enjoyable but because it was a lot of re-treading old ground with characters that have already been established. Then again, it has been some time now since Thirteen and Taub were on the team, so maybe re-introducing the tensions between Thirteen and Foreman or Taub's rocky marriage were necessary evils. As an avid watcher of this show though, any of those scenes just felt recycled from old episodes.
A few more thoughts on "Ignorance is Bliss" --
- I'm not sure that I buy Chase's tough guy act right now and I mean it when I call it an act. It's obvious that he's hurting over Cameron's exit, but there's no way he's dealing with this as well as he'd like everyone to believe. Chase has already been established as an extremely emotional character and he's acting like a stick figure right now.
- After House made that quip about having his starters and free agents back, I almost spit my coffee out after this line because I laughed so hard: "I feel like Mike Tomlin... but probably not as much as you do." Then he looked right at Foreman. Priceless. I've been wondering when they'd make a joke about Omar Epps' spot on resemblance to the Pittsburgh Steelers head coach.
- As for the case, it was pretty standard as far as House medical mysteries go, but I really did enjoy the one brief scene where House, the brilliant doctor, and Jimmy, the brilliant physicist, lamented over how hard it is to relate to other people when you're that smart. Jimmy chose cough syrup to help dumb himself down and House seemed perfectly fine to give him a fresh bottle. Could that mean House is considering popping pills again? Sure, they were for his leg, but he likely experienced many of the same feelings that Jimmy got from his Robitussin in terms of brain numbness.
- Anyone else pick up the double meaning when House got to Cuddy's sister's house and the "house sitter" answered the door? Funny stuff.
- 16 spleens. Whoa.
[Watch full episodes and clips of House over at SlashControl.]

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