(S06E17) "If you force him to choose, you might not like the answer." - Cuddy's advice to House on how to handle Wilson reconnecting with his first wife

One of the hardest things for a long running show to do is keeping the audience guessing. That's not normally a problem for 'House,' a show that throws around more 15-letter medical words and scientific terms than a 'NOVA' marathon.

Unpredictability is harder to pull off than it sounds. One wrong twist and an entire promising plot is sent off to into a ridiculous death spiral more ludicrous than a "the whole thing was just a dream" plotline. 'House' had two good plotlines and both of them stayed within the boundaries of believability.

This time, 'House' is stuck with two dominant plotlines instead of four or five like last week's "Lockdown" experience. Both of them were interesting and engaging and managed to "zig" when you thought they would "zag," even if their options for "zagging" were limited in some cases.

This week's patient was William, an eerily devoted medieval weekend warrior with a serious devotion complex to his king and the woman he plans to make his queen, both in his medieval La-La Land and in real life. Meanwhile, he's suffering from some sort of rapidly spreading skin and major organ disorder that causes him to experience all sorts of bizarre symptoms from blotchy skin rashes to blood infected eyeballs.

The episode doesn't focus too much on the amateur knights angle, except for the opening fight scene that puts our weekly "Patient Zero" in the hospital with a glowing red pair of bloodshot eyes. And that actually works for it since it doesn't give House an extended chance to put down nerds in full costume and focuses on the more interesting angle: Wilson reconnecting with his ex-wife, the old ball and chain.

So House directs his more pointed barbs and cheap shots at Wilson and his ex, Sam, played by Cynthia Watros. House, of course, tries to break up the relationship that he deems to be bad for his roommate buddy, first by preparing breakfast naked and then, in a hilarious scene, bringing the world's worst drag queen to their "get to know you" dinner. The latter would have been more funny if last week's preview wouldn't have spoiled it. Heh, a blogger is complaining about a spoiler for once. Now there's a switch.

The medical angle had a bit more heart to it than normally since William, whose long hair and dark red eyes make him look like he just walked off the set of the next 'Twilight' film, clearly has a thing for his best friend's "queen," even if he might be the "root" cause of all of his problems. Thankfully, it didn't get too melodramatic or sappy. In fact, William's levelheadedness coupled with his idiotic devotion to his ideal as a pseudo-knight helped move the twists along, one after the other. It kept me watching for a reason other than just to find out what was physically wrong with him.

House's resolution with Sam also didn't end in total bloodshed. I know it's incredibly gauche to pigeonhole an actor or actress into one role, but Watros seemed to carry a bit of Erin Fitzpatrick from her days on the short-lived and not-so-subtle Fox sitcom 'Titus' into this episode. Sam knows that dating Wilson means getting House as part of the deal and she tries to prove her love to Wilson by not only standing up to House, but appealing to his heart the same that Erin would to mean ol' "Papa Titus."

It was not only sweet to watch House just live with and accept a disagreeable situation, but it's given me another great reason to tune in for House's inevitable "I told you so," especially if I'm wrong.

Other Observations:
- Is it just me or did the knights in the opening scene look more than a little similar to King Arthur and the Black Knight from 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail'? (I have to give Nick credit for spotting that one. I'm not doing it because it's fair. I just want to retain the last ounce of non-geekiness I have left.)

- The "king" got the idea to feed his knights cow eyeballs from 'Fear Factor'? Did the 'House' team have to go through a time warp to 2001 to get to the Renaissance Fair?