House 7.11: The Patient's Most Important Right

House came off a fine Superbowl commercial - probably the best of the crop - with one of the best episodes (7.11) of the season last night.  The set-up:  Cuddy's Yiddish mother Arlene (converted to Judaism, adopting its culture with a delightful vengeance, played by Candice Bergen) is admitted to Princeton Plainsboro with what could be a serious ailment.

We met Arlene in 7.9, when House drugged her to sleep over dinner to save him and Lisa from Arlene's conversation (which, from the viewer's point of view, was hilarious).   Now in the hospital, super-Jewish-mother Arlene, annoyed with House's manner, removes him from her case.  A good not brilliant doctor takes over.

As House later explains to Cuddy, he didn't want to risk Arlene dying, and Lisa thinking that House killed her mother every time she looked at him next to her in bed.   So House comes up with a plan: he'll continue treating Arlene, by substituting his own prescriptions for the doctor's, who thinks he's now treating Arlene.   This means that Foreman, Chase, Taub, and newcomer Martha Masters must do the actual substitutions - since Arlene would be suspicious of anything House tried to administer.  And as they all realize, this would be patently illegal - it could not only lose them their licenses but land them in jail.

It's great, as always, to see the different reactions of the team members, especially Martha's, who, as we've already seen, is more by-the-book, and respecting of a patient's rights, than even Foreman.  But House's position, that the patient's most important right is to live, is hard to deny, and the resolution of this story brings home, once again on House, the importance of going with what is medically best, regardless of standards and practices.


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

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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The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

House 7.9: The Vilda Chaya

My mother always used to call me that - a "vilda chaya" - when I was a kid and my hair was unruly.  "You look like a vilda chaya" - could also be spelled "chia" - meaning, you look like a wild animal.  It was my favorite line in House 7.9 tonight, said by Cuddy's mother - played by Candice Bergen - about how Cuddy's daughter was behaving earlier out doors.   Arlene Cuddy (Lisa's mother) had an almost constant stream of choice Yiddishisms, including shtup and shmendrick (look 'em up).   She converted to Judaism when she married Lisa's father, and developed a real ear for our language.

There was also a keen ethical issue at the heart of tonight's episode:  is heroism a disease?  A guy from a rock band jumps on to the train tracks to save a woman.   He then collapses and ends up in Princeton-Plainsboro.  Martha, like most people in the world, thinks he's a hero.   House thinks whatever made him sick affected his judgment before he jumped on the tracks, and that's why he was so brave.  I could have called this review "Is Heroism a Disease," but I couldn't resist the vilda chaya.

The resolution of the debate about heroism pretty much goes to House - the hero was suffering from an illness.  But Martha gets points for predicting that the illness was an infection, and, besides, I think she's right in general about the nature of heroism.  House's view is too cynical and I would bet rarely medically supported.  It is tempting to use in fiction, though (see my novel, The Plot to Save Socrates).

Other good touches tonight:  Taub's picture is up on billboards, House drugs Arlene, and Chase and Foreman have a little discussion about why neither of them were on the billboard.  And I'm off to watch Lie to Me ...


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

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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                 Special Discount Coupons for Angie's List, Avis, Budget Car, eHarmony, eMusic, Mozy, Zazzle

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The Plot to Save Socrates



"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book