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Of course, by now you’ve heard the news that House, M.D. will wrap permanently with a May series finale. There is much speculation already about how the show will end, and I suspect that as the second half of season eight airs, we’ll get a much clearer picture of where it’s heading.
I did a bit of speculating in Chasing Zebras about how the series might end (of course that was back in season six when I wrote it. I wondered if House (Hugh Laurie) and Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) might go riding off together, or perhaps House and Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein)—or even if Cameron (Jennifer Morrison) comes back into the picture to provide an ultimately happy ending for House after so many years of an unhappy existence.
But David Shore, the series creator, and presumably the man who will write House’s ending has never been one to provide happy endings or pat solutions. Will House, then, ultimately give into his self-destructive streak? He’s certainly come close: “Merry Little Christmas,” “House’s Head,” the entire second half of season five, the end of “Help Me” in season six, that swan dive off the balcony in season seven…
Personally, I’m an angst whore. I like the intensity of the show more than the funny stuff; the introspection more than the pranking. So, to me the more intense and realistic, the better—wherever that takes the characters.
Perhaps the final chapter will have the team leave one by one: Foreman (Omar Epps) is fired as dean because of something that happens ultimately due to House’s team. A new dean comes in, who knows not House. Adams (Odette Annable) and Park (Charlyne Yi) see the writing on the wall, but because they’ve not been around long enough to have Stockholm Syndrome are given options to stay on in other departments. Taub (Peter Jacobson) leaves to go back with Rachel and raise the two Sophias, deciding he needs the plastic surgery income to provide for them all. Chase (Jesse Spencer) is the last to leave the team, but does, moving on, perhaps with Adams—but perhaps getting a call one night from Cameron, who’s gone back to Chicago. She calls with an opportunity there.
That would leave House and Wilson. Wilson’s position is safe, since he’s not on diagnostics, but he can’t—or won’t—save House’s. House is forced out finally, and their goodbye is intense and sad. House won’t say where he’s going or what of the several positions he’s been offered all over the world he’ll take. He just turns out the light in his office (his desk cleared) and he’s back in his flat.
Packing boxes all over the place as House sits at his piano playing an improvised blues. Fade to black.
Of course that’s one (highly) speculative (and not very serious) take. But now that I’ve had my turn, take yours in a new poll: How do you think House, M.D. will end?
