Season Four, Episodes Seven and Eight
Has the band finally been put together? I know enough to know that these four doctors that are left stick around for a while, but, as Cameron and that other surgeon-dude-that-I-don’t-like prove, you don’t have to be on House’s team to stay on the show. Each of the departures in these episodes surprised me, for different reasons. If the competition is coming to an end, I’m a little disappointed. It has been the best thing on this show in a long time.
“Ugly”
The documentary style, specifically the black and white, was a little distracting. At least the switching back and forth between the two was. The pay off, though, was worth it in the end. A little creative editing, and Dr. House doesn’t seem nearly as big of a douchebag as he actually is!
CTB sure doesn’t like Terzi. Well, she doesn’t really like anyone, but it really seems to show with Terzi. And the ex-CIA doc sure doesn’t seem to be as smart as she was last week, no? Seems a waste just for a two-episode arc.
It took seeing them in the same scene together, but Michael Michele’s addition to the cast puts the ex-ER doctor count of this show up to two, considering Omar Epps’ recurring role in season three of NBC’s medical show.
Damn, Taub really stepped in it by trying to shut down House with the patient’s father. Ironically, I think it will be something that keeps Taub around in the long run. Coming clean to House about his addiction will most certainly help, too, just because it makes him more interesting to the boss.
“I’m not ‘all guys,’” House says to Wilson about his revelation that he gives the pretty girls more of the benefit of the doubt. Now I want to go back and watch all of the episodes and chart out how often Thirteen and Cameron were right with their first diagnosis. But, alas, I’m lazy, and that’s not happening.
“You Don’t Want to Know”
Is the name of the classroom House now meets in really called Ivy Hall? If I could get my screen shot juju working today, I would show you, yes, they did name it after me, even if they can’t spell.
The best part of the underwear challenge was the look that Thirteen gave House when he indicated that he wanted a … erm … panty check.
The whole theme about “not knowing” was a nice thread. From Big Love and the competition, to the Flynn keeping his card trick secret from House, and finally to Thirteen’s big secret, knowing how things work, or having all the answers, isn’t always best. It was a point well made with all of the myriad story lines in this episode.
CTB’s tactic of actually being nice to Big Love were, while easily seen through, still would probably work. It was much better than Taub’s bribe and Kutner playing the friend card. Thirteen’s no-play play was by far the best. In the end, Big Love’s departure surprised me. I wasn’t sure if they’d keep to the Survivor style, one goes home each week thing forever.
Thirteen’s medical condition is a storyline I’m interested in. It is easy to say that she’s the most interesting of the candidates because she’s written to be the most mysterious at this point. The curtain was finally drawn back tonight, but she’s solidifying herself as my favorite, because she challenges House in a way that no one else has (Not even Cameron, really).
Clacked by Ivey West 
on Jul 01, 2010 @ 12:00 EST5EDT
I’m not sure why you’re reviewing old episodes of House but I can’t resist replying.
I’m not into women so the attraction from Thirteen’s sex appeal bypasses me. I think there must be something to it though since Fox thinks it is a big draw since she’s still around even though Ridiculous Old Fraud was the most popular of the candidates. I agree, she does challenge House differently than Cameron did. But it’s the same way that Foreman did for five seasons and that Taub does too, that they oppose him for the sake of opposing him rather than for any medical or ethical reason. Slamming the laptop on his fingers because she was annoyed with him was childish, especially when she’s competing for a job with many other fellows. That’s what I liked about the balance of the three fellows in the first three seasons: Chase agreed with House because he “didn’t want to piss off his boss”, Foreman disagreed because he wanted to prove he was the better doctor and better man, and Cameron balanced the arguments and decided on a case-by-case basis. As an audience member, I could decide for myself whether I supported House or not. With Thirteen, the challenge is not intellectual or ethical, it feels like two bullies knocking heads. And while I think that House does deserve to have someone bully him as he bullies others, I don’t find it entertaining. (At least with Greatest Warrior, I learn something about the weaponry.)
I’ll try not to spoil the results for you. But at this point in the arc, I was getting more and more disappointed that Thirteen wasn’t being realistically dealt with in terms of consequences for her actions. I think she should have been fired earlier when she killed Stark and his little dog too through arrogance and negligence and then lied about it but House, who up to then had never accepted negligence in one of his fellows, forgave her and contrary to the terms of the challenge, fired the entire rest of the team when they should have been the ones to stay.
In You Don’t Want To Know (a rip-off of season 2’s Need To Know with Thirteen in Cameron’s role) House not only should have fired Thirteen for forcing medical tests on him against his will and without anaesthetic, he should have checked her in for a psych consult on the way out the door seeing how she smiled as she deliberately caused him pain. Instead again, contrary to his behaviour for the past 3 seasons but not for any reason I could see, he lets her get away with not knowing. To accomodate Thirteen staying, yet again writers changed the core of who House was. Or at least had him break his rules for her.
p.s. Since I was keeping score, Cameron was the first fellow to convince House that she was right when he kept insisting that the fellow was not. By the end of season 3, the score was Cameron 2, Chase 1 and Foreman 0. I’m not sure about how many first diagnoses who got right but I seem to recall that Cameron had a number of them right (four at least come to mind) while Foreman was hardly ever right. So why was he the one who got to come back stay and become the second in command in the department?
*POST AUTHOR*
Kate: First off, welcome to the Virgin Diaries. One of our running features, something that we generally focus on during the summer months, is taking a popular show that the individual Clacker has never watched, and reviewing it as we watch it the first time. I’m tackling the Shield and S4 and probably S5 of House this summer. Around the site, you’ll see The Practice, Weeds, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and many others (Keith starts Mad Men soon, I hear). I did, for the record, skip S3 of House, because I was getting damn bored of the original dynamic. And by original dynamic, you can read “Chase sucking the life out of the show.” :P
https://www.cliqueclack.com/tv/category/features/the-virgin-diaries/
Ridiculous Old Fraud was my favorite candidate, hands down. Foreman gets back on the team because Omar Epps was under contract. At least, though, I get less Chase out of the deal. Seriously, he was one of the big reasons I was going to kick this Virgin Diary to the curb this summer, and watch something like Dharma and Greg.
Your points about Thirteen make me want to go back and watch the episodes I just watched :). I think I must have read it differently than you, and just moved on. I like that House kept Thirteen (and Kutner) after they both screwed up pretty good, because, from my perspective, House’s MO is about taking (reasoned) chances. Granted, Thirteen was over the line with her risk taking, but House LIVES over that same line. But if you keep firing doctors because they make mistakes, you incentive the remaining candidates into never going out on a limb for risk of being the next one fired.
(I’m pretty serious about wanting to go back and watch those episodes now, though … You’ve got me thinking).
And, the score I want to keep is EVERY suggestion than the myriad fellows have made over the years. Love to see THAT win/loss record compiled :)