Something I noticed in House M.D. [Contains SPOILERS]

[oversoon]

[SPOILERS have no expiration date to me, and this contains SPOILERS for House M.D.]

While re-watching an episode of House, I noticed something interesting. I haven't yet found where anyone else has pointed this out, but I don't believe for a second that I'm the first one to notice it. In the episode "Last Resort" House and some patients are taken hostage in Cuddy's office by a man with a gun, demanding a diagnosis for his illness. This takes place during the season where they've really started building towards House and Cuddy becoming a couple. The whole episode is spent drawing obvious parallels between House and the gunman's obsession with finding answers, regardless of dire consequences for themselves or others.

House doesn't have his marker board in Cuddy's office, so he writes on the wall for the differential diagnosis. Items are shoved off a desk, someone gets shot and leaves a puddle of blood on Cuddy's carpet, and things in the office are in general disarray. The episode carries on in typical, formulaic, House fashion; and eventually the gunman situation is take care of by the SWAT team.

In the last scene, House and Cuddy are back in her office having an angry conversation about how House put his obsession ahead of the safety of the hostages, including himself. This transitions into the first real conversation they have about starting a relationship in earnest - a relationship in which House will, later in the series, royally fuck up Cuddy's life by continuing to behave like a sociopath. To set this scene up, the camera pans over the disheveled office items, the blood puddle, and House's differential diagnosis on the wall.
This entire episode was just a giant lead-up to point out that, concerning what would happen if House and Cuddy got together, the "writing" was literally "on the wall".

 

[Starbird]

I think you are reaching. But at least you've motivated me to rewatch House again for the billionth time, so thank you for that .

Fantastic series.

 

[Tatsuki]

The comparisons can be drawn, but I don't think this was an actual intention of the episode.

It reminds me of an English teacher I had who read WAAAAAY too far into everything, and eventually got shot down for that very thing in a Q+A with a poet. "dude no, it's just about how I miss the style and fashion in india, theres no class war in there"

Not that I'm having a go, I love hearing peoples theorys on things and anything that reminds me of House is great.

 

[LetalisK]

House is a show that takes basic diagnoses that second year residents could make without the rote fuck ups and turns them into an elaborate mystery science theater with a protagonist that would have been considered completely incompetent in the real world.

Basically, what I'm saying is the writers are really good and this seems plausible.

 

[TheVampwizimp_v1legacy]

House is really good.

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Uh... I really like the show, and it has consistently excellent character writing, but I do think that's a stretch. That was like 2 seasons before House blew it with Cuddy. I honestly believe that most tv shows are run by people who don't have a plan for the series. Lost was done off the cuff; Star Trek is known for setting up cliffhangers without knowing how they would be resolved; even Breaking Bad, one of the most well-designed and perfectly executed shows ever made, sometimes filmed important scenes before deciding where they would lead.

What I do think, in your defense, is that anyone, from the writers to the viewers, could tell that however perfect Cuddy was for House, he would eventually screw it up. It was honestly obvious.

 

[oversoon]

I can totally see why this would look like reaching, because I suppose it looks pretty labored when written out; but I didn't feel like I had to labor to arrive at the conclusion. I also wouldn't ascribe this level of depth to any other episode of House I can think of. I usually enjoy House on a pretty superficial level, mostly just to watch him be a clever dick; but I find this difficult to dismiss, even though I know full well that the writing is not generally at this level.

 

[Schadrach]

The thing I'm shocked so many people miss are the raw number of references to the original inspiration for House. What inspiration, you ask? Sherlock Holmes. His name (synonym of a homonym of "Holmes"), the drug habit (albeit Vicodin instead of cocaine), the doctor sidekick that serves to humanize him and has a name beginning with W and ending in -son, his living at apartment 221B, receiving a "Conan Doyle" as a gift, they just constantly slip that stuff in. You can even draw parallels between "Everybody Dies" and Reichenbach Falls, though it's worth noting that House is essentially his own Moriarty.

My favorite episodes have to be the hallucination heavy ones (House's Head/Wilson's Heart, Bombshells, Everybody Dies), as well as Three Stories (which as soon as he starts with the stories you know what the twist is going to be, but that doesn't make it any less interesting).