House - Episode 15 (Season Three): “Half-Wit”
I’ve noticed that whenever House features a special guest star, the episode always seems to suffer for it. Tonight’s episode, guest starring Dave Matthews, was no exception. The episode seemed sloppy and was missing that certain “bite” that accompanies the best episodes of House.
I thought Matthews did a good job in his role. Also excellent in an understated role was Kurtwood Smith. With this appearance, he becomes the first person to be featured in two TV shows each featuring an Eric Foreman.
Patrick is a thirty-five year old man who suffered a severe brain injury in a bus accident at the age of twelve. Since then, he has only been functioning at the level of a four year old, except that after the accident he has somehow become a musical genius. The episode starts with Patrick playing some Beethoven for a charity audience when he starts missing notes — something he has never done before. His father rushes over and Patrick tells him that his hand hurts, and then he hold up a hand severely contorted with dystonia (uncontrollable muscle contactions).
Early the next morning after Patrick is admitted to the hospital, the team is discussing his case. Foreman wants to put him on Clonazepam (a muscle relaxant, among other uses) for the dystonia, but Cameron points out that he’s already on it for his seizure disorder. Foreman then suggests Benztropine (a drug usually used to treat Parkinson’s Disease). House arrives orders a blood count, chemistry panel, thyroid tests, and adrenal tests.
Foreman runs some basic neurological tests and reports to House that the Patrick’s motor cortex is good. House is not convinced. He wheels a piano into the exam room and he and Patrick have an impromptu music session (including the opening bars of “I Don’t Like Mondays” by the Boomtown Rats). House orders a functional MRI to evaluate Patrick’s brain function. (A functional MRI works by detecting increases in blood flow within the brain — these are believed to represent area of brain activity.) They first test him while he is simply listening to music and the results are unexciting. They then test him while he is playing music. This time the brain lights up as dramatically, meaning he’s “thinking” quite a bit. Patrick’s heart rate increases and Foreman suggests that it is probably an emotional response. House disagrees. He sees no activity in the limbic system (the area of the brain concerned with emotion), so House deduces that something must be wrong with Patrick’s heart itself.
Next scene, Foreman explains to Cameron that arterial vasoconstriction (a sudden and unexplained constriction of a main artery) in Patrick’s arm led to the dystonia, and the cause for this — for reasons I’m not entirely clear on — lies in the heart. While Foreman is doing some sort of arterial study of the heart, Patrick experiences a rapid increase in his heart rate and ends up in a supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) that Foreman shocks back into rhythm. (Cardioversion is not the usual first-line treatment for SVT, but I won’t say it’s never done).
House now suspects that Patrick is experiencing bouts of sudden unexplained bleeding and these are responsible for his symptoms. A bleed in the heart led to the SVT and a bleed in the brain led to the dystonia. To prove his diagnosis, he wants endoscopy of both the upper and lower gastrointestinal tracts (But why no anesthesia? Intravenous anesthesia is used routinely for ‘scopes). Both are negative, so now he wants a surgical exploration — which does find evidence of a bleed retroperitoneally, behind the kidney. The surgeon also reports that Patrick suffered a severe grand mal seizure while he was closing up. This suggests that Patrick’s underlying seizure disorder is getting worse.
House wants to take Patrick off his seizure medications causing him to have bad seizures so that House can run a PET scan to see which areas of the brain are likely to be causing the seizures. The scan shows several hot spots, with more activity in the left brain than the right. House then performs an MRA and notes a small collection of blood in the white matter. This suggests Patrick’s recent problems may be due to trauma, an aneurysm, cancer, or an autoimmune disease. House wants a brain biopsy, but Foreman talks him into letting him perform an internal EEG to pinpoint the best area for a biopsy. The EEG reveals no abnormalities on the left brain, but a “brain dead” right hemisphere. House convinces Foreman that the right side of the brain is not dead, just severely dysfunctional and the source of all the seizures. Foreman and House understand this to mean that Patrick has an autoimmune disease, in this case Takayasu’s Arteritis.
With treatment for the Takayasu’s and seizure medication, Patrick will be able to return to his previous level of functioning. House is not satisfied however; he recommends a right hemispherectomy — surgically removing the right side of the brain. This would remove the seizure foci and eliminate the need for seizure medication. House also believes it will allow Patrick to be more functional and better able to care for himself. The downside is that he will likely lose all his musical talent in the process. House broaches the subject to Patrick’s father, who in the end agrees to the procedure. After the surgery, Patrick is not talking, but he is able to button up his shirt on his own, something he could not do in the beginning of the show.
There was also a side plot about House having brain cancer, but it never felt “real” to me and I never bought into it. Why would no one suspect House was lying about the cancer? He’s a notorious liar. The supposed terminal cancer led to several intense character scenes, some quite good (Cuddy), some not so good (Cameron). For the record, the tumor was a 6 cm tumor in the dorsal midbrain — though I don’t recall them ever saying exactly what type of tumor it was — only it ended up being a gumma (a soft growth seen in late stage syphilis) instead of a tumor, and it wasn’t House’s chart after all.
Medically, this episode felt very jumbled. There was no clear indication of why the doctors were doing certain tests, and the usual flow from one diagnosis to the next was missing. Run these blood tests. Why? Just because — don’t worry, they’ll never be mentioned again. Now run a functional MRI. It’s not abnormal enough! It must be vasoconstriction of an artery in the arm, so we’ll check the heart. Must be a bleeding problem in the heart and brain (though we missed that on the scans), so let’s do an upper and lower endoscopy — just in case he’s bleeding there — then we’ll open him up and look surgically, apparently at random, until we find some bleeding. Now the seizures are worse, so let’s run a different brain scan then an angiogram. Now an EEG. Aha, it’s Takayasu’s Arteritis! A diagnosis that fits if yousquint your eyes just right and skip over a bunch of signs, symptoms, and obvious tests.
The final decision, about whether or not to perform the surgery on Patrick, was to some extent a false dilemma. Patrick’s condition was under good control. His Takyasu was managed by medication as were his seizures. There was no reason his father had to decide then and there to have the surgery done, he could have waited and made an informed decision later in less chaotic and emotional surroundings. That’s what I would have suggested.
Tonight’s medical mystery was only barely interesting, partially because it was ill-defined (where was the whiteboard?). I give it an fully average C. The solution was weak and really didn’t fit all that well: C-. The medicine was sloppy, but rarely wrong per se, so I’ll give it another C-. The character interaction tried to make up for the medicine, but couldn’t quite do it — I give it a B.
The previous House review
A list of all prior House reviews
March 7th, 2007 at 12:04 am
You are telling me that removing half of the patients brain is a REAL treatment??? HOLY SHEET!!!!!!
March 7th, 2007 at 12:05 am
I could have done without the two Dave Matthews songs as musical backdrops as well.
I did enjoy the last scene with Cuddy, however — and her line suggesting that House contact the Make-a-Wish Foundation made me laugh out loud. But I agree with Scott — *I* suspected House was lying right off the bat, and I can’t believe, after all this time, none of the doctors did. At the very least, why could not one of them respect his obvious disinclination to talk about the purported Cancer? Did none of them even think about respecting his decision?
The last scene kind of bothered me too. We’re supposed to believe House is taking Wilson’s advice to share a pizza with friends to heart? As if, after all these years, it had simply never occurred to him to enjoy friendships? C’mon, that’s patronizing. I sure hope he didn’t go in and enjoy a beer and a laugh with his subordinates . . .
Still. I thought the ethical dilemma of the brain surgery was an interesting and challenging one, and I generally enjoyed the interplay between the doctors more than Scott did. I’d give it a B.
March 7th, 2007 at 12:16 am
I was not convinced nor happy with the “house is dying of cancer” plot… but it was more than worth it for the groping scene with Cuddy. Although, I am not sure I am enjoying Cameron’s new found permiscuity and trickery, I really liked the tension between her optimism and compassion and everyone elses’ selfishness and sarcasm.
As a non-medical person, I rely on the logic they run through on the show (and the commentary on this site) to follow the diagnosis plot. However, this one really confused me and seemed to come out of nowhere. Good to know it wasn’t my fault that I couldn’t follow it!
March 7th, 2007 at 12:30 am
Didn’t Foreman (or Omar Epps) botch the exam when he placed the shield over the patient’s right eye, then his left? We were told that the right side of the patient’s brain was “dead,” or not functioning properly. But as I understand it, the right side of the brain picks up what the left eye is seeing, and the left side of the brain picks up what the right eye is seeing. Yet the patient recognized the keyboard when Foreman covered his right eye (meaning he was looking at the keyboard with his left eye and using the malfunctioning right side of his brain), but didn’t recognize the object when Foreman covered his left eye (when he was looking with his right eye and using the good left side of his brain).
Oh, my head!
March 7th, 2007 at 12:52 am
I have to say that I’m a bit disappointed with how this episode turned out, so as a new reader, I’m impressed that you threw a review together as well as you did. The show seemed to focus too much on what House was apparently suffering from when I felt that the writers’ were insulting my intelligence. The show is only in its third season! House is not dying (yet). Also, I just have to whine about the promos getting people all pumped: On the surface it looked like a very entertaining mystery. But I left the show feeling unentertained because it almost felt like they completely ignored what happened in the beginning. I wish they had something to say about it.
March 7th, 2007 at 1:34 am
I was disappointed with this episode especially having waited 3 weeks for it. I didn’t believe House had cancer either, and I don’t know anyone who did… Where we suppose to believe that House wouldn’t have noticed Cameron drawing his blood while she was kissing him?
March 7th, 2007 at 1:41 am
Wouldn’t the seizures have stopped anyway if they would have severed the… corpus callosum? I’m no medical anything (I took like, 1 biological psychology class :P ), and I understand the desire to… somehow… re-organize the brain or whatever it was that house was thinking of doing, but it seems like there had to be some surgery less serious than removing a whole hemisphere of the brain. It seems like if there was any activity at all it would be more beneficial to keep it.
March 7th, 2007 at 2:03 am
I didn’t believe that House had cancer, either. I didn’t know what to think, including the pain angle.
Cameron’s kiss was lame. Did they really need more blood? In any case she severely overestimated the hypnotizing powers of her kiss.
The make-a-wish foundation line was very funny. But, it was an average episode. And we wait another three weeks for the next one.
March 7th, 2007 at 2:23 am
I liked this episode, I don’t think we were supposed to believe the cancer story, it came around too quickly. I think the episode was just set up to show how the other characters would respond to House IF he did.
I think it was quite a good excuse to have Cameron kiss him, before this episode I was hoping they’d find a way for them to kiss that wouldn’t be entirely unrealistic (for House’s personality) because it opens the area for exploration in future episodes :) We know House has had kinky Cameron thoughts before so how will he react now that he’s had a little bit more than just fantasy?
March 7th, 2007 at 3:43 am
Shouldn’t House have done something to prevent them from reading his e-mail, since it is told in the extra-long pilot that Cameron replies to all his mails?
March 7th, 2007 at 3:52 am
I agree, the cancer side plot was stupid. The logic in character actions was flawed, and the motive behind it was even worse. As if House wouldn’t have any other way to get high. (But hey, where did his Vicodin pills go?)
I liked the way House immediately noticed the Chase/Cameron-thingy, and Chase’s look on his face at Foremans line “House, you should be making out with Cameron!” :)
March 7th, 2007 at 5:35 am
Sure, the plot line about House having cancer was unrealistic. But it is not psychologically so lame for the other characters to buy into it, since they found out about it without House’s cooperation. The giveaway could/should have been House providing his files, which is not in sync with the situation.
I’ve been lurking here, this is my first post.
March 7th, 2007 at 7:02 am
(Haha, I’m glad to see that I wasn’t the only one to enjoy seeing Kurtwood Smith and excellent point on Smith being the first person to be on two shows with a character named Eric Foreman.) :]
Personally, I wasn’t thinking about whether House actually had cancer or not because I was already too busy moaning inside my head on how the producers were trying to end HOUSE by redeeming House through the whole cancer situation. Yeah. Glad to see that theory foiled so soon.
I agree with Wertrew and Cheryl in saying that the last scene was rather irksome. Yes, House is impulsive but he’s bitter ’til the end! The man just faked cancer and yet he tries to find solace like any other person would (And should)? Right. So plausible. I’m sure that people will argue that seeing how his cancer plan failed spectacularily, House realized the error of his ways and for a nanosecond, he actally actively sought out companionship. But if anyone looks over the history of HOUSE, it’s easy to see that House is probably never going to change. When will people learn? Heck, when’s Cuddy, Chase, Cameron, Foreman and Wilson ever going to learn?
Lastly, Dave Matthews. My inner pianist jumped in joy when House and Matthews played together.
Post script: Am I the only one who noticied that the opening theme with credits wasn’t shown this time?
March 7th, 2007 at 7:42 am
When I saw that Kurtwood Smith was a guest star, I was expecting him to play a troublesome parent who’d be clashing with House over his child’s care. I know the show has done that to death already, but I was hoping that, in the midst of a heated argument House would get in his face and call him a “dumb ass”. :-)
March 7th, 2007 at 7:43 am
Scott, spot on assessment of this episode. “Jumbled” is the best way to describe it, top to bottom. There was little to no focus on the medical mystery, and when there was, it was more like a fleeting glance at a bizarre case. Usually there are intense whiteboard scenes and other things to get you engaged in the mystery. This time I really didn’t care that much because it wasn’t being presented as very interesting.
And I knew start to finish that the House/cancer thing was a sham. I wasn’t sure why he’d set it up initially, but I figured it would never be a social experiment (House isn’t into those) and he would likely be more annoyed that people cared about him at all (which he was). House faking it to get high seems a little far-fetched though. I thought they were done painting him as a drug-seeking psychopath.
The final scene with Wilson didn’t make a ton of sense, either. They both seemed out of character there (Laurie did the best job he could at that point, though).
A very strange episode, indeed.
March 7th, 2007 at 8:17 am
Hi! I’ve been coming here for a couple of
months but this is my first post. Did anyone
notice that, even though he made comments
about dying, not once did House actually say
he had cancer. He kept trying to get everyone
to drop it but his team kept at it.The only reason he didn’t deny it was House wanted the
other hospital to believe it and he did think
the real patient had cancer.
March 7th, 2007 at 8:55 am
“I could have done without the two Dave Matthews songs as musical backdrops as well.”
Almost positive there wasn’t one Dave song the entire evening, and I AM positive there weren’t two. Male+acoustic =/= Dave Matthews. Was actually disappointed none were used, but that might’ve been over the top a bit.
Wasn’t THAT bad of an episode, but eh, could’ve been better.
Great site, enjoy it every week.
March 7th, 2007 at 10:48 am
SCOTT!!!! yeah shouldnt they have cut the corpus callosum? I thought that was one of the main ways people deal with severe grand mal seizures…. plus it wouldve been neat to see them talk about split brain stuff, and to see the producers interpretation of it.
March 7th, 2007 at 11:25 am
I wasn’t really satisfied with this episode either.
When they first did the “brain cancer” thing, I thought it was odd, because they started with it in the beginning of the show, whereas with House, any major developments on the characters happen at the end of the show, so as to leave a cliffhanger, and then any real discussion of it (if any happens) happens the next episode. Also, they would have saved it for the season finale.
I did consider the possibility that they were trying to end the show - but I’m glad it wasn’t that.
But the explanation seemed cheap… I mean, House had to have known someone was going to find out. Also, what would have happened after he got the drugs? It would be pretty suspicious to the doctor when he didn’t get sicker or die after a year. Wouldn’t the hospital have taken its own MRIs to confirm the tumor? House is smarter than that, even when it comes to drugs.
And the whole removing half the brain on the patient… I mean, isn’t there some less drastic way to do that? Would it help to just disconnect the two halves? I was very confused throughout the episode about what they were doing to him and why, and the final diagnosis was so undramatic, I ended up being like “wait- why is he not dying anymore again?”
I did think the role reversal with House and the ducklings was funny though… how he kept coming to them, asking their opinions, and then doing the grunt work, while they sat in the room looking through his files, telling him what he should do.
The end of the episode was lame though. I half expected him to go in the restaurant, and the ducklings all look at each other like “who invited him?” and there be a very awkward pause. Honestly, I imagine they’re all pretty ticked off at him still for the whole “pretending to have brain cancer” thing, and now he’s just going to join them for pizza? Argh.
March 7th, 2007 at 11:58 am
Great review as usual, Scott. I really look forward to these.
A note on the song issue: The one song that some folks might be thinking was DMB (Dave Matthews Band) was the song played over the closing credits: “See the World,” by Gomez. Gomez sounds a lot like DMB and they are actually signed to ATO, Matthews’ label.
Outside of the piano playing, I don’t think any of Matthews’ music was used in the episode.
March 7th, 2007 at 12:03 pm
Best lines ever:
“That’s one small pinch for man… One giant ass for mankind.”
Come on, anyone, show me something better!
March 7th, 2007 at 12:08 pm
Weren’t they pretty sloppy in assuming that, as a left-hander, the patient necessarily had his speech center in the right hemisphere of his brain? Did I miss them testing for that? I sorta thought that, while a right-hander is nearly certain to have their speech center on the left, left-handers are more variable.
March 7th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
Well, my assumption that the music was Dave Matthews’s wasn’t *only* because the music was “male+accoustic”; it was also clearly his style, sung with a voice that sounded a lot like his, and in an episode in which he guest-starred. Obviously I was wrong — thanks, Karen — but it was, I believe, a reasonable assumption.
By the way, House himself never stated that he was pretending to have cancer only to obtain the temporary “high” of the treatment, and we’ve seen multiple examples of Wilson, et al, leaping to false assumptions about House’s motivations (you’d think they’d learn). I’m not sure we should assume House has become purely hedonistic in this manner, and I wouldn’t be surprised to find that there’s more to the story than we know at this point. Perhaps the drug has the unrecognized potential to ease his chronic pain; perhaps it is otherwise necessary in a way we can’t yet imagine. But House doesn’t use recreational drugs, as far as we know — why would he pursue this temporary high so dramatically? Seems out of character, which the writers on this show usually don’t do.
I’m intrigued.
March 7th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
Unfortunately this season has never recovered from the change in writers during last Summer. The stories are all over the place, and House isn’t even remotely sympathetic anymore. It’s a shame.
Cutty’s “Make A Wish” line did make me laugh out loud.
March 7th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
Cutty == Totally Hot.
March 7th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
I did not understand if there is any logic behind removing one whole brain hemisphere, after all you can cut the bridge between the two sides.
If you removed one side of his brain, how he could move his other side to button his shirt?! (He was using both hands). How about the sensation of the other part of the body?
Lobectomy is an option but hemispherectomy?!
March 7th, 2007 at 3:35 pm
Everyone, a hemispherectomy is a real procedure. I’m not a doctor, but I am smart enough to know that self-respecting physicians use this procedure only as a life-saving one. I remember some time ago watching a documentary entitled “The Girl With Half A Brain”: she had contracted flesh eating bacteria that was gnawing away at her brain, and her general health deteriorated as you would expect. She gradually lost the ability to speak and walk correctly and other things. The doctors, after locating the infection, had dealt with it by performing a hemispherectomy. I assume that they hadn’t the time for less dramatic treatments because her position was already pretty bad by the time her family got to the hospital. She recovered fine and lives an average lifestyle like you or I do.
For the curious, after the procesdure, the skull feels up with CSF and it sloshes around noticeably.
Since I’m considering a medical career myself, I put myself in House’s shoes, and decided I really wouldn’t bring up brain surgery in conversation. Just as Scott mentions, what House did is more than abusive and unnecessary. House took away Patrick’s livelihood, something he had wholly enjoyed, in exchange for a “normaler” life and tried to pin the whole thing on his dad. I guess our time is better spent being really vexed by what happened rather than assuming split-brain surgery was somehow a better or more ethical choice for Patrick.
March 7th, 2007 at 3:48 pm
I liked it.
“Why would no one suspect House was lying about the cancer? He’s a notorious liar.”
Because House never said he had cancer. If he had told his co-workers that he had been diagnosed with cancer, they probably would have been suspicious, because he is indeed a notorious liar. They were so proud of their own detective work they never questioned their conclusions.
I don’t think the audience was supposed to believe House had cancer. I think the plan was–and I admit I fell for it–that there would be a misdiagnosis, so when the team showed up at his door with the diagnosis of syphilis, viewers would expect this to be the resolution to the “cancer” part of the story. The revelation that House made the whole thing up to score drugs probably shouldn’t have surprised me, but it did. I suppose one flaw in the plot would be that House would have self-diagnosed syphilis before it got that far along.
“There was no reason his father had to decide then and there to have the surgery done, he could have waited and made an informed decision later in less chaotic and emotional surroundings.”
True. I think that plot hole was caused by the time frame of the show, and it’s not the first time this has happened. House (the show) basically follows real time, in the sense that the week (or several weeks) between episodes represents roughly a week (or the equivalent amount of time) in the lives of the characters; and the medical mystery is nearly always resolved in a single episode. This leads to unrealistic situations like patients walking out of the hospital a couple days after heart transplants and like the instant resolution of Patrick’s problem. If they delay the brain surgery, for the reason Scott gives us and to give him more time to recover physically, the only way to resolve the medical mystery in one episode would be to do a “flash forward” or something like that.
Things I loved: The scene between House and Cuddy, House and Mathews playing piano together and the scene at the end between House and Wilson.
These are my thoughts about the “character development” aspect of the show. As always, I defer to Scott’s knowledge concerning the medical aspects.
March 7th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
Long time lurker.. it would have been better if house´s dad had cancer.
March 7th, 2007 at 4:05 pm
No harm meant Josh, quite a few of us just had the honest question about the difference between split brain surgery and a hemispherectomy when the reasoning was ostensibly seizures. I think we all understand that a Hemispherectomy is an actual procedure, and I think we also understand that there are documented cases of its beneficial use. It just seemed to us that one was the more logical choice.
I just might add that you are bit quick to criticize house on his decision to “take away Patrick’s livelihood”. Given the decision between being a savant and a relatively normal person, I think your average person would have a harder time deciding. From the writers perspective, I think he made it painfully clear that Patrick was not happy with his life. Or at least, he didn’t know happiness. Put yourself in the father’s shoes, and perhaps the decision is harder. Yes, piano is what Patrick lives for. But he isn’t happy. I know I would have needed more time to decide; more than the show gave, at any rate.
March 7th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
There was a definite flaw during the functional MRI. Listening is normal, and Foreman says, he’s not a gifted listener, he’s a gifted player, so House has him pretend to play.
Except he is a gifted listener, as demonstrated twice; he could tell what note the audience was chattering in, he could tell all the notes in the complex chord House played while testing him.
March 7th, 2007 at 4:35 pm
One of the worst House episodes. Many disjointed scenes. It more like a series of snapshots than a coherent well-thought story. Poorly edited. The patient was interesting but apparently not to the ducklings. When Cuddy is talking to Wilson, she essentially lets the viewer that House does not have cancer. She lists all the symptoms he should but doesn’t. That was confirmation that he did not have cancer. Cuddy was great. Always love Wilson. But most of it didn’t work. Was reading while watching - something I never do when watching House. Geez I wish they would get back to the medical mysteries - and while they’re at it -repair the House/Wilson friendship. I always find their peer discussions about the POTW interesting. Give me something that will keep me glued to the set.
March 7th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
“Well, my assumption that the music was Dave Matthews’s wasn’t *only* because the music was ‘male+accoustic’; it was also clearly his style, sung with a voice that sounded a lot like his, and in an episode in which he guest-starred. Obviously I was wrong — thanks, Karen — but it was, I believe, a reasonable assumption.”
eh, maybe I’m too familiar with his music, but nothing about those songs was much resembling a definite dave style, but oh well, no harm done (those tracks were better than his new stuff anyway)
“Except he is a gifted listener, as demonstrated twice; he could tell what note the audience was chattering in, he could tell all the notes in the complex chord House played while testing him.”
This brings up something that bothered me about the episode. I’m not much of an expert but the material I have read indicates savants aren’t gifted musicians, just talented players. That they can recite a piece by ear almost verbatum, usually never translates into actually creating good, original music. Or that they can calculate primes indefinitely doesn’t mean they can prove the Riemann Hypothesis.
They made it seem like the dave character was a little more, especially where he finishes House’s own piano playing, and House says something to the effect that “I never was able to finish that.” I thought maybe he was going to take that and say that he wasn’t like normal savants and he would be able to fix his mental problems because of whatever and yadda yadda.
He ended up doing that anyway but the connection was never made (least that I saw). But, I might not have the slightest clue what I’m talking about, so ya :)
March 7th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
I agree, this was not one of the best episodes. The last few have been seriously lacking, and I am afraid that they have run out of ideas for this show. If that is the case, then it is a damn shame.
What got me wondering was this: if House had brain cancer, why was there a diagnosis without tissue biopsy? I work in radiation therapy, we have to have a pathology before we can treat. They can see the Xrays, and see the tumor, but they have to know if it is a primary tumor vs. metastases (or spread in laymans terms) and whether the tumor is benign or malignant. There was no biopsy, and if there was, House would have some sort of bald spot.
This episode was all over the place, and we always felt that House was lying. I was holding my breath when Cuddy talked to the Boston hospital, because if the doctor on the other end admitted that House was a patient, he could be in serious trouble with HIPPA laws. Privacy is a BIG thing in today’s medicine. The doctor could feasibly lose his job. But he answered her question without really answering it. Good move on the producers part.
I did think that Dave Matthews did an excellent job, and the duet between Hugh Laurie and Dave Matthews was awesome. We wondered who got the biggest thrill with that: Laurie or Matthews? ;o)
March 7th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
Why was House testing his own blood at the beginning of the episode? It provides the clue which leads TYG to discover his “cancer” - but he doesn’t have cancer and he has blood from another patient to send to Boston so…?
Cheers
Tom
March 7th, 2007 at 7:44 pm
Tom, when House took his own blood with Blister Girl, his sleeve was rolled down just below the crook of the elbow. Perhaps he was hiding a vial of the other patient’s blood under his shirt? My theory, anyway.
I agree that this season’s been a mess. The Tritter story was needlessly abusive and melodramatic, and House has gone from amusingly cranky to unsympathetically hateful. But hey, I finally got to see Cameron make out with House, so if they cancelled the show a month from now, I can still die happy.
March 7th, 2007 at 7:46 pm
Oh - and for your information, mortals do NOT get the point in a push.
March 7th, 2007 at 8:09 pm
I rather liked this episode. My only beef is that they cut off the cancer plotline a little early. That seemed like something that would span over a few episodes. Still a neat little side plot.
Also, I’m not a doctor, but the brain removal thing seemed a little farfetched to me. Could one actually function with only half a brain? And, even if they could, would you run the risk of something happening to to the remaining brain with all that extra space that you’d make?
March 7th, 2007 at 8:35 pm
I enjoyed the show. I laughed out loud when I realized the team was breaking into House’s home - after all he has taught them about breaking and entering, they do it to him.
I was riveted with the Cameraon kiss. I thought she really meant it, and loved his reactions.
The duet was amazing. That was the humanizing of House that we have needed.
I also thought that taking half a brain out was over-kill. The only person I know who lost half a brain was a hemi-peligic afterwards. I don’t know if the medicine was correct, or the reality of the situation, but I did like the moral question - is it better to be a talented savant or someone less talented and closer to normal?
readz
March 7th, 2007 at 9:06 pm
I cannot see why people didn’t believe House had cancer. We weren’t shown any ulterior motive for him to have cancer ie. he wasn’t shown in unbearable pain. Also, at the beginning, we were shown how he secretly took his own blood for testing. And, it is very House to hold his problems to himself - like Tritter. If at all, he seems the type to put everyone on his trail, off it by giving them a fake patient 020406, which they can’t double check against.
March 7th, 2007 at 11:24 pm
I knew House was up to something, but I thought that the whole cancer thing was a ruse or a trick directed at the guys in Boston. I just couldn’t figure out how or why since no other clues were offered, other than everyone knew who they were. I figured it was going to be some lame last minute B plot confession scene. Turns out House just wanted an experimental implant to alleviate his pain. Oh, wait, it was a lame last minute B plot confession scene… This is too much like trying to get the nerve cluster from the CIPA girl in the last episode. That’s two episodes in a row with a trip to the House-unethically-using-patients well. Come on, writers, there are so many other unethical roads for House to walk down. Since the goal is to make him less likeable and irredeemable, let’s kick his cane out from under him and see which one he stumbles down.
Plus I really didn’t like the father’s decision to turn his idiot-savant son into a hamburger flipper. I thought it was already determined earlier in the episode he was happy as a pianist. Seems like a no brainer to me…
Having said that, I enjoyed the show more than Scott and many of the other posters here. Probably because I was distracted by the Boston angle…
March 8th, 2007 at 2:37 am
“The last scene kind of bothered me too. We’re supposed to believe House is taking Wilson’s advice to share a pizza with friends to heart? As if, after all these years, it had simply never occurred to him to enjoy friendships? C’mon, that’s patronizing. I sure hope he didn’t go in and enjoy a beer and a laugh with his subordinates . . .”
I have to take issue with this (and the other comments that echoed it).
House is an introvert, and he’s depressed. (Among other things.) I’ve been in that situation and I know what it’s like. It takes a great deal of effort for him to relax and have fun with people. It’s emotionally draining, and he’s terrible at it. It’s much easier for him to obsess over the things he is good at, and to push people away to avoid sharing his emotions.
But part of him still needs those emotional connections, and he’s been happier when he had them (i.e. when he was with Stacy). Wilson knows this and tries to convince him that maybe it’s worth the effort to try being outgoing and sharing every now and then instead of relying on increasingly risky sources of happiness.
There were a lot of emotional scenes in this episode, but for me the most emotional was when House walks up to the restaurant and reaches for the door. I’ve been there a hundred times, and many of them I just walked on by, hating myself. House probably would have done the same thing, except that his botched Cancer plan had inadvertently caused outpourings of friendship from just about everyone he knew.
House managed to walk in. It’s a tiny, positive step. It won’t fix him, but it’s a start.
[Or maybe the writing of that scene was just as confused as the rest of the episode and I just believed it because Hugh Laurie is a damn good actor. Either way, it worked for me.]
March 8th, 2007 at 7:49 am
I’m just relieved that the cancer scare wasn’t the beginning of a new story arc. Story arcs on House tend to build dramatically and then fizzle out without affecting the show’s basic premise.
By the way, the soap opera element seems to be getting out of hand. All medical shows degenerate into soap operas when they run out of diseases–look at ER–but it’s a little soon for House, isn’t it?
The earnest, headlong effort to humanize House seems silly at times. So the man finds human beings interesting only as patients, and patients only when they present as chess problems–so what? Does that require a crisis intervention? In real life the friends and colleagues would have more respect for the man’s personal space. They’d leave him alone!
Give us the old House–a show about a diagnostic genius cum arrogant wiseguy who only cares about being Right.
March 8th, 2007 at 9:32 am
Dan: I think the point was that the son *wasn’t* happy. Remember at the beginning, they explained that the son had a habit of repeating a question when he didn’t understand it, because he realized that some response was expected.
Near of the end of the episode, while wrestling with the decision regarding the surgery, the dad asks the son: “Are you happy?” The son responded “Are you happy?”
The son didn’t understand the question, which is why the dad opted for the surgery.
March 8th, 2007 at 10:02 am
So call me crazy - but didn’t that PET scan show significant activity on the side of the brain that was later shown to be “almost completely dead”? How does that work?
March 8th, 2007 at 10:21 am
When they take out half your brain, do they have to put something in to fill up the space? Like cotton batting or marbles or something? Can half your brain just go rattling around in a half-empty skull?
March 8th, 2007 at 10:54 am
I completely dislike american idol for disrupting the only show I watch. second half was much better than the beggining,which had no bite at all,no good fast ripostes.etc. also the chase hug was great with him just hanging off house. Maybe House was just volunteering to be a guinea pig for the sake of knowledge in the treatment of severe pain, or he might be tired of vicodin constipation. I am an artist and an obsessive information hunter,and click on all the intriguing links you provide,as a way of squeezing the last drop of fun out watching hugh laurie as house. his book is pretty good too.
March 8th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
Hey,
Sorry if this has been asked before, but that song (that House said he composed), was that original? I don’t listen to DMB or much piano music, but that was a beautiful song.
Thanks,
-Rob
March 8th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
There’s a notion that House is miserable because he has no close relationships. I think House would respond that he’s no more miserable than anyone else. After all, Wilson has been married and divorced multiple times; have close relationships made him happy? How happy was House when Stacy dumped him, or Cameron when her husband died? I think House would say misery is unavoidable either way, and at least, being alone, he doesn’t have to fight over the remote.
Also a number of commentators have expressed disbelief at House’s unethical behavior. Its unclear to me whether they’re referring to social ethics or professional ethics. With regard to the former, most of House’s behavior toward others is morally defensible (I said “defensible”, not necessarily “right”) from a utilitarian perspective, and hardly rises to the immorality of certain infamous real doctors and scientists. As such, I don’t find his behavior so outrageous as to be completely unbelievable.
March 8th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
I personally thought this was an awesome episode.
Then again, I have no medical training whatsoever, so I wasn’t able to tell that the medicine was totally out of whack.
The cancer angle had me convinced - I was starting to worry that they might have this be the last season.
March 8th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
One thing is for sure, this must have been the episode that entertained me the most. Mathews’ performances were just great, Cameron’s kiss was entertaining and nothing more than that, the Cuddy’s make a wish foundation was simply hilarious. The hemispherectomy was entertainment too I guess.
House is turning for the masses, for people who don’t understand the medical part of the show. I’ve been noticing this for a while. The aim of the show isn’t the patient, and the way House deals with diseases anymore. This part is beginning to be like the side-plot, Tritter, Brain Cancer, House’s leg, and so on being the main plot. That sucks!
Tiago
March 8th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
I don’t understand: Why would House join his underlings at the bar? Didn’t they just leave him in horror after discovering he faked cancer to get high? After the revelation at House’s door, Eric clearly said “You’re right, I don’t like you”, and Cameron was in shock. Also, Cameron lost her husband to cancer. Faking cancer seems like a potentially huge sore spot.
Of all the times that House could have joined them after work, this is probably the worst.
March 8th, 2007 at 10:55 pm
I’m surprised no one else brought up MrBuddwing’s point that the eye test was completely wrong. They should have flashed an image in each half of Patrick’s visual field, and if his right brain was “dead”, he should have recognized the image only in the right field (the right field of each eye goes to the left occipital lobe and vice versa). This also works if the corpus callosum has been severed.
March 9th, 2007 at 7:24 am
The neurology/neuropsychology was just wacky. He has enough coordination to play piano but not button his shirt (minimally conceivable, but i’d like an example). He has perfect pitch only since his injury? Perfect pitch requires extensive music exposure before age 6. The eye test was laughable (as pointed above, it needs to be to right or left visual field, not eye). The handedness notion was silly (most left-handers are mixed or left-brain for speech). That said, hemispherectomy is a recognized if drastic treatment, and early hemispherectomy (before about age 8, I think) has surprisingly few deficits. If he had marked destruction in the right hemisphere after the injury,it’s possible that he could recover quite well. But some history from the father or childhood records would have been pretty important to make that call. And they missed the opportunity for an amytal test, which would have been interesting. Medically, it was subpar (the rush to make a decision is standard soap, if medical nonsense). I’d have liked the last scene if House had gone into an Edward Hopper scene, sitting by himself at a counter somewhere - would have been more true. I did enjoy the scenes where he knows he’ll be eventually found out, is gritting his teeth and telegraphing it to all.
March 9th, 2007 at 8:13 am
I’m a little late with this, but I recorded the episode and couldn’t watch it until last night. I won’t comment on the medical aspects, since Scott does that so well. But I do agree with Peggy who noted the reason the brain removal had to be done right away was due to the time restraints of the show. We all need to remember that this is a fictional DRAMA, not a documentary. I think this show gets it right more than most other.
As for the House has cancer plot, of course, I didn’t believe it. It was a mixture of knowing that Fox already renewed the show and suspecting that House was up to something. I wasn’t sure what and didn’t predict the ending, but I knew it was there. As for the others believing it, if they had time to think about it, maybe they would have doubted it. But it hit them all at once and all they could do was try to find an answer. Also, as Peggy also noted, House never said he had cancer, they discovered it, which would make them believe it more.
House doesn’t think he needs people and pushes them away. But inside, he is longing to be loved. He just doesn’t know how to go about getting it. When he had his hand on the door at the end, my daughter and I both kept yelling, “Go in, go in!”, but realistically, that wouldn’t have been the place for him to start. When he was walking down the street, I thought he was going to see Wilson in the restaurant and join him. That would have made more sense, since they often eat together (or House eats Wilson’s lunch) in the hospital.
Okay, we all love House the curmudgeon. He’s what attracts most people to the show. But if he doesn’t learn, grow and develop as a person over the course of the show, then it would get boring. I think the writers are trying to do this with him.
I loved the piano playing also. And of course, the great lines. Chase’s reaction when Foreman says “you should be making out with Cameron” was great. Who thinks that maybe Chase is developing feelings for Cameron, even though she said she could never fall in love with him? Could be an interesting triangle. Chase loves Cameron, Cameron loves House, House loves himself. Just my musings. Thanks for the reviews and interesting comments all.
March 9th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
This show, from the first episode, has NOTHING to do with the medical diagnosis. It’s about exploring House the character by asking the core question of the show, “Who is House?” So, I just don’t give a damn whether the diagnosis is realistic or not because this is not the key point of the show. The key point is how this character is developed and this episode did its job!
March 9th, 2007 at 8:40 pm
If someone already brought this up, I apologize, but I’m pretty sure I read everyones’ comments and no one has said:
Why the hell was Chase crying when he was hugging House?
Maybe there will be a House, Chase, Cameron triangle in future…but instead of fighting over Cameron, they’ll all live as one big happy family?
Hawt.
March 9th, 2007 at 10:20 pm
I mean this man stabbed his colleagues in the back so that his job would be secure. He also never shed a tear when his own father died…. it seemed very odd and out of character to me. Any other thoughts?
March 10th, 2007 at 12:19 am
Does anyone know the name of the piece that Dave “air” plays on his leg during the functional MRI?
March 10th, 2007 at 12:22 am
Just a tought : Why are you guys so convinced that House is telling the truth this time? It is also very possible that he is really suffering from terminal disease, but doesnt want the sympathy of the world. I wouldnt put it beyond him to purposely mislead his team. He knew that Cameron would try to get a blood sample. Hence, he probably also knew that Chase would also try to get a sample.
March 10th, 2007 at 2:19 am
Stewart, glad to read your response; I have pretty good knowledge of the brain and (at least) three issues just bothered me. Yes, I realize it is a television show, but it is fun to identify (and disappointing to see) errors that fuel people’s erroneous “common sense.”
1. The eyes do not go “right eye-left hemisphere/left-eye-right hemisphere”— they go ultimately right hemiretinas to right hemisphere (Left visual field)/left hemiretinas to left hemisphere (Right visual field). Covering an eye was meaningless unless he was doing some sort of test for a lesion along the visual pathway.
2. In adults, brain plasticity is minimal; in my understanding a hemispherectomy, although VERY rare, is more likely in a child than an adult. How he was buttoning his shirt was beyond me. In fact, I would bet he would never be able to button his shirt after having a right hemispherectomy as an adult.
3. The “language is in the RIGHT hemisphere for left handers” is wrong, as was mentioned previously. The location of speech is more variable in left handers, but 70% or so have it located in the left hemisphere, whereas 95% of right handers have it in the left hemisphere. Certainly it is reasonable that Patrick had language production in his RH, and given that it is “entertainment” the boring process of determining the hemisphere of language production was skipped over.
What got me was that my understanding is that Broca’s area is about the production of language, not the motor skills to speak, which would be controlled by the primary motor cortex, no? In my estimation, given the limited plasticity and having his speech centers removed, Patrick would never speak again.
March 10th, 2007 at 12:04 pm
Taking into account Chase’s crying when he hugged House and his look when Foreman made the kissing Cameron comment, I think Chase is in love with House.
March 10th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
———-
I don’t understand: Why would House join his underlings at the bar? (…)Faking cancer seems like a potentially huge sore spot.
———-
So joining them now, to add insult to injury would be very House’ish, don’t you think?
I like this episode. Medicine was very VERY suspect, but comical values were high. Double suspense with cancer was great:
- I have a cancer.
- No, you have a syphilis.
- Idiots! I don’t ave neither!
The hugs were great. If you want sperm sample, come back without a needle. Call Make-A-Wish.
Youngsters breaking into House’s house were great: you were here before? Aren’t you afraid he will caught us in his bed? Well, if I’m going to fired anyway…
And piano thing: it’s refreshing to have an actor who don’t have to imitate piano playing, because he’s damn good pianist himself.
And what do you think: was House HS book a real Hugh Laurie HS book? If so, then Chase’s line “I wonder if he has teeth” was wonderfull, when you remember Laurie is from England.
I enjoy this episode almost as much as the “wheeling chair” one. No big drama, no token philosophy, just good fun.
March 11th, 2007 at 3:33 am
TRAD-Actually, Dave Matthews had to learn enough piano to fake it here, as he DOESN’T play the piano.
I thought House did have cancer. I expected it would be disproved right up until they mentioned a treatment that would expand it to five years, and then I thought he would actually have cancer.
Personally, faking cancer to get high takes House out of the amoral “what is he gonna do next” range and places him firmly into the immoral “who cares what he does next” range.
This season has done it’s hardest to kill my enjoyment of the show, and now I think it’s about time to call it.
“House,” time of death 9:00Pm 3/6/07
March 11th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
well, Zach, I’m sure the writers will miss you as a member of the House MD audience.
March 11th, 2007 at 5:57 pm
Zach: I was talking about _Laurie_. He plays piano, giutar, harmonica - even composes a bit.
March 12th, 2007 at 10:00 am
TRad,
I’m a big fan of Hugh Laurie’s BBC comedy work (He was only a supporting character, but his addition saved Blackadder, IMO). He played the piano fairly often on the “Jeeves & Wooster” show he did with Stephen Fry. To say that he’s good would be a bit of an understatement.
March 12th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
Unless everybody else got a later commercial break than we did - I would point out that we never did
see House walk into the pub at the end, and I can easily imagine him getting as far as his hand on the
doorknob and then talking himself out of it.
That he even considers it shows that Wilson’s advice sticks in his head, which is significant enough
since the guy blows off 95% of what’s said to him in a day…but it doesn’t mean he’s been suddenly
transformed.
March 12th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
It didn’t occur to me until I read the review, but dammit - I missed the white board.
Most suspenseful bit of the show for me was the last ten seconds or so, when House was pondering about whether or not to join TYG. And yeah, there was a tiny bit of me that wanted to scream out “Noooo!” when he looked like he was going to join them.
I’d have preferred to see their reaction when he did join them and as one they told him to get stuffed.
March 12th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
I’ve only been watching this show since the tail end of season two, so I don’t know too much about the history of the Cameron, Chase, and Foreman. However, I watched this episode again this weekend (from a downloaded SVCD copy), and the second time through it occured to me that the three of them solved a challenging mystery without any (or much) help from House. Aside from giving them access to the fake file, he didn’t contribute to the diagnosis in any way. Is that a first, or have they succeeded independently in previous episodes? It always seems that House is pushing them toward the solution, but he wasn’t doing that with his fake cancer.
BTW, what is their status exactly. Are they residents? Isn’t residency normally a two-year appointment? If this show is meant to be operating in a more or less real time frame, isn’t it about time for these three to go away and be replaced by others?
I believe I saw a spot at the end of this episode (not present in my downloaded video version) which said that there will be 9 straight new episodes. That is good news for the people here who complain about American Idol butting in… :-))
March 13th, 2007 at 3:12 am
Dear me, haven’t read all the posts. Just want to comment on the “House is dying” thing. I’m not sure, but I thought maybe we were supposed to realize House wasn’t really dying. Then there’s the lovely dramatic irony between the view and the House team. *shrug* I pretty much knew he wasn’t dying, but I thought that’s how it was supposed to be.
March 13th, 2007 at 5:37 pm
I don’t know how malignant or incurable brain cancer is, but I was really surprised they immediately treated it like a death sentence. Cameron applying for a new job the same day (next day?) she learns about it? It seems unlikely, especially given her love of sticking around dying people. Not to mention aforementioned point.
Unlike everyone else, I am not a big DMB fan (I think the worst part of the show is the wallpaper acoustic coffeehouse stuff at the end of every episode). When I found out from the blog just now that 4-year-old brain savant was DM, I laughed. “What a fitting role.” Please don’t hurt me, others, it is meant as no offense.
March 14th, 2007 at 4:51 pm
Freedonian:
go and get yourself “A Bit of Fry and Laurie”. 4th season (they were a short ones: 6 episodes in each) is mediocre, and 3rd only good, but first two are great.
Laurie - good pianist. Remember, I’m from Europe. Where you, Americans, are using terms like “great”, “splendid”, “fabulous”, we’re usually saying “not very bad” :)
March 15th, 2007 at 9:11 am
It is possible, though perhaps not likely, that House knew that the patient’s cancer diagnosis was in error, and used the situation as a teaching device. By leading his team to believe that he (House) was the cancer patient, he knew that they would jump all over the case and eventually learn that the diagnosis was wrong. (Getting hugs and kisses from the team was, for House, an unexpected bonus).
As another poster pointed out, this may have been the first time that House’s team solved a case without his input.
It is also possible that House was just being House. :-)
As for House and Chase, I think that House has become a sort of father figure to Chase. Chase’s dad was a prominent doctor with a curmudgeonly streak of his own, so the parallels are obvious.
March 15th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
I think House is depressed and was just trying to hide that from his team and friends.
March 15th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
Oh, and I forgot this: In response to a previous poster, I absolutely love the music tracks on House. I think they do an incredible job with that.
March 15th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
Awesome reviews.. U da MAn sCOTT!!
March 15th, 2007 at 8:01 pm
Even though I don’t watch the show for the medicine its nice to know what’s real and what’s not.
Chase isn’t in love with HOUSE although that might be amusing. He is looking to House for the approval that he never got from his dad. If anything he probably is suffering from tranferrance issues. House probably realizes this and it would be just like him to exploit it for all its worth.
I don’t know why anyone would want House and Cam to get together. I have to fast forward through that kiss. Bleah…
Even though I don’t watch the show for the medicine its nice to know what’s real and what’s not.
March 16th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
I think the point was that the son *wasn’t* happy.
The son didn’t understand the question, which is why the dad opted for the surgery.
Not understanding the question doesn’t mean he’s not happy; it just means he doesn’t know how to talk about being happy. Big difference (especially in someone with brain damage).
Furthermore, if Patrick isn’t happy *in the hospital* that has little to do with whether or not he is happy with his regular daily life. Lots of people are unhappy in hospitals and they haven’t even had 12 holes drilled in their skulls (plus the endoscopes and the exploratory surgery).
I think the father’s decision is very questionable; aside from the fact that the question proves nothing since Patrick clearly didn’t understand it, there’s also the fact that the damage of the hemispherectomy is guaranteed while the possible benefits are only speculative. Maybe that was intentional though - House wants to see the hemispherectomy done to find out if he’s right about what would happen; that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the best thing for Patrick. (Or House might believe that it’s better for Patrick - House highly values his autonomy and would consider Patrick’s life horribly undignified, but that doesn’t seem to bother Patrick at all. This underscores the problems with trying to estimate someone else’s emotions by projecting yourself into their situation.)
The potential tradeoff between “normality” and Patrick’s unique identity and abilities reminded me of the novel The Speed of Dark, except that in this episode Patrick wasn’t allowed to make his own decision whether or not to accept that trade - it was made for him. (And the fact that Patrick’s differences were the result of a traumatic accident; would it be ethically different if he had been born that way?)
On a lighter note (yes, the brain cancer plot was the lighter note), I thought all of the House character interactions were great - I burst out laughing when Cameron started reaching into her pocket. She’s starting to learn deceit, but not good enough at it yet to fool House, even with that great a distraction.
The drug-seeking explanation is too pat and calculated to drive away House’s friends, though (he was obviously starting to feel that he was spending too much time dealing with people’s feelings and wanted to push them all away for a while). I don’t buy it. I think we’re not done unraveling the lies in this episode and there’s another reason House wanted to fake his way into that cancer treatment.
March 16th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
It’s an interesting situation, Chris, and of course I have to offer the flip side of your point: Not understanding the question doesn’t mean he IS happy, either. I don’t recall any compelling evidence that the son experienced significant emotions of any sort, other than fear. The mere fact that he couldn’t understand a question like “are you happy” is in itself evidence that while he might not be miserable, he’s not really living a full human life, either.
I also had the impression, based on very little, that the father had never really asked that sort of question of his son before - well-meaning though he was, and determined to do what was best for his son, he hadn’t really tried to find out his son’s feelings, if any, on his situation. For both these points, though, I’m working from faulty memory.
Naturally we’re impressed with the son’s musical gift, and mourn its loss - but was this important to the son? I certainly didn’t have the impression that it was more important to him than, for example, buttoning his shirt - or, of course, having his father’s loving approval. If he only played to please his father, and took his pleasure in that approval and not in an appreciation of the music, nothing is lost by destroying the gift and allowing him a chance at expanding his life experiences beyond those of a toddler.
March 21st, 2007 at 5:16 am
Hey when will the next episode of house come… no. 16 season 3…
March 21st, 2007 at 8:29 am
Official Comment
Next Tuesday, 27 March (in the US at least).
March 21st, 2007 at 5:04 pm
I agree with everyone who was frustrated by the needlessly silly medical mistakes. Would it have been so very difficult to have included the optic chiasm and accurate brain hemisphere ‘dominance’? WHY NOT go the extra mile and make it right, instead of being lazy and contributing to the scientific illiteracy of the general public?? They certainly have the resources.
That being said, I have a real question (or 3) for our esteemed blogster, Scott: We are given to believe that the initial catastrophic brain injury happened when the boy was 10. Is it possible that a 10 year old child would have sufficient brain plasticity that he could adapt that well to having an almost completely non-functional hemisphere, (relocation of language centre, etc.) and then actually gain function when the damaged hemisphere is removed? Can a damaged hemisphere; one which causes debilitating epilepsy, REALLY reduce function in the healthy hemisphere? Wouldn’t severing the corpus callosum accomplish the same thing as hemispherectomy?
If you think these are silly questions, I am prepared to claim that as a child, I had bi-lateral hemispherectomies…
March 21st, 2007 at 5:08 pm
I finally figured out where I have seen the ‘Dad’ character before… He played RSL’s unsympathetic and demanding father in the movie “Dead Poets’ Society.” Interesting, wot?
March 22nd, 2007 at 10:51 pm
Several people have commented on Chase’s tears when he hugs House. I think House’s sometimes brutal candor and his unwillingness to patronize or coddle the juniors is resulting in their increased trust, admiration, and affection, even if it’s not always obvious (even to them). Why else would they have worked so hard in this episode to help him, even when he asked them not to?
Indeed, I think that’s why Cameron keeps returning to House despite his repeated rejections, and it explains Chase’s tears here as well. Remember, moreover, that it was in large part because of House that Chase approached his father at the end of that earlier episode as well — Chase is growing as a person as a result of his exposure to House’s intellectual and spiritual honesty, as are the others.
Also, as a quick note, in response to Zach’s reference to House’s “faking cancer to get high”: I don’t think that’s what House was doing at all. Just because Cameron accused him of doing that doesn’t mean she’s right — indeed, since part of the inside joke of this show was that the juniors *still* don’t “get” House, their guesses are worth nothing. Furthermore, since when has House ever sought out drugs just to get high? That would represent a *massive* and — you’re right — practically unforgivable change in character, from a man who is notable if for nothing else than for his refusal to allow people to seek false comfort. I therefore reject out of hand the suggestion that House has simply become a hedonist and junkie (other than his Vicodin addiction, of course).
March 26th, 2007 at 5:55 pm
is it a possible scenario to develop savantism through a TBI like dave mathews charachter portrayed? im supposed to do an interesting presentation on TBI and savantism is something that facinates people. if you could get back to me that would be great.
March 27th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
Call me ignorant or naive but i liked that episode. I was one of those dopes that went along with the plot and was actually upset that they were saying he had brain cancer. At the begining i didn’t think it was right but then i just got this feeling that, maybe they’re ending the show or something.
Anywho, I didn’t think they focused enough, i like dave mathews and he’s music and i didn’t see or here much of either. they focused on “House would his friends react if he was going to die” Personally i love the cameron/House thing, so i loved that kiss but this wasn’t the episode to put it in.
And for the mystery again, it was boring sorta, they didn’t put any emphasis on it and just focused on house. But all in all i liked it alot.
May 5th, 2007 at 10:06 pm
Just to expand on what Mr Buddwing said, Foreman does get it wrong with his examination of the patient’s eyes. With a complete loss of function of the right hemispere, he should have loss of his left field of view with both eyes (a left homonymous hemianopia). A slightly pedantic point, but something I would have thought the medical advisors on the show would have spotted.
June 21st, 2007 at 10:53 pm
Does anyone know which piece from Beethoven was the savant playing right in the beginning? i’ve been re-listening to all my records for hours, to no avail…
July 4th, 2007 at 3:28 am
loved the botched up pronunciation of ‘retroperitoneal’ by chase - he must’ve forgotten to practice this time.
August 9th, 2007 at 6:40 am
Bringing up an earlier question again… when someone has one of these procedures done where such a massive part of the brain is removed, is something put in there to keep the remaining brain from moving? Or does it just slosh around relatively freely? And in which case, wouldn’t that cause its own problems?
August 22nd, 2007 at 7:17 pm
From the beginning I felt like House’s interest in the case wasn’t what was happening then, but what happened when he was 12 and how to fix that.
September 24th, 2007 at 1:29 am
Another test which made no sense: The one where they cover up Dave’s eye and he has to name the piano. Normally one side of the brain is good at naming objects (the left) and the other hemisphere is good at tactically identiying it (the right). So far it fitted. However, the right side of the world from both eyes goes to the left hemisphere and the left side of the right hemisphere. Covering up one eye doesn’t do the trick, because the brain will still get info of 2 sides of the world form one eye.
September 29th, 2007 at 11:45 pm
As a newbie poster and long-time lurker, I will keep my post brief.
As a layperson with only moderate medical knowledge, I assume before watching each episode that the medicine is jazzed for television. (I also know that being a doctor does not preclude being an idiot.)
If something looks particularly outlandish, I’ll Google it for plausibility.
The one thing I love the most about this show is its unabashed portrayal of every character as a deeply flawed human being. I will state up front that I absolutely loathe Cameron.
I’m glad we get to see House be House, now that the tiresome Tritter arc is over.
Cameron jumped straight to “getting high” as House’s motivation, rather than making the assumption he was trying to relieve pain. This is due to her need for her horse to be higher than everyone’s else’s. Cameron’s moralism is darn-near insufferable. Chase and Foreman were merely annoyed at House for deceiving them, and not appreciating their efforts on his behalf.
When House turned that doorknob to the restaurant, I turned to my fella and said, “Do you think he went in?”
He said, “No. He took his hand off it and went home alone.” Very likely. But we don’t really know.
December 23rd, 2007 at 5:00 pm
I didn’t guess the brain cancer was false, but it did seem a bit awkward and throwaway. I think if House really did have cancer, others might find out but he’d not have just brushed them off, he’d have blown them up in a fit of grand mal defensiveness. The main emotion here was sympathy for the honest pain provoked in his associates. I felt for them more than House, which shows how incredibly well the scripts are written and acted out.
Could this be another reference to a S. Holmes story? Specifically, “The Case of the Dying Detective.”
March 12th, 2008 at 5:27 am
Several posters have been asking what happens to the brain when half of it is removed and whether it slops around loosely in the empty cavity. There is a tough membrane partly separating the two hemisphers longitudinally (the falx cerebrum). This would act as a support to keep the brain in its half of the cranium. There is a covering membrane of the brain, the arachnoid mater, which serves to partly subdivide the CSF spaces around the brain, thereby acting as a cushion and a loose attachment to the dura. In addition several blood vessels attach the brain to the major draining veins. That said, once a hemispherectomy has been done, the empty space does fill up with CSF, and one of the complications is repeated haemorrhage into this cavity. That is why the present option of functional hemispherectomy or hemispherotomy has been developed. As was suggested by several people, this consists of partial severance of the corpus callosum, along with interrupting the white matter tracts to much of the offending hemisphere. This leaves the brain physically intact but functionally divided.
I know I have not made myself very clear but I hope it is intelligible.