The latest episode of House, the first of the November sweeps period, introduces us to the couple who spawned Dr. House (Hugh Laurie) – nice, normal Mom (Diane Baker), and ex-marine Dad (R. Lee Ermey). As House desperately tries to avoid dinner with them while they're in town on a layover, Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) and Cameron (Jennifer Morrison) try desperately to trick him into seeing them.
Though Foreman (Omar Epps) provides the opinion that “only a mother could do that much damage,” their appearance sheds little light on how their little Gregory grew into a bitter, sarcastic misanthrope. It does, however, offer another poignant layer to his current misery – though it's far less revealing than the episode-long setup led me to expect.
The medical mystery of the week, however, was one of the most shocking. No, not really – that was another bad pun, a leftover from my exposure to last week's “TB or not TB” episode – but it was one of the more interesting cases. Carnell Hall, a recent college graduate, is brought to the hospital suffering from unexplained electric shocks and various other bizarre symptoms. Always squeamish about visuals of surgery in progress and CGI innards, my stomach and I were slightly traumatized by this episode's normal delight in those, plus an unusual fixation on bodily fluids and solids. Note to self: forget the popcorn next Tuesday.
House's icy relationship with his parents is contrasted with the loving but deceitful relationship between the patient of the week and his father. Unravelling the lies is, as is often the case, the key to solving the mystery. Dad lied to son about how Mom died, son lied to Dad about his spring break activities, Dad lied to House about where he works ... and as the audience knows, patients and their families should never, ever lie to Dr. House, unless they want to be subjected to the three-misdiagnoses-before-actual-diagnosis treatment method.
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