He also reveals a new slice of House philosophy to explain the LSD/anti-depressant effect, as well as the eye-for-an-eye revenge on Weber: karma.

House: The universe always settles the score.
Cuddy: Does it?
House: No. But it should.

Lawrence Kaplow, who just won a Writers Guild Award for the "Autopsy" episode, wrote this one too. For those with good memories, it's the one he was in the process of writing (and referred to as "Happiness") in an October interview, where he says: "House does some pretty outlandish things in this episode, and it raises the question: is this only about addiction or is he self-destructive? Does he have some sort of death wish? What does House want in the end?" "Distractions" points to self-destruction as much as I thought "Autopsy" did, where House's answer to seizing the day is to hop a motorcycle with a crazed look in his eye.

Maybe the universe really is about balance, and the patient with an excess of the pleasure hormone contrasts with the title character with a dearth of it. House's heartbreak isn't in the spotlight here, but it is in the shadows of everything he does. According to Wilson, House's instinct is to distract himself from his emotional pain with physical pain. But pleasure is the opposite of pain. So the episode ends with House's willfully depressing pursuit of pleasure as a distraction. Fortifying himself with a drink, steeling himself to answer the door, in the final scenes House invites a call girl into his apartment. Unlike his constant hooker jokes, there's nothing funny or puerile about it. It's a sad ending for a sad man.

Because of a supersized American Idol, next week's House airs on Monday (Feb. 20) at 8.

Links:

• More reviews and posts related to House


• Constructing House: An Interview with House Writer Lawrence Kaplow