The House Virgin Diaries – Dr. House vs. the Mouse

by Ivey West

House v Mouse

(Season Two, Episodes Seven – Nine)

We get that House is a jerk, but seeing him interact with Stacy provides a glimpse that he may have not always been that way. Cameron, however, seems to be taking on more of his personality, and frankly, its working for her, and for us. Foreman challenges, though, aren’t making life as easy on him as they are fun for the viewer.

“Hunting”

Its not like I expected House’s stealing of Stacy’s records to go away, but I did truthfully expect for them to let it sit an episode or two before they brought it back up. You had to know that that little tidbit was going to get out in the open at some point, and that it is certainly going to destroy any of the rebuilt relationship that House had worked on. I didn’t expect it to happen so soon, though.

I still like this dynamic between Cameron and House. Thankfully, its not the (bad) attempt at a relationship that made up their storyline last season, but how she pushes his buttons emotionally, or at least, tries to. Moving far, far away from the idea of them hooking up is good in my book.

Someone recently made the assumption that Cameron was my favorite character, because, well, I’m a guy, and Jennifer Morrison most definitely is not. Until recently though, I hadn’t been a fan. This week changed this, because I think we’re seeing her develop more past that “Florence Nightingale” stereotype thing she’s had going on. Between the dumb move of using the drugs, and the look in her eyes when she was discussing the morning-after with Chase, I’m digging what’s going on with her.

And yeah, I really dug the mouse.

“The Mistake”

Oh how I love thee, Allison Smith. I am obviously a fan from The West Wing, but I think she was criminally underused on that show. Her work guesting on shows, The Closer in particular, has shown that she has got some acting chops. I could do my thing where I talk about not understanding why she’s not doing more TV work, but you’ve heard it from me before, so I’ll spare you.

You also know how much I enjoy non-linear storytelling, so the twisty-ness of this episode was fun. Especially when the stories, and thus the scenes, changed. It was a shame to know how it all would end, at least with the patient. It’s rare on this show that the patient doesn’t make it, so it’s a little more poignant when it happens.

The misdirection at the end of the episode didn’t have the complexity that the rest of the episode did (Blindsided = no fun), but its easy to forgive because of what it sets up. Foreman “supervising” House, even just for a month, is really going to wreak havoc in the halls of Princeton-Plainsboro.

“Deception”

So, if there was any idea that Foreman was going to play the whole supervisory bit cool, it was thrown out the window almost immediately. He’s got to know that putting House through the paces is going to come back to haunt him as soon as House is back in charge. Since the name of the show, five seasons later, is still House and not “Foreman,” that’s going to happen sooner rather than later.

Remember how, like six paragraphs ago, I was talking about how much I am beginning to like Cameron? Giving the patient a hard time, and then setting her up, was channeling classic House in a major way.

Speaking of “classic” House, dosing the patient after Cuddy and Foreman discharged certainly fits that bill. Admitting what he did to the team, when he realized he was wrong, proves his character once again. It was unfortunate, however, to see the patient, well played by Cynthia Nixon, back in an emergency room at episode’s end.