The second Mrs. Wilson, Bonnie (Jane Adams), wants Wilson to take their dog. But Wilson is not only never home, he doesn't have a home, he's still staying in a hotel. Gee, too bad he doesn't know any realtors who could sell him a condo. House loses interest in the Wilson reunion when he discovers Hector is not their former pool boy, but gains it back when he discovers what Wilson is doing on Thursday.
Cuddy, a bright woman, must have looked up "I got tickets to a play" in her House-English dictionary and found the "I want to see you naked" definition, because we learn she rejected House's invitation at the same time as House learns she'd already accepted Wilson's invitation to an art exhibit for that same night.
She also knows she's a pawn between the two men. "You think you saw somebody else pick up a toy from the sandbox and suddenly you want it," using imagery that not only nails House's mental age, but his perverse nature, too. She tells him she needed a friend and went with the safe choice. "I'm not safe? Cool," House grins before warning, not inaccurately: "James Wilson is never the safe choice."
As House tells Wilson later, "If I can figure out where you keep going wrong, I can nip this Cuddy thing in the bud before she becomes the fourth ex-Mrs. Wilson."
So House spends a good portion of "House Training" trying to uncover the mystery behind Wilson's multiple marriage pathology. He seem largely unmotivated by concern for Cuddy or for Wilson, but rather by his own pathological curiosity.
Scenes of House quizzing Bonnie while purportedly condo shopping are intercut with scenes of Wilson and Cuddy at a definitely-not-Hockney exhibit while purportedly not dating. Bonnie reveals that she and Wilson started off as just friends, but his attentiveness was seductive enough that she ended up jumping him. "James Wilson, carefully calibrating his level of protectiveness for your individual needs," she says. "Did you just compare Wilson to a tampon?" House asks.
Bonnie found Wilson attractive because of his endearing ability to be a good friend, "always there to support you, until one day he's not." House gives a shocked Wilson the questionable advice that he has to sleep with Cuddy before she gets hooked emotionally in order to break the pattern.
Article comments
1 - Phillip Winn
Beautiful review, Diane. You connected the dots on the scene with Foreman's mother better than I did, and I realize now that you're absolutely right. I'm sorry I didn't put that together at the time, but glad that you did.
2 - Hope
Nice recap. So...who thinks Season Three is heading towards Wilson moving back in with House??
3 - Maddoc
If I say your review probably redeemed this episode a little in my eyes.I won't be lying.I hated the out of the box TBI regimen they pulled out of thin air.I know,I know,this is not a real medicine show.I have put up with 50 or so episodes of shoddy medicine but this one bugged me like none has,so far.Maybe they should hire you.You can soften the baddest glitches into something I had not seen in the story while watching it.All the crappiness that is there starts making some sort of sense.
All in all,a good review.I just might watch it again now.
4 - Diane Kristine
Thanks guys. And, hmm, Maddoc, much as I love House, I'm tempted to tell you to pick up a book instead of watching TV shows you hate ;-)
5 - Maddoc
Hey Diane!
Whoever said I hated it?Hate is too strong a word anyway.I am a doctor.I hate the 'medicine' on the show.Just do.Having said that,I see enough 'real' medicine all day long to want it on TV as well.House is to me like Gen Hospital is to House!Only better :)
And to be honest,House/HL simply rock!
My beef was with the Med Staff on the show who tried to do something that simply does not register at a cerebral level.I still hate this 'Lets Do TBI' idea!So I think they can show rarest of the rare but not something like TBI with the lameness they showed.
They can do better than that.They have,despite all the shoddy medicine!