(S04E06) "My malpractice insurance doesn't cover alien autopsies." --House
"That's fine. X-files are the next wing over."-- Dr. Samira Terzi

Tonight was apparently the "stand-up" episode of House. It had more one-liners than an episode of Seinfeld. And everybody got into the game-- not just House. I guess "Whatever it takes" referred not only to medicine but to extorting laughs. It's a good thing it had so many zingers in it, because that was one of the only likable things about the episode.

"15 minutes for the lap dance, half hour to scrub the guilt off my soul... See you in 45!"-- House

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(S04E05) "She said her hoo-hoo burned." -- Kutner

I will be reviewing House for the next two weeks because Richard Keller, my House compadre, is otherwise tied up. I was going to follow the format for the review that Rich devised last week, because I think it's a great format. However, when I began writing the review, I realized that because the plot integrated with what was happening with the characters so intensely that it made sense simply to review the show. For even more House, if you can't get enough, head on over to AOL.

I realized after I watched the episode that we never got to find out who the patient, Robert Elliot, really was. From the moment we saw him, he was mirroring the older brother mugger, and then the doctors, one by one.

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(S04E02) Hi, I'm Jen, and I am going to be sharing reviews of House with Rich Keller, alternating weeks. Here's the way these reviews are going to work: We are going to include both reviews and recaps of each episode-- sort of reviewcaps, as our illustrious leader Keith McDuffee calls them. I will indicate in bold where the review begins and then, down below it, where the recap begins. So, if you don't want to have to read a recap, you can skip it.

I *know* tonight's post has a very long recap. I like the small details. Please give me a couple of times to find my groove. But this is one of the reasons I am putting the recap after the review, so if you haven't seen the show yet, please take that under advisement. And if you like recaps, or didn't get a chance to catch the episode, then you can find out about it there. I'm starting under the jump. Ready? Set? Go.

(S03E23) Well, I guess we don't have to worry about Piper Perabo for the moment, at least. But seriously, folks. With revelations (both here in Spoilers Anonymous and in the comments) that Omar Epps' character, Foreman, wouldn't be leaving House next season, combined with what happened this week, are we thinking that he'll actually stay on board as a doc on House's staff, or will he only remain as just a recurring character who works at the same hospital, or elsewhere? Inquiring minds want to know, and cliffhanger or not next week, I'm presuming we'll get the answer to that question. I mean, how long can one show stretch out someone's two weeks' notice?

(S03E22) There are times when House seems like he's just a bit too smart when it comes to how he solves a particular case, and this week was one of those times. After being so sure of himself as to what the solution to the problem was with Addie, the college student, he just had it pop into his head randomly that she had tried to off herself in a creative way? Okay, if you say so.

Other than that bit of nitpick on my part, I thought this episode was actually pretty good. Foreman shared some *ahem* comments about his colleagues, such as not liking Chase, and Cameron stating that he thought she was weak. Neither of these things are a bit surprising, but will Chase's psych-out on Foreman and House, combined with Wilson's drugged-up rant and the minimal efforts by Cuddy, get Foreman to stick around? I'm not sure. Then again, do we really want Piper Perabo in the picture every single week?

(S03E21) Well, what a tangled web has been woven on our favorite doctor show now? "Family" was the title of this week's episode, and the prospects of a different family were essentially the topic of discussion for everyone involved. After last week's horrible course of events involving Foreman's decision to give chemotherapy to a patient only to have her die as a result, you wouldn't have thought that the team would go down a similar road without pondering the consequences, would you? Wrong.

Well, not so much that they "didn't look before they nuked," as was said during the show, but they were put in a unique position of having a marrow donor (the younger brother, Matty, to Nick, the kid who underwent the radiation treatment) who just so happens to show up to help out when he sneezes in a clean room. What ensued was nothing more than out of control and utterly frustrating. And that's just about House's experience with Wilson's old dog.

[Possible spoiler below if you haven't watched the show yet!]

(S03E20) It's funny this episode came along when it did, because in just the last week or so, I've said to a few of my House-watching friends that it had been a bit since we had a big tragedy on the show, and sure enough, here we are. The title of this week's episode, "House Training," is a curious one, as what went down wasn't as much about the value that House adds to his friends' and colleagues' lives, but how they're trained "with him" or "by" him, even indirectly. Additionally, Cuddy gives House the business with a laugh-out-loud quote about how now that Wilson is playing with a toy in the sandbox (her), now he wants it too. Ouch.

We also got to see Foreman's mom and dad make an appearance, and at a very critical time in his medical career. Between the effective killing of a patient and needing to learn how to give grim news, along with the sadness of his mother not regularly knowing who he is, Foreman has a lot to think about right now. Interestingly to me was that his father didn't bring up God, his mother did - followed by Chase - which kind of flipped the script on how his dad was portrayed the last time he was featured. Whether or not any of that will have an effect on the young doc is another story, though.

(S03E19) "Work smarter, not harder." If those weren't the words that summed up Dr. Gregory House's way of doing things, then I'm not sure what would be. That said, when he uses them on Dr. Chase - the least likely candidate of his team to get a compliment like that - it's even more proof that his way of doing things, from the straight diagnosis down to his habits, rubbing off on the team. Strangely, I think that's a good thing.

This week, we had a fantastic combination of a very cool medical case, drama between Cameron and Chase, and some interesting developments with Cuddy and Wilson, even if some of it is being driven by House. And remember what we'd been talking about a few weeks ago regarding how this show was (hopefully) not going down the too-much-sex route as far as plot goes? Well, this week sex was behind the medical issue going on, but not in the way you might have thought.

(S03E17) Aside from the fact that we got some serious focus on the "feelings" that the House "team" has for each other, their jobs, and life in general, I've got to say that this was one of the better cases that we've seen on the show in some time - or least one really worth talking about in a recap. Yet again, House is also the place for guest appearances, with the All-American Rejects' lead singer, Tyson Ritter, playing himself having photos taken for a cover of some publication. I think I watch enough television to have seen a decline of this across the board, but it seems to be back in full effect on a lot of progams.

As for Chase and Cameron, who were "busted" on the makeout tip in the janitor's closet last week, there's no hanky panky going on for them at the moment, but there's something more than just them seeing each other as a sex object going on. Cuddy clearly has had a moment when she is listening to their patient, Emma, talking about being 42 and how that was too old to be having another go at having a baby. At the same time, House hearing that Cuddy would trust him as the person to save her baby (fetus!) was a bit touching, too.

(S03E16) While I'll leave my commentary as to whether House is devolving into the rest of television - as in full of sex - for later, I'll start off by saying that we might have a pretty good relationship blooming when it comes to Cameron and Chase. Well, at least when it comes down to getting down. As far as our lovely doctor in charge goes, however, it seems that our addiction to certain types of medication is having negative impact on our ability to do certain basic things, such as go to the bathroom.

As far as shock value goes, we're usually treated to the "victim" of the story having a problem of sorts, and not House himself. This week, seeing his face when he looks at the case file of his next patient, a war veteran, was just fantastic. If you noticed, he said that he had never "met" the man before when Cuddy asks if he knows him. Of course, he left out the part that just seconds earlier, the man had tied off House's blown off leg while fighting in Iraq.

(S03E15) Well, at least FOX was smart enough with yet another "delay" in this season of House to spark it up a little by getting Dave Matthews to play Patrick Obyedkov, a musical savant who plays the piano like a master. They also jacked us up for awhile with a bit of a threat to the the future of the show, which the day-of previews were talking about as far as a "secret" that Cameron wasn't supposed to share with her team members. Unfortunately for us, we'll be waiting - yet again (March 27, thankyouverymuch) - for another new episode, something that FOX and the other networks are going to need to learn to work on, if they're hoping for any sort of continuity.

(S03E14) Cuddy's got a boyfriend, Cuddy's got a boyfriend. Oh, wait, spoke too soon. Love was in the air this week during House, but perhaps not in as positive a manner as one might expect. Well, then again, this is House.

With Valentine's Day coming this week, we should have seen it coming that the creators of this show would take this opportunity to not only set up Cuddy on a blind date, but create a little drama between two one-time players and a climax of drama with two others. You asked for character development, and you got it. While this episode spent quite a bit of time focused on a young woman's medical condition, one that had House intrigued not because he likes solving cases, but because it could have some potential for "fixing" his little pain problem.

(S03E13) After last week's episode gave us a lot more great stuff with regard to the cast of House, even with some medical stuff going on, we're treated to some old-fashioned Dr. House attitude combined with a new character and a somewhat intriguing case. When checking out the previews for this week, we were treated to seeing House in a wheelchair, which opened up some curiosity in my head, as you never know if something else happened to him, if he was hit by a car, or if he was just faking. As it turns out, he just wanted his handicapped space back, now that new researcher Dr. Whitner has been given his original space, sending the good doctor 46 yards out into the parking lot.

So, the only reason he's playing wheelchair tag with the new researcher is that he bet Cuddy that he could stay in the wheelchair for a week. And lost. Well, sort of.

(S03E12) It's certainly been a while since we've been treated to Dr. House's charms and ability to make patients feel better in a single bound, but now he's back, and better than ever. Or, at least he's out of jail, and back on the Vicodin. One of the better strings of dialogue that this show has had was in last night's show, when House and Cuddy are discussing the fact that she perjured herself to keep him out of jail, and now he's going to do clinic duty, and next he's going to do his paperwork because she kept him out of jail, and so on and so forth. He's *so* right, and she *so* knows it, and that's why you have to love their interaction, because it digresses to the high school-esque flirting situation, even if it is only from one side, every so often.

(S03E11) Let me say that I couldn't be happier about the resolution of the Tritter plot line this season, because it was definitely getting under my skin, and based on comments that TV Squad readers have been leaving here for the last few episode reviews, that was the case for more than just me. That said, I can't say I was pleased with how Tritter handled things at the end, but we'll get to that later.

I'm also starting to feel - and not just with this particular show, but all of them that I watch - that DVDs have spoiled me, because the whole waiting over the holidays, and then two weeks off here, three weeks there, is a bit draining. But at least FOX isn't pulling a Lost with us, and we only have to wait until January 30 for the next installment.

Back to the brass tacks, though. I think that our level of frustration with Tritter and how that situation was going down was completely emulated in how Cuddy decided to end it all by perjuring herself and coming up with a solution to get House out of court and Tritter off the cases of her staffers. For a minute there, I almost believed her while she was in the witness box, but that would have been too perfect, wouldn't it? The court scene was definitely one that I was looking forward to, as we got a pretty good promo showing House answer his phone, which you knew wouldn't go over too well.