House “Last Resort”

This is what a police sketch of House might look like. Tonight I thought we might need a police sketch of House, because a desperate diagnosee went all Dog Day Afternoon, taking hostages in Cuddy’s office and the SWAT team showed up. My other primary thought was how forced this premise seemed and how this really could be looked at as a last resort attempt to muster suspense for “House M.D.” It’s all been done before, or as we in the business like to say, “Simpsons did it.” Follow up after the jump to see the other reasons I was disappointed by this week’s episode.

First and foremost I would just like to point out that you’re not insane, and you’re not experiencing errant deja vu. This story arc has basically been done before. (That was the third google result, I promise.) The duplication here without any diegetic acknowledgment of plot replication is insufficient for longtime viewers of the show. We’ve seen it before, at least make a joke about it so we know you don’t think we completely forgot. The first time he got shot, it seemed plausible because it was tied into a well-placed tidbit from a previous episode. This episode, House gets ambushed by some crazy guy getting screwed over by crappy doctors. The Thirteen-has-Huntington’s storyline that becomes still more prominent in this episode is different from the previous skillful foreshadowing because it has become a crutch for emotional evocation. In this episode House and Thirteen have an altercation over which of their respective fears is more viable, uncertainty or death. It’s like we’re just touching general emotional conflicts at their most widely relatable levels, a la Thanksgiving episode of “Boston Legal.”

Another plot niblet that now seems overworked is the House-Cuddy kiss. The first following episode played up the House and Cuddy relationship as a secondary, yet also highlighted storyline. It was unconnected beginning and end pieces, respectively drama and comedy, thrown in purely to appease the Huddy lovers. In this episode the relationship became a tangential source of intrigue used for plot manipulation. I felt like I was transitioning between Season 3 and Season 4 of “24” again. (I can’t believe there was a daughter mention in “Redemption,” seriously, she’s not on the show anymore, give it up.) In a pure Jack Bauer move, House returned to the hostage-taker his relinquished weapon when House assigned him a faulty diagnosis, illustrating House’s unorthodox, yet indisputable ethics. Further, there were like thirty times to inject that guy with something to knock him out, to maybe shove a chloroform-soaked cloth over his mouth, and this whole episode would have been non-existent.

Side note: Holy shit House, is that an Affliction t-shirt? Really?

Instead of focusing on one specific supporting character and his/her character flaws this week, we get a detachment by way of separation between the hostage House and the fellows consulting by phone. Do they even film on the same day anymore? Well, Thirteen wasn’t detached from the diegesis, being the patient’s lab rat for insuring the givers of his medication were not trying to poison him. Later, a reflective and pensive Thirteen hopefully tells Foreman she would like to get into his Huntington’s drug trial.

My favorite moment: The guy went to Florida, which is bad for you apparently, and we have another Thirteen turning point when she is left alone with the killer, gaunt-faced and Huntingtons’ed, to inject herself with a potentially lethal dosage ofBOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM explosion, dust everyhwere, game over, windswept Cuddy, House turning over a smiling, Helena Bonham-Cartery Thirteen before the exit montage which features an embracing look between House and the hostage taker.