“Mirror Mirror” is a stellar example of the brilliant writing that makes House my favorite show. In this episode, we are given a deeper understanding of the traits and characteristics of each of the remaining team candidates, without going through lengthy exposition of their motivations or through soapy interactions with each other. We get to see each of the doctors as reflected in the eyes of a patient who suffers from Giovannini's Mirror Syndrome. The patient seems to have no personality of his own, but mimics the attributes of the dominant personality he is with. Not only do we learn about the new doctors, but we gain clues to the real hierarchy of the regular staff through various power plays by House, Cuddy, Foreman, and Wilson.

As expected, House is not happy with Cuddy appointing Foreman her “eyes and ears” in the Diagnostics Department. From the moment Cuddy introduces Foreman to the fellows, the maneuvering begins. Cuddy tells the team that no procedures are to be done without Foreman’s approval; House tells the team that if they don’t want to be fired, they are to ignore Cuddy. This puts the team in an awkward bind – trying to diagnose their patient while concurrently playing a game of “Who’s the Boss?” For the most part, the team tries to ignore Foreman. Only Taub apologizes, telling Foreman that they just want to keep their jobs.

Foreman tells House that he had no choice in taking the job Cuddy offered and that he doesn’t want to be there any more than House wants him there. Since he can’t make Foreman any more miserable than he already is, House decides to make Cuddy miserable until she fires Foreman. House touches off a food poisoning scare in the hospital cafeteria and offers expensive tests and private rooms to clinic patients without health insurance.

The patient presents with respiratory distress, after having been mugged. He has no ID and no memory. In order to determine the cause of his respiratory problems, House orders the team to do a stress test. While on the treadmill, the patient develops additional symptoms of tingly feet and stomach pain. While the team is discussing what diseases would cover all of the symptoms, the patient crashes in the hallway. Foreman notices that the name the patient gave actually belonged to someone else, and all of the symptoms he complained of were written on the board for other patients. Foreman thinks the patient is faking the symptoms. But House deduces mirror syndrome.

To prove his diagnosis, House takes the patient into an operating room where Wilson is performing surgery. Here’s where we see mirror syndrome at work. Wilson begins to lecture House about his attitude toward Foreman and the patient begins to mimic Wilson. It is apparent that in this situation, Wilson is the dominant personality; a fact that Wilson later points out to House. The patient also picks up a scalpel to cut into Wilson’s surgical patient but House stops him just in time. When House grabs his hand, he notices a rash under the patient’s surgical glove. The patient’s skin is mottled. House cuts him and notices that the blood is cold and does not flow from the wound. The patient needs to be warmed up.