Thanks so much for your analysis, Barbara -- spot on, as always! I really enjoy reading your work. So many online reviews are just recaps but your pieces are so thoughtful and incisive, they help me crystallize my thoughts about overall themes and directions the show is taking. And it makes me feel that much smarter that your opinions are so close to my own!

Great article, again! I'm glad that the game is over, and now that it's decided who stays it's time to move on. I like the choices. I also think that the time has come to move away from the original 3 ducks, with the exception of Chase. The scenes with Cameron and Foreman are just the same old, same old to me. Foreman should take your advice and find another job. I can't believe I'm saying this, but House's character can be explored with the new team, maybe even more. We can learn different things through their eyes which is I guess what David Shore and company had in mind in the first place. I just wish it hadn't taken them so long to get to the point. I read a lot on the different House forums and you are the first one to mention the exchange with 13 about drugs always being a mask for something else. I loved House's response-the grin (I want to know what he was thinking) and the adding of the points to her score. I thought that was an important moment in their future relationship-working, not romantic. I hope you'll continue to find things to write about House to keep all us junkies satisfied during this long hiatus. Opposing sides in the strike are still talking so maybe there is still hope for an extended fourth season.

Thanks, scrabbleninja and ann for your kind words.

I also like the choices, although I confess that Scooter would have been fun to have around, and might might have been more in a position to help House on a more personal level--an older man whom House respects--an uncle or older brother, perhaps. Oh well. I like that one of the team is a House-contemporary and sort of the anti-Wilson. I love the kid in Kutner, but also the hidden loneliness that I'm picking up from below his surface. I like 13 as well. I had no preconceived notions about any of the actors, since I really haven't seen any of their work, but I think Olivia Wilde is a terrific actress of great poise and self-assuredness. She comes off as much older as 13 than Jennifer Morrison does as Cameron. Like you, Ann, I wouldn't mind seeing the old ducklings move on to greener pastures. I would miss Chase more than the others, but his character has grown more (or maybe Jesse Spencer is a deeper actor) than the other three.

Barbara,

Good insights, as usual. I love Kutner and you were spot on about there being something a bit lonely about him--and a bit innocent, too. Your analyses of Taub and 13 are very good, too. Taub is, indeed, a worthy adversary for House and that will be fun! I don't quite like 13 yet--I didn't like her response when the Amber was fired. House had picked up that Amber was scared and vulnerable, and 13 looked a bit "satisfied" at that firing. But, you are so right that she has more maturity than Cameron and she's a bit better equipped to maneuver with House. I will look forward to your Games analysis. I echo Ann's sentiments that you keep blogging between now and that long stretch to January 29th. You are my favorite House critic and I always look forward to what you have to say--and you say it quite elegantly.

Thanks for your very kind words, Louise.

I do promise to keep blogging during the hiatus. I have several stories in the pipeline, including my "Games" commentary, as well as an article about the fascination with House fanfiction, and a couple of other episode mini-guides, including a summary of seasons one and two. I'm also open to suggestions about what you all want to hear about.

Excellent news, Barb, to hear about your House hiatus plans! Love your idea to review arcs and entire seasons, as House seems to be a well-crafted story of an incredible main character, playing out in (what I hope will be) several acts, or seasons. I suspect that the final denouement is already written in David Shore's head.

In reference to Thirteen, her callous treatment of House in 4x08 'You Don't Want To Know' reminded of someone...Dr. Cameron. Cameron never learned any boundaries in her interactions with House. She felt she could invade his privacy, his personal space, and say what she liked, regardless of the fact that he was her boss. Thirteen's behavior, though, supposedly inacted in the name of 'doing what it takes to save the patient', was unethical and dangerous, much more dangerous than the flippant attitude in which these major organ biopsies were depicted. But, this expectation of realism on "House" is not, well, realistic on my part! Realism must occasionally be sacrificed on the altar of plotline and character development.
My point is that tying him down and jabbing him with large-bore needles is something Cameron might have been comfortable doing.
I still haven't decided whether I like Thirteen or not.

Thanks for the review of the new team!

Hi I like your comments on the new team

I just can't help but feel that all of the new team share similar characteristics to the former ducklings. 13 being the most similar to Cameron they are different in some ways but I see a lot of similarities. I didn't like that smug look and the fact she was being nasty. Some of those traits reminds me of Cameron. For me all they have done is thrown in some new machinery to jazz it up but the base is formed around Cameron. They kind of recycled some of Cam's storylines. (the mystery surrounding her, house hiring her at first because she was hot and the tests on her disease though it turned out to be a little different I feel it was based on Cameron's aids test. I like Cameron because she has a lot of issues and flaws which would be more interesting if they were adressed but with 13 she seems too perfect. Plus I feel that she is too young to be a doctor. I really hope nothing romantic happens between her and House we have seen it before with Cameron I don't want to see it all over again. I prefer to stick with the majority Cameron or cuddy. Plus I don't want more ships floating around. I love the original team and I want to see them back in full capicity if they can't do that then they should let them go. But I still feel that the writers could have done a lot more with the original ducklings there is just so many issues about them to explore especially with Cameron and Chase. To me it was a bit of a waste of potential charaters. CTB and Big love were standouts for me.

Thanks for the review

My point is that tying him down and jabbing him with large-bore needles is something Cameron might have been comfortable doing.

Thanks HL_L. I've been thinking about this as well. It was the sort of callous behavior that Cameron might have tried, but I don't think she would have tried it with House. 13 saw that House, after volunteering to be experimented upon by transfusion, was showing side effects to "something." He contended that he was reacting to the transfusion itself, this having been his third in 10 years. The team weren't sure. I wonder if 13 took that initiative to circumvent the patient's wishes (although knocking him out with narcotics was not terribly safe) to diagnose the problem. I also wonder if that might even been part of House's test for the team: would they (after he volunteered) push him beyond his say-so to really uncover the evidence. On the other hand, she did seem to enjoy stabbing him a bit too much, didn't she?

Susanne--thanks for your comments. I'm not sure that 13 is being played all that young. I know the actress is too young to be a board certified physician, but then so were Jennifer Morrison and Jesse Spencer in season 1. I think that comparisons are inevitable, but I'm not seeing more than a passing resemblance to Cameron in 13. I think that Cameron came off as very, very innocent for the first couple of seasons. Very earnest and very young. 13 isn't earnest in the same innocent way. She seems more "worldly-wise" or street smart than Cameron did (to me, anyway). I think she comes off much more assertive than the first year Cameron did. Anyway, time will tell.

Barbara