The mass leads the team to an auto-immune disease, and while House ponders which it might be, wanting to pinpoint the solution to the mystery, Foreman impatiently, Housily, but boringly wants to skip that step and go to steroid treatment, since that's standard for any autoimmune.
Among their similarities, House and Foreman share the desire to avoid their parents. "House Training" brings Charles S. Dutton back as Mr. Foreman, and Beverly Todd as Foreman's heretofore only hinted at mother, who suffers from dementia. They're in town for her 60th birthday, since he had refused to return home to celebrate with them. He hasn't been home, in fact, for eight years.
She's brought him a framed picture of himself as a little boy, back when he used to peek ahead to the end of his math books to marvel at what he'd know by the end of the year. "You wanted to look ahead to see how far you'd go. Now that you're a grown man, I thought you'd want to look back to see how far you've come." Foreman doesn't like looking back though, and this episode is the evidence.
Lupe accuses Foreman of not liking her, but he points out that she doesn't stand out from any of the other drug addicts he's treated.
"People who quit drinking and people who lose weight, they think they're better than the people that couldn't," she accuses. "Because you got out of the projects, you think that anybody who didn't is weak and stupid. ... The only difference between me and you is that I made some bad decisions and you made some good ones. "
"I'm not judging you," Foreman says before judging what she's done wrong and what she needs to do to pull her life together. Then he notices her yellow eyes, meaning her liver is shutting down and she's going to die quickly unless they solve her case.
He comes up with a rare cancer, lymphoma granulomatosis, that brilliantly fits the collection of symptoms, and he easily convinces House that total body radiation is the answer. While Chase and Cameron debate against the dangerous method until a diagnosis is confirmed, Foreman points out that she'll be dead before a confirmation is possible. Even if he's wrong, the radiation will act against an autoimmune disease, too, so it's a no-brainer. So he thinks.
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!