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[timepiececlock]

House is on in 45 minutes, yay! It'll be my first time actually watching an episode on tv.

If you go to the official website, they have an amusing little poll in the bottom left corner: "Would you ever consider using yourself as a guinea pig in order to foil an old nemesis?"

I find this amusing a) for the word "nemesis" which is so appropriate for House's obsessive nature, and b) because I fall within the majority of answers, and it pleases me that the anwser differential is as high as it is-- most people, it seems, are in their right minds on a question like this.

However, that the minority is as high as it is is depressing in its own way.


EDIT: *spoilers* for "Skin Deep" in the comments below.

Comments

[mswyrr]

God. His poor leg.

I was totally fed up with his asshatery, and then that scene comes up, and Hugh Laurie's playing it for all it's worth, tears in his voice, and suddenly House has got all my sympathy again.

[mswyrr]

*glances around nervously*...or was this a bad place to put spoilers?

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

*glances around nervously*...or was this a bad place to put spoilers?

S'all fine. The ep finished for me 20 minutes ago.


I was totally fed up with his asshatery

I *know*. That stuff with the father and daughter was horrible... and when he was pinching the tube... it's like he hit an all time high for unbearableness. Not just a grumpy jerk, but an out and out asshole. His behavior this season has been a lot worse than last season... first he's getting worse to the people around him while getting nicer for Stacy, and then Stacy's gone and he's totally "off the rails." The way he treated the model in her final scene in this episode... it was horrible, given what she's going through. Is this the same guy that we saw have moments of empathy with patients several times last season? He was very gentle with the guy who's wife was dying in childbirth, and he was quietly considerate with the wife of the baseball player and the twelve year old swimming mother.

How much worse is he going to get? Is the placebo revelation going to take him higher or lower? Last season "detox" made House confront the fact that he was an addict; this episode seems like a second season counterpart-- making him confront how much of his misery he is doing to himself.

then that scene comes up, and Hugh Laurie's playing it for all it's worth, tears in his voice, and suddenly House has got all my sympathy again.

I know. I was really REALLY feeling the angst this episode, and that scene was just painful. Painful and awkward and extremely well-done. I really liked Cuddy in that scene too-- I love how they have this peer trust thing that is different from his friendship with Wilson or the various roles he takes on for the trio. At some point along the line I decided that I never want to see House sleep with Cuddy. I want them to stay exactly as they are now (though revelations of past sexcapades would be interesting, as long as it stayed past-tense.)

[mswyrr]

The psychosematic nature of his increased pain confused me a little. The placebo made it go away, and proved that it was in his head. But his head was obviously doing a doozy on his body -- did Cuddy's revelation of the truth of his condition make it go away (I.e. his subconscious couldn't play that trick anymore once he was consciously aware of it?) or is he still in increased pain in the piano scene at the end, only without any recource to fix it, apart from psych treatment, which I don't think he'd submit to?

V. confused. Any ideas?

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

I thought the ending was very open-ended as well. It looked to me like he was forcing himself to endure the pain for as long as he could (now that he knows he might have been controlling it to some degree), and using the piano to distract himself from the pain. He took the vicodin of course, but maybe now he'll be playing this game with himself to see how long he can force himself to go without the vicodin, trying to second-guess how much of it is in his head.

That might be good, if it means he starts to confront his addiction and bring it back under some degree of control--- or very bad, if it leads to binge behavior.

Either way, it looks like he can't keep using leg pain as an excuse, even subconsciously, anymore. Cuddy forced him to acknowledge to himself that at least some of his behavior was his own doing.

By the end of the episode my mind went back to what the father-to-be said in the beginning: "So it's all in my head?" House told him it was his hormones, not his head... but in House's case, the opposite was true. It was his head, not his body.

I'm starting to have a theory... this season will be House's breakdown/fall-apart season. His Tyler Durden season, if you will. This is the season he crashes, emotionally and possibly physically (via drugs or legs) too. Last season we were introduced to him, this season he's been in a downward spiral. We're still halfway through the season, so this might be House's low point (the scene begging Cuddy for morphine was pretty low), but I'm thinking it's a false ending. House hasn't really hit rock bottom yet. That won't happen until he comes close to losing more than himself, or when he causes something really horrible to happen to someone else. Right now he's only being self-destructive; I bet he has to hurt someone else (the antithesis of what doctors do) to hit rock bottom.

We shall see...

[mswyrr]

I'm starting to have a theory... this season will be House's breakdown/fall-apart season. His Tyler Durden season, if you will. This is the season he crashes, emotionally and possibly physically (via drugs or legs) too. Last season we were introduced to him, this season he's been in a downward spiral. We're still halfway through the season, so this might be House's low point (the scene begging Cuddy for morphine was pretty low), but I'm thinking it's a false ending. House hasn't really hit rock bottom yet. That won't happen until he comes close to losing more than himself, or when he causes something really horrible to happen to someone else. Right now he's only being self-destructive; I bet he has to hurt someone else (the antithesis of what doctors do) to hit rock bottom.

We shall see...

If this is the season of Shattering Into Tiny Pieces, if they're going there this early, do you think later seasons will be an upward swing in the arc? Piecing the pieces back together, for instance? Do we have that to look forward to, you think?

I'm just... trying to decide whether this is a ride I want to get off now or not. The first season was a blast, but lately I've found that I'd rather not watch, and when I do it's really... unpleasant. I think, if House were played by anybody else, I'd already have distanced myself.

[donna-c-punk.livejournal.com]

Please, grant me it's almost 2:30 AM and I might not make complete sense here:

I agree that he's headed for a place that won't be easy to get out of. Besides the season being about his problems, it's been hinting at his salvation, most notably in second ep of the season. The need for other people (or other people's need for one person in particular) seems to be lost on House, if he's never known it or it's a feeling he's forgotten, that remains to be revealed. Whatever trials and tribulations House has to face before the end of the season - or the series, for that matter - he simply cannot do it alone. He's not one to ask for help, and I'm sensing that's an issue he'll have to address if expects to survive his addiction. Or the rest of his life.

[mswyrr]

*psychosomatic
*recourse

[octopedingenue]

I'm not a regular "House" viewer, but I remember m_butterfly had a lot of interesting things to say about the series, especially about House being an addict.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Ooh, cool! I am all into it this last week or so, so linkies are definitely shiny.

I'm so not normally a medical drama fan. This is the first doctor show I've been into... figures I end up picking the weird one with the anti-George Clooney as a fucked up protagonist. Mmm...funny and angsty and bitter show.