He balks at trying to convince her to go with the risky treatment, though, since she doesn't like him. House volunteers. "Foreman's got personality issues so you're going to step in?" Chase asks skeptically.
But House isn't interested in smoothing things over, of course, he's interested in why she dislikes Foreman, who House seems to find the most enigmatic member of his team. "He thinks he's better than he is," she claims, causing House to ask the unanswerable "how good is he?"
Before he can really hammer the point home, that Foreman's just possibly good enough to save her life with this dangerous radiation treatment, she has another loss of free will attack, unable to decide whether to sign the consent, unable to decide between a pen or pencil, unable to decide between Sean Connery or Daniel Craig. I have those kinds of attacks all the time, but I call them being perpetually indecisive. They also don't lead me to pass out and wake up to face total body radiation.
She's right after all: Foreman isn't as good as he and House think he is, not in this instance. A heart murmur and excruciating pain lead them to discover that she's septic, and despite the absence of symptoms of an infection — no fever, a clear lumbar puncture — that's what's been attacking her organs. By performing the radiation, the team has destroyed her immune system.
"I'll tell our patient we just killed her," House declares, but Foreman wants to take the responsibility. First, though, he wants advice from the master, so he goes to Wilson. He instructs him on how to carefully calibrate his presentation of the bad news with the patient's needs, and Foreman's amazed at how he's got it down to a science. Calculated compassion is Wilson's secret weapon. This is why he's not the safe choice — his calm surface hides rocky depths, while House's rockiness is proudly exhibited on the surface.
Even before I realized this will be one of the rare episodes where there will be no further epiphany, it followed the usual pattern enough that I expected one. When Foreman touched her when delivering the bad news, as instructed by Wilson, I half-expected her lack of pain to be a clue. Sadly, there is no last minute save for Lupe.
Omar Epps does a beautiful job in this episode with Foreman's pain and frustration, usually subtly expressed until he punches a wall walking out of Lupe's room. He goes to Cameron for bandaging, but not for moral support. "I killed a woman. Don't you think it's appropriate I feel like crap for at least a little while?" he asks.
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!