Wilson advises them to protect their family as a whole, getting them to agree to the surgery, and House's influence spreads yet again. Except Wilson actually cares that he's betrayed the trust of the parents, as demonstrated in my favourite exchange of the episode:
House: You've got to be kidding me. You're actually upset. You just said what you believe.
Wilson: I also believe in patients making their own choices.
House: Because it lessens your guilt if things goes wrong. You're not protecting their choices, you're soothing your conscience.
Wilson: By that logic a sociopath would make the best patient advocate in the world.
House: Am I blushing?
Only the operation doesn't go ahead as planned, because the heart valve isn't infected, and there's something else going on. Auto immune? Foreman doesn't wait to figure out what that something else might be and approaches the parents about a partial match from the donor registry, which they accept despite the danger of graft versus host disease.
Surprisingly, Wilson is livid and House is not, because Foreman did what he thought was right, and that's one trait House admires. There's that unexpected rage control again. Though just prior to finding out, he had begun to try to kill his new dog, so perhaps it's just passive-aggressive rage.
It becomes aggressive-aggressive rage when directed at Wilson, though. "What is the point in being able to control people if you won't actually do it? " House yells at him, mad that Wilson wouldn't lie to the parents to counteract Foreman, and allowing Robert Sean Wilson to demonstrate the face of "where'd that come from?"
House apologizes not very sincerely when he calls Wilson in to pay for a new cane, replacing the one Hector has chewed through, causing House to collapse in a heap. "You called me a coward, life goes on?" Wilson asks. "Apparently. You showed up," House replies reasonably. If you don't want to be taken advantage of, Wilson, you might want to grow a spine.
House rejects the Marilyn Manson in a retirement home cane, as well as the bull penis cane. As any undergrad linguist can tell you, Noam Chomsky's "creative aspect" of language means we can string together words into sentences we've never heard before, sentences that have never in the history of human utterance ever been uttered. Such a sentence can be found in the cane-shopping scene: "Penis canes are murder."
Article comments
1 - Judy
Is it just me or has House been less interested in saving the patients lately. He used to stay up all night reading books, googling and throwing his ball around and now he just says "cant be fixed, let's go home." What's up with this?
2 - Kaonashi
My understanding is that bone marrow donating is extremely painful, and that's under anesthesia. I can't even begin to imagine the agony Matty suffered under Foreman's needles. That scene was unwatchable, listening to the poor boy begging for him to stop. Nick had better be really, really nice to his little brother for the rest of his life.
And as for Foreman leaving, I doubt that'll happen. Otherwise, Omar Epps is the dumbest actor on the planet. I think he's great and all, but he did screw up once by leaving ER. Even David Caruso learned his lesson, and has stuck with CSI Miami.
Hector is adorable. I cracked up when House finds his stereo stolen because he left his door open.
3 - Diane Kristine
Judy, yeah, I think he's been less focused on patients this season. partly because he was more focused on getting drugs and curing his leg and staying out of jail. Though I think in this episode it was partly a way of highlighting his point that it was his way or nothing. And there was no puzzle to solve with leukemia kid, so he was sacrificeable (yeah, I know it's not a word) in order to solve the puzzle with Matty.
Kaonashi, yeah, Hector was adorable, not at all the kind of dog I expected ... which made it even funnier.
Good to hear I'm not alone in thinking Omar Epps will stay. Did he really leave ER by choice? I thought the character was supposed to be doomed from the beginning. Anyway, I'm still feeling good about the bet.
Poor Nick. He's doomed to a lifetime of "I gave you bone marrow with no anaesthetic and all I get for Christmas is this lousy CD?"
4 - Kaonashi
Diane - Granted, I don't know the real reason why Omar Epps left ER, but from what I've read on Wikipedia, many of the actors leave the show because they asked to, rather than as part of their contract -even those with smaller roles.
What sucks is that ER tends to prevent characters from returning by just killing them off, usually in a violent manner :P I mean, Epps' character was hit (or leaped in front of) by a train, while Kellie Martin's character (annoying as she was) was stabbed to death! Those were two very memorable episodes, even if they were only supporting characters.
5 - Maddoc
I have a feeling Epps is fairly similar to Foreman,at least as far as stubbornness is concerned.He might leave for good.Or maybe a long hiatus from the show.Or becomes a recurring guest appearance like Brenda-The-Nurse and the Pharmacy guy.
Best parts:House and the dog.And I felt this episode was much more similar to season 2 episodes,which is the best of the 3 aired so far.And it was one of the funniest so far.