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Tuesday, March 1, 2011

House 7.14: House, Death, and Cuddy

House, as we know, hates losing, most especially patients.   In House 7.14, the brilliant good doctor gets a case that he and his team just never get on top of.   Things progress so quickly for the worse for the patient that, by the time House figures out what's really happening, the patient is going irreversibly down and is soon gone.

This causes House to re-think the current state of his practice.   The big difference between House this year and all previous seasons is his relationship with Cuddy.   This pitches House, and us, into the classic conundrum of does happiness, even a little of it, dull the edge in some kinds of work - in House's case, literally surgery-related, in some instances.

I recall a science fiction short story that I read at the end of the 1950s, or early 1960s, about a future society in which business executives when to see their shrinks prior to negotiations, so they could sharpen their killer instincts (the "therapy" session consisted of the psychologist hurling insults at the patient).   And movies about assassins - including the Stallone movie Assasins, if memory serves - have also addressed the issue of whether a hit man can do his job as well when he finds true or any kind of love.

So House is not unreasonable to wonder if the endorphins he gets from Cuddy's arms are somehow blurring his laser intellect.   A trite - and infuriating - resolution of this might have had House concluding that he and the world of medicine would be better off if he left Cuddy, and said no to this love.

But House comes up with a far better resolution, which suits him and us much more.  He first tells Cuddy that he's sure  he muffed the current diagnosis because his relationship with her diffused his focus and game.   And just as we're about to say, oh no, don't leave her, House tells Cuddy that he deserves some happiness and he has no intention of leaving her.

A brilliant, satisfying ending.  By telling Cuddy his concerns but not ending the relationship, House is true to his intellect, plus he found a way of letting Cuddy know just how much she means to him.



See also House and Cuddy on the Other Side in Season 7 Premiere ... House 7.2: House and Cuddy, Chapter 2 ... House 7.3: The Author and the White Lie ... House 7.9: The Vilda Chaya ... House 7.11: The Patient's Most Important Right

And see also House Reborn in Season Six? ... 6.2: The Gang is Back and Fractured ... 6.3: The Saving Hitler Quandary ... 6.4: Diagnosis vs. Karma ... 6.5 Getting Better ... 6.6 House Around the Bases ... Four's a Crowd on House 6.7 ... House 6.8 and the Reverse of Flowers for Algernon ... House 6.9: Wilson ... House 6.10: Back in Business ... House 6.11: Making Amends, Mending Fences, and a Psychopath  ... House 6.12: The Progression to Mensch ... House 6.13: Cuddy's Perspective ... House Meets Blogger in 6.14 ... House 6.15: About Taub ... House 6.16: Revealing Couples ... House 6.17: Socrates on Steroids ... House 6.18: Open Marriage






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